Constitution Caucus

Floor Speech

Mr. STUTZMAN. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to represent the people of Indiana's Third District, and I am also proud to serve as a cochair of the Constitution Caucus here in Congress. The hottest fires make the strongest steel. After seeing Washington assail the Constitution, Americans went to the polls last November and demanded a return to our first principles. As a result, the membership of this caucus has more than doubled. We began this Congress by reading the Constitution right here on the floor. We have come here this evening in that same spirit.

I rise today to continue a conversation that used to fill the halls of this great building. There was a time in our Nation's past when Members of Congress openly and passionately debated the interpretation of the Constitution. We are here tonight to renew that discussion.

When we were sworn in, each of us took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. This means that we are required to interpret and apply it to our daily work. I am sure that we all take that oath very seriously. However, I am also sure that, without vigilance, we slip out of tune with the principles enshrined in that founding document.

Today, we have an opportunity to rededicate ourselves to those principles, to limited government and individual equality. In the coming months, my colleagues and I will come again to the floor to discuss federalism, checks and balances, and enumerated powers.

Today, however, we ought to begin by asking ourselves a very simple question: ``What is so wonderful about the Constitution?'' After all, I believe, the last election was a mandate to return to its wisdom and guidance. We ought to at least begin by asking why it should hold such prominence in our hearts. Why, for example, did Abraham Lincoln declare so forcefully, ``Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties''?

The answer is elegantly simple. The Constitution enshrines the enduring principles of limited government, and limited government is the surest guardian of human dignity. The Constitution gave form and shape to the philosophy put forth in the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration, it has been said, was the promise; the Constitution is the fulfillment.

I cannot overemphasize the truly revolutionary nature of our War for Independence. For the first time in human history, when a group of people overthrew an oppressive regime, they began by espousing a vigorous and eloquent philosophy: That all men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Even as lives, fortunes, and sacred honor hung in the balance, these men began with a summary of human nature.

America was founded on the idea that humans have a specific character. We are wired a certain way. Our Founding Fathers understood two basic and profound truths about human nature. First, we are not perfect. We err. We will never reach perfection. To believe that man is perfectible is to engage in fanciful speculation. Second, in spite of our fallen natures, we are dignified and equal. We each possess reason and the ability to determine our own lives.

As James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, eloquently stated: ``What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.''

How then can imperfect beings govern in a way that respects human dignity? The answer is found in limited government. Again, James Madison said this: ``You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.''

Limited government justly defends the dignity of the individual through specific and checked powers. Do not confuse limited for weak. Government ought to be strong in those areas where strength is required and specifically enumerated. In all other areas, the government must defer to the judgments of free men and women.

In our Republic, the dignity of the individual citizen is paramount. It would be arrogant to believe that a few elite can discern and direct over 300 million souls here in America. I fear, with ballooning government and near unstoppable deficits being run every year, we are dangerously close to abandoning the principles that brought us here safely thus far. As regulations infringe on nearly every aspect of daily life, human dignity is endangered.

Those of us here this evening are ready to work against this tide, to return our government to its proper role of defending individual freedoms. I am eager to continue this conversation in the coming months, because there is much work to be done.

Mr. Speaker, I would now like to yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett), the original founder of this caucus.

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Mr. STUTZMAN. Thank you. Very eloquently said.

I would like to touch on a couple of things that the gentleman from South Carolina said, Mr. Speaker. As we did have a great opportunity to read the Constitution on the House floor, I found it not only to be one that should be a lesson for all of us, but also one that will remind each American of the great document that we have that governs our land.

I would like to read just a couple of statements that some of our Founding Fathers made that I believe are so important for each one of us to remember today. First of all, I would like to start with George Washington, who is my political hero. What a great man who not only was so willing to sacrifice and was willing to serve his great country, and he could have been king if he was wanting to, but instead knew that limited power was going to be the real answer to America's new Constitution and to its new Government.

George Washington said: ``The power under the Constitution will always be in the people. It is entrusted for certain defined purposes and for a certain limited period to representatives of their own choosing. And whenever it is executed contrary to their interest or not agreeable to their wishes, their servants can and undoubtedly will be recalled.''

Mr. Washington was referring to elections. I think what has not only solidified our government for years and years has been that it is the people, the people's government. The people have the ability to recall those who are elected to go to their representative capitals, whether it is in the State governments or here in Washington, D.C., and if their wishes are not received by the people, the people can recall them back to their State and elect someone new.

Also, I would like to read another statement by Thomas Jefferson: ``On every question of construction let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.''

Thomas Jefferson was our third President and was one of the great men who took part in building our great democracy and our Republic here in the great country of the United States.

