[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 20524-20529]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           ISSUES OF THE DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Higgins of Louisiana). Under the 
Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2017, the gentleman from Texas 
(Mr. Gohmert) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the 
majority leader.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, it has been quite a week: ups and downs and 
not knowing whether bills would be passed or the government would be 
funded, whether we would be able to help America with a much-improving 
economy in the new year by passing the tax cut bill. But we got it 
done, and it ended up being a good week, and here we are.
  This will be the last opportunity to speak before we are out for 
Christmas, and I heard some good news today about Ukraine. We have the 
annual Presidential Prayer Breakfast the first Thursday of February 
each year, except when the first Thursday is on the 1st, and then it is 
on the 8th, which it will be this February.
  We had representatives from the Ukraine Government come to our 
National Prayer Breakfast here, and they started one there and began to 
grow. Now, for the first time, Ukraine legislature has passed a bill 
recognizing a celebration of Christmas, the day of Jesus' birth. We 
celebrate Jesus' birth on that day, December 25.
  Apparently, from what we are told, it emanates from them coming over, 
being part of our Prayer Breakfast, where the President comes, and then 
starting one. And then now we are going to be celebrating the birth of 
Jesus in America--all those who care to--at the same time the Ukrainian 
Government will do so. So that is a big bit of news there.
  I was listening to the Delegate from the District of Columbia and it 
took me back to when I first got here as a Member of Congress and I saw 
the license plate saying, ``Taxation Without Representation.'' I know 
from studying history--never ceasing to study history that that was one 
of the war cries for the Revolution: Taxation without representation is 
tyranny.
  And as Benjamin Franklin once said: If we do not get to select even 
one of the people in Parliament, then that Parliament has no right to 
place any tax on us.
  And then upon hearing that, Puerto Rico, Guam, Mariana Islands, U.S. 
Virgin Islands, all of the territories where they have a Delegate or 
Commissioner but they don't have a full voting member, those are areas 
that are not required to pay any Federal income tax. In fact, when I 
found out, the more I looked into it, there is only one place in 
America where people do not elect a full voting Member of Congress, yet 
they have to pay Federal income tax, and that is here in the District 
of Columbia.
  For that reason, I filed a bill--because they had tried to get a full 
voting Member of Congress. But to do that, you have to have a 
constitutional amendment. Everybody knew that and agreed to that back 
in the late 1970s. The proponents of having a full voting 
Representative got it through the House, got it through the Senate, but 
they never did get the requisite number of States to sign on, so it 
failed without ever being ratified by enough States.
  I feel sure that would be the case if that were attempted again, but 
it does require an amendment. And since that doesn't appear it is going 
to happen anytime soon, then I believe in each of the sessions of 
Congress I have been, I have filed a bill that would correct that 
injustice, because it truly is an injustice for the people who live in 
the District of Columbia, and it is very simple. It just says, 
basically, that until when and if the District of Columbia has a full 
voting Representative, they are like any other U.S. territory, they 
will not have to pay Federal income tax.
  I felt like that would certainly make people appreciate that, that 
they were treated like those in other places that don't elect a full 
voting Member of the House. So far I haven't been able to get Ms. 
Holmes Norton to sign on as a cosponsor. I am hoping to get her to sign 
on at some point because it really would help those people who live 
here in the City of Washington not to have to pay any Federal income 
tax.
  Of course, Puerto Rico pays no Federal income tax, yet they have a 
higher local income tax than the Federal income tax. You know, a lot of 
States--I think somebody told me that Californians are paying 10 
percent or so. But Puerto Rico, where, I think, over one-third or about 
one-third or so of the people there work for the government, then the 
government load is just overwhelming.
  Puerto Rico is so beautiful. Even after all the disaster that needs 
to be cleaned up and fixed, I would hope at some point they become less 
heavy on the government and more heavy on free-market opportunities. I 
could see Puerto Rico becoming the Hong Kong of the United States, 
where that is where people want to go, that is where businesses want to 
locate because it is such a great place to live. But the taxes have run 
people out of that area, even though they don't pay Federal income tax. 
I don't think that would happen here in Washington.
  Mr. Speaker, here we are, the last session before Christmas. It has 
been amazing. The most often cited book in Congress for our country's 
entire history has been the Bible. There is no book that comes close to 
the recitations from it that has the Bible.
  Throughout our history, we were recognized as a Christian nation. I 
believe President Obama was right when he said we are not a Christian 
nation. We were, but we are not anymore. But even the Supreme Court, 
when it was a much more enlightened Supreme Court well after the Civil 
War--in fact, 30 years after the Civil War was over--the Supreme Court 
looked at all of the evidence and declared in an opinion that the 
United States was founded as and is a Christian nation.
  Not that everybody has to be a Christian here. They absolutely don't. 
I would humbly submit that the only way any people can truly have 
freedom of religion is if they have a constitution that is founded on 
Judeo-Christian principles that recognize that all true rights: life, 
liberty, pursuit of happiness--you don't have a right to happiness, but 
a right to pursue it--those come from God, and the Founders recognized 
that.
  It is a shame to hear people deceiving young people in school, 
teaching them that, no, the real Founders were only deists. They didn't 
believe in God; Ben Franklin being the leading deist. If they would 
just teach the children what Ben Franklin said in June of 1787 at the 
Constitutional Convention.

