Mark Kirk: “140 years ago a gentleman from Illinois wrote the following: ``The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy…”

“140 years ago a gentleman from Illinois wrote the following: ``The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with this occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves and we shall save our country. ``Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. ``We say we are for Union. The world will not forget we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we know how to save it. We, even we here, hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free, honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. ``We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of Earth. Other means may succeed. This could fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous and just, a way which if followed the world will forever applaud and God must forever bless.''”