Nick Rahall: “with the 225th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence being celebrated next week, it is with particular…”

“with the 225th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence being celebrated next week, it is with particular patriotic pride that the House should consider today H.R. 1668, a bill to authorize the Adams Memorial Foundation to establish a commemorative work to honor former President John Adams, his family and his legacy. We can thank many people for bringing the House to this point, but I want to pay tribute to the work of one Member of this body who's inspiration and yeoman's work truly has given life and legs to the idea for an Adam's Memorial. This member's work is based not in the politics of the moment or the whims of a majority, not upon the interest of a monied few or is it masked in media mania. Representative Tim Roemer's fount for this memorial was refreshingly found deep within the well spring of democracy itself, intellectual curiosity. Though Adams himself sought no memorial, even he would appreciate the sentient scene of Roemer cloistered in the Library of Congress greedily soaking up the lyrical lessons of Adams to the Continental Congress working tirelessly toward independence, drafting our Nation's now oldest constitution, that of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and continuing his service as Vice-President and President of the United States. Representative Roemer himself stands sentinel to all that Adams worked for his entire life, enlightened leadership. We thank him for his work on this legislation.”