Speech #530024653

I honor the gentleman for his eloquence. for his logic. for his wisdom. and for those qualities which have made him known not alone to Americans. but to the circle of statesmen of foreign nations. and it seems singular to me that in this hour of his career as a statesman. in the zenith of his powers. he should. like the Psalmist of old. who. after he had experienced many of the mutations of hum in existence and reflected upon his position. announced himself in these terms: "Thou hast kept me. 0 Lord. to be the head of the heathen.7 And this gentleman. standing in defense of the measure which bears his name. seems to me to be acting more in the nature of an attorney in the case than one who speaks from the highest conceptions of pure patriotism. The gentleman has spoken of the Huguenots. and their expulsion from France. He has spoken of the expulsion of the Jewrs from Russia and England. and has compared such expulsion with the mesure known as the Geary exclusion act. Mr. Speatker. in reading the history of that marvelous people known as the Huguenots. who were the first people of France to stand for republican institutions. to stand for liberty of thought and action and liberty of conscience. who were the first democrats of France.