Rewriting History

Floor Speech

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Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, on January 22, the Trump administration forced the National Park Service to remove panels at Independence Hall National Park, the cradle of our liberty, telling an important chapter in George Washington's Presidency.

Early in our Nation's history, Philadelphia was our Nation's Capital, and when Washington moved to the President's house near Independence Hall in 1790, he brought with him eight slaves from his Virginia plantation.

Mr. Speaker, 10 years earlier, Pennsylvania had begun to abolish slavery, allowing slaves brought to the Commonwealth by residents of other States to claim their freedom if they lived there for 6 months or more.

Therefore, from 1790 to 1797, President Washington rotated the slaves he brought to Philadelphia so that they could not establish the 6 months of residency which would have given them their freedom.

The panels that President Trump ordered to be removed were the result of decades of scholarship and community advocacy to acknowledge and examine the paradox between slavery and freedom at the founding of our Nation.

Telling the story of the slaves who lived in President Washington's home in Philadelphia is an expression of the American values of courage and honesty, acknowledging that our Founders and our Nation were not perfect at its inception, but that we must continually strive to form a more perfect union, to learn from the lessons of the past, lest we repeat them, and to acknowledge the humanity of those who were enslaved.

Telling the history of George Washington's use of slave labor reflects a mature choice to own up to past imperfections and mistakes rather than erasing history and the people who lived it.

The current White House has chosen a different path, seeking to erase our history and the people who lived it to fit a whitewashed and largely fictitious narrative.

The White House says that the panels were removed to ``ensure accuracy, honesty, and alignment with shared national values'' and claims that the panels were aimed at ``demeaning our brave Founding Fathers.''

This White House doesn't want Americans to learn about the horrors of slavery, the wrongful internment of the Japanese Americans, the denial of civil rights to a host of people, or other abuses of our past because they don't want us to identify the abuses in our present.

The panels at the President's house must go back. The city of Philadelphia has filed a lawsuit, and I am working with Congressmen Evans and Boyle, my colleagues in the Philadelphia delegation, to demand their return. However, that is not all that needs to happen.

Our history, all of our history, the triumphs and horrors, must be acknowledged.

Mr. Speaker, we all need to take notice and stand up to this administration's abuses, lawlessness, and attempts to erase facts and history because the ability to tell the truth is probably the most essential American value.

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