Political Quotes

“If he would entertain hearings on my reparations bill, H.R. 40, which has been pending since 1989, I would be delighted with other witnesses to go in to him with a discussion of what the Members of States from the South who were all slave holding States did. Mr. Speaker, I did not mean to imply that James Madison or even Thomas Jefferson, perish the thought, was right every time on every issue. But I am referring to the question of whether a supermajority requirement on this subject should be put into the Constitution. Now, James Madison made many mistakes. By the way, so did all the other Founding Fathers. I mean, do you want to start with George Washington and come forward? The compromise to include slavery was only made, sir, because it was the only way we could form a Nation. The southern leaders all said that without that compromise they would not do it. What I am saying here is that on the requirement for a supermajority James Madison was entirely correct then and those who cite him, including myself, are entirely correct now.”