Political Quotes

“Mr. President, 96 years ago, just a few miles from where we are meeting, on July 18, 1911, a woman came down a gangplank in Baltimore, MD. She had just arrived on a voyage from Bremen, Germany. She had a 2-year-old little girl in her arms and two young children, a boy and a girl, by her side. She stepped foot in America in Baltimore and took a train to join up with her husband in a place called East St. Louis, IL. This woman who brought these three children across the Atlantic didn't speak English. She only knew that her husband was waiting 800 miles away and was making her journey. That woman was my grandmother. The baby in her arms was my mother. That was 96 years ago. Ninety-six years later, the son of that little girl stands as a United States Senator from Illinois. It is a story about America. This Nation is great because of the immigrants and their sons and daughters who came here and made it great.”