[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Page 20163]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  SUPPORTING AMERICA'S GLORIOUS FABRIC

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, from America's earliest days, bravery 
has been essential. A group of courageous farmers were the first to 
stand against the British. The Declaration of Independence was a death 
warrant for anyone who signed it. The Constitutional Convention took 
place in a shuttered room. The Founders were brave, and they knew 
bravery would be needed to maintain what they had built. As Washington 
wrote when the veterans of 1776 began to pass away:

       Thus some of the pillars of the revolution fall. May our 
     country never want props to support the glorious fabric.

  We remember today two men who supported the glorious fabric of our 
country. Jacob Joseph Chestnut and John Gibson gave their lives on a 
Friday afternoon while standing sentry at the gates of this great 
citadel of liberty. The Chambers had fallen silent for the week, 
staffers were celebrating the passage of a law, tourists were studying 
old plaques, and the President was getting ready for a weekend trip to 
his camp when a madman pierced the calm routine of daily life in 
Washington, and a brave grandfather and young father stood strong 
against him.
  Their heroism was duplicated by the Senator-surgeon who tried to keep 
the killer and his victims alive, by the British tourist who rushed to 
one of the victims' side to hear his last words, by the horde of 
officers who rushed the gunman. When the flags fell, thousands of 
Americans called the Capitol to grieve. Thousands more showed up to 
mourn the fallen officers and to honor the ideals they died for. An act 
of savagery had roused a nation to mercy and compassion. It was an 
instinct we would see again on an even darker day 3 years later.
  We are grateful for the lives of these good men and for their 
sacrifice. They were not sunshine patriots. They were brave Americans 
who stood their ground, as Americans so often do, to ensure that the 
ceremony of freedom would go on. It does. It will. And they will not be 
forgotten.
  I yield the floor.

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