[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 34 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 34

Calling upon the Capitol Preservation Commission and the Office of the 
Architect of the Capitol to place the Lincoln-Obama Bible on permanent 
 display upon the Lincoln table at the Capitol Visitor Center for the 
    benefit of all its visitors to fully understand and appreciate 
                 America's history and Godly heritage.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 28, 2009

  Mr. Forbes submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 
           referred to the Committee on House Administration

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
Calling upon the Capitol Preservation Commission and the Office of the 
Architect of the Capitol to place the Lincoln-Obama Bible on permanent 
 display upon the Lincoln table at the Capitol Visitor Center for the 
    benefit of all its visitors to fully understand and appreciate 
                 America's history and Godly heritage.

Whereas each one of the 43 presidents of the United States since George 
        Washington on April 30, 1789, has commenced his term of office by 
        placing his hand upon the Holy Bible and solemnly swearing the 
        Constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of President of the 
        United States and to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and 
        defend the Constitution of the United States;
Whereas the Holy Bible is God's Word;
Whereas each President, after taking the oath of office, has repeated President 
        Washington's petition prayer seeking divine help by saying, ``So help me 
        God'';
Whereas Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, has chosen to 
        swear his Constitutional oath by placing his hand on the Holy Bible that 
        the 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, used at his second inauguration on 
        March 4, 1865;
Whereas in Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, he referred to God 14 times, to 
        verses in the Holy Bible 4 times, and invoked prayer 3 times in 701 
        words;
Whereas the Lincoln Presidency tested the self-evident truths contained in the 
        Declaration of Independence;
Whereas the Civil War became the test of whether our Nation could endure as ``a 
        nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all 
        men are created equal'';
Whereas President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, and before his 
        assassination on April 14, 1865, witnessed Congress pass the 13th 
        amendment to the Constitution, which forever ended slavery in the United 
        States fulfilling the Founding Fathers' assertion made 89 years earlier 
        that all men are created equal;
Whereas since the Civil War much has been accomplished in the struggle for civil 
        rights;
Whereas while much has yet to be done, we can take enormous satisfaction in the 
        fact that the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency represents that 
        today, we truly are a ``nation, conceived in liberty'' and dedicated to 
        the self-evident truths ``that all men are created equal, that they are 
        endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among 
        these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness'';
Whereas with the Obama inauguration on January 20, 2009, we, with God's help, 
        rededicate ourselves anew to the eternal tasks before us necessary to 
        ensure for generations to come that our ``government of the people, by 
        the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth'';
Whereas the Lincoln Bible which Obama selected for his oath of office represents 
        the powerful 144-year epoch of the civil rights struggle from Lincoln to 
        Obama;
Whereas the people of the United States deserve the opportunity to see the 
        ``Lincoln-Obama Bible'' and contemplate it as a witness to history;
Whereas the very table that President Lincoln used at his Second Inauguration is 
        on permanent display at the Capitol Visitor Center currently without the 
        Bible; and
Whereas the purpose of the table at Lincoln's inauguration was to hold the 
        Bible: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That Congress calls upon the Capitol Preservation Commission and the 
Office of the Architect of the Capitol to place the Lincoln-Obama Bible 
on permanent display upon the Lincoln table at the Capitol Visitor 
Center for the benefit of all its visitors to fully understand and 
appreciate America's history and Godly heritage.
                                 <all>