[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 1932-1933]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              199TH ANNIVERSARY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S BIRTH

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, in her book ``Team of Rivals,'' Doris 
Kearns Goodwin tells a story that illustrates the extraordinary, 
transcendent power of Abraham Lincoln's faith in human freedom and 
democracy.
  It is a story about something that occurred in 1908, 100 years ago. 
The Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy had been entertaining some Caucasus 
tribesmen for hours with tales of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, 
and Napoleon. When he finished, a chief stood and asked Tolstoy to 
speak about the greatest of all heroes, a man who ``spoke with a voice 
of thunder . . . laughed like a sunrise and his deeds were as strong as 
the rock.'' Tell them, the chief implored, about Abraham Lincoln.
  Tolstoy would later write, ``That little incident proves how largely 
the name of Lincoln is worshipped throughout the world. . . . He was 
not a great general like Washington or Napoleon; he was not such a 
skillful statesman as Gladstone or Frederick the Great, but his 
supremacy expresses itself altogether in his peculiar moral power and 
in the greatness of his character. ``Washington was a typical American. 
Napoleon was a typical Frenchman. But Lincoln,'' Tolstoy wrote, ``was a 
humanitarian as broad as the world.''
  Today marks the 199th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth. This 
past weekend was also the official opening of a 2-year bicentennial 
celebration of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial. In Harlan County, KY, 
where Lincoln was born in bitter poverty, Lincoln scholars and admirers 
gathered to discuss and celebrate Lincoln's life and legacy. This 
evening in Springfield, IL, the Abraham Lincoln Association will hold 
its annual meeting to once again reflect on the life of Abraham Lincoln 
in his hometown.
  I express my personal thanks to Judge Tommy Turner who has worked 
tirelessly with so many dedicated Kentuckians to put together today's 
kickoff in Harlan County.
  First Lady Laura Bush was to have spoken at the kickoff. 
Unfortunately, the icy weather forced postponement. It will be 
rescheduled. She will be returning to the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace 
National Historic Site in Hodgenville, KY.
  President Lincoln kept a place in his heart for Kentucky all his 
life, and there must be a special place for Kentucky in the Lincoln 
Bicentennial Celebration. I also thank my colleague, Senator Jim 
Bunning, who is a member of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial 
Commission. I know how hard he worked to make this kickoff a success in 
his home State.
  Over the next 2 years, hundreds of special events and celebrations 
will be held in cities and towns across America to remind all of us who 
Lincoln was and what he meant and still means to America and the world. 
Coordinating many of these events will be the Abraham Lincoln 
Bicentennial Commission, which I am honored to cochair with Harold 
Holzer, a noted Lincoln scholar from New York, and my fellow 
Illinoisan, Representative Ray LaHood. Ray deserves special credit 
because it was his idea to create this commission to honor Illinois's 
favorite son in our land of Lincoln. For 12 years before I was elected 
to the Senate I had the privilege of holding the same seat Lincoln once 
held in the U.S. House of Representatives, a seat now held by 
Congressman LaHood.
  Abraham Lincoln was, I believe, America's greatest President. Our 
Founders decreed that we are all endowed with an inalienable right to 
liberty, but they could not reconcile their noble ideals with the 
ignoble practice of slavery. Abraham Lincoln helped give meaning to our 
national creed of ``liberty and justice for all.'' He steered America 
through the most profound moral crisis in our history and the bloodiest 
war. His leadership saved the Union, and his vision redefined what it 
meant to be an American.
  The goal of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission is to help 
Americans and people around the world to gain a better understanding of 
this complex and heroic man. We want to foster a resolve among 
Americans from all backgrounds to continue the work Abraham Lincoln 
started. I think the Gettysburg Address may be the greatest speech I 
have ever read. I memorized it in grade school. I refer to it so many 
times, and realize, in an economy of words, Abraham Lincoln speaking 
almost impromptu really captured great meaning for so many Americans. 
He challenged all of us to rededicate our lives ``to the unfinished 
work'' for which ``the brave men, living and dead'' had sacrificed so 
much on the hallowed ground of battle in Gettysburg, PA.
  How much of the work of true democracy remains unfinished today? How 
can we summon, as Lincoln said, ``the better angels of our nature'' to 
meet

