Honoring President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

Floor Speech

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Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, as I said in the two previous resolutions that have come forth from the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, while I do support the legislation at hand and the motivation behind it, I do think that Congress should be focusing instead on higher-priority initiatives.

We're facing record unemployment, deficits that threaten to bankrupt the country, and a stimulus that is failing to help our people and create new jobs. Congress should be considering legislation providing real and immediate economic solutions for the American people before naming and commemorating resolutions.

I certainly appreciate the initiative of my colleagues to acknowledge the Gettysburg Address and the anniversary that we are fast approaching. I do find it quite interesting as a Congressman from a Southern State that my colleague that controls the majority's time is from a Northern State. It's kind of interesting that actually those dynamics still persist of both Southerners and Yankees alike, or New Englanders. But we can have an honest debate in this country, which is certainly worthwhile, and I think that Lincoln's Gettysburg Address certainly is a wonderful and enormous milestone for all Americans. Whether or not your State was in the Union at that point, whether it even existed at that point, it's certainly important.

On November 19, 1863, President Lincoln delivered a carefully crafted address that was assumed by many to be overshadowed by Senator Edward Everett's 2-hour oration. So unsuspecting was the crowd and so swift was the speech that no pictures were taken while the address was given. If the crowd had known that they were witnessing the defining speech of the War Between the States, I'm confident that many more would have been better prepared for the occasion.

In 10 lines and 272 words, the President redefined the war as an effort to solidify the American political system, our Republic, calling upon the Nation to dedicate themselves to a new birth of freedom so that government ``of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the Earth.''

We all know these words, Mr. Speaker. We all care about these words. Though brief, his oration was powerful. In these few appropriate remarks, Lincoln honored the fallen but also paid homage to the Founding Fathers and their commitment to a Nation led by its people.

Mr. Speaker, I would say in closing on a larger issue for the American people that this commemorating resolution, while certainly it's important to honor the Gettysburg Address, and though delivered in 1863, I think today we are at an anniversary of the 146th year for the Gettysburg Address, and it's important that we remember and commemorate this; but I think it's also important that we have a real debate about health care.

I do appreciate my colleague saying earlier that we're going to have a debate. We have 72 hours to review the 1,990-page health care bill, which is good, and certainly we're grateful, as a minority party, to have that time to review such a massive piece of legislation.

But I also think it's important that we have significant debate on this legislation. And rather than having just 2 or 3 hours, which has been the news this week that we will have to debate such a far-reaching piece of legislation on this House floor, that we would be able to spend more time, even on a Monday, debating health care and the importance of getting this approach right for the American people not just for today but for tomorrow.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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