[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14205-14211]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

   Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, 232 years ago the Declaration of 
Independence established that humans have the right to self-government 
because of their unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of 
happiness. Preserving these principles requires the same wisdom, 
courage and spirit of sacrifice that characterized many 18th century 
Americans.
  ``What will our children say,'' wrote Boston attorney Josiah Quincy 
II in 1768, ``When they read the history of these times, should they 
find we tamely gave away, without one noble struggle, the most 
invaluable of earthly blessings? . . . let us . . . swear we will die, 
if we cannot live freemen!''
  Indeed, the Americans chose to fight nobly and courageously. After 
the British surrender at the Battle of Saratoga, Lord Chatham, a member 
of the British House of Lords, concluded, ``I know that the conquest of 
English America is an impossibility. You cannot, I venture to say it, 
you cannot conquer America . . .''
  These principles to which the representatives of the 13 colonies 
pledged their lives, their resources, and their honor still apply to 
our Nation today.
  It was on this day, July 8, 1776, that the Declaration of 
Independence was first read publicly, having been unanimously adopted 
by the Congress only 4 days before.

[[Page 14206]]

  So, today, I am pleased to join with my colleague Senator Lieberman 
in starting a new, bipartisan tradition in the U.S. Senate. We will 
read the Declaration of Independence again.
  During the next hour, we will also hear from important leaders in our 
Nation's history who saw these principles of liberty, equality, and 
justice as timeless.
  Patrick Henry urges us to consider the consequences of weakly 
submitting to a tyrannical authority in the hopes of obtaining peace, 
rather than persisting in the fight to secure our freedom. In his 
famous speech at the Touro Synagogue, George Washington establishes the 
importance of religious freedom for the Nation.
  A few days before his inauguration, Abraham Lincoln makes an 
impromptu speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where he argues 
that the principles of the Declaration are incompatible with slavery. 
Finally, in his last letter, Thomas Jefferson reflects on the 
significance of the Declaration and its timeless value.
  I ask unanimous consent that Senator Lieberman and myself may enter 
into a colloquy on the reading of the Declaration of Independence and 
that following our colloquy, Senators Whitehouse, Murkowski, Webb, 
Martinez, and Lieberman be, in that order, speakers for the remainer of 
morning business.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. COBURN. ``When in the Course of human events, it becomes 
necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have 
connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the 
earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and 
of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of 
mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them 
to the separation.''
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. ``We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all 
men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with 
certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the 
pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are 
instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of 
the governed.--That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive 
of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it; 
and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such 
principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall 
seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, 
indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be 
changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience 
hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are 
sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which 
they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, 
pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them 
under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw 
off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future 
security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and 
such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former 
Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain 
is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct 
object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To 
prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.''
  Mr. COBURN. ``He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome 
and necessary for the public good.
  ``He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and 
pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his 
Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly 
neglected to attend to them.
  ``He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large 
districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of 
Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and 
formidable to tyrants only.''
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. ``He has called together legislative bodies at places 
unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public 
Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with 
his measures.
  ``He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing 
with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
  ``He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause 
others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of 
Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; 
the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of 
invasion from without, and convulsions within.''
  Mr. COBURN. ``He has endeavored to prevent the population of these 
States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of 
Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration 
hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
  ``He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his 
Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
  ``He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of 
their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.''
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. ``He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent 
hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their 
substance.
  ``He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without 
the Consent of our legislatures.
  ``He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior 
to the Civil power.
  ``He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign 
to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent 
to their acts of pretended legislation:''
  Mr. COBURN. ``For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
  ``For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any 
murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
  ``For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:''
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. ``For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
  ``For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
  ``For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
  ``For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring 
Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging 
its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument 
for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:''
  Mr. COBURN. ``For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most 
valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
  ``For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves 
invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.''
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. ``He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us 
out of his Protection and waging War against us.
  ``He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and 
destroyed the Lives of our people.
  ``He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries 
to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun 
with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the 
most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized 
nation.
  ``He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high 
Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of 
their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
  ``He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has 
endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless 
Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished 
destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.''
  Mr. COBURN. ``In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned 
for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been 
answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus 
marked

