James Hayes: “Mr. Chairman, I represent a little over 600,000 people, almost three-quarters of whom speak French as their primary…”

“Mr. Chairman, I represent a little over 600,000 people, almost three-quarters of whom speak French as their primary language. I am proud to represent them in this great hall of democracy. My hometown is Lafayette, LA. It is named after one of only two gentlemen who are pictured in the People's Hall, a French citizen named the Marquis of Lafayette, who during the Revolutionary period helped his good friend, George Washington, to combine the resources of the two countries and to fight a war for independence against people who spoke impeccable English. Two centuries before there was a United States or any State, the people were excluded from Nova Scotia by those same folks who spoke impeccable English, because they were Catholic and there was no first amendment, because they spoke a different language. There was no 5th and 14th amendment, and they settled in the bayous of south Louisiana. Later in the War of 1812, when an American President and an American hero who became President called upon them to march to the plantations of Chalmette, to stand up and fight against a takeover by folks in red coats who spoke impeccable English, they did so. They did so because they understood that the principles of the democracy which had evolved while they were first here was something worth fighting and dying for. It is also something worth representing the Seventh District of Louisiana for.”