[[Page 20525]]

After 5 weeks of nothing but arguing back and forth, 80-year-old Ben 
Franklin, 2 or 3 years away from meeting his maker, got recognized.
  Somebody wrote that President Washington looked so relieved when Dr. 
Franklin sought recognition. He finally stood up. He had gout and he 
had terrible arthritis. He was well overweight, but he got up and gave 
the speech that so many Christians are aware of, where he said what no 
deist would ever say, despite how many teachers these days say he was a 
deist. His words were--we know what his words were because he sat down 
and wrote it down afterwards when he was asked for a copy of what he 
said.
  And he said: ``I have lived, Sir, a long time; and the longer I live, 
the more convincing proofs I see of this truth--God governs in the 
affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his 
notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have 
been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that `except the Lord build 
the House, they labour in vain that build it.'''
  He said: ``I firmly believe that.''
  Mr. Speaker, which means he wasn't a deist.
  He said: ``I also believe that without His''--without God's--
``concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better 
than the Builders of Babel. We shall be divided by our little partial 
local interests . . . and we ourselves will become a power down through 
the ages.''
  Mr. Speaker, it was at the conclusion of that day's session in the 
Constitutional Convention that Randolph from here in Virginia, or 
across the river in Virginia, made a motion that since here we are at 
the end of June, we are about to celebrate our Nation's birthday, and 
we all know we have not been able to accomplish anything.
  As Franklin said: ``We have been going for nearly 5 weeks. We have 
more noes than ayes on virtually every issue.''
  And then Franklin went on to say: ``How has it happened, Sir, that we 
have not . . . thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to 
illuminate our understandings?''

