Elijah Cummings: “Today I am here to manage a resolution that would express Congress' support for the recognition of March 16, James…”

“Today I am here to manage a resolution that would express Congress' support for the recognition of March 16, James Madison's birthday, as Liberty Day. This resolution bestows this honor on James Madison because he was the primary author and steadfast supporter of three great works of American democracy: the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and the Bill of Rights. If this resolution is passed, Madison's birthday would serve to remind us of our rights and liberties as enumerated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. Liberty is defined in Webster's Collegiate Dictionary as, and I quote, ``the quality or state of being free, and the power of choice,'' two premises on which this Nation was founded. The promise of freedom and choice is what thousands of immigrants saw in a copper statue in the New York Bay. The statue was of a woman holding a torch in her right hand and a tablet bearing the adoption date of the Declaration of Independence in her left. Her pedestal reads, and I quote, ``Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.''”