[[Page 14207]]

by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a 
free People.''
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. ``Nor have We been wanting in attention to our British 
brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their 
legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have 
reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement 
here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we 
have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these 
usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and 
correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of 
consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which 
denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of 
mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.----''
  Mr. COBURN. ``We, therefore, the representatives of the United States 
of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme 
Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the 
Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly 
publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought 
to be free and independent States; that they are Absolved from all 
Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection 
between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally 
dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full 
Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish 
Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States 
may of right do.--And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm 
reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to 
each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.''
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Rhode Island is 
recognized.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, my home State of Rhode Island has the 
distinction of being home to the oldest Jewish house of worship in the 
United States, the Touro Synagogue in historic Newport. This synagogue 
was founded in 1763. Today, the synagogue stands as a handsome 
landmark, designed by the famous colonial architect Peter Harris, a 
reminder of historic days past for a community that this year, 2008, 
will celebrate the 350th anniversary of the first Jewish settlement in 
Rhode Island and a living expression today of our Jewish community's 
faith.
  But during the infancy of our young Nation, Touro Synagogue played a 
major political role in defining what religious freedom would come to 
mean to Americans.
  In 1790, the congregation at Touro Synagogue wrote to President 
George Washington, then in only his second year in office, when he 
visited Newport on a political tour to rally support for an American 
bill of rights. The warden of the synagogue, Moses Seixas, sought 
Washington's assurance that religious freedom would be guaranteed to 
Jews throughout the country.
  In those first tumultuous years of our Republic, there was much 
uncertainty as to the guaranteed rights of individuals. Our Declaration 
of Independence had declared certain unalienable rights to be self-
evident, but our Constitution did not yet include our Bill of Rights. 
There was no guarantee of an American's right to freely exercise his or 
her religion as we have today in the first amendment.
  President Washington's public letter to the Touro congregation, 
coming from a political leader whose word was gold, left no doubt that 
the United States Government would defend the religious freedoms of all 
people, including those whose beliefs were different from the common 
ones, and it assured that this Government would have no part in 
stifling the beliefs of any who chose to worship as their conscience 
and traditions directed.
  It was, at the time, a revolutionary promise from a revolutionary 
man, and I am pleased to read the full text of this historic 
correspondence.

       To the President of the United States of America.
       Sir: Permit the children of the Stock of Abraham to 
     approach you with the most cordial affection and esteem for 
     your person and merits, and to join with our fellow citizens 
     in welcoming you to NewPort.
       With pleasure we reflect on those days, those days of 
     difficulty and danger, when the God of Israel, who delivered 
     David from the peril of the sword, shielded your head in the 
     day of battle: and we rejoice to think, that the same Spirit, 
     who rested in the Bosom of the greatly beloved Daniel, 
     enabling him to preside over the Provinces of the Babylonish 
     Empire, rests and ever will rest, upon you, enabling you to 
     discharge the arduous duties of Chief Magistrate in these 
     States.

  This was before the Civil War, so it was ``these States'' and not the 
``United States.''

       Deprived as we heretofore have been of the invaluable 
     rights of free Citizens, we now with a deep sense of 
     gratitude to the Almighty disposer of all events behold a 
     Government, erected by the Majesty of the People, a 
     Government, which to bigotry gives no sanction, to 
     persecution no assistance--

  You will see in Washington's reply that the wily fox knew a good 
phrase when he saw one.

     --but generously affording to all Liberty of conscience, and 
     immunities of Citizenship: deeming every one, of whatever 
     Nation, tongue, or language equal parts of the great 
     governmental Machine: This so ample and extensive Federal 
     Union whose basics is Philanthropy, Mutual confidence and 
     Public Virtue, we cannot but acknowledge to be the work of 
     the Great God, who ruleth in the Armies of Heaven, and among 
     the Inhabitants of the Earth, doing whatever seemeth him 
     good.
       For all these Blessings of civil and religious liberty 
     which we enjoy under an equal benign administration, we 
     desire to send up our thanks to the Ancient of Days, the 
     great preserver of Men, beseeching him, that the Angel who 
     conducted our forefathers through the wilderness into the 
     promised Land, may graciously conduct you through all the 
     difficulties and dangers of this mortal life: And, when, like 
     Joshua full of days and full of honour; you are gathered to 
     your Fathers, may you be admitted into the Heavenly Paradise 
     to partake of the water of life, and the tree of immortality.
       Done and Signed by order of the Hebrew Congregation in 
     NewPort, Rhode Island August 17th 1790. Moses Seixas, Warden.

