Harold Rogers: “Bill Natcher, of course before he came to this body, was in Kentucky a Commonwealth attorney, which is a State…”

“Bill Natcher, of course before he came to this body, was in Kentucky a Commonwealth attorney, which is a State prosecuting attorney, which happened to have been my background as well, and I wish I could emulate Bill Natcher, but that is impossible because of my lack of talents. But Bill Natcher came to this body with a great and abiding respect for the Constitution, and this body especially, and a great reverence for law and a great reverence for procedure because he believed, as I do and, I think, the gentleman does, that in procedure, and in the law, and in the Constitution are the guarantees of our individual liberty obviously, and he believed that to the nth degree. I do not think we will see the likes of Bill Natcher again. Truly he was what I have referred to as an antebellum man, and I mean that in the most respectful and admirable way: ``antebellum'' of course meaning prior to the great war, the Civil War, in his courtliness, and in his demeanor and in his attitude toward other people which we see lacking, I think, in our world today. I wish we had more of the civility in our society that Bill Natcher represented. Unfortunately we do not. But he certainly is an example for all of us to try to live up to. ``He is the quintessential Member of the U.S. House of Representatives,'' one of our colleagues said in an earlier tribute to him here on the floor, words to this effect, that he is the model by which we all should try to conduct ourselves as a Member of this body.”