Bob Barr: “very infrequently I come across an article written by a person that rises so far above and beyond the normal, mundane…”

“very infrequently I come across an article written by a person that rises so far above and beyond the normal, mundane literature we read daily in newspapers and see and hear visually and verbally on television that it bears special attention. I rise today to share with my colleagues an article which appeared in the Wall Street Journal on July 2 by Mark Helprin entitled ``Statesmanship and Its Betrayal.'' Mr. Speaker, I will read just a few eloquent passages of Mr. Helprin's exposition on statesmanship, and then urge all of my colleagues, indeed, all who peruse the Congressional Record, to do likewise. He speaks, in part, as follows: We had men of integrity and genius: Washington, Hamilton, Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. These were men who were in love with principle as if it were an art, which, in their practice, they made it. They studied empires that had fallen, for the sake of doing what was right in a small country that had barely risen, and were able to see things so clearly that they surpassed in greatness each and every one of the classical models that they had approached in awe. Now. . . when we desperately need their high qualities of thought, their patience for deliberation, and their unerring sense of balance, we have only what we have. Which is a political class that in the main has abandoned the essential qualities of statesmanship, with the excuse that these are inappropriate to our age. They are wrong.…”