[Composed in the early hours of Election Day, before I crossed the Mississippi to help the Obama GOTV effort from his Cherokee Street office in south St. Louis. I listened, enthralled, to Obama’s victory speech; it appears that both he and I have been re-reading Lincoln. — A proud Illinoisan]
Seven score and eight years ago, the state of Illinois gifted the nation with a transcendent president, dedicated to the proposition that we are one nation — not southern states and northern states. Abraham Lincoln knew that a house divided against itself cannot stand, and he devoted the last four years of his life to saving that nation. No one else could have.
Today the state of Illinois has gifted the nation, again, with a transcendent president, dedicated to the proposition that we are one nation — not red states and blue states. Barack Obama knows that if we Americans unite to confront and solve our problems, considerable and consequential though they are, we will once again meet our promise to each other and to the world.
Both presidents will have entered their first terms "under great and peculiar difficulty," as Lincoln said in his First Inaugural. With seven states having already seceded from the Union, who would covet the awesome task that Lincoln faced? With an economy in crisis and recession, who would covet the awesome task that Obama faces?
The one of ungainly countenance, with a high-pitched Kentucky accent, the other handsome and possessive of a resonant tenor. The one hoping to avoid a war, the other vowing to end a war. But at their core, these two men have this in common: instinct and intellect commensurate with their presidential obligations and their aspirations for the United States.
Lincoln understood that unity is essential: "We are not enemies, but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection."
Obama understands too: "The American story is about rejecting fear and division for unity of purpose. That's how we’ll emerge from this crisis stronger and more prosperous than we were before—as one nation, as one people."
And we will realize, in our own time, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.