[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book I)]
[July 17, 1994]
[Pages 1259-1261]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Dinner Honoring Senator Robert Byrd
July 17, 1994

    Thank you very much. Thank you. Senator and Mrs. Byrd, Senator 
Rockefeller, Congressmen Mollohan, Rahall, and Wise, and Governor 
Caperton, and friends, I am glad to be here with all you folks from West 
Virginia, a small State with a lot of mountains. I identify with it.
    I'm mostly glad to be here to speak for Senator Byrd tonight. You 
know, one of the first things I did on coming to Washington as President 
was to go by Senator Byrd's office and

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pay a visit. And on that visit, he gave me a copy of his ``History of 
the Senate,'' which I actually proceeded to read, fearing he would one 
day give me an examination on it. [Laughter] Now, in this book, among 
other things, he has a very moving autobiography in which he expresses 
his respect for Senator Richard Russell and for Senator John Stennis 
because of the advice and kindness that they gave to him. I feel the 
same way; I've learned a lot from Senator Byrd. He's always been 
unfailingly kind, and he's given me a lot of information I've needed and 
a lot of wise counsel.
    Senator Byrd also expresses in this book his friendship for the late 
President Johnson, and he describes his relationship with President 
Johnson. And I can identify with that, too. There's a particularly 
moving part of this autobiography where he describes how he talked 
L.B.J. into appointing a Federal judge he didn't really want to appoint, 
but Senator Byrd did. And then he turned around and voted against 
President Johnson on the next major issue in the Senate. [Laughter]
    I will say this, though, for all of his principles, Senator Byrd 
believes in our democratic system enough to advocate compromise on 
occasion. The other day I was trying to persuade him to change his 
position on the space station, from ``against'' to ``for.'' And he said 
he couldn't do that, unless I were willing to move the Capitol to West 
Virginia. I'm still considering it. [Laughter]
    It took me about 8 months here to at least be in a meeting with 
Senator Byrd and pretend not to be intimidated. [Laughter] That's 
different from not being intimidated. This is a town where, when people 
get a free moment, they go jogging, they play golf, they play tennis. He 
reads Thucydides. [Laughter]
    On the Senate floor, he's the only person ever with the memory and 
the talent to discuss the line-item veto in the same breath with the 
conspiracy against Caesar--and with equal accuracy. [Laughter] And it 
works, you know, I've always been for the line-item veto, but when I 
realized I was in league with those guys who did Caesar in, I had to 
revise my position. [Laughter]
    In all seriousness, now, I must tell you, I admire Robert Byrd. And 
based on my own family's history, I identify with him so much. You know, 
our two States, Arkansas and West Virginia, actually have a great deal 
in common. In the 1980 census, the counter said that our two States had 
the highest percentage of people living within our borders who had been 
born there. That roots, that attachment to the land, the beauty of the 
land, the history of the land, even the toil, the poverty, the 
excruciating and backbreaking work, all of it creates a strength of 
character that is very much needed in this country today.
    In an era where it's fashionable to bemoan the breakdown of the 
American family, Senator and Mrs. Byrd have been married for 57 years. 
That's something all the rest of us would like to emulate.
    In an era in which the American people are so sensitive about their 
need to know things, to create the ability to compete in a global 
economy, that I was actually able to be elected President in part by 
pledging to create a system of lifetime learning, I realize what an 
example he set, getting his college degree when he was in his thirties, 
being the only sitting Member of Congress ever to earn a law degree 
while in the Congress, at a time when he already knew more about the law 
than 99 percent of the lawyers in the country. He is an example of 
lifetime learning. The rest of us will have to do as well.
    Senator Byrd once said, ``The achievement of difficult goals under 
adverse circumstances is still very much a part of the American dream.'' 
Well, I believe that, and I think all the rest of us do. And I want to 
thank Robert Byrd for helping us to achieve some difficult goals under 
adverse circumstances.
    After years of talking about the danger of the Government's deficit 
to our children and grandchildren and years of recognizing we still 
needed to invest more in the education and training of our people, 
Senator Robert Byrd has helped us to provide 3 years of deficit 
reduction in a row for the first time since Harry Truman was President 
and still increase our investment in the education and training of the 
American work force. And it's a great tribute to his leadership that 
that has been possible.
    I don't think anybody could acknowledge the importance of Senator 
Byrd to our Nation's life without seriously treating, not just in a 
humoring way but seriously treating his voracious love of history and 
his devotion to its lessons. Cicero once spoke of ``history: the 
evidence of time, the light of truth, the life of memory, the directness 
of life, the herald of antiquity, committed

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to immortality.'' In the 20th century in the United States, no American 
leader has shown more reverence for history, no greater commitment to 
integrating its lessons, no greater reverence for the historical truth 
embodied in representative government than Senator Robert Byrd of West 
Virginia.
    His career was born in a time when mothers still dreamed that their 
children could grow up to be a Governor or a Senator or a President, 
when people were taught that citizenship was serious, that this was a 
wonderful country because, in part, we had a good system of Government 
capable of bringing out the best in people and solving our problems and 
seizing our opportunities. Senator Byrd's whole life is a testament to 
the idea that public discourse and public life can be things of very 
high honor.
    Sometimes I think one of the greatest troubles of modern life is not 
the problems we have, for every age and time has its problems; not the 
fact that we have no absolutely perfect leaders--the Scriptures said 
that we'll never have any of them. But instead, the fact is that we seem 
so often to have lost faith in the institutions of our country and our 
capacity to solve our own problems. Sometimes we seem almost compulsive 
in our collective efforts to find the worst, even in the silver lining. 
And I say to you tonight, Robert Byrd's life is a rebuke to that.
    It still ought to be that we would raise our sons and daughters to 
believe that not only citizenship but public life is an honorable and 
good thing and that if this weren't a pretty fine country, we wouldn't 
be around here after 214 years--218 years--otherwise I'd get corrected 
here. [Laughter] And I want you to think about that tonight, because too 
often today, I think, when the glass is half-full, we say it's half-
empty. When somebody is giving 95 percent, we focus on the 5. And when 
other people look at us with envy, we talk about ourselves with great 
cynicism, as if all is lost when much is being won every day. If this 
were not a truly astonishing country, faithful to its roots, its 
principles, the dreams, and the institutions of its Founders, Robert 
Byrd could not have become what he has.
    There could be no better tribute in this time, on the dawn of the 
next century, to honor Robert Byrd than this endowment to help educate 
more Americans on the workings of democracy. I tell you tonight, my 
fellow citizens, this is not a luxury. Understanding our system, 
believing in it, and being willing to sacrifice to work within it to 
make things better for the people of this country, that is a matter of 
our survival. We have not been around all this time because our people 
sat on the sidelines and complained. We have endured and triumphed 
because our people threw themselves into the breach in every age and 
time until the work was done.
    No citizen of America in our time has done this with greater zeal, 
greater energy, greater constancy, and greater conviction than Robert 
Byrd. For his long and distinguished service to our country, it is my 
honor to say a simple thank you, sir, we are in your debt.

Note: The President spoke at 8:10 p.m. in the Independence Ballroom at 
the Grand Hyatt Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. Gaston 
Caperton of West Virginia.