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NRL News
One of
the Last Great Orators
Catch the
Burning Flag A New York Times article published in October 1882 lamented the decline of great oratory in the United States, saying, “Nature scattered her gifts with a lavish hand along the pathway of the first century of the Republic, and has now withdrawn her treasures for a time more favorable for their display in the future.” The Times may have been on to something. If there was a dearth of oratorical talent in the late 1800s, the last century could, no doubt, be considered a full-scale drought. Gone are the days when great statesmen made great speeches based on soaring ideals and finely tuned logic. Throughout the 20th century, we have seen very few who could be worthy of the “Great American Orator” mantle. Roosevelt, Kennedy, King, and Reagan quickly come to mind. But topping that list would have to be pro-life stalwart and late Congressman Henry J. Hyde. In today’s hyper-information age, that someone’s words would be captured for the ages between book covers is even more extraordinary. In a labor of love between National Review publisher Jack Fowler and Congressman Hyde that began shortly after Hyde’s retirement in 2007, Catch the Burning Flag captures some of the greatest speeches given by Hyde during his 32-year career in the House of Representatives. Syndicated columnist Robert Novak, writing in his forward, notes that “[a] collected book of speeches is rare in 21st Century American politics because hardly any members of today’s political class have anything to say that is worth putting between hard covers. ... These speeches reflect a rare combination of eloquence and erudition, and something more. In an age of increasing specialization on Capitol Hill, Henry Hyde was the Renaissance man there.” For pro-lifers it’s easy to identify Henry Hyde as the pro-life congressman of our time. However, in 32 years of public service, his activism spanned a vast array of causes. From opposition to term limits to preserving democracy for generations to relations with other nations, Henry Hyde addressed them all. Many of those speeches appear in the book. Divided up into five different sections, with an introduction by Congressman Hyde, each speech contains a rich store of insight, knowledge, and wisdom. As you read through them, you can practically hear his booming voice in the well of the House. You also get a truer sense of a political ideology—based upon the dreams of the Founders expressed in the Declaration of Independence (which he very often refers to as “America’s birth certificate”) and the rule of natural law—that informed his every action. Hyde’s was a worldview whose foundation was the rock-firm conviction that each person possesses inherent dignity and is worthy of respect regardless of political, religious, or societal views. But because Hyde’s worldview informed every aspect of his career, there are pearls of wisdom buried in speeches—completely unrelated to our pro-life work—which are wholly applicable in our work. Of the greatest interest to us however, are the three speeches reproduced that touch directly on our pro-life efforts. The first is a 1987 speech given at the annual National Right to Life Convention in New Orleans. The second is from March 1997, when the House of Representatives again debated the issue of partial-birth abortion. Congressman Hyde eloquently stated: “Over more than two centuries of our national history, we Americans have been a people who have struggled to widen the circle of those for whom we acknowledge a common responsibility. ... This great trajectory in our national experience—that of inclusion—has been shattered by Roe v. Wade and its progeny. By denying an entire class of human beings the protection of the laws, we have betrayed the best in our tradition.” The third is a speech that should rightly go down as one of the greatest defenses of human life ever displayed in the well of the House, and also addressed the soul-sapping topic of partial-birth abortion. In September 1996, Hyde made a passionate plea to his colleagues to override Clinton’s veto of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. Anyone who watched it live on C-SPAN felt chills. Even reading it more than a decade later, the text still evokes tears: “It isn’t just the babies who are dying for the lethal sin of being unwanted. We are dying, not from the darkness, but from the cold: the coldness of self-brutalization that chills our sensibilities and allows us to claim this unspeakable act is an act of ‘compassion.’ If you vote to uphold the President’s veto, if you vote to maintain the legality of a ‘procedure’ that is revolting to even the most hardened heart, then please do not use the word ‘compassion’ ever again. ... “Mr. Speaker, we risk our souls—we risk our humanity—when we trifle with that innocence, or demean it, or brutalize it. We need more caring and less killing. Let the innocence of the unborn have the last word in this debate. Let their innocence appeal to what President Lincoln called ‘the better angels of our nature.’ ... Make it clear, once again, that there is justice for all—even the most defenseless in this land.” Congressman Hyde’s 1985 book, For Every Idle Silence, remains a must-have for any pro-life library. Catch the Burning Flag easily achieves that same status. To quote Henry Hyde one more time, “freedom is always in crisis, and America will always have need of its giants, with their enormous experience that gives them both a sense of the past and a vision of the future.” Henry Hyde is gone, but the giant’s words from the past remain. As you read them, it will remind you of a time when great oratory was alive and well, providing us a glorious vision by which to guide our way into the future. |