  And then came the President's reply.

       To the Hebrew Congregation in Newport Rhode Island.
       Gentlemen,
       While I receive, with much satisfaction, your Address 
     replete with expressions of affection and esteem; I rejoice 
     in the opportunity of assuring you, that I shall always 
     retain a grateful remembrance of the cordial welcome I 
     experienced in my visit to Newport, from all classes of 
     Citizens.
       The reflection on the days of difficulty and danger which 
     are past is rendered the more sweet, from a consciousness 
     that they are succeeded by days of uncommon prosperity and 
     security. If we have wisdom to make the best use of the 
     advantages with which we are now favored, we cannot fail, 
     under the just administration of a good Government, to become 
     a great and happy people.
       The Citizens of the United States have a right to applaud 
     themselves for having given to mankind examples of an 
     enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. 
     All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of 
     citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, 
     as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that 
     another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural 
     rights. For happily the Government of the United States, 
     which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no 
     assistance requires only that they who live under its 
     protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in 
     giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
       It would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character 
     not to avow that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of 
     my Administration, and fervent wishes for my felicity. May 
     the children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, 
     continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other 
     Inhabitants: while every one shall sit in safety understood 
     his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him 
     afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not 
     darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several 
     vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way 
     everlastingly happy.
       G. Washington.

  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I thank my friend from Rhode Island, 
Senator Whitehouse, for that magnificent exchange of correspondence 
between the Hebrew congregation of Newport, RI, and President 
Washington.
  May I say that Senator Whitehouse, in his own bearing and substance, 
lives out the promise of religious freedom that our first President 
gave to all Americans.

[[Page 14208]]

  Perhaps I should say I say that as one of the descendants of the 
Stock of Abraham who is privileged to be a Member of the Senate today. 
I thank Senator Whitehouse. I thank Senator Coburn.
  I am going to take the liberty, if I may, to speak for a few minutes 
while we are waiting for either Senator Murkowski, Senators Webb or 
Martinez, who are going to read documents before I conclude.
  But I particularly want to give a statement of appreciation to our 
colleague, Senator Cornyn of Texas, whose idea this was. He came to me 
and said: Why do we not try to establish a new Senate tradition, where 
every year, either on July 8, which, as Senator Coburn indicated, was 
the first public reading of the Declaration, or the day closest to July 
4 when the Senate is in session, we read the Declaration, this 
magnificent statement of America's founding principles, purpose, 
destiny, and other patriotic documents of the moment to remind us what 
we are about as a Nation, and in some sense, to refresh our sense of 
national purpose and to build on the celebrations that are part of July 
4.
  We all love the fireworks, we all love the time to be with our 
family, we love the parades and, of course, we are struck now, as we 
are at war, in the expressions of gratitude toward those who have put 
on the uniform of the United States of America to defend our freedom 
and our security.
  But this all goes back to the beginning, to the extraordinary 
founding of this country by an extraordinary group of human beings. The 
truth is we do not celebrate enough that America, unique among Nations, 
was not defined from the beginning by its borders, by its geography, if 
you will, but by its ideology, by its values, as the founding 
generation of Americans expressed magnificently in the first official 
documents.
  Those words of the Declaration about the self-evident truth that all 
of us are created equal and endowed not by Jefferson, the great 
American who wrote the Declaration, not by the philosophers of the 
enlightenment but by our Creator, with these unalienable rights to 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that paragraph, and then 
it says, in order to secure those rights, the Government is formed; in 
other words, to secure the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness, I always like to say America is a faith-based initiative 
founded on those endowments from our Creator. Building this magnificent 
architecture of freedom stated in the poetry of the founding generation 
of Americans has probably had more effect, has definitely had more 
effect on more people and more political activity in the 200-plus years 
since 1776 than any other single document. Of course, other documents 
stating other ``isms'' have come along, Nazism, Communism, Islamism, 
but the Declaration of Independence, Americanism, has prevailed.
  The other thing that struck me as I read the Declaration was the 
anger and the passion we sometimes forget our founding generation had 
toward Great Britain and the King for all the tyrannical usurpations of 
their freedom that were the cause of the Declaration.
  Finally, the document is a magnificently aspirational document. It 
states noble goals. But let us all be honest, at this moment on this 
floor, particularly at the moment in 1776, where the Declaration of 
Independence was signed and issued, America was nowhere near realizing 
the glorious values stated, of equality, of life and the pursuit of 
life and happiness. People of color had no rights. They were not even 
counted equal with White people. Women had effectively no rights. I was 
forced, by the validity of the document, to read a terribly bigoted and 
offensive reference to Native Americans. But that is the story of 
America. The Declaration gave us our purpose. It gave us our destiny. 
It put us on a journey. Succeeding generations of Americans have come 
closer to realizing the aspirations stated in that document. Of course, 
the work goes on in our time as it has for every previous generation of 
Americans.
  I appreciate very much that Senator Webb has come to the Chamber. I 
am pleased to yield to him for a reading of Thomas Jefferson's last 
letter.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Virginia.
  Mr. WEBB. Mr. President, it is my pleasure to participate in this 
remembrance today.
  For more than 200 years, the American experiment in self-government 
has been a witness to all nations about the power of ``the people.'' 
The Declaration of Independence establishes a fundamental principle 
that a government exists, not because some humans have a hereditary 
right to dominate others, but because the people themselves have 
consented to be governed by others.
  In 1826, the Mayor of Washington, Roger Weightman, invited Thomas 
Jefferson to attend the 50th anniversary of the Declaration. In his 
letter of reply, dated June 26, Jefferson reiterates one last time, his 
belief in the principles of the Declaration. Thomas Jefferson died a 
week later, on the Fourth of July.
  In that letter, Thomas Jefferson stated:

