Political Quotes

“I appreciate so much the privilege to be recognized to address you here on the floor of the House of Representatives on this 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. I've watched, of course, Lincoln's life and history from the perspective of actually a youth who was pointed out to me by my family back in those years. So I have always paid a lot of attention to Abraham Lincoln. As our 16th President of the United States, the man who saved the Union--who did a lot of things--but a man who saved the Union, kept us from being forever divided. I played a little with the history and the question of that. What would have happened if the Civil War would have ended with a division rather than the unity of the United States of America? All history that flows from that date--from the 1860s--of this country, would be changed. The history of any involvement that we might have had during the Spanish-American conflict; during World War II; as we heard, from Judge Poe; World War II; Korea; Vietnam, all of the wars, but also the geopolitics, the economy. We would not have become the preeminent economic power in the world if Abraham Lincoln hadn't come along and this Nation hadn't been blessed with him at the time it was. His perseverance to save the Union has positioned this Nation to go forward to a level of destiny I believe unimagined by our Founding Fathers and unimagined by Abraham Lincoln himself.…”