Political Quotes

“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.…”