       I should, indeed, with peculiar delight, have met and 
     exchanged there congratulations personally with the small 
     band, the remnant of that host of worthies, who joined with 
     us on that day, in the bold and doubtful election we were to 
     make for our country, between submission or the sword; and to 
     have enjoyed with them the consolatory fact, that our fellow 
     citizens, after half a century of experience and prosperity, 
     continue to approve the choice we made.
       May it be to the world, what I believe it will be (to some 
     parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all), the 
     signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which 
     monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind 
     themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-
     government.
       That form which we have substituted, restores the free 
     right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of 
     opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of 
     man.
       The general spread of the light of science has already laid 
     open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of 
     mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a 
     favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them 
     legitimately, by the grace of God.
       These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let 
     the annual return of this day forever refresh our 
     recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion 
     to them.

  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I thank my friend and colleague from 
Virginia for a characteristically purposive and eloquent reading of a 
great document. I thank him for carrying the torch of Jefferson, along 
with that other great Virginian, Senator John Warner, in our time in 
the Senate.
  While we await, hopefully soon, Senators Murkowski and Martinez, I 
thought I would go on and perhaps read the final document that I was 
going to read at the end. Before I do so, I thank Senator Cornyn of 
Texas whose idea this was, hoping this might form the basis of not only 
the Senate celebrating the documents but, of course, more than that, 
the values, the principles, the destiny, the American destiny captured 
in them and in the glorious words of our founding generation, but that 
we might, in doing so, perhaps carry out or begin a national civics 
lesson in all that we have to be grateful for as Americans, as each 
succeeding generation of Americans has not only taken on the 
responsibility to try to move the country closer to the aspirations 
that are expressed in these founding documents but, of course, each 
succeeding generation has benefited from the promise of equality stated 
in these documents. I thank Senator Cornyn.
  I wish to now thank the people working for him. Senators have good 
ideas occasionally, but it is the staff who makes sure we implement 
them. I wish to particularly thank Nicole Gustafson, of his staff, and 
Michelle Chin and also Clarine Nardi Riddle, who is my chief of staff, 
who has worked on this on behalf of my office.
  I have always been struck by the extent to which the founding 
generation of Americans was powerfully religious. In fact, they came to 
this country, most of them, to escape religious persecution. So it is 
no surprise that the original documents, as you can hear, of our 
country, as we read this morning, are full of references to God, the 
Almighty, nature's God, a whole series of

