Rod Grams: “I rise today, on the 189th anniversary of his birth, to pay tribute to an American of commonsense ways and uncommon…”

“I rise today, on the 189th anniversary of his birth, to pay tribute to an American of commonsense ways and uncommon character. Let me read to you from the autobiography of Abraham Lincoln, which he penned in December of 1859. I was born February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families. . . There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. Of course, when I came of age I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the Rule of Three; but that was all. I have not been to school since. The little advance I now have upon this store of education, I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity. Lincoln concluded his autobiography just four paragraphs later with these words: ``There is not much of it, for the reason, I suppose, that there is not much of me.'' That was in 1859, one year before the election that thrust Abraham Lincoln into the Presidency--before the Civil War broke out and helped crystallize all that he believed about his nation--before everything he believed about himself was tested.”