Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, there are few times in our lives when we really get to honor true heroes. Today is one of those days that we have by naming a post office after him. I am going to read through this document that I have to give you an idea of just who Captain Andrew Gomer Williams was. Now, this is at a dedication. It starts off with: ``Monuments are as old as our race and all along the history of the dim and dusty age down to the bright and joyous present we have been perpetuating the memory of heroic men.'' These elegant words, so very appropriate this morning, are not mine but were the actual words of Andrew Gomer Williams, whose monument we gather here this morning to dedicate. He delivered them in a speech on September 11, 1889, on the Gettysburg Battlefield during ceremonies dedicating the monument to his regiment, the 63rd Pennsylvania Volunteers, who fought during the famous battle on July 1 through July 3 in 1863. Much like they gathered on that field 132 years ago, we gather here today on this field to perpetuate the memory of a heroic man. Ironically, Williams, who fought for the Union, was born in Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy on September 8, 1840, to a Welsh immigrant father and an eastern Maryland mother. {time} 1600 His family moved from Richmond to Pittsburgh in 1847 and from Pittsburgh to Etna 1 year later. The recipient of very little education, Andrew Williams went to work as a nail cutter in the local factory at the young age of 10.…”