    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2005, Book I)]
    [February 11, 2005]
    [Pages 225-226]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Performance of ``Lincoln Seen and Heard''
    February 11, 2005

        Thank you for that wonderful performance. Laura and I welcome you all to the White House.
        I appreciate the members of my Cabinet who are here and former
    members of the Cabinet who are here. I thank Senator Bill Frist for joining us as well as Congressman Mel Watt. Thank you both for coming.
        I appreciate Michael Steele, the
    Lieutenant Governor of the great State of Maryland, for joining us. I
    want to thank Bruce Cole, the Chairman of the
    National Endowment for the Humanities. I appreciate Brian Lamb joining us today, the president and CEO of C-SPAN.
        I thank the U.S. Lincoln Bicentennial Commission members and the
    Advisory Committee for joining us today. I appreciate all the Lincoln
    scholars and authors who are here.
        I particularly appreciate Sam Waterston
    and Lynn and Graham for joining us as well as Harold Holzer and Edith and Meg. Thank you all for coming.
        Sam and Harold
    have had a good many reviews since they first took ``Lincoln Seen and
    Heard'' on the road. Perhaps the most enthusiastic review I heard came
    from two unimpeachable sources, Mother
    and Dad--[laughter]--who told how much they
    enjoyed the performance when they saw it in Houston. Tonight we've had
    the special honor of listening to Lincoln's words being read in the very
    house where so many of them were written.
        Harold Holzer has written, coauthored, or
    edited 23 books on Lincoln and the Civil War. He Cochairs the U.S.
    Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and in his spare time--[laughter]--works
    for one of Laura's favorite museums, the
    Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He's an avid New York Yankee fan
    who had a miserable year last year. [Laughter] He has won many awards
    for his work, and his latest book is, ``Lincoln at Cooper Union.''
        This evening I can let you all in on a secret. Tomorrow it will be
    announced that Allen Guelzo, who is with us
    tonight, and Harold Holzer are this year's
    first and second place winners of the prestigious Lincoln Prize.
        Congratulations.
        Those of you who know Sam Waterston as
    ``Jack McCoy'' should know that America's most famous assistant district
    attorney has portrayed Abraham Lincoln on stage, on television, and so
    I'm told, even in ballet. [Laughter] He didn't dance. [Laughter] But he
    did narrate a special version of Aaron Copland's ``Lincoln Portrait''
    while ballet dancers performed around him. [Laughter] Sam has said, ``If
    I have to be typecast, I'd like to be typecast as Abraham Lincoln.'' I
    like a guy who aims high. [Laughter]
        In his readings tonight, Sam noted that it
    was on this very day back in 1861 that Abraham Lincoln said goodbye to
    his home in Springfield, Illinois, never to return. Over the next 4
    years, from this house, Lincoln would endure a bitter civil war that
    included terrible defeats as well as ringing victories; he'd sign the
    Emancipation Proclamation right upstairs; and he would live to see his
    hopes for peace and unity rewarded, before his life was taken at Ford's
    Theatre on Good Friday, 1865.
        The Civil War was decided on the battlefield; the larger fight for
    America's soul was waged with Lincoln's words. In his own day, Lincoln
    set himself squarely against a culture that held that some human beings
    were not intended by their Maker for freedom. And as President, he acted
    in the conviction that holding the Union together was the only way to
    hold America true to the founding promise of freedom and equality for
    all. And that is why, in my

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    judgment, he was America's greatest President.
        We're familiar with the words of the Gettysburg Address and the
    Second Inaugural, so eloquently read by Sam. And this performance
    reminds us that Lincoln wrote his words to be spoken aloud--to persuade,
    to challenge, and to inspire. Abraham Lincoln was a master of the
    English language, but his true mother tongue was liberty.
        I hope that every American might have the experience we had here
    tonight, to hear Lincoln's words delivered with Lincoln's passion and to
    leave with a greater appreciation for what these words of freedom mean
    in our own time.
        Thank you all again. Please join us at the reception. And may God
    continue to bless our great land.

    Note: The President spoke at 5:58 p.m. in the East Room at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Sam Waterston, actor on NBC's
    television series ``Law & Order,'' his wife, Lynn Waterston, and their
    son Graham Waterston; Harold Holzer, Cochair, Abraham Lincoln
    Bicentennial Commission, his wife, Edith Holzer, and their daughter Meg
    Holzer; and author Allen C. Guelzo.