[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 13 (Monday, February 14, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E128-E129]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              ABRAHAM LINCOLN BICENTENNIAL COMMISSION ACT

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                               speech of

                          HON. MARK E. SOUDER

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 8, 2000

  Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a few moments to 
highlight the importance of a bill we further considered on the floor 
today, H.R. 1451, the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission Act.
  This bill originally passed the House by a vote of 411-2 on October 
4, 1999. It was amended by the Senate in November and brought back to 
the House with minor changes to the commission's composition.
  Let me begin by thanking the bill's sponsor, the gentleman from 
Illinois, Mr. LaHood, and the gentlelady from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert) 
for their willingness to work with me to include representation from 
the states of Indiana and Kentucky on the Commission to be formed by 
this bill.
  Indiana and Kentucky played significant roles in the life and 
development of Abraham Lincoln, and I very much appreciate my 
colleagues' recognition of this history and their openness to including 
citizen members from each of these states on the Commission.
  I am pleased that the changes made by the Senate to the composition 
of the commission did not include a fundamental I have been fighting 
for: the appropriate representation on the commission from each of the 
states claiming Lincoln as its citizen.
  While Abe Lincoln is America's 16th president, he rose from humble 
roots deeply embedded in all three Midwestern states. In my mind, it is 
only right that the governors of all three states select citizens to 
sit on the commission established by this bill.
  The commission will commemorate the bicentennial of President 
Lincoln's birth in 1809, which took place in Hodgenville, KY.
  At the age of 7, young Abe Lincoln moved to Southern Indiana, and the 
family moved to Illinois in 1830. As the National Park Service points 
out at the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, he spent fourteen of the 
most formative years of his life and grew from youth to manhood in the 
State of Indiana. His mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, is buried at the 
site. And even today, what is probably the largest private Lincoln 
Museum in America is in Fort Wayne, IN, in my district.
  Thomas Lincoln moved the family to an 80 acre farm in Perry County, 
Indiana after the crops had failed in Kentucky due to unusually cold 
weather. He bought the land at what even then was the bargain price of 
three dollars an acre.
  Just days before, Indiana had become the 19th state in the union. The 
land was still wild and untamed. President Lincoln later recalled that 
he had ``never passed through a harder experience'' than traveling 
through the woods and brush between the ferry landing on the Ohio river 
and his Indiana homesite. This observation speaks volumes about the 
nature of the Hoosier frontier.
  The family quickly settled into the log cabin with which we are all 
so familiar from our earliest history lessons. Tom Lincoln worked as a 
cask maker. Abe Lincoln worked hard during the days clearing the land, 
working with the

[[Page E129]]

crops, and reading over and over from his three books: the Bible, 
Dilworth's Speller, and Aesop's Fables. He also wrote poems.
  Shortly after the death of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, young Abe attended a 
new one room schoolhouse. When his father remarried, his new stepmother 
Sally Bush Johnston brought four new books, including an elocution 
book.
  W. Fred Conway pointed out in his book ``Young Abe Lincoln: His 
Teenage Years in Indiana'' that the future president after reading the 
book occasionally ``would disappear into the woods, mount a stump, and 
practice making speeches to the other children.''
  Abraham Lincoln also received his first exposure to politics and the 
issues that would later dominate his presidency while in Indiana. One 
of his first jobs was at a general store and meat market, which was 
owned by William Jones, whose father owned slaves in violation of the 
Indiana State Constitution. This was Lincoln's first introduction to 
slavery.
  In addition, he exchanged news and stories with customers and 
passersby, with the store eventually become a center of the community 
due largely to Young Abe's popularity. Once he was asked what he 
expected to make of himself, and replied that he would ``be President 
of the United States.''
  Mr. Speaker, Indiana takes pride in its contributions to the life of 
President Lincoln, and we greatly look forward to the work of the 
Commission in honoring him and reminding Americans of his legacy.

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