[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15303]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              THANKSGIVING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Missouri (Mr. Akin) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. AKIN. Mr. Speaker, in just about a week or so, we're going to be 
sitting down at tables celebrating Thanksgiving and eating turkey and 
getting a little sleepy maybe afterwards. But as we think about 
Thanksgiving and we think about the holiday of Thanksgiving Day, it may 
be interesting and it may add a little richness to that holiday if we 
remember how it came about and what we have to be thankful for.
  There were originally a group of people that came to this country on 
the Mayflower, and a number of them onboard had the dream of building a 
new kind of country, something that Europe had never seen before. They 
believed that they would take principles that they found in the Bible 
and that they would apply them in a new way and create a new structure 
of what a country could look like.
  So they came to America. And after landing, within the first 4 
months, half of them had died. And you would think they would pretty 
much give up on a dream at that point. The Mayflower had stayed to give 
them some protection and shelter, so it was in the early springtime 
that this group of the people that were left--about 55 of the 
Pilgrims--had to make a decision. You could think of it as actually 
voting, only voting with their feet.
  They were approached by the captain of the Mayflower, and the captain 
of the Mayflower said, Things aren't going so well. I've lost half my 
crew, and half of you are dead, and we are going to be heading back to 
England. And I recommend that you get on the Mayflower because you 
don't have adequate supplies, and you don't have really a knowledge of 
how you're going to be able to deal with the wilderness that you are 
living in.
  So it was that the Mayflower's captain gave the commands, the old 
seaweed-covered anchor cable was hauled onboard, the yardarms were 
trimmed to the wind, and first large and then small, the Mayflower 
disappears over the horizon. The wind is blowing through the trees, and 
55 courageous men, women, and children stood on the beach.
  Why did they stay? They stayed because they believed in the dream 
that they had in their hearts, of making a new nation. And by staying, 
they gave us some things that we should be thankful for, not just the 
Thanksgiving turkey.
  First of all, they came with the idea that civil government and 
church government were separate types of governments, and the civil 
government shouldn't run the church or the other way around.

                              {time}  1020

  So they were what was called in those days ``separatists'' because 
they wanted to separate from the King of England who was running the 
Church.
  So the first thing they gave us was the concept of separating civil 
and church governments. But the second thing that happened was, when 
they arrived in Massachusetts, they were blown off course by the 
storms; and so they had no government. So a group of free people, under 
God, wrote a document called the Mayflower Compact. It starts: ``In the 
name of God,'' and it goes on to say to frame just and equal laws.
  So what happened was a group of free people, under God, created a 
civil government, and that of course was the foundation of our 
Declaration of Independence. And all of American civil government we 
can trace back to these courageous 55 people who stayed on the beach.
  So as you're having your turkey, think about how they gave us the 
idea of separating civil and church governments, and also how it was 
that they gave us the idea that our Creator gives us life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness.
  Have a great Thanksgiving. God bless you.

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