[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 11 (Thursday, February 12, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H485-H487]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE 189TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to rise in honor of our
country's greatest president whose birthday we celebrate today.
We Republicans honor Lincoln as a founder of our great political
party and the first Republican president. We are right to this. But
this is not the source of Lincoln's greatness.
Lincoln used the Republican party and the presidency as vehicles to
achieve three magnificent things. He preserved this great union of
ours. He ended slavery on this continent. He extended to the American
entrepreneurial spirit to millions of people of all walks of life. We
have a word for that on a subcommittee I chair. We call it
``empowerment.''
Without a strong union, the United States would not have become the
economic power it is today. Because of Lincoln's work, this nation
produced the highest standard of living of any in the history of the
world. And because the United States remained one nation, it was able
to assemble the moral military might that liberated millions this
century from three of the worst tyrannies in all of history: nazi
Germany, imperial Japan, and the Stalinist ``evil empire.''
Throughout the world, the name ``Lincoln'' connotes compassion--and
for good reason. Slavery sickened him. ``If slavery is not wrong,
nothing is wrong'' he said. He worked to restrict its expansion before
the civil war; used that military emergency to end it; and forced
through the thirteenth amendment to the constitution to prevent its re-
instatement.
As Commander in Chief, he made merciful use of his pardoning powers.
He was particularly sympathetic to young offenders. ``Must I shoot a
simple-minded soldier boy, who deserts, while I must not touch a hair
of a wily agitator who induces him to desert?'' he said, ``* * * to
silence the agitator and save the boy is not only constitutional, but
withal a great mercy.''
There was one group of lawbreaker, however, to whom he showed no
mercy, slave traders. In one celebrated instance, he refused to commute
to life in prison the sentence of person who had committed that hideous
crime. Before Lincoln's presidency, that law had gone enforced. After
it, there was no need to have it at all.
It was also during Lincoln's administration that homestead
legislation became federal policy and land grants to states for the
establishment of colleges became law. These measures, along with the
example of Lincoln's life story, came to characterize the American
entrepreneurial spirit.
As the ``empowerment subcommittee'' continues to explore ways to
assist individuals and communities achieve their full potential, we
will carry Lincoln's spirit with us. Lincoln was the personification of
``empowerment'' in America. Here is how he described it:
``The prudent penniless beginner in the world labors for wages for a
while, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself,
then labors on his own account for another while, and at length hires
another new beginner to help him.''
I urge all Americans to pause on this day and all through the year to
reflect upon the words and deeds of this extraordinary human being.
They do this by visiting the Lincoln Memorial and Ford's Theater, here
in Washington, and the Lincoln Museum in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The March
issue of Civil War Times contains an article about that museum's
fascinating exhibits. It is my pleasure to submit it for publication in
the Congressional Record.
[From the Civil War Times, March 1998]
A New Lincoln Memorial
(By Al Sandner)
In Fort Wayne, Indiana, one man's admiration gave birth to
the largest private collection of Lincoln-related materials
in the world. The two-year-old museum that houses the
collection combines modern technology with 19th-century
artifacts to create a hands-on, in-depth examination of
``Lincoln and the American Experiment.''
For generations the people of Fort Wayne, Indiana, have
cherished the legend that Abraham Lincoln stopped here on the
fateful trip that catapulted him into the race for the
presidency. They've cherished it and hoped it was true, but
couldn't be sure.
Legend had it that Lincoln changed trains here on his way
to deliver a speech at the Cooper Institute in New York,
where his son, Robert, was a student. The speech made a deep
impression on the audience and caught the attention of
Northeastern power brokers, vaulting him into the elite
company of men regarded as potential presidential candidates.
On his journey eastward, he was a regionally known lawyer,
soldier, surveyor, and politician. On the return trip his
name was being whispered in the halls of power as a contender
for the highest office in the land. The Fort Wayne train
switch--if it really happened--was related closely enough to
a pivotal moment in American history to make any city proud.
Recent research has laid the legend to rest and replaced it
with historical fact. ``We have determined that on February
23, 1860, Abraham Lincoln did change trains in Fort Wayne
while on his way to the Cooper Institute speech,'' said
Gerald Prokopowicz, Lincoln scholar and director of programs
for the Lincoln Museum in Fort Wayne.