                              {time}  1830

  So Randolph's motion is, since they haven't been able to accomplish 
really anything, just yelling back and forth--it was all the big 6-
foot-4 Washington could do to keep things under control. And, yes, I 
know in Chernow's biography, he said he was less than 6 foot 2, because 
he was standing by a guy 6 foot 2 and he was shorter, but he is just 
wrong on that. George Washington, 1799, when dead, flat on a slab, was 
measured as 6 foot 3\1/2\. Undeniable, 6 foot 4 in the height of his 
time, but he couldn't control things.
  Randolph's motion passed. His motion was that they recess the 
Constitutional Convention and reconvene together in one of the local 
churches they agreed on and worship God together and then come back and 
try it again. That one passed.
  They went to the Reformed Calvinist Church--I was sharing that with 
my friend Dave Brat earlier since he attends a Calvinist church--
Reverend William Rogers presiding. You can go online and find at least 
one of the prayers that he prayed.
  I have this little book from Dr. Richard G. Lee, what a great man of 
God, great little booklet. ``In God We Still Trust,'' it is called. It 
has some great stories from our history.
  He noted that Warren Earl Burger, Chief Justice of the United States 
from 1969 to 1986, delivered the Supreme Court's opinion in the 1985 
case of Lynch v. Donnelly, which upheld that the city of Pawtucket, 
Rhode Island, did not violate the Constitution by displaying a nativity 
scene. Noting that Presidential orders and proclamations from Congress 
have designated Christmas as a national holiday in religious terms for 
two centuries and in the Western world for 20 centuries, he wrote:
  ``There is an unbroken history of official acknowledgement by all 
three branches of government of the role of religion in American life. 
The Constitution does not require a complete separation of church and 
state.''
  In fact, I would insert here, those words, ``separation of church and 
state,'' unlike what many say when asked, they are not in the 
Constitution, they were not intended to be in the Constitution. The 
Founders did not want church to be separated from state. They wanted 
the state to stay the heck out of the church business. That is what 
they wanted.
  But Thomas Jefferson mentioned a separation of church and state, a 
wall of separation, but it was going to be a one-way wall where the 
state stayed out of people's religion, but expected religion because it 
was part of our founding and the Bible was so often mentioned as a 
source of wisdom as they tried to put together a government.
  Chief Justice Burger, talking about the Constitution, said:
  ``It affirmatively mandates accommodation, not merely tolerance, of 
all religions, and forbids hostility toward any. . . . Anything less 
would require the `callous indifference' we have said was never 
intended by the Establishment Clause. . . . Indeed, we have observed, 
such hostility would bring us into `war with our national tradition as 
embodied in the First Amendment's guarantee of the free exercise of 
religion.''
  He goes on on the next page, talking about John Hancock. He said: 
``To celebrate the victorious conclusion of the Revolutionary War, 
Governor John Hancock of Massachusetts issued a proclamation for a day 
of Thanksgiving on December 11, 1783.''
  Just over a week ago was the anniversary of this proclamation from 
Governor John Hancock, the president that signed as president of the 
Continental Congress on the Declaration of Independence.
  John Hancock said: ``Whereas . . . these United States are not only 
happily rescued from the danger and calamities to which they have been 
so long exposed, but their freedom, sovereignty, and independence 
ultimately acknowledged.
  ``And whereas . . . the interposition of Divine Providence''--and 
they capitalized ``Divine Providence,'' another expression meaning 
God--``in our favor hath been most abundantly and most graciously 
manifested, and the citizens of these United States have every reason 
for praise and gratitude to the God of their salvation.
  ``Impressed therefore with an exalted sense of the blessings by which 
we are surrounded, and of our entire dependence on that Almighty 
Being''--``Almighty Being'' both capitalized--``from whose goodness and 
bounty they are derived; I do by and with the advice of the council 
appoint Thursday the 11th day of December next''--the day recommended 
by the Congress to all the States--``to be religiously observed as a 
day of thanksgiving and prayer; that all the people may then assemble 
to celebrate . . . that He''--``He'' is capitalized, meaning God--
``hath been pleased to continue to us the light of the blessed Gospel; 
. . . that we also offer up fervent supplications . . . to cause pure 
religion and virtue to flourish . . . and to fill the world with His--
capital H--glory.''
  That was John Hancock. As he pointed out, that was directed by the 
Congress of the United States that that day be recognized, but that was 
just his proclamation as Governor of Massachusetts.
  It seems when I mention God, mention some of our heritage, we often 
get a lot of calls from people who just become irate, which also 
testifies probably to the importance and to the genuineness of our 
founding and our founding reliance on God, because nothing else 
provokes that kind of anger and hatred. But some people say that has no 
place in the Capitol of the United States. And bless them; they just 
are a bit ignorant.
  Just down the hall, the original House Chamber was the largest 
Christian church in the Washington, D.C., area for most of the 1800s. A 
guy named Thomas Jefferson, that coined the expression ``separation of 
church and state,'' ``wall of separation,'' he put in a letter to the 
Danbury Baptists why we should not have, in essence, an official 
denomination, that that is not the government's role. Jefferson saw no

[[Page 20526]]

