Mike Pence: “I rise today to remember a man who changed his world, and ours, forever, a man whom historians have called ``the George…”

“I rise today to remember a man who changed his world, and ours, forever, a man whom historians have called ``the George Washington of humanity.'' Mr. Speaker, yesterday marked the 168th anniversary of the death of William Wilberforce, a member of Parliament in Great Britain who spent his life working to abolish the slave trade in the British empire. William Wilberforce was the son of a wealthy merchant in Hull, England, born in 1759. At the age of 20 after graduating from St. John's College, Cambridge, Wilberforce won a seat in the House of Commons. Mr. Speaker, the young member of Parliament quickly became a rising star in British government. He was a close friend of the Prime Minister, William Pitt, and many thought that young Wilberforce might succeed Pitt as Prime Minister one day. But in 1784, Wilberforce's priorities were dramatically realigned. After meeting the great Christian hymn writer and theologian John Newton, Wilberforce underwent what he described later as the ``great change.''”