Walter B. Jones: “I was, like everybody else in the Congress, home during July 4 and enjoyed being back in my district and meeting the…”

“I was, like everybody else in the Congress, home during July 4 and enjoyed being back in my district and meeting the people and listening to the people. I could not help but think that July 4 has different meanings for all of us: Freedom, independence. We think about what July 4 means and has meant to the history of our Nation. I went back and found an article written in 1995 that was in the Boston Globe by Jeff Jacoby, and he had in the article about the Founders of this great Nation, the writers of the Constitution. I do not know if this is a quote from one of the leaders of that period of time or from Mr. Jacoby, but I want to share it: ``Religion can survive in the absence of freedom, but freedom without religion becomes dangerous and unstable.'' In addition, I would also like to share a quote by Alexis de Tocqueville. Alexis de Tocqueville was a French philosopher and historian who traveled to America in the 1830s, and he was so impressed with this great Nation. He wrote, ``In the end, the state of the Union comes down to the character of the people. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors, ample rivers, and it was not there. I sought for it in the fertile fields, and boundless prairies, and it was not there. I sought it in her rich mines, and vast world commerce, and it was not there.…”