problem in having Christian worship services down the hall because it 
was nondenominational. Every Sunday that he was in Washington during 
his 8 years as President, he would come.
  Normally, he would ride a horse, according to the Congressional 
Research Service. You don't have to rely on my historical 
interpretation. The bipartisan, objective Congressional Research 
Service said he usually came riding a single horse.
  Unlike Jefferson, Madison, who is given credit for writing much of 
the Constitution, when he was President for those 8 years, he normally 
came in a horse-drawn carriage with multiple horses drawing his 
carriage. Jefferson, on the other hand, came to church here in the 
Capitol normally on a horse by himself, before the days, obviously, of 
the Secret Service.
  Jefferson, in fact, since it was a nondenominational Christian 
service, saw no problem with inviting the Marine Band to come do the 
accompaniment many Sundays for the hymns that were to be sung.
  The first woman to officially address a group in the U.S. Capitol 
occurred in the early 1800s, a Christian evangelist, who gave the 
sermon just down the hall in what was then the House of Representatives 
Chamber.
  I have a book, ``Miracles in American History.'' Susie Federer did 
this, adapted from William J. Federer's ``American Minute.'' This is a 
typical story from our history and our Founders, who knew how valuable 
God's assistance was in getting this little bubble in time and space 
where, for the first time in history, Christians were not persecuted 
for being Christians. For the first time since Jesus came over 2,000 
years ago, this America, this United States was a place where you 
weren't persecuted for being a Christian.
  Obviously, that is changing, and now we have governmental entities 
that are afraid of Christians as potentially a big hate group; 
although, anyone who professes that Christian groups need to be violent 
in order to accomplish our purposes can't truly be Christian and based 
on the Bible unless they are enacting government in so doing and acting 
under Romans 13. But, otherwise, they miss the whole point of Jesus' 
preaching.
  In this book from the Federers, the Battle of Cowpens was January 17, 
1781.
  Also, January 17 happens to be my father's birthday. I won't tell the 
age, but he is over 90.
  ``The Battle of Cowpens, January 17, 1781, depicted in the movie `The 
Patriot,' involved American General Daniel Morgan having a line of 
militia fire into the British General Cornwallis' and Colonel Banastre 
Tarleton's dragoons, regulars, Highlanders, and loyalists.
  ``When the Americans hastily retreated, British Colonel Tarleton, 
known as `The Butcher,' gave in to the temptation to pursue, only to be 
surprised by American Continentals waiting over the hill, firing at 
point-blank range.
  ``In the confusion, the Americans killed 110 British and captured 
830.
  ``The Battle of Cowpens is widely considered the tactical masterpiece 
and turning point of the war.''
  This is talking about the Revolutionary War, of course.
  ``General Daniel Morgan met up with American General Nathanael 
Greene, and they made a hasty retreat north toward Virginia.
  ``Cornwallis regrouped and chased the Americans as fast as he could, 
burning extra equipment and supplies along the way in order to travel 
faster.
  ``Cornwallis arrived at the Catalpa River just 2 hours after the 
Americans had crossed, but a storm made the river impassable, delaying 
the British pursuit.
  ``Cornwallis nearly overtook them as they were getting out of the 
Yadkin River, but rain flooded the river.
  ``Now it was a race to the Dan River, but General Nathanael Greene 
again made it across before the British arrived.
  ``British Commander Henry Clinton wrote:
  ```Here the royal army was again stopped by a sudden rise of the 
waters, which had only just fallen, almost miraculously, to let the 
enemy over . . .'
  ``In March 1781, General George Washington wrote to William Gordon:
  ```We have . . . abundant reasons to thank Providence''--with a 
capital P; he often referred to God as Providence--`to thank Providence 
for its many favorable interpositions in our behalf. It has at times 
been my only dependence, for all other resources seemed to have failed 
us.'
  ``British General Henry Clinton then ordered General Cornwallis to 
move 8,000 troops to a defensive position where the York River entered 
the Chesapeake Bay.

                              {time}  1845

  By this time, Ben Franklin and Marquis de Lafayette, which is the 
gentleman depicted in this painting right over here--it is the only 
full-length portrait of a foreigner in our U.S. Capitol--were finally 
successful in their efforts to persuade French King Louis XVI to send 
ships and troops to meet the Americans.
  French Admiral de Grasse left off fighting the British in the West 
Indies; sailed 24 ships to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay where, in 
the Battle of the Capes, he drove off 19 British ships which were 
trying to evacuate Cornwallis' men.
  De Grasse's 3,000 French troops, and General Rochambeau's 6,000 
French troops, hurriedly joined General Lafayette's division as they 
marched to help Washington trap Cornwallis against the sea. They joined 
the troops of General Benjamin Lincoln, Baron von Steuben, Mordecai 
Gist, Henry Knox, and John Peter Muhlenberg. All together, 17,000 
French and American troops surrounded Cornwallis, and, on October 19, 
1781, he surrendered.
  Yale President Ezra Stiles wrote on May 8, 1783: ``Who but God''--and 
by the way, this Yale University president, for those who are shocked 
that Yale had such a strident Christian leader, but actually, 
originally, Harvard and Yale, you couldn't even get in unless you swore 
that Jesus was your Lord and Savior in very stark terms.
  But Yale University President Ezra Stiles, in 1783, says:
  ``Who but God could have ordained the critical arrival of the Gallic 
or French fleet so as to assist in the siege of Yorktown? Should we not 
ascribe to a Supreme energy the wise generalship displayed by General 
Greene, leaving the roving Cornwallis to pursue his helter-skelter, 
ill-fated march into Virginia. It is God who had raised up for us a 
powerful ally, a chosen army, an enabled force, who sent us a 
Rochambeau to fight side-by-side with Washington in the Battle of 
Yorktown.''
  ``To diffuse the general joy through every breast, the general 
orders''--I am sorry. This is from George Washington. George Washington 
wrote this. This was one of his orders.
  ``To diffuse the general joy through every breast, the general 
orders''--these are his orders. I am quoting from Washington. ``Divine 
service is to be performed tomorrow in the several brigades. The 
Commander-in-Chief earnestly recommends troops not on duty should 
universally attend with that gratitude of heart which the recognition 
of such astonishing interposition of Providence demands.''
  And then the next year, on October 11, this is what the Congress 
passed. Congress said: ``It being the indispensable duty of all nations 
to offer up their supplications to Almighty God the United States in 
Congress assembled do hereby recommend it to the inhabitants of these 
States in general to observe the last Thursday of November next as a 
day of solemn thanksgiving to God for his mercies.''
  September 3, 1783, the Revolutionary War was officially ended with 
the Treaty of Paris, signed by Ben Franklin, John Adams, John Jay, and 
David Hartley. And I was surprised, I was going through the State 
Department with my wife and my pastor, David Dykes, and his wife, 
Cindy, and we were going through, and there was a copy, an original 
copy of the Treaty of Paris.
  I looked at the big letters that started it, and I was shocked. I 
said: ``Did you know it started that way?'' Because David is quite a 
historian himself. He has written a lot of great

