IV 
111TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 1733 
Recognizing Mark Twain as one of America’s most famous literary icons 
on the 175th anniversary of his birth and the 100th anniversary of 
his death. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 18, 2010 
Mr. SNYDER submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 
RESOLUTION 
Recognizing Mark Twain as one of America’s most famous 
literary icons on the 175th anniversary of his birth and 
the 100th anniversary of his death. 
Whereas, on November 30, 1835, Samuel Langhorne 
Clemens, one of the most prolific and influential writers 
and orators in America, was born in Florida, Missouri; 
Whereas Clemens suffered many childhood setbacks including 
incessant poor health until age 9 and the death of his fa-
ther at age of 12; 
Whereas growing up along the emerging Mississippi port city 
of Hannibal, Missouri, watching the frequent steamboat 
stops and working as a printer and editorial assistant at 
his brother’s newspaper, Clemens discovered his passion 
for writing; 
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Whereas Clemens, at the age of 17, moved to St. Louis, Mis-
souri, and became a river pilot’s apprentice, eventually 
becoming a licensed river pilot in 1858; 
Whereas Samuel Clemens then worked for several newspapers 
across the United States after the river trade was halted 
by the Civil War in 1861; 
Whereas Clemens assumed his pen name, Mark Twain, based 
on his experience as a river pilot; 
Whereas Mark Twain means two fathoms or 12 feet when the 
depth of water for a boat is being sounded, or that it is 
safe to navigate; 
Whereas Twain’s first work to gain notoriety was his short 
story, ‘‘The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras Coun-
ty’’, which appeared in the New York Saturday Press on 
November 18, 1865; 
Whereas Mark Twain composed 28 books as well as numer-
ous short stories, letters, and sketches, including such 
classics as ‘‘Life on the Mississippi’’, ‘‘The Adventures of 
Tom Sawyer’’, ‘‘The Prince and the Pauper’’, and ‘‘The 
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’’; 
Whereas Twain first declared his disappointment with politics 
in ‘‘A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court’’, 
where he depicted the absurdities of political and social 
norms by setting them in the court of King Arthur; 
Whereas Mark Twain was a staunch civil rights advocate be-
lieving strongly in emancipation and said, ‘‘Lincoln’s 
Proclamation . . . not only set the black slaves free, but 
set the white man free also.’’; 
Whereas Mark Twain was an adamant supporter of women’s 
suffrage, saying in his most famous speech, ‘‘Votes for 
Women’’: 
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‘‘Referring to woman’s sphere in life, I’ll say 
that woman is always right. For twenty-five years 
I’ve been a woman’s rights man. I have always be-
lieved, long before my mother died, that, with her 
gray hairs and admirable intellect, perhaps she 
knew as much as I did. Perhaps she knew as much 
about voting as I. 
‘‘I should like to see the time come when 
women shall help to make the laws. I should like to 
see that whiplash, the ballot, in the hands of 
women. As for this city’s government, I don’t want 
to say much, except that it is a shame—a shame; 
but if I should live twenty-five years longer—and 
there is no reason why I shouldn’t—I think I’ll see 
women handle the ballot. If women had the ballot 
to-day, the state of things in this town would not 
exist. 
‘‘If all the women in this town had a vote 
today they would elect a mayor at the next election, 
and they would rise in their might and change the 
awful state of things now existing here.’’; and 
Whereas Mark Twain, after saying in 1909, ‘‘I came in with 
Halley’s Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, 
and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest dis-
appointment of my life if I don’t go out with Halley’s 
Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: ‘Now here are 
these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, 
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they must go out together.’ ’’, died on April 21, 1910, one 
day after Halley’s Comet had its closest approach to the 
Earth: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives recog-
nizes Mark Twain as one of America’s most famous lit-
erary icons and commemorates him on the 175th anniver-
sary of his birth and the 100th anniversary of his death. 
Æ 
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