Mr.
President, I have long supported statehood for the Territory of Alaska,
and shall continue my active efforts in that behalf. My distinguished
colleague, the junior Senator from Louisiana [Mr. Long], has likewise
taken that position, and he asked me to express regret that he could not
be here this morning and to announce his complete concurrence with the
remarks I am about to make for myself and for him.
We are pleased and
proud to advise the Senate that the people of Alaska held a constitutional
convention last year and adopted a constitution, and likewise elected
two Senators and one Representative to serve in the Congress of the United
States when Alaska shall become a State of the Union, which I hope will
be within the next few months.
At the proper time,
in complete accord with the clear precedent established May 23, 1798,
in the Tennessee case and followed by the Senate with regard to representatives
of the proposed State of Michigan on December 22, 1835, the Senate of
the United States will be requested to admit the two "Senators-elect"
from Alaska to the floor of the Senate as spectators, in order that they
may be present with Members of the Senate during the debate on Statehood
for Alaska.
-Senator Spessard
Holland of Florida to the United States Senate on January 14, 1957 introducing
Ernest Gruening and Bill Egan, the Alaska-Tennessee Plan "Senators-Elect"
to the body.
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