In the years since 1860, working on faith and dedication
alone, one local businessman and Lincoln admirer created in
this mid-sized northeastern Indiana town (closer to Knute
Rockne country than to what is usually thought of as the land
of Lincoln) what was to become the largest private collection
of Lincoln materials in the world, housed in a $6 million,
30,000-square-foot museum that is both a tribute to Lincoln
and an interactive multimedia essay on his impact on America
as we know it.
Fort Wayne, a 203-year-old city also known as the final
resting place of Johnny Appleseed, doesn't really need an
excuse for housing the Lincoln Museum. The institution stands
on its own merits, combining relics and reconstructions,
videos and period documents, the deadly serious (for example,
a slave's manacle) and the whimsical (the tail end of a 1970s
Lincoln Versailles with its trademark wheel on the trunk lid
and a collection of bands from ``Lincoln'' brand cigars).
The museum's 11 exhibit galleries ingeniously incorporate
hundreds of Lincoln-era artifacts and art works--including
the inkwell Lincoln used in signing the Emancipation
Proclamation, Lincoln family photos and handwritten
documents, the president's legal wallet, and his pocket
knife. Its research library, with 18,000 volumes and 5,000
photographs, draws Lincoln scholars from across the country.
Traveling exhibits have included one of the few surviving
signed copies of the Emancipation Proclamation (the Leland-
Boker Edition, which was sold during the Civil War to benefit
war relief work) and one of 13 copies of the resolution for
the 13th Amendment, which banned slavery. More recently, an
exhibit called ``White House Style'' displayed 9
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original and 24 replica formal gowns worn by first ladies
from Martha Washington and Mary Todd Lincoln to Nancy Reagan
and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
You enter under a painting of the U.S. Capitol dome whose
construction held such symbolic importance in Lincoln's mind
that he insisted the work continue unabated throughout the
Civil War. Lincoln's words--prophetic at the time, cautionary
and virtually mythic today--are written, painted, and
engraved on walls and other surfaces.
Lincoln's words also ring in your ears as you absorb the
man and the times he shaped. Throughout, the voices of
narrator Ossie Davis and Sam Waterston as Lincoln guide the
visitor through Lincoln's life, and the fit seems totally
comfortable, perfectly natural. Davis is an actor, writer,
producer, and director. Waterston played Lincoln in a
television miniseries and gave Lincoln a voice in Ken Burns's
landmark Public Broadcasting Service special on the Civil
War.
Davis narrates the video that introduces the visitor to the
permanent exhibit ``Abraham Lincoln and the American
Experiment.'' The five-minute film sets the stage, tracing
the times and events that shaped the man who soon shaped the
times and events around him. America in Lincoln's day was the
world's only large-scale experiment in democracy, and many
doubted it could long survive. As the film ends, Lincoln
addresses the press corps just after his election to the
presidency: ``Your troubles are over. Mine are just
beginning.''
So begins your journey to explore the tensions over slavery
that threatened the experiment in democracy, the war that was
ignited by the tensions, Lincoln's role in guiding the
democratic nation through its greatest trial, and the way
people have since remembered Lincoln.
Leaving the theater, you step into ``Lincoln's America,''
divided like Caesar's Gaul into three parts: ``The Dynamic
North,'' where a single state, New York, runs more factories
than the entire South; ``The Expanding West''; and ``The
Prosperous South.'' Now, as then, the South seems to
dominate, to attract more attention than its size and
economic power should warrant.
The focal point of the room is a full-scale, rough-hewn
Mississippi River flatboat. You walk under the vast tiller,
manned by a life-size, six-foot-four-inch Lincoln mannequin
standing on the deckhouse's flat roof. A pass under the
boat's keel places you in the South; cotton bales and barrels
stand around the dock. Touch the rough wood, finger the cold
steel of a slave manacle. Read a list of slaves for sale.
Read Lincoln's words: ``If slavery isn't wrong, nothing is
wrong.''
Just as the debate over slavery led the nation to war, so
are you led into the next galleries. ``Prairie Politician to
President'' and ``Speaking Out.'' In this general area is a
reproduction of the sort of room where Lincoln grew up, read,
and worked out his sums. His copy of Parson Weems's Life of
Franklin is on display here. Somewhere in this area, you
learn (if you didn't already know) that Lincoln was
fascinated by technology and held the only patent ever
granted to a president of the United States--for a system he
invented to refloat boats. Artifacts here include an
invitation to the dance where he met his future wife, Mary
Todd.
