On the recordFebruary 4, 2013
I thank my good friend from Virginia for having this time tonight. There's no better occasion than the National Prayer Breakfast. My dear friend from Virginia leads each week when we're in session the first night of the week with bipartisan prayer. There is so much disagreement on this floor. I know my good friend from Texas, Al Green, and I have disagreement on issues, but he is my Christian brother and we prayed together tonight. It's a great honor to do that. There's so much misinformation out there about the starting of this country, and there are always plenty of mistakes made. When you look back to the very beginning, after the rocky start with the Articles of Confederation, 4 years later they talked Washington into coming back and coming to Philadelphia and presiding over a convention. He was very reluctant to do that. He thought he had done his part. But after 4 or 5 weeks of nothing but rancor and a lot of yelling, very difficult times within Independence Hall, finally 80-year-old Benjamin Franklin stood up and was recognized by the president of the Constitutional Convention, George Washington. Franklin had enjoyed life a great deal, but at that point he was overweight, had arthritis, gout. He was in a lot of trouble, but his mind was quite sharp. He was 2 to 3 years away from meeting his Maker. But he pointed out, we've been going for nearly 4 or 5 weeks, and we have more noes than ayes on virtually every vote. Then he says these words.…
