Christopher Shays: “When Abraham Lincoln addressed this Chamber during the Civil War, when we were losing 10,000 Americans a month, he…”

“When Abraham Lincoln addressed this Chamber during the Civil War, when we were losing 10,000 Americans a month, he looked at Congress and said, ``The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, we must think anew and act anew, and then we will save our country.'' I happen to believe what we are going to do tomorrow is about saving our country and our democracy. It is about enforcing the ban on corporate treasury money that took place in 1907; it is about enforcing the ban on union dues money that was passed in 1947; and about making sure that rich individuals cannot buy elections with the law that passed in 1974. I do not know what the prediction outcome will be tomorrow, but I do know this: we came to this Chamber with a good bill, the Senate took this bill and changed it slightly; and we have taken the Senate changes and incorporated them in our bill with the hope and the prayer that this House will act and pass campaign finance reform and send it back to the Senate for the President's signature.”