[[Page 14209]]

descriptions. That is why, I said earlier and I say with pride and 
gratitude, America is a faith-based institution. That is why it always 
seems to me that anyone who tries to separate America and religion is 
doing something unnatural. The remarkable balance the Founders 
established was of a nation premised on faith in God, whose purpose 
was, as a government, to secure the rights each of us have as an 
endowment from our Creator and yet to do that in a way that, as the 
Declaration, as the Constitution, as the magnificent letter from our 
first President, George Washington, to the Hebrew congregation of 
Newport, RI, makes clear, respects everybody's right to believe in 
whatever they wish to believe in.
  It struck me once, reading the Declaration, when we say that the 
right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is an endowment of 
our Creator, that one of the rights our Founders recognized is the 
right not just to believe in the Creator as one who chooses but, in 
fact, not to believe in our Creator and to equally enjoy the 
protections and rights that come to all Americans. It is perhaps 
because the Declaration of Independence is a faith-based document that 
it has had such universal application and effect across the world, 
inspiring generation after generation of people throughout the world, 
in every continent of the world, to essentially pick up the torch, to 
accept the destiny, to revolt against tyranny and despotism, to fight 
in the same revolutionary spirit that comes through the Declaration of 
Independence that we read a few moments ago for the freedom of their 
own people.
  Of course, if you say, as our Founders did and as we believe, that 
the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that are the 
premise of the Declaration of Independence were the endowment of our 
Creator, surely our Creator, who created heaven and the Earth and all 
who live on it, did not intend for those rights to life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness to be the exclusive possession of Americans. 
This is the most universal declaration of human rights. It still guides 
our foreign policy because it is what we are all about--freedom and the 
extension of freedom.
  I do wish to say it has inspired enormous numbers of people 
throughout the world to fight, as our founding generation fought, for 
freedom.
  The document I wish to read now, chosen by staff but a fascinating 
one, I must say--I had never seen it before--speaks to the profound 
faith of the founding generation, their knowledge of the Bible. In 
fact, I suppose it was at the Constitutional Congress, there was a 
debate about the symbol of the United States of America. And before the 
symbol that we have now was chosen, a few of the Founders suggested--
argued, in fact--that it be a portrayal of the children of Israel 
crossing the sea divided by God's will because they felt they were, as 
some of them said, establishing here a new Jerusalem.
  The letter I wish to read was written by John Quincy Adams, one of 
the great members of the founding generation, eloquent, a fighter for 
freedom. He delivered an address to the New York Historical Society, 
celebrating the 50th anniversary of George Washington's inauguration.
  In that address, he urges the people to embrace the fundamental 
principles that motivated the founding generation, of which he was a 
part, and to make them a part of daily living. He premised it all on 
his own belief in the Bible. So let me read it to you now:

       When the children of Israel, after forty years of 
     wanderings in the wilderness, were about to enter the 
     promised land, their leader Moses, who was not permitted to 
     cross the Jordan with them, just before his removal from 
     among them, commanded that when the Lord their God should 
     have brought them into the land, they should put the curse 
     upon Mount Ebal, and the blessing upon Mount Gerizim.
       The injunction was faithfully fulfilled by his successor 
     Joshua. Immediately after they had taken possession of the 
     land, Joshua built an altar to the Lord, of whole stones, 
     upon Mount Ebal. And there he wrote, upon the stones, a copy 
     of the law of Moses, which he had written in the presence of 
     the children of Israel: and all Israel and their elders and 
     officers, and their judges, stood on the two sides of the ark 
     of the covenant, borne by the priests and Levites, six tribes 
     over against Mount Gerizim, and six over against Mount Ebal. 
     And he read all the words of the law, the blessings and 
     cursings, according to all that was written in the book of 
     the law.

  Now John Quincy Adams brings it home from the Bible to America when 
he says:

       Fellow-citizens, the ark of your covenant is the 
     Declaration of Independence. Your Mount Ebal, is the 
     confederacy of separate state sovereignties, and your Mount 
     Gerizim is the Constitution of the United States.

