Political Quotes

“I thank the chairwoman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I hope that our distinguished colleagues don't flatter themselves to think that they are the first Members of Congress who oppose other Americans' democratic rights to wrap their arguments in constitutional clothing, because this has actually been the standard in American history. With Texas, it was said that Texas could not be admitted because it would be unconstitutional and because it was its own country, and the Constitution nowhere gives Congress the power to admit a foreign republic as a State. It was said Hawaii and Alaska could not be admitted because they weren't contiguous. West Virginia, everyone knew, couldn't be admitted because it used to be part of Virginia, just like Kentucky was part of Virginia. Oklahoma, it was said, was too poor and, therefore, did not meet constitutional requisites. Utah was too Mormon. New Mexico was too Catholic. And on and on and on. So this is very much in the mainstream of partisan political opposition to vindicating the rights of American citizens. My colleague from Virginia invites us to say, well, just give Washington, D.C., back to Maryland, thereby conceding, of course, that Congress has the power to modify the boundaries of the District of Columbia, as was established in 1847, with the retrocession of Virginia.…”