I would also like to refer a little bit to my time in having the opportunity to serve in the Indiana State legislature and knowing that Thomas Jefferson was a Federalist who believed in States' rights. And one of the things I have seen in my short time in Washington is that the States have so much flexibility, have so much more ability to serve the people, as well as our local governments. And that is one of the reasons that I believe the Constitution was formed to protect that local control.

As we've seen time and time again, there is more influence by our Federal Government in reaching further and further into our communities with more mandates, with more legislation that continues to take away our freedoms.

And having the opportunity to serve in the State legislature in Indiana, I would also share that we can see how each State has different needs, and the Constitution addresses that by limiting the powers of the Federal Government. And we're seeing more and more waste of tax dollars, something that I believe that the American people are tired of, and they want to see Washington fix its problems just like the American people do every day in tightening their own belt.

We tighten our belt in our small family farming operation back in Indiana. We do that with our family budget. And people are asking across the country, If we can do it, why can't Washington?

And we're seeing overlap of Federal and State and local governments; and I believe if we would get back to the constitutional roles, the constitutional role that the Federal Government is given, and focus on the priorities that our Founding Fathers gave to us and the Constitution as a government, then we will be more effective, we will serve the people who have elected us to serve, and instead of infringing upon the responsibilities and the rights of those in our States that we will have a more efficient government and we will also have a government that is closer to the people and one that I believe serves best when government is close to the people and will serve and respond to the needs of them.

At this time I would like to yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Conaway).

Thank you for being here and I look forward to your comments.

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Mr. STUTZMAN. Mr. Speaker, I just would like to make a couple of comments in closing. I have appreciated the comments that were made by the other gentlemen that were here this evening.

You know, one of the things I believe is that the American people that have been given the rights and the responsibilities to elect those of us who are fortunate enough and honored to come to Washington to serve are paying attention and that they are paying attention to what we are doing in response to the actions that have been taken over the years here in Washington. Washington seems to be the problem.

When I go back home to Indiana, I hear repeatedly from folks that, you know, Republican, Democrat, we can point the finger from side to side, but it has been Washington that has been out of touch with the American people, and that Washington needs to be changed, not necessarily America needing to be changed.

And that is why I believe it is so important for us as Americans that we get back to our founding documents, to realize the truths and the principles that are in these documents that our Founding Fathers wrote over 200-some years ago.

And I would like to read just a couple of lines from the Declaration of Independence, as Mr. Garrett was referring to earlier, the freedom and the opportunity that each of us as Americans has is given to us by our Creator, but also the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution give us rights and freedoms as well.

I'd like to refer to these lines in the Declaration of Independence. Many of these are obviously very familiar to us, but: 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.

Now, I would submit, Mr. Speaker, that the people are the ones who are giving us the power to govern and that the Constitution, as it was written back by our Founding Fathers, was written in the effort to protect each individual and to protect each individual freedom that we have and enjoy every day.

I would also mention, as was mentioned before, that it is important for us as Americans to not only take on that personal responsibility but also to realize that our freedoms are given from our Creator, and it's important for each one of us to not only fight to protect those freedoms but remember some of the words that our Founding Fathers used as well, going back to what Benjamin Franklin said, and I quote, Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters, end quote.

So it is up to each one of us as Americans, Mr. Speaker, that we are, first of all, as individuals and as communities involved in our communities, whether it's our churches, whether it's our schools, that we are taking on each responsibility and looking around us and who can we help, how can we make a difference in someone else's life.

I'd also read John Adams. He said this, quote, Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other, end quote.

How fortunate we as Americans are to have not only this founding document but many other founding documents written by men who were given such a great responsibility and a great opportunity to create one of the longest-lasting governments in world history; and I'm so proud to be an American tonight and believe that, even though we have many challenges in front of us, we have great debt, we have great deficits, and this is because of the irresponsible actions taken by those in Washington.

I believe that today it is important for each one of us as Americans to become more familiar with our Constitution and to read the words, as it may seem sometimes dry and not as exciting, but this document, these words give each one of us as Americans the opportunity to make life better than what we may have entered.

I know for myself as a son of a farmer in northern Indiana, I was raised in an old farmhouse; and now I have the great opportunity to serve in Congress, that each one of us can do great things if we set our minds to it, and it's because of this document that gives us that liberty and that freedom.

So I have great hope that the American people and that those who are elected to serve will make those choices that will not only continue to grant us those freedoms but also steer the ship and turn the ship and change the mindset of Washington and the way that our Federal Government has responded and acted over the years recently, that will not only give our children and our grandchildren the same opportunities that we have but to work together across the aisle, knowing that we all serve and have sworn to uphold the Constitution to make those changes.

I'm optimistic, I'm hopeful; but I know that we have a lot of work ahead. And I believe that the document we have been given and was signed by our Founding Fathers has given us that guiding light, and I am looking forward to working together with the Members in this Chamber, both sides of the aisle, to making a difference and to getting back to our constitutional responsibilities.

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