Byrne at naturalization ceremony: 'We were founded on the basic understanding that all we have comes from God'

Congressman Bradley Byrne (AL-01) delivered a stirring speech on Friday at a naturalization ceremony for fifty citizenship candidates at the beautiful USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile.

Byrne – in a powerful address entitled “What Does It Mean To Be An American?” – explained what being a citizen of this “good and great” nation truly means.

He drew fundamental contrasts between America and China, as well as the United States and Middle Eastern countries. Reminiscing on the country’s founding and iconic historical speeches, he came to a conclusion on American values — and the sacred responsibility we must not take for granted.

“We were founded on the basic understanding that all we have comes from God,” Byrne emphasized.

He added, “Put succinctly, our rights are not of human origin, and the Founders themselves did not dare to claim differently. And like equality, these rights are part of the great truths which God has given to humankind.”

“God made us free, and that basic freedom is at the heart of our rights as US citizens,” Byrne said.

Byrne’s speech as prepared as follows:

“Let me begin by welcoming you all as new citizens of the United States of America. Whatever nationality you were when you woke this morning, from this point on you will wake up an American, able to enjoy all the blessings of liberty our great nation offers its citizens.

“I am blessed to have been born American. My family has been American since this part of Alabama was taken from the Spanish in 1813. That has been six generations ago, so in my family we have no memory of not being American.

“But, you have very clear memories of being from another country and have become a US citizen by choice, after undergoing a long and arduous process. For you, American citizenship is new, and I am certain that realization is filled with profound meaning.

“It seems fitting that all of us, natural born and naturalized alike, should take these occasions as opportunities to ask ourselves, ‘What does it mean to be an American?’

“Unlike China, we don’t define citizenship as being part of the dominant ethnic group—in their case the Han—or subscribing to a dominant ideology—Chinese Communism. And, unlike several Middle Eastern countries, we do not define citizenship as being part of the dominant religion or hound out those with whom we disagree, as sadly we have seen those countries’ Christian populations shrink away. Nor are we defined as the subjects of a monarch or strongman dictator. Indeed, we Americans believe that ‘we the people’ can govern ourselves, which at the time of our founding was a radical idea.

“To govern ourselves, we had to found our nation on some basic values. It’s our adherence and loyalty to those values that make us American. And it’s the traditions and practices which naturally flow from recognition of those values which create our American culture and character.

“The nineteenth century French observer of early America, Alexis De Tocqueville, insightfully noted that ‘America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.’ Put another way, in a republic like ours, only virtuous people can make a virtuous nation.

“What are these values which make us both good and great?

“Our values are found in our cherished American documents that I know all of you have come to know well: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution as it has been amended, our civil rights statutes, and our great speeches like Washington’s Farewell Address, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms, Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech and Reagan’s ‘City on a Hill’.

“We were founded on the basic understanding that all we have comes from God. Look at the Declaration: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.’ The equality of all people before the law and government is a fundamental gift to us as part of our very creation by God himself, and it is God who endows each of us with the very rights we hold so dear.

“Put succinctly, our rights are not of human origin, and the Founders themselves did not dare to claim differently. And like equality, these rights are part of the great truths which God has given to humankind.

“Note that God, or the ‘Creator’ in Jefferson’s Enlightenment prose, is deliberately left undefined by any particular religious sect or belief. The Founders were from many different denominations and recognized the wisdom of allowing citizens the freedom of diverse beliefs and convictions.

“God made us free, and that basic freedom is at the heart of our rights as US citizens.

“What rights result from that freedom?

“The Declaration specifies ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’ The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution add ‘property’ to those three and make it clear we all must be accorded due process before these rights can be interfered with by the government.

“The First Amendment spells out our rights to be free of a government-established religion and to be free from government actions depriving us of our ability to freely exercise our religious beliefs. And it provides for freedom of the press; freedom to say what we believe or think; freedom of assembly; and the freedom to petition our government.

“The Second Amendment provides the right to bear arms. The Fourth Amendment protects us from the government searching or seizing our property unreasonably and without warrant.

“The Sixth and Eighth Amendments provide basic rights in criminal proceedings, and the Seventh a right to jury trials in civil proceedings.

