199th Anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's Birth

Floor Speech

199TH ANNIVERSARY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S BIRTH -- (Senate - February 12, 2008)

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 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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