[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 13317]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, offered the following 
prayer:
  On this day, May 21, 1944, Judge Learned Hand gave a speech at ``I Am 
an American Day'' in Central Park, New York. In it he expressed his 
faith in You, O Lord, and Your designs for this country. He said, 
``Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies, there is 
no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it 
lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it.
  ``What then is the spirit of liberty?'' he asked rhetorically in 
1944.
  ``I cannot define it,'' he said.
  ``I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the 
spirit which is not too sure that it is right . . . ''
  But he went on: ``In the spirit of that America for which our young 
men and women are at this moment fighting and dying; in that spirit of 
liberty and of America, I ask you to rise with me and pledge our faith 
in the glorious destiny of our beloved country.''
  Lord, to this kind of act of faith we add our own prayer and hope 
today and say: ``Amen.''

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