[[Page 20527]]

books. But he didn't know. We didn't know how it started.
  But then it made sense. If you are going to get the British to sign a 
document swearing that the United States has the right to be free and 
independent of the most powerful country in the world, the most 
powerful army, the most powerful navy, which I agree with Washington, 
it was the grace of God, we were able to defeat. Without the grace of 
God, there is no defeat. We are not an independent country.
  So what do you start that with to make the British swear under that 
would be something they would not want to break the oath to?
  This is how it starts. These were the big letters, huge print, ``In 
the name of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity,'' then smaller letters 
for the rest of the document, ``It having pleased the Divine 
Providence'' or God ``to dispose the hearts of the most serene and most 
potent Prince George III, by the grace of God, King of Great Britain . 
. . and of the United States of America, to forget all past 
misunderstandings and differences.''
  Anyway, it was signed: ``Done at Paris, this third day of September, 
in the year of our Lord, 1783.''
  And, of course, our Constitution is dated the same way, in the year 
of our Lord, 1787.
  But those were Founders. Those were things that got us started.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Arrington).


 Celebrating the Borden County Coyotes Division 1, 1A Six-Man Football 
                           State Championship

  Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Gohmert), my new friend, great colleague, and mentor as I 
have made my transition into this great body. He tells me that all 
freshman Members come in and have big wins like tax reform and these 
big, tremendous wins, not for the Republican Party, but for the 
American people. I am so proud to have been a part of that. I am proud 
to call Mr. Gohmert my friend.
  Mr. Speaker, today I rise to celebrate the Borden County Coyotes' 
hard-fought victory over Jonesboro in the Division 1, 1A Six-Man 
Football State Championship. This was the Coyotes' seventh State 
championship appearance, fifth State championship win, and the second 
year in a row these two teams faced off in the six-man State 
championship game.
  Going into the championship game, only six opposing teams had scored 
against the Coyotes all year long. They boast the best six-man defense 
in the State, have been named the best six-man team in the Nation, and 
are ranked number 1 in the class 1-A division rankings.
  With the discipline and determination they showed all season long, 
this team turned a two-point lead at halftime into a 60-22 win in the 
State championship.
  I want to commend both teams on their tremendous success and 
sportsmanship and congratulate, especially, Coach Richey on preparing 
our Coyotes to achieve a perfect season.
  I would be remiss if I did not thank the parents and the teachers and 
the administrators and the fans who were always there throughout this 
season to ensure the Coyotes always gave their Borden County best.
  There is nothing like high school football in west Texas. Go Coyotes, 
and go west Texas.


