[Page H9643]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page H9643]]

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                        House of Representatives

  The House met at 9:00 a.m.
  The Chaplain, the Reverend Daniel P. Coughlin, offered the following 
prayer:
  Eternal God and Lord of history, each day this Nation seeks Your 
blessing that we may know the ways that are righteous and be protected 
from evil.
  The revered Abraham Lincoln spoke of the ``mystic chords of memory.'' 
He was convinced that heroes and heroines of the past inspire people 
presently to make bold steps into the future.
  Thus, Congress makes laws today by building upon the past.
  Lord, for Lincoln, the profound obligation and duties of the 
Constitution were so strong that there is a link of the living with the 
dead and with the unborn of a new generation.
  Fidelity to the Constitution is a guarantee to the future, because 
the living are determined ``that representative government of the 
people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the 
earth.'' Amen.

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