State of Illinois
91st General Assembly
Legislation

   [ Search ]   [ Legislation ]   
[ Home ]   [ Back ]   [ Bottom ]


[ Enrolled ][ Senate Amendment 001 ]

91_HJ0040

                                               LRB9111910JMmb

 1                       HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION

 2        WHEREAS, On February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln  was  born
 3    in  the  most  modest  of  circumstances  in a log cabin near
 4    Hodgenville, Kentucky; at the age of 21, he set out for a new
 5    home located on the north bank of the Sangamon River, in  New
 6    Salem,  Illinois,  where  he  served  as  Deputy Surveyor and
 7    Postmaster;  his  kindness,  straightforward   conduct,   and
 8    sympathetic  character  helped create in the popular mind the
 9    stereotype of "Honest Abe"; and

10        WHEREAS, On August 4, 1834, Abraham Lincoln, at  age  24,
11    was  elected  to  the  Illinois  General  Assembly as a State
12    Representative from the Whig party; he was reelected  3  more
13    times,  serving  until  1842; through his bold leadership and
14    forward thinking, he was elevated by his peers to the elected
15    position of Whig floor leader and served as chairman  of  the
16    Finance   Committee;   he   was  a  consistent  supporter  of
17    conservative  business  interests  and  brought   about   the
18    relocation of the State capital from Vandalia to Springfield;
19    when  certain  resolutions  denouncing anti-slavery agitation
20    were passed by the House, he took a bold position  through  a
21    written declaration stating that slavery was "founded on both
22    injustice  and  bad  policy,  but  that  the  promulgation of
23    abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than  abate  its
24    evils"; and

25        WHEREAS, Mr. Lincoln served in the United States House of
26    Representative  as  an  Illinois Whig from 1847 through 1849,
27    serving on the Post Office and Post Roads Committee, as  well
28    as  the  War  Department  Expenditures  Committee; he opposed
29    United States involvement in the Mexican War but continued to
30    support appropriations to supply the troops involved  in  the
31    war;  he  continued  to  promote  federally  funded  internal
32    improvements  and  worked unsuccessfully to abolish the slave
33    trade in Washington, D.C.; and
 
                            -2-                LRB9111910JMmb
 1        WHEREAS, On May 29, 1856, Mr. Lincoln helped organize the
 2    new  Republican  Party  of  Illinois,  speaking  with  a  new
 3    authority gained from self-imposed intellectual discipline in
 4    behalf of the anti-slavery cause; and

 5        WHEREAS, On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected
 6    the 16th  President  of  the  United  States  and  the  first
 7    Republican;  he  received 180 of 303 possible electoral votes
 8    and 40% of the  popular  vote,  defeating  Northern  Democrat
 9    Stephen   A.   Douglas   and   Southern   Democrat   John  C.
10    Breckinridge; convinced that the United States was more  than
11    an ordinary nation, that it was a proving ground for the idea
12    of   democratic   government,  he  displayed  an  unflinching
13    dedication to the preservation of the Union; he never wavered
14    in his "paramount object" to restore national  unity  despite
15    war-weariness   and   repeated   defeats;  he  did  what  was
16    necessary, without regard to political objections in Congress
17    or personal popularity; and

18        WHEREAS, On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln issued the
19    Emancipation Proclamation that declared forever  slaves  free
20    within  the Confederacy; with the possibility that his action
21    would not be sustained by  the  Supreme  Court,  he  strongly
22    urged  and  succeeded  in  getting Congress to adopt the 13th
23    Amendment, forever abolishing slavery throughout the country;
24    realizing that minimal guarantees of civil rights for  blacks
25    were  essential, he began to advocate for equality by the end
26    of the war; and

27        WHEREAS, Partly because of his single-minded  dedication,
28    the  American  people,  in  time,  gave  to Abraham Lincoln a
29    loyalty that proved to be another of  his  great  assets;  he
30    learned what ordinary citizens felt about their government by
31    making himself accessible to all who went to the White House;
32    his  mastery  of rhetoric further endeared him to the public;
33    he wrote clearly and succinctly  in  an  age  of  pretentious
 