                  Happy 80th Birthday to Dr. Bill Dean

  Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise to wish a happy birthday, 80 
years, to a dear friend, a Lubbock native, and a legend at Texas Tech, 
Dr. Bill Dean.
  Dr. Dean has always been a leader and has always had a servant heart 
when it comes to serving his community and the campus community at 
Texas Tech. I don't know anyone who loves Texas Tech University and the 
students at Texas Tech like Bill Dean.
  He was elected to the student body presidency when he was a student 
at Tech. He got 3 degrees and became a professor, an associate dean, 
and, ultimately, in his current role, serves as CEO of the Texas Tech 
University Alumni Association.
  He was named the best teacher nine times by his students.
  Dr. Dean, you are the very best, and you represent the very best of 
west Texas and Red Raider Nation. I want to say, blessings to you, and 
I hope you have many, many more years on that college campus because 
you have had an amazing impact on thousands of the lives of young 
people who come through that university, like me.
  Thank you for your commitment. Thank you for your service and your 
leadership, and God bless you and Peggy. ``Guns Up.''
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I am always happy to share time with my 
friend from west Texas. We are on opposite sides of the State but same 
sides of the heart caring for this country.
  We have got a lot to be thankful for in this country, and I am 
thankful that we are going to have 11 months for people to realize that 
all the gloom and doom that was preached in this room about what the 
tax bill was going to do. The tax cuts, the reforms, it wasn't made as 
simple as I would hope, just a flat tax across the board. But there 
will be more people who don't pay tax, and most everybody should pay 
less tax.
  It is just amazing the things that have been said. One person even 
said this is the worst bill ever, the tax bill, when--wow, I would have 
thought those bills that were really punishing slaves and allowing the 
continuance of slavery, those might have been, well, in my opinion, 
just nowhere near the same category. But according to at least one 
source here across the aisle, this tax bill was worse than all of 
those, the worst bill ever.
  But people are going to have 11 months to see that, even though the 
stock market was doing better, people weren't really doing better. 
Incomes had been pretty well flat-lined.
  I think there is going to be a great deal to be grateful for. Now it 
is not just going to be the stock market going up, it is going to be 
Americans having more money in their own pockets. There are going to be 
more jobs. There are going to be people making more than they have in 
the past.
  There will be a chance for many in the upcoming generation to 
experience what many of us did coming out of school, but most of them 
haven't, and that is having multiple firms, companies, employers, 
wanting them. It is just going to be a new experience for so many. And 
I hope when it happens, they will do as our Founders did and know where 
to give the proper credit.
  John Adams, in the fall of 1798, to the officers of the First 
Brigade--he was President at the time, having succeeded Washington. 
President Adams said: ``We have no government armed with power, capable 
of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and religion. 
Avarice, ambition, revenge, gallantry would break the strongest cords 
of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was 
made only for a moral and religious people.''

                              {time}  1900

  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
  John Adams, on December 25, 1813, what we call Christmas Day, wrote 
to his new friend. They had been friends, then when Jefferson had been 
greatly unfair in the election, defeated Adams, they had nothing to do 
with each other for many years. Then at Benjamin Rush's recommendation, 
Adams wrote Thomas Jefferson, and they rekindled a great friendship.
  December 25 of 1813, former President John Adams wrote to former 
President Thomas Jefferson, and said:
  ``I have examined all religions as well as my narrow sphere, my 
straightened means, and my busy life would allow; and the result is 
that the Bible is the best Book in the world. It contains more 
philosophy than all the libraries I have seen.''
  Thomas Jefferson. This is inscribed in his monument.
  Mr. Speaker, I share this as we leave session the last time before 
Christmas, because I find that so many people get upset when we mention 
God or mention the Bible here in Congress, when actually that is the 
most oft-cited thing in our whole history of Congress.
  People have been mis-educated, and this is the one chance to thank 
God,

[[Page 20528]]

