[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 191 (Tuesday, December 4, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7265-S7266]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        BICENTENNIAL OF ILLINOIS

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, in 1830, a family of dirt-poor farmers 
moved to Illinois. In the previous 14 years, this family had moved from 
Kentucky to Indiana, always eking out a bare subsistence. In Illinois, 
they hoped their luck might finally improve.
  After helping his father establish a small farm, the family's 21-
year-old son struck out on his own. In the little village of New Salem, 
he found work as a shopkeeper, postmaster, and a member of the Illinois 
State Legislature.
  On April 15, 1837, that young man moved to Springfield, Illinois' 
capitol. There, this self-taught man began a successful law practice. 
He married, and he and his wife welcomed four sons. His 23 years in 
Springfield were the happiest of his life.
  When he left his adopted hometown in the late winter of 1861, he told 
the friends and neighbors and well-wishers who crowded to the train 
depot to see him off: ``To this place, and the kindness of these 
people, I owe everything.'' He hoped he would return one day, but it 
wasn't to be.
  On April 15, 1961, 28 years to the day after he first arrived in 
Springfield, President Lincoln was killed by an assassin's bullet. He 
died just days after the end of the Civil War, the ``fiery trial'' 
through which he had steered our Nation--the cataclysm that finally 
ended America's original sin of slavery.
  Most historians rate Abraham Lincoln as America's greatest President, 
and I agree. We who live in Illinois are proud to call our State ``The 
Land of Lincoln.''
  Illinois had entered the Union as America's 21st State only 11 years 
before Lincoln's father Thomas moved his family there.
  Yesterday, Tuesday, December 3, Illinois celebrated our 200th 
anniversary as a State. To commemorate this historic anniversary, 
Senator Duckworth and I introduced a resolution that passed the Senate 
earlier this year. An identical resolution was introduced in the U.S. 
House of Representatives, where Abraham Lincoln served one term in the 
late 1840s.
  Let me tell you about my home State. Illinois stretches from the 
Wisconsin border in the north to the Kentucky border in the southeast. 
The southernmost point in our State, the town of Cairo, Illinois, lies 
farther south than Richmond, VA.
  We also border Lake Michigan to the northeast, Indiana to the east, 
Missouri to the west, and Iowa to the northwest. You could fit 
Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, Albania, and Cyprus inside Illinois' 
borders; that is how large Illinois is.
  If Illinois were an independent nation, our economy, valued at over 
$820 billion, would be the 19th largest economy in the world, just 
ahead of Saudi Arabia.
  We are the fifth-largest economy among U.S. States, and we are among 
the top States in exports, value-added manufacturing, and agricultural 
income.
  The deep black soil of much of northern and central Illinois is among 
the finest in the world. More than 75 percent of Illinois is still 
covered by farms, more than 72,000 of them.
  While this year marks Illinois 200th anniversary as a State, 
societies have flourished in Illinois for over a millennium.
  Near Collinsville, IL, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, 
is the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, the remains of the most 
sophisticated prehistoric native civilization north of Mexico.
  Historians estimate that Cahokia was first settled around 700 A.D. By 
1250 A.D., Cahokia was larger than London. The flat-topped pyramids 
built by its inhabitants are as tall as the Great Pyramid of Giza.
  Next came the Illinois Confederation, about a dozen Native American 
Tribes. The first Europeans to reach Illinois, French explorers, 
arrived in the 17th century. Most of the French Illinois following the 
nearly decade-long French and Indian War in the mid-18th century. Then 
came the English settlers and colonists from many of America's 13 
original States.
  In the 1840s, Illinois, like most of America, experienced great waves 
of European immigrants, starting with the Germans and Irish, followed 
by immigrants came from Poland, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Sweden, 
Austria, and Russia.
  During World War I, the Great Migration began, the steady flow of 
African Americans from the Jim Crow South to the major industrial 
centers of the North, and Chicago was the Mecca of the Great Migration.
  You can see and hear and taste our immigrant roots in the vibrant, 
ethnic neighborhoods of Chicago and in cities and towns and villages 
throughout our State.
  Illinois is home to many firsts. In February 1865, Illinois became 
the first State to ratify the 13th Amendment, outlawing slavery and 
involuntary servitude in America.
  The first skyscraper in the entire world was built in Chicago in 
1885. The world's first Ferris wheel debuted at the Chicago World's 
Fair in 1893. Chicago gave the world the first televised presidential 
debate . . . the first successful open-heart surgery . . . and the 
world first self-controlled nuclear reaction.
  Evanston, the home Northwestern University, is also the birthplace of 
the ice cream sundae. The first McDonald's in the world was in Des 
Plaines. Lake Michigan is the largest body of freshwater in a world 
that is fast running out of water.
  Illinois is a land of ingenuity and invention. In 1900, after vents 
threatened the safety of Chicago's water supply, engineers built a 
series of canal locks that actually reversed the flow of the Chicago 
River, a feat that was named a ``civil engineering monument of the 
millennium'' by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1999.
  Illinois inventors have contributed to inventions from meatpacking 
and blood-banking, to the farm silo, the zipper, the vacuum cleaner, 
the mechanical dishwasher, the wireless remote control, and the cell 
phone.
  Illinois has sent its sons and more than a few of its daughters to 
fight for this Nation in war after war.
  Today, it is home to 20,000 Active-Duty members of America's Armed 
Forces, 24,000 members of the reserved forces, and more than 643,000 
veterans who risked their lives to protect all of us.
  My partner in this body, Senator Tammy Duckworth, is a proud example 
of the courage and dignity and self-sacrifice of Illinois veterans.
  Let me tell you about some of the other remarkable men and women 
Illinois has given to our world.
  They include champions of justice such as Jane Addams, the first 
American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her work a century 
ago founding Hull House and helping poor families, especially immigrant 
families, to achieve their American dream.
  Other Illinois champions of justice include Clarence Darrow, the 
legal champion of underdogs, and Betty Bloomer, whose courage in 
helping to reduce the stigma surrounding both breast cancer and 
addiction has saved untold numbers of lives. The world knows her better 
as First Lady Betty Ford.
  Illinois comedians from Jack Benny to Robin Williams, John Belushi, 
and Richard Pryor have made the world laugh. Illinois singers and 
musicians, including Miles Davis, Sam Cooke, Nat King Cole, Mahalia 
Jackson, and the Staple Singers, have made the world sing and dance--
and maybe even work for justice and peace. Illinois storytellers, 
including Walt Disney and Ernest Hemingway, have captivated viewers and 
readers for generations.
  In the field of sports, the Chicago Cubs have taught generations of 
fans the virtue of patience, going more than a century before once 
again winning the World Series in 2016.
  Chicago has more than its share of sports champions. The Chicago 
Bears won the Super Bowl in 1986. The Chicago White Sox won the World 
Series in 2005. The Chicago Blackhawks clinched the Stanley Cup in 
2010, 2013, and 2015.
  The Chicago Bulls, led by the legendary Michael Jordan, won the NBA 
championship every year from 1991 through 1993 and from 1996 through 
1998.
  Illinois is the home State of President Ronald Reagan, and the 
adopted

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home State of President Barack Obama, America's first African-American 
President.
  It is also home to the first African-American woman ever to serve in 
this body, Senator Carol Moseley-Braun.
  The author and poet Carl Sandburg, another son of Illinois, wrote, 
``Nothing happens unless first we dream.''
  In Illinois' 200 years as a State, its sons and daughters have never 
stopped dreaming of ways to make life better and fairer, and working to 
make those dreams come true.
  As we begin our third century as a member of this great Union, we 
intend to continue that proud tradition.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.

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