Political Quotes

“on January 22, the Trump administration forced the National Park Service to remove panels at Independence Hall National Park, the cradle of our liberty, telling an important chapter in George Washington's Presidency. Early in our Nation's history, Philadelphia was our Nation's Capital, and when Washington moved to the President's house near Independence Hall in 1790, he brought with him eight slaves from his Virginia plantation. Mr. Speaker, 10 years earlier, Pennsylvania had begun to abolish slavery, allowing slaves brought to the Commonwealth by residents of other States to claim their freedom if they lived there for 6 months or more. Therefore, from 1790 to 1797, President Washington rotated the slaves he brought to Philadelphia so that they could not establish the 6 months of residency which would have given them their freedom. The panels that President Trump ordered to be removed were the result of decades of scholarship and community advocacy to acknowledge and examine the paradox between slavery and freedom at the founding of our Nation. Telling the story of the slaves who lived in President Washington's home in Philadelphia is an expression of the American values of courage and honesty, acknowledging that our Founders and our Nation were not perfect at its inception, but that we must continually strive to form a more perfect union, to learn from the lessons of the past, lest we repeat them, and to acknowledge the humanity of those who were enslaved.”