Elijah Lewis: “Mr. Chairman, I know what we are about to do may be the political thing to do. It may be the popular thing to do. Many…”

“Mr. Chairman, I know what we are about to do may be the political thing to do. It may be the popular thing to do. Many of us as Members of this body may be putting our fingers to the air to see which way the wind is blowing, and blowing in that direction. However, let me say for this Member, Mr. Chairman, for this Member from Georgia, mandates are not necessarily bad, funded or unfunded. Mandates are as old as the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, even the scripture. Thank God. When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, he did not say, ``Moses, take it, if it costs something or whether it is free.'' He said, ``These are the Ten Commandments. Don't take it whether you feel like it, maybe. These are the Ten Commandments.'' Let me remind some of my brothers from this side of the aisle and the other side, in another period in our history it took the Federal Government, the national government, to tell our country what to do, to do what was right. People in Alabama, in Mississippi, in Georgia, 11 Southern States of the old Confederacy, were denied the right to vote 30 years ago, and it took the National Government to make it possible for all these people to register to vote, to become participants in the democratic process. That was a mandate, so what is wrong with mandates? Mr. Chairman, I urge Members to vote against this bill.”