[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 130 (Thursday, July 23, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H3701-H3702]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   NOTICE OF INTENTION TO OFFER RESOLUTION RAISING A QUESTION OF THE 
                        PRIVILEGES OF THE HOUSE

  Mr. GOHMERT. Madam Speaker, pursuant to clause 2(a)(1) of rule IX, I 
rise to give notice of my intention to raise a question of the 
privileges of the House.
  The form of the resolution is as follows:
  Raising a question of the privileges of the House:
  Whereas, on July 22, 2020, House Resolution 7573 was brought to the 
House floor for a vote with the purpose of eliminating four specific 
statues or busts from the United States Capitol, along with all others 
that include individuals ``who served as an officer or voluntarily with 
the Confederate States of America or the military forces or government 
of a State while the State was in rebellion against the United 
States,'' yet failed to address the most ever-present historical stigma 
of the United States Capitol; that is, the source that so fervently 
supported, condoned, and fought for slavery was left untouched, without 
whom, the evil of slavery could never have continued as it did, to such 
extreme that it is necessary to address it here in order for the U.S. 
House of Representatives to avoid degradation of historical fact and 
blatant hypocrisy for generations to come.

                              {time}  1015

  Whereas, the Democratic Party Platform of 1840, 1844, 1848, 1852, and 
1856 states: ``That Congress has no power under the Constitution to 
interfere with or control the domestic institutions of the several 
States, and that such States are the sole and proper judges of 
everything appertaining to their own affairs, not prohibited by the 
Constitution; that all efforts of the abolitionists, or others, made to 
induce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery . . . are 
calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous consequences; and 
that all such efforts have an inevitable tendency to diminish the 
happiness of the people and endanger the stability and permanency of

[[Page H3702]]

the Union, and ought not to be countenanced by any friend of our 
political institutions.''
  Again, from the Democratic Party Platform of those years.
  Whereas, the Democrat Party Platform of 1856 further declares that 
new States to the Union should be admitted ``with or without domestic 
slavery, as the State may elect.''
  Whereas, the Democratic Party Platform of 1856 also resolves that 
``we recognize the right of the people of all the territories . . . to 
form a Constitution, with or without domestic slavery.''
  Whereas, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 penalized officials who did 
not arrest an alleged runaway slave and made them liable for a fine of 
$1,000, which is about $28,000 in present-day value. Law enforcement 
officials everywhere were required to arrest people suspected of being 
a runaway slave on as little as a claimant's sworn testimony of 
ownership. The Democratic Party Platform of 1860 directly, in seeking 
to uphold to Fugitive Slave Act, states that ``the enactments of the 
State legislatures to defeat the faithful execution of the Fugitive 
Slave Law are hostile in character, subversive of the Constitution, and 
revolutionary in their effect.''
  The Democratic Party Platform again.
  Whereas, the 14th Amendment, giving full citizenship to freed slaves, 
passed in 1868 with 94 percent Republican support, 0 percent Democratic 
support in Congress; the 15th Amendment, giving freed slaves the right 
to vote, passed in 1870 with 100 percent Republican support and 0 
percent Democratic support in Congress.
  Whereas, Democrats systematically suppressed African Americans' right 
to vote, and by specific example in the 1902 constitution of the State 
of Virginia actually disenfranchised about 90 percent of the Black men 
who still voted at the beginning of the 20th century and nearly half of 
the White men.
  So they suppressed Republican voters as well.
  The number of eligible African-American voters were thereby forcibly 
reduced from about 147,000 in 1901 to about 10,000 by 1905; that 
measure was supported almost exclusively by Virginia Democrats.
  Whereas, Virginia's 1902 constitution was engineered by Carter Glass, 
the future Democratic U.S. Representative, Senator, and Secretary of 
the Treasury under Democrat President Woodrow Wilson, who proclaimed 
the goal of the constitutional convention as follows: This Democrat 
exclaimed: ``Discrimination! Why, that is precisely what we propose. 
That, exactly, is what this Convention was elected for--to discriminate 
to the very extremity of permissible action under the limits of the 
Federal Constitution, with a view to the elimination of every,'' and I 
won't use his word, but African-American ``voter who can be gotten rid 
of legally,'' which was said by a Democrat and applauded by his fellow 
Democrats.
  Whereas, in 1912, Democratic President Woodrow Wilson's 
administration began a racial segregation policy for U.S. Government 
employees, and by 1914, the Wilson administration's civil service 
instituted the requirement that a photograph be submitted with each 
employment application.
  Whereas, the 1924 Democratic National Convention convened in New York 
City at Madison Square Garden; the convention commonly was known as the 
``Klan-Bake'' due to the overwhelming influence of the Ku Klux Klan in 
the Democratic Party.
  Whereas, in 1964, the Democratic Party led a 75-calendar-day 
filibuster against the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
  Whereas, leading the Democrats in their opposition to civil rights 
for African Americans was a member of the Democratic Party, Senator 
Robert Byrd from West Virginia, who was a known recruiter for the Ku 
Klux Klan.
  Whereas, Democrats enacted and enforced Jim Crow laws and civil codes 
that forced segregation and restricted freedoms of Black Americans in 
the United States.
  Whereas, on June 18, 2020, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered the 
removal from the Capitol portraits of four previous Speakers of the 
House who served in the Confederacy, saying this these portraits ``set 
back our Nation's work to confront and combat bigotry''; the men 
depicted in the portraits were Democrat Robert M.T. Hunter, Democrat 
Howell Cobb, Democrat James L. Orr, and Democrat Charles F. Crisp.
  Resolved,
  One, that the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall remove 
any item that names, symbolizes, or mentions any political organization 
or party that has ever held a public position that supported slavery or 
the Confederacy, from any area within the House wing of the Capitol or 
any House office building, and shall donate such item or symbol to the 
Library of Congress.
  Two, that any political organization or party that has ever held a 
public position that supported slavery or the Confederacy shall either 
change its name or be barred from participation in the House of 
Representatives.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under rule IX, a resolution offered from the 
floor by a Member other than the majority leader or the minority leader 
as a question of the privileges of the House has immediate precedence 
only at a time designated by the Chair within 2 legislative days after 
the resolution is properly noticed.
  Pending that designation, the form of the resolution noticed by the 
gentleman from Texas will appear in the Record at this point.
  The Chair will not at this point determine whether the resolution 
constitutes a question of privilege. That determination will be made at 
the time designated for consideration of the resolution.

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