HON. RON PAUL
OF TEXAS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, March 25, 1999
1999 Ron Paul 23:1 Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Speaker, today I rise and
with gratitude to Edmund Burke and paraphrase
words he first spoke 224 years ago
this week. As it is presently true that to restore
liberty and dignity to a nation so great and distracted
as ours is indeed a significant undertaking.
For, judging of what we are by what
we ought to be, I have persuaded myself that
this body might accept this reasonable proposition.
1999 Ron Paul 23:2 The proposition is peace. Not peace through
the medium of war, not peace to be hunted
through the labyrinth of intricate and endless
negotiations; not peace to arise out of universal
discord, fomented from principle, in all
part of the earth; not peace to depend on juridical
determination of perplexing questions,
or the precise marking the shadowy boundaries
of distant nations. It is simply peace,
sought in its natural course and in it ordinary
haunts.
1999 Ron Paul 23:3 Let other nations always keep the idea of
their sovereign self-government associated
with our Republic and they will befriend us,
and no force under heaven will be of power to
tear them from our allegiance. But let it be
once understood that our government may be
one thing and their sovereignty another, that
these two things exist without mutual regard
one for the other — and the affinity will be
gone, the friendship loosened and the alliance
hasten to decay and dissolution. As long as
we have the wisdom to keep this country as
the sanctuary of liberty, the sacred temple
consecrated to our common faith, wherever
mankind worships freedom they will turn their
faces toward us. The more they multiply, the
more friends we will have, the more ardently
they love liberty, the more perfect will be our
relations. Slavery they can find anywhere, as
near to us as Cuba or as remote as China.
But until we become lost to all feeling of our
national interest and natural legacy, freedom
and self-rule they can find in none but the
American founding. These are precious commodities,
and our nation alone was founded
them. This is the true currency which binds to
us the commerce of nations and through them
secures the wealth of the world. But deny others
of their national sovereignty and self-government,
and you break that sole bond which
originally made, and must still preserve, friendship
among nations. Do not entertain so weak
an imagination as that UN Charters and Security
Councils, GATT and international laws,
World Trade Organizations and General Assemblies,
are what promote commerce and
friendship. Do not dream that NATO and
peacekeeping forces are the things that can
hold nations together. It is the spirit of community
that gives nations their lives and efficacy.
And it is the spirit of the constitution of our
founders that can invigorate every nation of
the world, even down to the minutest of these.
1999 Ron Paul 23:4 For is it not the same virtue which would do
the thing for us here in these United States?
Do you imagine than that it is the Income Tax
which pays our revenue? That it is the annual
vote of the Ways and Means Committee,
which provide us an army? Or that it is the
Court Martial which inspires it with bravery
and discipline? No! Surely, no! It is the private
activity of citizens which gives government
revenue, and it is the defense of our country
that encourages young people to not only populate
our army and navy but also has infused
them with a patriotism without which our army
will become a base rubble and our navy nothing
but rotten timber.
1999 Ron Paul 23:5 All this, I know well enough, will sound wild
and chimerical to the profane herd of those
vulgar and mechanical politicians who have no
place among us: a sort of people who think
that nothing exists but what is gross and material,
and who, therefore, far from begin qualified
to be directors of the great movement of
this nation, are not fit to turn a wheel in the
machinery of our government. But to men truly
initiated and rightly taught, these ruling and
master principles, which in the opinion of such
men as I have mentioned have no substantial
existence, are in truth everything. Magnanimity
in politics is often the truest wisdom, and a
great nation and little minds go ill together. If
we are conscious of our situation, and work
zealously to fill our places as becomes the
history of this great institution, we ought to
auspiciate all our public proceedings on
Kosovo with the old warning of the Church,
Sursum corda! We ought to elevate our minds
to the greatness of that trust to which the
order of Providence has called us. By
adverting to the dignity of this high calling, our
forefathers turned a savage wilderness into a
glorious nation, and have made the most extensive
and the only honorable conquests, not
by bombing and sabre-rattling, but by promoting
the wealth, the liberty, and the peace
of mankind. Let us gain our allies as we obtain
our own liberty. Respect of self-government
has made our nation all that it is, peace and
neutrality alone will makes ours the Republic
that it can yet still be.
Notes:
This chapter was inserted into the Extensions of Remarks section of the Congressional Record and was never actually delivered on the House floor. Ron Paul cites a speech made by Edmund Burke, 19 April 1774
which can be found at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15198/15198-8.txt where it says, “SPEECH ON MOVING HIS RESOLUTIONS FOR CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES. MARCH 22, 1775.”
or at
https://ronpaulquotes.com/15198-8.txt.
1999 Ron Paul 23:2
Ungrammatical or the precise marking the shadowy boundaries of distant nations.
probably should be or the precise marking of the shadowy boundaries of distant nations.
1999 Ron Paul 23:2
in all part of the earth probably should be plural: in all parts of the earth.
1999 Ron Paul 23:2
It is simply peace, sought in its natural course and in it ordinary haunts.
probably should be
It is simply peace, sought in its natural course and in its ordinary haunts.
1999 Ron Paul 23:4
Do you imagine than that it is the Income Tax which pays our revenue?
probably should be
Do you imagine then that it is the Income Tax which pays our revenue?
