Political Quotes

“Leo Tolstoy said of Abraham Lincoln that ``His example is universal and will last thousands of years . . . He was bigger than his country--bigger than all the Presidents together . . . and as a great character he will live as long as the world lives.'' Abraham Lincoln has been known and admired through the generations-- and around the world. But Abraham Lincoln is known primarily for his presidency and his leadership of the United States through the dark days of the Civil War. We recall his unwavering commitment to the ``American experiment'' in democracy and his refusal to allow the national Union to fail, regardless of the odds against him. Few people remember, though, that Abraham Lincoln was also a Member of Congress at one time. Today, August 3, in fact, marks the 160th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's election to a single term in the U.S. House of Representatives. I also had the privilege of representing the 20th Congressional District of Illinois as a member of the House for 14 years. There is a reason few people remember Lincoln's service in Congress. Frankly, his one term, in the 30th Congress, which sat from December 1847 to March of 1849, was rather unremarkable. He was a young country lawyer who served with the likes of John Quincy Adams in the House and Daniel Webster and John Calhoun in the Senate. Most of his colleagues viewed him as a Westerner of average talent.…”