Political Quotes

“in 1838 a former President, John Quincy Adams, was a Member of this House of Representatives. Congress in those days, conservatives in Congress, had passed a House rule saying that slavery, believe it or not, could not be debated or discussed on the floor of the House of Representatives. John Quincy Adams decided that he wanted the people of his district and other districts in Massachusetts to be heard, so he brought to the floor, every day or a couple of times a week, letters from his constituents protesting that slavery could not be discussed on the floor and supporting the ending of slavery in the United States. Today, we are faced with a serious issue, perhaps not the seriousness quite of slavery in our country, the biggest blot in our history, but we are faced with the issues of what we do in Iraq and what we do with Iraq. Debate in this House has not been particularly open or forthcoming, so I have chosen today, as John Quincy Adams did, to bring letters from constituents about Iraq to the House floor.”