Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I bring birthday greetings to our beloved Nation. I rise today to celebrate freedom and independence and democracy right here in the United States. {time} 2100 Madam Speaker, 245 years ago, our brave Founding Fathers gathered together in Philadelphia to sign the Declaration of Independence. And on that hot July, in that stuffy room in Philadelphia, they came together to change world history, to change history here in the United States, and to open up a lifetime of opportunity for generations of Americans yet unborn. Madam Speaker, what amazes me about that time is that small committee of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, thinking through of how would we break with Great Britain, how would America leave Great Britain. Madam Speaker, Jefferson was concerned. In his rough draft, he said of Great Britain and the United States: ``We might have been a free and great people together.'' Those words are not placed in the final copy of the Declaration of Independence, but it shows the struggle that the Founding Fathers had and Thomas Jefferson had as a principal author of how to make that break with a people they had respect for, and a king and a king's policies they despised. ``We might have been a free and great people together.'' But think of the momentous feelings they had, the prayers they had every day on their knees for strength to take on the most powerful country in the world, with the most powerful Navy and military in the world.…”