  He continues:

       In that scene of tremendous and awful solemnity, narrated 
     in the Holy Scriptures, there is not a curse pronounced 
     against the people, upon Mount Ebal, not a blessing promised 
     them upon Mount Gerizim, which your posterity may not suffer 
     or enjoy, from your and their adherence to, or departure 
     from, the principles of the Declaration of Independence, 
     practically interwoven in the Constitution of the United 
     States.

  So Adams brings it right from the Bible to America, to the 
Declaration and the Constitution. Then he says, in conclusion:

       Lay up these principles, then in your hearts, and in your 
     souls--

  And then quoting from the Bible, or picking the metaphor up, he 
says--

     bind them for signs upon your hands, that they may be as 
     frontlets between your eyes--teach them to your children--

  He is speaking now of the Declaration of Independence and the 
Constitution--

     speaking of them when sitting in your houses, when walking by 
     the way, when lying down and when rising up--write them upon 
     the doorplates of your houses, and upon your gates--cling to 
     them as to the issues of life--adhere to them as to the cords 
     of your eternal salvation.
       So may your children's children at the next return of this 
     day of jubilee--

  Remember, it was 50 years after Washington's inaugural--

     after a full century of experience under your national 
     Constitution--

  Today, we are now into our third century of experience--

     celebrate it again in the full enjoyment of all the blessings 
     recognized by you in the commemoration of this day, and of 
     all the blessings promised to the children of Israel upon 
     Mount Gerizim, as the reward of obedience to the law of God.

  A remarkable statement of the enduring bases of our great national 
documents that guide us to this very day.
  I am very grateful to see our friend and colleague from Alaska, 
Senator Murkowski, in the Chamber, and I will yield now to her for the 
Abraham Lincoln Independence Hall speech regarding slavery.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Alaska.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Thank you, Mr. President.
  I am honored this morning to join with my colleagues to observe the 
anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and to participate by 
reading some of the documents that had underscored the principles of 
that great declaration.
  Near the end of President-elect Abraham Lincoln's inaugural journey 
from Springfield, IL, to Washington, DC, he stopped in the city of 
Philadelphia. It was the occasion of George Washington's birthday.
  Lincoln gave an impromptu speech at Independence Hall on February 22, 
1861, and it was a speech that demonstrated his deep commitment to the 
principles of the Declaration of Independence. It was a commitment that 
would be tested in the years to come and for which he, too, gave his 
life.
  So with that little introduction, I wish to read this impromptu 
address delivered by Abraham Lincoln. He stated:

       I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself standing 
     here, in this place, where were collected together the 
     wisdom, the patriotism, the devotion to principle, from which 
     sprang the institutions under which we live. You have kindly 
     suggested to me that in my hands is the task of restoring 
     peace to the present distracted condition of the country. I 
     can say in return, sir, that all the political sentiments I 
     entertain have been drawn, so far as I have been able to draw 
     them, from the sentiments which originated and were given to 
     the world from this hall.
       I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring 
     from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of 
     Independence. I have often pondered over the dangers which 
     were incurred by the men who assembled here, and framed and 
     adopted that Declaration of Independence. I have pondered 
     over the toils

[[Page 14210]]

     that were endured by the officers and soldiers of the army 
     who achieved that Independence.
       I have often inquired of myself what great principle or 
     idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together. It 
     was not the mere matter of the separation of the Colonies 
     from the motherland; but that sentiment in the Declaration of 
     Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of 
     this country, but, I hope, to the world, for all future time. 
     It was that which gave promise that in due time the weight 
     would be lifted from the shoulders of all men. This is the 
     sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence.
       Now, my friends, can this country be saved upon that basis? 
     If it can, I will consider myself one of the happiest men in 
     the world if I can help to save it. If it can't be saved upon 
     that principle, it will be truly awful. But, if this country 
     cannot be saved without giving up that principle--I was about 
     to say I would rather be assassinated on this spot than to 
     surrender it.
       Now, in my view of the present aspect of affairs, there is 
     no need of bloodshed and war. There is no necessity for it. I 
     am not in favor of such a course, and I may say in advance, 
     there will be no bloodshed unless it be forced upon the 
     Government. The Government will not use force unless force is 
     used against it.
       My friends, this is a wholly unprepared speech. I did not 
     expect to be called upon to say a word when I came here--I 
     supposed I was merely to do something towards raising a flag. 
     I may, therefore, have said something indiscreet, but I have 
     said nothing but what I am willing to live by, and, in the 
     pleasure of Almighty God, die by.