                            -3-                LRB9111910JMmb
 1    orators;  his  268-word address meant more than the preceding
 2    2-hour oration by Edward Everett at  the  dedication  of  the
 3    national   cemetery   at  Gettysburg;  the  clear  focus  and
 4    eloquent, sophisticated style of the Gettysburg  address  has
 5    helped it survive for more than a hundred years as one of the
 6    greatest speeches ever delivered; and

 7        WHEREAS,  Lincoln was inaugurated into his second term as
 8    President on March 4, 1865,  overwhelmingly  defeating  Union
 9    General  George  B.  McClellan; he enunciated a comprehensive
10    reconstruction  program,  pledging  pardon  and  amnesty   to
11    Confederates  who were prepared to swear loyalty to the Union
12    and promising to turn back control of  local  governments  to
13    the  civil  authorities  in the South; on April 14, 1865, one
14    month after taking office,  he  was  shot  and  killed  while
15    attending a performance at Ford's Theater in Washington; and

16        WHEREAS, Illinois is where Mr. Lincoln lived, worked, and
17    spent many happy days in the municipalities of New Salem, and
18    Springfield;   throughout  his  days  in  public  service  he
19    embodied personal integrity, intelligence, and  humanity;  it
20    is  only  fitting  and  proper  that this great President who
21    played such a vital role as  the  leader  in  preserving  the
22    Union  and  abolished  slavery in the United States should be
23    duly honored and commemorated by the gracious people of  this
24    State  to  whom  Abraham  Lincoln  brought so much character,
25    determination,  and  perseverance  in  the  Illinois  General
26    Assembly, United States Congress, and as the President of the
27    United States; and

28        WHEREAS, On February 6, 1911, Ronald  Wilson  Reagan  was
29    born  to  Nelle  and  John  Reagan  in  Tampico, Illinois; he
30    attended high school in nearby Dixon and then worked his  way
31    through   Eureka  College;  at  Eureka  College,  he  studied
32    economics and sociology, played on  the  football  team,  and
33    acted  in  school  plays;  upon graduation, he became a radio
 
                            -4-                LRB9111910JMmb
 1    sports announcer; a screen test in 1937 won him a contract in
 2    Hollywood and during the next 2 decades  he  appeared  in  53
 3    films; and

 4        WHEREAS,  As president of the Screen Actors Guild, Ronald
 5    Reagan  became  embroiled  in  disputes  over  the  issue  of
 6    Communism in the film industry; his political  views  shifted
 7    from  liberal  to  conservative;  he  toured the country as a
 8    television host, becoming a spokesman  for  conservatism;  in
 9    1966  he  was elected Governor of California by a margin of a
10    million votes; he was re-elected in 1970; and

11        WHEREAS, Ronald Reagan won  the  Republican  presidential
12    nomination in 1980 and chose as his running mate former Texas
13    Congressman and United Nations Ambassador George Bush; voters
14    troubled  by  inflation  and  by the year-long confinement of
15    Americans in Iran swept the Republican  ticket  into  office;
16    and

17        WHEREAS,  On  January  20,  1981, Mr. Reagan took office;
18    only 69 days later he was shot by  a  would-be  assassin  but
19    quickly  recovered  and  returned  to duty; his grace and wit
20    during the dangerous incident caused his popularity to  soar;
21    and

22        WHEREAS,   Dealing   skillfully   with  Congress,  Reagan
23    obtained  legislation  to  stimulate  economic  growth,  curb
24    inflation,  increase  employment,  and  strengthen   national
25    defense;  he  embarked  upon  a  course  of cutting taxes and
26    government expenditures, refusing to deviate from his  course
27    when  the  strengthening  of  defense  forces  led to a large
28    deficit; and

