We hear from senator robert byrd of West Virginia, he spoke in 1998, inside the Old Senate Chamber. [applause] welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the third lecture series that the leaders have been sponsoring. I think this will be one of the most interesting ones we will ever have. We have had three this year and we hope to have three more next year. When the idea was first suggested that we have some further attempt to preserve the history of the senate, that we had a unique time in history because we had such a large number of former Vice President s and former leaders of the senate that were still in the senate or alive, that we should take advantage of this opportunity, of course, the first person that came to my mind as i thought about how to put this together was senator robert byrd. Because i knew that he, probably more than any of us, knows about and cares about the institution of the senate and the history of the senate and all of its procedures and traditions. I went to senator byrd and said, what about this idea . When i left, i had the volumes that he had done on the history of the senate and the roman empire, and various and sundry other books that i could read. I had to ask if i could have a staff member help get the material back to my office. The answer to my question, should i do this, was a resounding, yes. I think it is appropriate that he is the one we use this opportunity to honor and to hear what he has to say. It is often said that a Great Institution like the senate of the United States has a life of its own. I disagree. For all its grandeur and for all its continuity, the life of this institution is nothing more than the interwoven lives of those who serve here. Their lives are what ennoble this place. Their shortcomings are what humanize this place. Their deeds may be routine or to borrow a wellchosen word resounding. In either case, their stature, both in the eyes of their colleagues and in the judgment of history, is something earned by achievement, not devised by sound bites and staging. Our speaker this evening embodies that truth. Seven times seven times the people of West Virginia have elected him to the senate, and before that they have given him three terms in the United States house of representatives. And before that, he had served 6 years in both the house of delegates and the senate of his own home state. Always learning, always mastering the procedures and the traditions, he came to this body at a time when ike was in the white house and three future president s frequented the senate floor nixon, kennedy, and johnson. Now they, and so many more, are figures of history, while our speaker is still making history and writing, as well. His service to the senate has encompassed 40 years, and still counting. During that time, his colleagues have placed their trust in him to the highest offices of this institution. He has been both the majority leader and the minority leader. He has been our president pro tempore and he has chaired our committee on appropriations. What he has brought to those positions has been more than hard work although there has been plenty of that and high skills. He has brought a passion for procedures, an insistence upon order. Just this week, or maybe it was late last week, he found that maybe i had cut a corner a little bit in the way i asked for a unanimous consent. He noted it, reserved it, and he noted it, reserved it, and suggested i take another look at it. Certainly, i did and i will comply. Within the senate familyand we are a family in so many wayswe know him as defender of both the senate rules and its prerogatives, not as ends in them themselves, but as a means by which the senate preserves the constitutional system that we have sworn to uphold. On occasion, he has regaled the senate with a discourse on antiquity, and more specifically, the history of greece and rome. Yes, when senator byrd speaks, we actually come out of the cloakroom and our offices and listen enthralled, to the history that he knows, that he quotes from memory. He has spoken of great Historic Events and has quoted from the bible. And yet he has spoken personally, humanly about the wonders of being a father and a grandfather in such a way that has brought tears to my eyes. In todays world, where everything older than a decade is considered ancient, his knowledge of the classical world is truly extraordinary. And his insistence that its somber lessons are relevant to our own times is truly sobering. There have been periods in the life of our republic when parts of its government have been deeply troubledon occasion even shaken to their foundations. In those seasons of turmoil, it has been the senates role to give the nation the reassurance of stability and endurance. That, of course, is precisely what the framers of the constitution intended when they devised an Upper Chamber that would be, in the once popular metaphor, a steady anchor against the wild winds of public passion and hasty action. No one knows that better than tonights speaker. His magisterial addresses on the history of the United States senate chronicles the work of those senators, whether renowned or obscure, who have toiled in these halls for causes larger than their own advancement. Their example brings to mind a cautionary observation by our speakers favorite authori had to double check that it was his favorite author. In king henry the sixth, part i, shakespeare warns that glory is like a circle in the water. Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself till by broad spreading it disperse to naught. Our speakers personal heroeslike Richard Russell of georgia have been those who pursued duty rather than passing glory and who, in the process, won for themselves a lasting remembrance in the annals of representative democracy. It is appropriate that this evening we turn that accolade back on senator robert c. Byrd of West Virginia. We are honored to hear from this great and distinguished senator. I thank him for agreeing to be here tonight and giving us his thoughts and his ideas on what the senate is and will be. Now, to formally introduce him even though i know this was a long comment on this occasion, our good friend and colleague, the democratic leader, tom daschle. [applause] senator lott, congratulations on your outstanding remarks. While it is my formal responsibility to introduce robert c. Byrd, im going to take the liberty of introducing one other person. She is to the spouses what he is to the u. S. Senators. Erma byrd is here, and we are delighted that she has graced us with her presence. [applause] we know that many of robert byrds family are here and we are delighted you are here and we welcome you tonight. When senator lott inaugurated this series very wisely 6 months ago, he explained that it would feature speakers who will enrich the memory of the senate by sharing with us the wisdom and insights that can be gained only by a lifetime of service to free people. Without question, tonights speaker, robert c. Byrd, will more than live up to that lofty objective. As we all know, robert byrd has been in the business of enriching the senates memory for decades. One particularly tangible example is his awardwinning fourvolume, 3,000page history of the u. S. Senate. The eminent american political historian, william leuchtenburg, has called byrds history a magisterial enterprise the most ambitious study of the u. S. Senate in all of our history. Never before, he said, has a distinguished member of the u. S. Senate carried to completion a comprehensive history of the senate, drawing upon both his own insights and recollections and the most recent work of all scholars. Not all of senator byrds history lessons, of course, are contained in books. Sometimes, they are offered in private conversations. I certainly, as senator lott has just noted, have benefited from many of senator byrds tutorials over the years. His most powerful history lessons however, have been those delivered on the senate floor. We saw that again last week. These are painful days for the senate and for our entire nation, days of Great Potential consequence. Our responsibility, as senator byrd reminded us in his typically eloquent and erudite remarks last week, is to put the good of our nation first, to be guided in these difficult days by two things only our history and our own individual consciences. If we follow his advice, i believe future history books looking back on these days, will record that we served our nation well. That is the same way, i am confident, that history will judge senator byrds own long and distinguished career. Raised by foster parents in the hardscrabble coal country of West Virginia, robert byrd came of age during the desperate days of the great depression. Fully deserving of the Horatio Alger award he won 15 years ago, he turned adversity into opportunity every step of the way. Since taking his first senate oath in 1959, senator byrd has achieved an unsurpassed record of service to his state and to this nation. And as you all know, if i were to recite all of the highlights of his senate career, we simply wouldnt have time for senator byrds remarks. Let me cite just a few examples. Among the 1,843 americans who have served in the senate since 1789, no one has cast more rollcall votes or held more offices. Only two senators in all of our history share the distinction of having been elected to seven consecutive full senate terms. And only three have served longer. Senator byrds congressional career has spanned the tenure of 10 president s, including harry truman. Following 12 years as his partys senate floor leader, he easily shifted his deep Institutional Knowledge and experience to two other major Senate Leadership positions chairman of the committee on appropriations and Senate President pro tempore. The longestserving West Virginia senator in history, robert byrd is the only person in the States History to win all 55 counties in a contested election, and the only person to run unopposed for the u. S. Senate in a general election. Last year, his state paid him an honor, second only to reelection, when they dedicated a 10foot, 1,500pound statue in his likeness. The statue standing alone in the Capitol Rotunda at charleston, appropriately depicts him holding the constitution in one hand and pointing with the other to the section that provides congress the power of the purse. This senate giant from West Virginia has been an active participant in so much of our nations history from the cold war to civil rights, the great society, vietnam, watergate, irancontra, and the collapse of the soviet union. As he would be the first to acknowledge, his career path might have been quite different without the love and support of the coalminers daughter, his wise partner of 61 years, whom we have just welcomed. Robert c. Byrd is truly a legend in his own time. Like his statue in the state capitol, he stands larger than life, not only for his accomplishments but also for his principles. Guided by his conscience and his deep understanding of the constitution, he has taken some lonely stands, speaking candidly and thoughtfully about controversial nominations and treaties, and even calling for senators to step down when their actions were detrimental to the institution of the senate. As you know, senator byrds highest compliment to another senatora compliment he awards most sparinglyis to refer to that colleague as a senators senator. Certainly, in the 210year history of this singularly important legislative body, no one has deserved that more than tonights speaker, the distinguishedthe legendaryrobert c. Byrd. [applause] thank you very much. I am deeply grateful for the overly charitable and generous words from our leader, senator lott, who initiated this series of lectures, and i am grateful for the morethankind