Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership. Madam Speaker, in his annual address to our predecessors in Congress in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln spoke of the duty of the patriot in an hour of decisive crisis for the American people. ``Fellow citizens,'' he said, ``we cannot escape history. We . . . will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. . . . We, even we here, hold the power and bear the responsibility.'' In the Bible, St. Paul wrote, ``Think on these things.'' We must think on what Lincoln told us. We, even here, even us here, hold the power and bear the responsibility. We, you and I, hold in trust the power that derives most directly from the people of the United States, and we bear the responsibility to fulfill the oath that we all swear before God and before one another: the oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, so help us God. We know that we face enemies to that Constitution. We know. We experienced the insurrection that violated the sanctity of the people's Capitol and attempted to overturn the duly recorded will of the American people. And we know that the President of the United States incited this insurrection, this armed rebellion against our common country. He must go.…”