Mr. Speaker, and help people realize how we came to be as we are.
  Thomas Jefferson said:
  ``God who gave us life gave us liberty.''
  ``And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have 
removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people 
that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be 
violated, but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I 
reflect that God is just: that His justice cannot sleep forever.''
  Mr. Speaker, this was a time when people had turned from God, and it 
was scaring Jefferson because he knew, as Adams did, if we were not a 
religious and moral people, the Constitution would cease to serve the 
needed purpose.
  Madison has such great pronouncements. As Madison himself said in 
1815:
  ``No people ought to feel greater obligations to celebrate the 
goodness of the Great Disposer of events and of the Destiny of nations 
than the people of the United States. To the same divine author of 
every good and perfect gift, we are indebted for all those privileges 
and advantages, religious as well as civil, which are so richly enjoyed 
in this favored land.''
  He also referred to our Heavenly Benefactor.
  Monroe, same type of messages.
  John Quincy Adams, he wrote his son, 1811:
  ``. . . so great is my veneration for the Bible, and so strong my 
belief, that when duly read and meditated on, it is of all books in the 
world, that which contributes most to make men wise and happy--that the 
earlier my children begin to read it, the more steadily they pursue the 
practice of reading it throughout their lives, the more lively and 
confident will be my hopes that they will prove useful citizens to 
their country, respectable members of society. . . .''
  Abraham Lincoln said this, and it was official. This was his 
proclamation. Those that think it is inappropriate for government to 
say these things, this was Abraham Lincoln, who knew wherein our hopes 
lie.
  Lincoln said in his official proclamation:
  ``. . . it is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their 
dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and 
transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope, that genuine 
repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime 
truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that 
those nations are only blessed whose God is the Lord.''
  In his second inaugural, just 45 days before he was struck down by an 
assassin's bullet, Abraham Lincoln was trying to make sense of such a 
bloody, horrific war between the North and South, and it is inscribed 
on the inside wall of the Lincoln Memorial on the north side. Thank 
God, literally, thank God no one has required that those beautiful 
words be removed.
  But he was trying to reconcile how there could be something so bloody 
and awful if there were a good and just God. Obviously, he had done a 
lot of theological wrestling with that issue, and in talking about the 
North and South, Abraham Lincoln said:
  ``Both''--North and South--``read the same Bible and pray to the same 
God.''
  ``The prayers of both could not be answered. The prayers of neither 
has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purpose.''
  But then he quotes Scripture: ``Whoa unto the world because of 
offenses.''
  Lincoln continues on:
  ``Yet, if God will that it continue until all the wealth piled by the 
bondsman's 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and every drop 
of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with a 
sword, as was said 3,000 years ago, so it must be said.''
  And again quoting the Bible: ``The judgements of the Lord are true 
and righteous altogether.''
  All Presidents have had these types of proclamations.
  I like the proclamation Grover Cleveland had in November 1885. 
Official U.S. Government proclamation. He said:
  ``The American people have always abundant cause to be thankful to 
Almighty God, whose watchful care and guiding hand have been manifested 
in every stage of their national life, guarding and protecting them in 
time of peril and safely leading them in the hour of darkness and of 
danger.
  ``It is fitting and proper that a nation thus favored should on one 
day every year, for that purpose especially appointed, publicly 
acknowledge the goodness of God and return thanks to Him for all His 
gracious gifts.''
  Moving to Franklin Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt delivered this 
Christmas Eve message just weeks after we were attacked at Pearl 
Harbor.
  Franklin Roosevelt said:
  ``Sincere and faithful men and women are asking themselves this 
Christmas: How can we light our trees? How can we give our gifts? How 
can we meet and worship with love and with uplifted spirit and heart in 
a world at war, a world of fighting and suffering and death? How can we 
pause, even for a day, even for Christmas Day, in our urgent labor of 
arming a decent humanity against the enemies which beset it? How can we 
put the world aside, as men and women put the world aside in peaceful 
years, to rejoice in the birth of Christ?''
  Franklin Roosevelt went on to say:
  ``Looking into the days to come, I have set aside a day of prayer, 
and in that proclamation, I have said: The year 1941 has brought upon 
our Nation a war of aggression by powers dominated by arrogant rulers 
whose selfish purpose is to destroy free institutions. They would 
thereby take from the freedom-loving peoples of the Earth the hard-won 
liberties gained over many centuries. The new year of 1942 calls for 
the courage. Our strength, as the strength of all men everywhere, is of 
greater avail as God upholds us.
  ``Therefore, I''--this is Franklin Roosevelt--``do hereby appoint the 
first day of the year 1942 as a day of prayer, of asking forgiveness 
for our shortcomings of the past, of consecration to the task of the 
present, of asking God's help in days to come. We need His guidance 
that this people may be humbled in spirit, but strong in the conviction 
of the right. Steadfast to endure sacrifice, and brave to achieve a 
victory of liberty and peace. Our strongest weapon in this war is that 
conviction of the dignity and brotherhood of man, which Christmas Day 
signifies. Against enemies who preach the principles of hate and 
practice them, we set our faith in human love and in God's care for us 
and all men everywhere.''
  He had so many beautiful, beautiful messages.
  One ended like this:
  ``It is significant that tomorrow, Christmas Day, our plants and 
factories will be stilled. That is not true of the other holidays we 
have long been accustomed to celebrate. On all other holidays, work 
goes on, gladly, for the winning of the war. So Christmas becomes the 
only holiday in all the year. I like to think this is because Christmas 
is a holy day. May all it stands for live and grow throughout the 
years.''
  Harry Truman, who succeeded him after his death, finished one of his 
Christmas proclamations this way:
  ``Our thoughts and aspirations and the hopes of future years turn to 
a little town in the hills of Judea where, on a winter's night 2,000 
years ago, the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled.
  ``Shepherds keeping the watch by night over their flock heard the 
glad tidings of great joy from the angels of the Lord singing: `Glory 
to God in the highest, and on Earth, peace, good will toward men.'''
  It is not just from the Bible. This is the President of the United 
States' official proclamation, government proclamation.
  Truman said:
  ``The message of Bethlehem best sums up our hopes tonight. If we as a 
nation, and the other nations of the world, will accept it, the star of 
faith will guide us into the place of peace as it did the shepherds on 
that day of Christ's birth long ago.
  ``We shall find strength and courage at this Christmastime because so 
brave a beginning has been made. So with faith and courage we shall 
work to hasten the day when the sword is replaced