29        WHEREAS, A renewal of national  self-confidence  by  1984
30    helped  President Reagan and Vice President Bush win a second
31    term with an unprecedented number of electoral votes; and
 
                            -5-                LRB9111910JMmb
 1        WHEREAS, In 1986, Ronald Reagan obtained an  overhaul  of
 2    the  income  tax  code  that  eliminated  many deductions and
 3    exempted millions of people with low incomes; at the  end  of
 4    his  administration,  the  nation  was  enjoying  its longest
 5    recorded period of peacetime prosperity without recession  or
 6    depression; and

 7        WHEREAS,  In  foreign  policy,  Ronald  Reagan  sought to
 8    achieve "peace through strength"; in dramatic  meetings  with
 9    Soviet  leader Mikhail Gorbachev, he negotiated a treaty that
10    would   eliminate   intermediate-range   nuclear    missiles;
11    President   Reagan   declared   war   against   international
12    terrorism,  sending  American  bombers  against  Libya  after
13    evidence  came  out  that  Libya was involved in an attack on
14    American soldiers in a West Berlin nightclub; and

15        WHEREAS, By ordering naval escorts in the  Persian  Gulf,
16    he  maintained the free flow of oil during the Iran-Iraq war;
17    in keeping with the  Reagan  Doctrine,  he  gave  support  to
18    anti-Communist  insurgencies  in  Central  America, Asia, and
19    Africa; and

20        WHEREAS, At the end of his  2  terms  in  office,  Ronald
21    Reagan  viewed  with  satisfaction  the  achievements  of his
22    innovative program known  as  the  Reagan  Revolution,  which
23    aimed  to  reinvigorate  the American people and reduce their
24    reliance upon  government;  he  felt  he  had  fulfilled  his
25    campaign pledge of 1980 to restore "the great, confident roar
26    of American progress and growth and optimism"; and

27        WHEREAS,   The   Reagan   years   saw  a  restoration  of
28    prosperity, and the goal of peace through strength was within
29    the nation's grasp; and

30        WHEREAS, Ulysses Simpson (U.S. "Unconditional Surrender")
31    Grant was the best-known Federal general in the United States
32    Civil War; because of his military  prowess  and  daring,  he
 
                            -6-                LRB9111910JMmb
 1    helped to shorten the time of that great and bitter conflict;
 2    and

 3        WHEREAS,  U.S.  Grant's  exploits in the Civil War earned
 4    him the Republican nomination and ultimately 2 terms  as  the
 5    18th  President of the United States; as President, he pushed
 6    for  conciliation  toward  the  South,  sought  unconditional
 7    readmission of Virginia to the  Union,  relentlessly  opposed
 8    the  Ku Klux Klan in his ever stalwart detestation of slavery
 9    and its aftermath, and established a strong record in foreign
10    affairs; and

11        WHEREAS, Although dying of throat cancer,  he  wrote  his
12    now classic memoirs in an effort to support his family and to
13    guarantee that they would be provided for upon his death; and

14        WHEREAS,  U.S.  Grant died on July 23, 1885, and his body
15    was finally laid to  rest  amidst  much  pomp,  circumstance,
16    parades, and speeches; and

17        WHEREAS,  Illinois is where U.S. Grant lived, worked, and
18    spent many happy days in the municipality of Galena;  and  it
19    is  only  fitting  and  proper  that  this  great General and
20    President who played such  a  critical  role  in  saving  the
21    Republic  should  be  duly  honored  and  commemorated by the
22    gracious people of this State to whom Grant brought  so  much
23    glory; therefore be it

24        RESOLVED,   BY   THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  THE
25    NINETY-FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF  ILLINOIS,  THE
26    SENATE  CONCURRING  HEREIN,  that  the great contributions of
27    Illinois' presidents, Abraham  Lincoln,  Ronald  Reagan,  and
28    Ulysses  Simpson  Grant,  to the State of Illinois and to the
29    entire nation, should be commemorated by the State  Treasurer
30    in accordance with the Commemorative Medallions Act.

[ Top ]