Political Quotes

“Mr. President, during the Civil War, Walt Whitman took stock of Abraham Lincoln's appearance. The President had a face, the poet wrote, like a ``Hoosier Michelangelo.'' But Whitman sensed that underneath the lines and the crags were wells of wisdom and tact perfectly suited to the President, hard-earned long ago. You see, Abraham Lincoln is widely regarded as one of our country's greatest Presidents, a visionary and an inspiring leader who appealed to the highest American ideals and moved our Nation toward a more perfect Union. Sunday marks the 214th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth. Even today, historians still wrestle with the question, how is a man of such character forged? The answer, I think, can be found in Southern Indiana, near the Ohio River. In 1860, when asked for details of his youth by a biographer, Abraham Lincoln was uncooperative. It could all, he said, ``be condensed into a single sentence--the short and simple annals of the poor.'' ``That's all you or any one can make of it,'' Lincoln insisted. But, if you will pardon me, I would like to make a little more of it. My colleagues from Kentucky will no doubt point out that Lincoln's birth occurred in their Commonwealth, and as my colleagues from Illinois will likely remind you, when Abraham Lincoln departed for the White House, it was from their State. I will give them this: Lincoln was indeed born in Kentucky, and he did make his name in Illinois. But Abraham Lincoln was a Hoosier.…”