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the challenges of our time? Those are the discussions the Abraham 
Lincoln Bicentennial Commission hopes to foster as America prepares to 
celebrate the bicentennial of the birth of its greatest President.
  I encourage everyone to go to the Commission's Web site at 
www.lincolnbicentennial.com, learn more about Lincoln and about how 
your community can plan to celebrate his birthday. President Lincoln's 
adopted hometown of Springfield is also my adopted hometown. I have 
lived there almost 40 years now. If you have ever been there, you know 
that around every corner in downtown Springfield is another powerful 
reminder of Abe Lincoln. The small house at the corner of 8th and 
Jackson, the only home Lincoln ever owned, is just a block away from my 
Senate office. His law office, right near the old State capitol, is an 
amazing place, restored and visited by so many because of its meaning 
in his daily life as an ordinary lawyer in central Illinois, the old 
State capitol building where he warned prophetically that a House 
divided could not stand. This beautiful building was restored in 1976 
as part of our bicentennial. The old State capitol is one of my 
favorite in the State of Illinois.
  My special thanks to a good friend of mine, an architect named Earl 
Wallace Henderson III, who was called on to do a magnificent job of 
restoring and remodeling that old State capitol. And now, just a couple 
blocks away, my pride and joy as an elected official from Springfield, 
IL, is the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. It is just 
3 years old. It is already the most visited Presidential library in 
America. I love that place. I go to a lot of museums and Presidential 
museums. I don't know of another one, though, that really captures the 
spirit of the President so effectively and lures children in for 
beautiful exhibits and movies that they don't forget. Kids walk out of 
the Abraham Lincoln Museum with their moms and dads and say: Can we go 
back? It warms my heart every time I hear of the record numbers of 
people who are visiting.
  It was also in Springfield that a 28-year-old Lincoln, a member of 
the State legislature, delivered a speech that still speaks powerfully 
to us today. We know it as the Lyceum Address. Lincoln was told to 
speak about whatever he liked. He chose as his subject ``the 
perpetuation of our political institutions.'' He expressed a concern 
that would later be echoed many times: What would happen to America 
when its Founding Fathers and those who fought to gain our liberty were 
gone? How could we sustain America if new generations had no knew 
leaders to inspire them with original ideas of our Republic? Until 
then, the truth and terrible costs of America's revolution could always 
be seen--in Lincoln's words--``in the form of a husband, a father, a 
son or a brother. . . . A living history was to be found in every 
family . . . in the limbs mangled, [and] in the scars of wounds 
received . . . ''
  Lincoln went on to say:

       But those histories are gone. They were the pillars of 
     liberty; and now that they have crumbled away, that temple 
     must fall--unless we, their descendants, supply their place 
     with other pillars.

  I would like to think that Lincoln would be relieved if he could see 
this great Nation today. We are 170 years further removed from our 
Founders than we were when the young Lincoln spoke those words at the 
Lyceum, but America is still filled with patriots who know and are 
willing to defend our founding principles. There are many of us, and we 
are vastly more diverse than the Americans of Lincoln's time, but there 
is still in us a deep and passionate longing to be one nation, one 
people, undivided.
  We saw a glimpse of that desire in the dark days after 9/11. 
Sometimes we wondered if we could ever recover that sense of national 
unity and purpose. But look what is happening today. There is a deep 
longing in America today to transcend old divisions in order to meet 
our new challenges. It is a longing that goes far beyond political 
parties and labels of all kinds. We have not forgotten the principles 
on which our Nation was founded, nor have we forgotten the lessons 
Abraham Lincoln taught us. Our unity is our strength. Together we can 
overcome any challenge. We can finish the unfinished work of America 
and become a ``more perfect union.''

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