The ``Speaking Out'' gallery reproduces the Chicago meeting
hall where the Republicans nominated Lincoln for president. A
life-size statue of Lincoln stands at a podium on the
bunting-draped stage, while a dramatic re-creation of the
Lincoln-Douglas debates play on a large video screen behind
him and his words fill the air.
It is here, too, that you can sit at an ingeniously
arranged desk between like masks of Lincoln and Douglas,
and--thanks to cleverly arranged mirrors--see yourself
sitting at eye-level with these two great orators. You may
suffer by comparison, but it is a fascinating experience.
Nearby is another interesting comparison--the earliest
known photographic portraits of Lincoln, take in April and
May of 1846, followed by photographs of him during the war
years. He grew haggard under the strain of his wartime
presidency, but not as drained and devastated as you might
expect.
Next, the visitor is thrown into the cauldron of war. The
events and battles of the most critical years of U.S. history
are described in a time line that circles the walls of the
``Civil War'' gallery. A bank of six touch-screen computer
monitors allows the visitor to read Lincoln's mail,
redecorate the White House as Mary Todd Lincoln did, take a
trivia quiz, or refight major Civil War battles. In the game
``You Be the General,'' Union and Confederate positions are
mapped out on the computer monitor, and you are allowed to
make the moves: sort of a computer-generated chess game based
on actual events. One player reported reversing history and
winning the First Battle of Bull Run for the North. Another
refought Gettysburg, but was never quite sure what he was
doing--or whether he won or lost. (Fortunately for the Union,
this would-be general was born a century too late.)
``The Fiery Trial'' is the name given to the next mini-
theater presentation. In a small, comfortable auditorium,
three seven-minute multimedia programs explore different
facets of Lincoln and the Civil War. In ``Lincoln's
Soldiers,'' the letters of Corporal George Squire of Fort
Wayne are used to describe life in the Union army. ``Lincoln:
Commander-in-Chief'' explains the problems the president had
in finding a general to bring victory to the North. And
``Lincoln and Emancipation'' tells about his role in ending
slavery. Again, the voices of Davis and Waterston create an
aura of warmth and familiarity--in deadly contrast to the
stereo booms and strobe flashes of cannon fire. Outside the
door of the theater are a cavalry officer's sword, which you
can draw partly our of its scabbard; an infantryman's heavy,
black leather backpack, which you can heft onto your
shoulders; and--as a symbol of this first modern war--a half-
scale model of an early Gatling gun, precursor of the machine
gun. The Gatling gun was introduced during the war but was
rarely used.
Like Billy Pilgrim, visitor from another time and another
war in Kurt Vonnegut's anti-World War II novel Slaughterhouse
Five, it's easy to get ``unstuck in time'' here. In the free-
flowing layout, you could wander into, say, ``Ford's Theater
and Beyond'' and then into ``A Lincoln Family Album.'' The
former displays a replica of the theater box the president
occupied that ill-fated Good Friday night while describing
the conspiracy that led to his death and transformed him from
controversial politician to American legend. The latter
displays Lincoln's own photographs of his children while an
upright piano plays recordings of Mary Lincoln's favorite
songs, including ``Skip-to-Mi-Lu.'' Children's attractions in
this area include games, clothes for dress-up, and an
interactive Lincoln family portrait.
Stepping back just a bit in time, you can revisit the
fringes of the Civil War gallery, sit at a desk much like
Lincoln's, and face some of the same problems he did during
his regular public sessions (which he called his ``Public
Opinion Bath''). You sit in a chair looking into a faithful
reproduction of Lincoln's office, are presented with pleas
the president heard during these sessions, decide how to
handle the request, and then push a button to learn what
Lincoln did. Letters of discharge from the army, original
notes, and other documents are used to illustrate how he
handled callers and their pleas. After making all these
decisions, you may have the leisure to sit back and notice
how meticulously Lincoln's office has been re-created--right
down to the wallpaper and the width of the carpet stripes.