alwaysoverlookingmyfaults words from my own leader on the democratic side, mr. Daschle. I thank you also for introducing my wife. She has put three children through schoolour two daughters, and myself. [laughter] im grateful for the presence of a former majority leader and former minority leaderall in onehoward baker, and his lovely wife, nancy kassebaumbaker. You honor me by coming here tonight, howard and nancy, and i deeply appreciate it. [applause] i had seen Mike Mansfield some days ago and he indicated that he was coming; is he here tonight . Very well, perhaps he could not make it. Im glad, also, to see in our midst one of the rocks of gibraltar there are only twothe real rock and strom thurmond. [laughter] [applause] he is the only remaining senator with whom i took the oath of office when i first came here. Im greatly flattered by the presence of so many of my peers. And i can Say Something good about every one of you because i know something good about you. Clio being my favorite muse, let me begin this evening with a look backward over the welltraveled road of history. History always turns our faces backward, and this is as it should be, so that we might be better informed and prepared to exercise wisdom in dealing with future events. To be ignorant of what happened before you were born, said cicero, is to remain always a child. So, for a little while, as we meet together in this hallowed place, let us turn our faces backward. Look about you. We meet tonight in the senate chamber. Not the chamber in which we transact our business daily now, but the Old Senate Chamber where our predecessors wrote the laws before the civil war. Here, in this room, daniel websterhe moved about the chamber from time to timedaniel webster orated, henry clay forged compromises, and john c. Calhoun stood on principle. Here, henry foote of mississippi pulled a pistol on Thomas Hart Benton of missouri. Senator benton ripped open his coat, and said, let the assassin fire and, stand out of the way. Here the eccentric virginia senator John Randolph brought his hunting dogs into the chamber, and the dashing texas senator, sam houston, sat over here to my right; he sat at his desk whittling wooden hearts for ladies in the gallery. Seated at his desk in the back row massachusetts senator Charles Sumner was beaten violently over the head with a cane wielded by representative Preston Brooks of south carolina, who objected to sumners strongly abolitionist speeches and the vituperation that sumner had heaped upon brooks uncle, senator butler of south carolina. The senate first met here in 1810, but, because our british cousins chose to set fire to the capitol during the war of 1812 congress was forced to move into the Patent Office building in downtown washington, and later into a building known as the brick capitol, located on the present site of the Supreme Court building. Hence, it was december 1819 before senators were able to return to this restored and elegant chamber. They met here for 40 years, and it was during that exhilarating period that the senate experienced its golden age. Here, in this room, the senate tried to deal with the emotional and destructive issue of slavery by passing the missouri compromise of 1820. That act drew a line across the United States, and asserted that the peculiar institution of slavery should remain to the south of the line and not spread to the north. The missouri compromise also set the precedent that for every slave state admitted to the union, a free state should be admitted as well, and vice percent versa. What this meant in practical political terms was that the north and the south would be exactly equal in voting strength in this chamber, and that any settlement of the explosive issue of slavery would have to originate here in the senate. As a result, the nations most talented and ambitious legislators began to leave the house of representatives to take seats here in the senate chamber. Here, they fought to hold the union together through the omnibus compromise of 1850, only to overturn these efforts by passing the fateful kansasnebraska act of 1854. The senators moved out of this room in 1859, on the eve of the civil war. When they marched in procession from this chamber to the Current Chamber it marked the last time that leaders of the north and south would march together. The next year, the south seceded, and senators who had walked shoulder to shoulder here parted to become military officers and political leaders of the union and of the confederacy. This old chamber that they left behind is not just a smaller version of the Current Chamber. Here the center aisle divides the two parties, but there are an equal number of desks on either sideyou will count 32 on one side and 32 on the other sidenot because the two parties were evenly divided but because there was not room to move desks back and forth depending on the size of the majority, as we do today. That meant that some members of the Majority Party had to sit with members of the minority. It did not matter to them. The two desks in the front row on the center aisle were not reserved for the majority and minority leaders as they are now, because there were no Party Floor Leaders at that time. No senator spoke for his party; every senator spoke for himself. There were recognized leaders among the senators, but only unofficially. Everyone knew, for example, that henry clay led the whigs, but he would never claim that honor. Clay generally sat in the last row at the far end of the chamber so he could talk to senators as they came in to vote. The senate left this chamber because it outgrew the space. When they first met here in 1810 there were 32 senators. So many states were added over the next four decades that when they left in 1859, there were 64 senators. Yet, while the senate had increased in size, it was essentially the same institution that the founders had created in the constitu