Jeremiah Smith: “I rise to indicate my strong support for this bill. It is my sincere conviction that we are today making right a…”

“I rise to indicate my strong support for this bill. It is my sincere conviction that we are today making right a historic wrong. One hundred years ago, Theodore Roosevelt was denied the Congressional Medal of Honor simply because he attempted to force the War Department to return sick veterans of the Spanish-American War to their homes in the United States. In so doing, he embarrassed a political rival, who it just so happened was also the Secretary of War. As a result, despite the unanimous recommendation of his uniformed superiors, his political superior denied him the nation's highest military honor. On July 1, 1898, Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, commander of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment--the famed ``Rough Riders''--was just 39 years of age. He had resigned his position as Assistant Secretary of the Navy so that he could help organize the regiment. American forces, battling both the Spanish and the Cuban jungle, prepared to storm San Juan Hill and the heights surrounding the strategic port city of Santiago, Cuba.”