[[Page 20529]]

by the plowshare and nations do not `learn war anymore.'
  ``Selfishness and greed, individual or national, cause most of our 
troubles.''

                              {time}  1915

  ``He whose birth we celebrate tonight was the world's greatest 
teacher. He said: `Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men 
would do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the 
prophets.' Through all the centuries since He spoke, history has 
vindicated His teaching.
  ``In this great country of ours has been demonstrated the fundamental 
unity of Christianity and democracy. Under our heritage of freedom for 
everyone on equal terms, we also share the responsibilities of 
government. Our support of individual freedom--free speech, free 
schools, free press, and a free conscience--transcends all our 
differences. Although we may not hope for a New Heaven and a New Earth 
in our day and generation; we may strive with undaunted faith and 
courage to achieve in the present some measure of that unity with which 
the Nation's sons and the sons of our allies went forth to win the war.
  ``We have this glorious land not because of a particular religious 
faith, not because our ancestors sailed from a particular foreign port. 
We have our unique national heritage because of a common aspiration to 
be free and because of our purpose to achieve for ourselves and for our 
children the good things of life which the Christ declared He came to 
give to all mankind.
  ``We have made a good start toward peace in the world. Ahead of us 
lies the larger task of making the peace secure. The progress we made 
gives hope that in the coming year we shall reach our goal. May 1947 
entitle us to the benediction of the Master.''
  ``Master'' is capitalized. He is talking about Jesus.
  He quotes Jesus saying: ```Blessed are the peacemakers, for they 
shall be called the children of God.' Because of what we have achieved 
for peace, because of all the promise our future holds, I say to all my 
countrymen: Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas, and may God bless you 
all.''
  I just want to conclude, Mr. Speaker, with this best message, Ronald 
Reagan's 1988 official Christmas message. He said: ``The themes of 
Christmas and of coming home for the holidays have long been 
intertwined in song and story. There is a profound irony and a lesson 
in this because Christmas celebrates the coming of a Savior who was 
born without a home.
  ``There was no room at the inn for the Holy Family. Weary of travel, 
a young Mary, close to childbirth, and her carpenter husband, Joseph, 
found but the rude shelter of a stable. There born the King of Kings, 
the Prince of Peace--an event on which all history would turn.
  ``Jesus would again be without home, and more than once; on the 
flight to Egypt and during His public ministry when He said: `The foxes 
have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man 
hath nowhere to lay his head.'
  ``From His very infancy, on, our Redeemer was reminding us that, from 
then on we would never lack a home in Him. Like the shepherds to whom 
the angel of the Lord appeared on the first Christmas Day, we could 
always say: `Let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which 
is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.'
  ``As we come home with gladness to family and friends this Christmas, 
let us also remember our neighbors who cannot go home themselves. Our 
compassion and concern this Christmas and all year long will mean much 
to the hospitalized, the homeless, the convalescent, the orphaned--and 
will surely lead us on our way to the joy and peace of Bethlehem and 
the Christ Child who bids us come. For it is only in finding and living 
the eternal meaning of the Nativity that we can be truly happy, truly 
at peace, truly home.
  ``Merry Christmas, and God bless you.''
  Official proclamation of the United States Government by the 
President of the United States, words well to remember.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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