Now things lighten up. Blinking lights outline a movie
theater marquee that announces today's attraction: ``Lincoln
at the Movies.'' On screen, television movie critic Gene
Siskel teams up with Pulitzer Prize-winning author and
historian David Herbert Donald to critique movies that depict
the life of Lincoln--using the format Siskel and fellow
Chicago critic Roger Ebert use on their television series, At
the Movies. They discuss actors and interpretations over the
years--from Henry Fonda's Young Mister Lincoln to Waterston's
interpretation in the television miniseries Gore Vidal's
Lincoln. Walter Houston, Raymond Massey, and Mary Tyler Moore
(as Mary Todd Lincoln in Gore Vidal's Lincoln) are also
discussed from historic, theatrical, cinematic, and purely
personal points of view.
The fun continues. In ``Remembering Lincoln'' a trail of
red lights crosses an oversize map of the United States from
coast to coast. This, the ``Lincoln Highway,'' was America's
first transcontinental thoroughfare. It serves as the
backdrop for a collection of things named for Lincoln over
the past 160 years--from an automobile to cities and towns,
schools, manufacturing companies, fruit growers, and a
surprising number of cigars. Sticking out of the wall below
the map, as though the brakes had failed while someone was
backing up, juts the tail end of a Lincoln Versallies.
Across the aisle is ``Dear Mr. Lincoln,'' a station where
children are given pencil and paper and encouraged to add to
the exhibit by writing a letter or postcard to the 16th
president. The good ones can become part of the exhibit. ``I
regret to inform you they are still assassinating people,''
one young person reportedly wrote early on. Even parents join
in. ``My son was a reluctant reader until he read a story
about you in the 2nd grade,'' wrote one mother. ``Thank you.
I live in a better place because of you.''
Wall-sized photographs of history as it was made at the
Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., illustrate the theme of
the next-to-last gallery, ``The Experiment Continues.'' It
seems to show Lincoln's moral beliefs still have an impact on
American society today. Here is Marion Anderson, barred by
the Daughters of the American Revolution from other
Washington venues, performing outdoors for hundreds of
thousands of enthralled Americans in 1939. Here is Martin
Luther King, Jr., telling America ``I have a dream'' in 1963.
And there are Vietnam veterans opposed to the war struggling
unsuccessfully to seize the memorial in 1971.
Now the museum visitor is truly drawn into the American
Experiment--by voting on four key questions: (1) Is the
American Experiment a success? (2) Is it still alive today?
(3) Does it work for most Americans? (4) Are you confident of
its future success?
The tally? In the two years since the museum opened, some
27,000 visitors have said ``yes'' to each question. However,
the ``no'' votes have varted notcieably Questions 1, 2, and 4
have received about 19,000 ``no'' votes. Meanwhile, number 3
has drawn about 16,000 ``no'' votes--indicating a large
number of absentions.
The museum tour ends on a colorful note as the visitor
passes through ``A Lincoln Gallery,'' which displays art
inspired by Lincoln. The art works are taken from the
museum's own extensive collection.
In the lobby, opposite the 23-foot-long ``A. Lincoln''
signature and his 12-foot-high portrait is a well-stocked
gift shop with books,
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video tapes, CD-ROMs, games, statues, and replicas of White
House china. Under the signature, on the lower level, is the
library, with more than 200,000 newspaper and magazine
clippings regarding Lincoln; more than 5,000 original
photographs (including those from Lincoln's own family
album); 200 documents signed by Lincoln; 7,000 19th-century
prints, engravings, newspapers, and music sheets; 18,000
books; scores of period artifacts and Lincoln family
belongings, and hundreds of paintings and sculptures. Here,
too, is the traveling exhibit area--most recently the site of
the ``White House Style'' show.
So how did this $6 million, 30,000-square-foot tribute to
Lincoln and interactive multimedia essay on his impact on
American life come to be created in a mid-sized northeastern
Indian city? In 1905, Arthur Hall was forming an insurance
company in Fort Wayne. A great admirer of Lincoln, he wrote
to Robert Todd Lincoln, the son whose attendance at the
Cooper Institute had provided Abraham Lincoln with a platform
for his watershed 1860 speech, for permission to use his
father's name. Along with his approval, Todd sent a
photograph of his father--the same one that is the basis for
the engraving on the $5 bill today.
The company grew into what is today one of the nation's
largest financial services organizations. The Lincoln
National Corporation opened its first museum on Lincoln's
birthday in 1928. The new museum, now owned by the nonprofit
Lincoln National Foundation, opened October 1, 1995, in
Lincoln National headquarters--less than a mile from the site
of the railroad station where Lincoln, we now know, changed
trains on February 23, 1860.
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