“The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, correcting the biggest error of the original Constitution, but only after decades of suffering by those who were immorally deprived of their basic human rights, and after a four-year civil war which took 600,000 American lives.

“The Fifteenth Amendment made it clear that US citizens can’t be discriminated against due to their race, but only after a century of shameful Jim Crow laws did the full weight of the power of government assure these rights with the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

“The Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote, 150 years after the nation’s founding. In 1963, women were assured the right to equal pay. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act prohibited employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

“It was to protect these God-given rights that our Founders established the principles of our republic. With these rights protected and secured by our system of government, our citizens are freed to govern themselves.

“Our federal government was designed to be limited because our Founders had been the victims of a despotic king and an uncaring parliament. So, the first words in our Constitution are, ‘We the People.’ Note that those words aren’t ‘We the Government.’ Over and over, the Constitution limits what the government can do and how it can do it. Why does it look so difficult to pass a law in Washington? Because it is supposed to be difficult, a byproduct of the Founders’ skepticism of government power.

“As de Tocqueville wrote, our system of government alone is not what makes us great. Having freedom and rights doesn’t necessarily make us a virtuous people. It has been said that democracy acts as a mirror: the government you get in practice get often reflects the virtues of its people. In many ways, democracy is a burden, although a burden worth carrying. Benjamin Franklin is said to have acknowledged that burden when asked what type of new government the Constitutional Convention had created. His answer? ‘A republic, if you can keep it.’

“Therefore, to be a US citizen, to be an American, is to have responsibilities. That’s because a nation like ours, built on the basic notions of freedom and individual rights, is not self-perpetuating. Each generation, each new citizen has a civic role to play. No citizen has the luxury of being passive. We must continually strive individually and together to preserve and improve upon this nation.

“President Kennedy said, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.’ And millions of Americans have done that by wearing the uniform of our armed services, many paying the ultimate price to preserve their country.

“Dr. King spoke of the Founders writing a ‘promissory note’ on the ‘bank of justice’, a note we all have an obligation to pay. The rights I mentioned before have resulted from the continual work of generations, through slow, often painful cultural transformation leading to constitutional amendments and civil rights statutes.

“As Franklin Roosevelt said, ‘Since the beginning of our American history, we have been engaged in change—in a perpetual peaceful revolution—a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly adjusting itself to changing conditions—without the concentration camp or the quick-lime in the ditch.’ We should be thankful our system of government allows for continued self-examination and self-improvement. Though the courts have an appropriate role to play in this regard, it ultimately should be the people and their elected representatives who perform this work of national definition.

“Through our continuing great American experiment, certain longstanding values must continue to define us. Americans believe in hard work and honesty. We think common sense is more important than dollars and cents.

“We understand the value of patriotism and the debt we all owe those who wear our uniform and defend our country.

“We think families and communities are more important than big companies and big government. That’s why we love our local churches and schools, sacrifice for our children and honor our seniors.

“We love holidays like the Fourth of July, Memorial Day and Thanksgiving. We honor our faiths at Passover, Christmas, Diwali, and Easter. Yes, these holidays are about family, friends and fun, but we know they have transcendent meaning and we celebrate that.

“And we are generous. When natural disasters happen here or around the world, we jump in and help. If we can help rid Africa of AIDS, we do that. We are frequently the destination for those around the world who are persecuted for their beliefs. And when the world has needed us in World War II, the Cold War and the ongoing war on terror, we have led the way, paying a huge price in American lives and treasure.

“There are some here in America who want us to change. Change has always been a part of our country and our national identity. But the fundamentals, these values that underlie our national character, should never change. In fact, we should continue to build on them to, in the words of the Preamble to the Constitution, ‘form a more perfect union.’

“As your presence here today proves, we are a nation of immigrants, coming here from all over the globe to inhabit a nation Lincoln said was ‘conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal.’ But, we—you and I—will decide by our lives and actions if ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.’

“So, my new fellow citizens, let us join together in the spirit of our Founders and pledge to one another ‘our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor’ as we uphold the values which have made us a good people. Let us heed the wisdom of de Tocqueville and pledge to one another to be good so that America can be great.

“Congratulations to you all, and welcome to the American family.

“God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.”