  Mr. President, those were the words--the very eloquent words--given 
by President-elect Abraham Lincoln at Independence Hall on February 22, 
1861--again, words that were impromptu, words that were inspired by his 
deep commitment, truly, to the principles embodied in our Declaration 
of Independence.
  It is most fitting that as a Senate, as a body, we recognize those 
principles; that we again read those speeches from those great leaders 
from so many years ago, those leaders who have shaped our Nation to be 
the great Nation it is.
  With that, I again thank the Senators who have given us the 
opportunity to read these profound words again and to share them with 
citizens across this great Nation.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I thank Senator Murkowski for that 
moving reading of the statement by President Lincoln and for all she 
does in our time to carry on those principles.
  It struck me--I said earlier the Declaration was an aspirational 
document and positing the self-evident truth that all of us are created 
equal, having this endowment from our Creator to the rights of life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness--the great promise of equality of 
opportunity--that it was not realized at the time, July 4, 1776, when 
it was written.
  One of the groups I mentioned--women--had essentially no equal rights 
at that time. The story of America is the story of trying to, over 
time, reach the aspirations of the founding generation.
  It was only into the last century, as you well know, I say to my 
friend from Alaska, that women got the right to vote, and only more 
recently that women began to be elected to the Senate in some numbers. 
So the work goes on. Obviously, you were elected because of your 
qualities as a person, not because of your gender.
  But I note both the progress that has been made and the progress that 
yet has to be made to realize the fullest range of the goals of the 
Founders.
  Senator Martinez, the final Member to speak, is on his way. I will 
fill in a little bit.
  I say to the Senator, your reading of Lincoln inspires me to recall 
that I recently read a book--I forget the name of the book, but I 
remember the author, William Lee Miller. I remember it well because he 
was a teacher of mine at Yale, who has now been teaching for many years 
at the University of Virginia. He wrote a book recently on Lincoln, and 
in it he analyzes Lincoln's first inaugural address.
  I thought he made a powerful point that reminded me of the extent to 
which Lincoln in that first inaugural address talked about the oath of 
office he was taking and how it transformed him. In other words, he 
said when he raised his hand--the right hand--and put the other hand on 
the Bible and said he was now pledging to protect, preserve, and defend 
the Constitution, it transformed him as a person. Yes, he was still 
Abraham Lincoln, American citizen, but he was now the President, with a 
solemn and sacred obligation to protect, preserve, and defend the 
Constitution of the United States.
  That was a powerful insight, and one I think all of us--as thrilled 
as I remember I was, and I am sure every Member of the Senate was when 
we walked to the well of the Senate the first time, and every time 
since, on the day we were sworn in as Senators, to feel transformed by 
the oath we take, which puts the interests of the Constitution and our 
Nation first above personal interests, above party interests.
  In this particularly partisan chapter of American political history, 
it is worth remembering that the oath we took, as Lincoln's first 
inaugural instructs us, was not to protect and defend and preserve 
ourselves or our parties but to protect, preserve, and defend the 
Constitution of the United States, and, of course, the United States 
itself most of all.
  I am grateful to see my friend from Florida in the Chamber and now 
yield to Senator Martinez for the reading of Patrick Henry's speech.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Florida.
  Mr. MARTINEZ. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Connecticut and 
very much appreciate his contribution this morning.
  I am incredibly honored to have the opportunity to talk about Patrick 
Henry and the words he expressed at such a vital time for our Nation. 
As the Senator from Connecticut knows, I am an immigrant to this land. 
I am one who has been the beneficiary of the fruits of liberty that 
were obtained by others, and I am incredibly grateful for those 
opportunities to live in freedom that I have been afforded by this 
great Nation. So the Fourth of July always ranks as a very special day 
on my calendar.
  The words of Patrick Henry have to do with a people who felt 
oppression, as I did in my youth. It is, at that time in someone's 
life, a little difficult to determine whether it is better to resist or 
reconcile, whether we move in the direction of conflict or in the 
direction of peace.
  It was in that kind of a moment that Americans in the years preceding 
1776 found themselves. So on March 23, 1775, at a meeting of delegates 
at St. John's Church in Richmond, Patrick Henry made the case for 
action.
  There is a picture of the inside of the church which was taken from 
Patrick Henry's pew. Here are some excerpts from that famous speech.
  It reads:

       Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the 
     illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a 
     painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren 'til she 
     transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, 
     engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? . . .
        . . . We have done everything that could be done to avert 
     the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have 
     remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated 
     ourselves before the throne, and have implored its 
     interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry 
     and Parliament.
       Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrations have 
     produced additional violence and insult; our supplications 
     have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with 
     contempt, from the foot of the throne!
       In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope 
     of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for 
     hope.
       If we wish to be free--if we mean to preserve inviolate 
     those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long 
     contending-- if we mean not basely to abandon the noble 
     struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we 
     have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious 
     object of our contest shall be obtained--we must fight! I 
     repeat, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God 
     of hosts is all that is left us!
       They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so 
     formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger?
       Will it be next week, or the next year? Will it be when we 
     are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be 
     stationed in every house?

[[Page 14211]]

       Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? 
     Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying 
     supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of 
     hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? . 
     . .
        . . . The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of 
     liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are 
     invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us.
       Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There 
     is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and 
     who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The 
     battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the 
     vigilant, the active, the brave . . .
        . . . It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. 
     Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--but there is no peace.
       The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from 
     the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding 
     arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we 
     here idle?
       What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is 
     life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the 
     price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know 
     not what course others may take; but as for me, give me 
     liberty or give me death!

  Those are the words of Patrick Henry, which I feel terribly 
inadequate delivering myself, but I am so honored to have this 
incredible opportunity, and the words ring so true today.
  As we know how history unfolded, he was so correct about the fact 
that it was a time for action and that there would be an almighty who 
would stand on the side of freedom and on the side of liberty, which is 
still true today. I know the Senator from Connecticut would share that 
view with me.
  I so much appreciate this wonderful opportunity, and I yield back to 
the Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I thank Senator Martinez for that 
wonderful reading and for all that his person speaks to. He said he was 
an immigrant to this country, born in Cuba. The truth is, we are all 
immigrants, the founding generation. We are all immigrants. The 
original Americans were Native Americans. I think some of us whose 
families have been here a while may forget all of that.
  The country in its founding documents posited these magnificent ideas 
based on faith, the endowment of our Creator, but then this openness 
and equality. The Senator from Florida, in his lifetime, his fresh 
memory, reminds us all how we have to be grateful for each succeeding 
generation as an obligation to accept the responsibility and, if you 
will, the destiny that is included in these documents--the Declaration 
and the Constitution--but we are also beneficiaries of those. 
Certainly, I have been in my life, and the Senator from Florida has 
been in his life.
  It is great to have somebody such as the Senator from Florida, by 
virtue of his own ability and hard work being a Senator, to be here and 
to read Patrick Henry's inspiring words. That is really what America is 
about.
  Mr. MARTINEZ. It is very special.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I am honored that Senator Warner has 
come to the floor. He is a great Virginian in the tradition of 
Jefferson, and I wish to call on him because I believe he would like to 
add just a few words here at the end of this hour of celebration of our 
independence.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I see our distinguished colleague from 
Missouri on the floor.
  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I apologize to my friend from Virginia, but 
we were going to start the FISA debate at 11. I understand there is a 
request to extend. I would like to lock in a time when we can 
accommodate those Senators wishing to speak but establish a firm time 
when Senator Rockefeller and I may begin the discussion of FISA.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I am going to speak for maybe 4 minutes. 
My distinguished colleague from Connecticut, who is too humble to say 
so, perhaps, deserves credit for what is going on this morning, 
together with Senator Cornyn. We are about to wind up in less than 15 
minutes. I would think that at 11:15 we would be ready to go on the 
bill, and I wish to join the Senator from Missouri on this bill.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, if I may, I am going to finish up in a 
moment with just a minute because I have had plenty of time to speak, 
so we will be there before 11:15.
  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, are there other requests of people wishing 
to speak?
  Mr. WARNER. No.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. No.
  Mr. WARNER. So I would put it in the form of a unanimous consent 
request that we be allowed to continue at this point.

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