BILL NUMBER: ACR 127 CHAPTERED
BILL TEXT
RESOLUTION CHAPTER 8
FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE MARCH 3, 2016
ADOPTED IN SENATE FEBRUARY 29, 2016
ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY FEBRUARY 12, 2016
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY FEBRUARY 12, 2016
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY FEBRUARY 9, 2016
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Baker
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Achadjian, Alejo, Atkins, Bigelow,
Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Campos, Chang, Chau,
Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Daly, Eggman, Frazier, Gallagher,
Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez,
Gordon, Gray, Hadley, Harper, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer,
Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes,
McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, Olsen,
Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Weber, Wilk, Williams,
and Wood)
JANUARY 28, 2016
Relative to Abraham Lincoln's birthday.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
ACR 127, Baker. Abraham Lincoln's birthday.
This measure would declare that President Abraham Lincoln be
honored on February 12, 2016, the anniversary of his birthday.
WHEREAS, Abraham Lincoln the 16th President of the United States,
and one of our nation's most respected and admired Americans, rose
from humble beginnings to become President of the United States and
courageously led his country during its darkest time, the Civil War;
and
WHEREAS, President Lincoln brought a profound honesty and
integrity to the Office of the President, and will always be
remembered as "Honest Abe." Most of all, he will forever be
associated with saving the Union and with the abolition of slavery;
and
WHEREAS, President Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809,
in Kentucky, and spent the first seven years of his life there; and
WHEREAS, In his entire life, President Lincoln was only able to
attend school for a total of one year. This lack of formal education
only made him hungrier for more knowledge, and he mastered the Bible,
the works of William Shakespeare, and the law; and
WHEREAS, In 1846, he was elected to the United States Congress as
the only member of the Whig Party in the Illinois congressional
delegation, where he forthrightly articulated his views against the
Mexican War and his vehement opposition to the extension of slavery,
choosing not to run for reelection in 1848; and
WHEREAS, Soon after President Lincoln joined the Republican Party,
a new political party opposed to the extension of slavery, in 1858
the Republicans nominated him for the United States Senate. In his
nomination acceptance speech, Lincoln stated: "A house divided
against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure,
permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to
be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect
it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the
other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread
of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief
that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates
will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States,
old as well as new -- North as well as South." He lost in a close
election to Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate; and
WHEREAS, Just two years later, having won the Republican party
nomination for President of the United States, President Lincoln won
election by a small margin, defeating, among other candidates,
Senator Stephen Douglas; and
WHEREAS, Shortly after assuming office, the Civil War began. As
the war continued, President Lincoln expanded the objectives of the
war beyond saving and restoring the Union, but also to freeing the
slaves and abolishing the institution of slavery; and
WHEREAS, On September 22, 1862, President Lincoln took the first
major step toward the total abolition of slavery in the United States
by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect on
January 1, 1863; and
WHEREAS, President Lincoln enunciated the nation's loftiest ideals
during its darkest moment following the bloodiest battle of the
Civil War. His Gettysburg Address, regarded as one of the finest
speeches in the English language, was delivered by him at Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania, on November 19, 1863, while dedicating a cemetery for
those killed in the Battle of Gettysburg, which took place from July
1 to July 3, 1863, between the Army of the Potomac and the Army of
Northern Virginia; and
WHEREAS, In his Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln reaffirmed
the nation's foremost founding principles, declaring the United
States to be a nation "conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal," while assuring a nation
still consumed by war "that this nation, under God, shall have a new
birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people,
for the people, shall not perish from the earth"; and
WHEREAS, To ensure that the provisions of the Emancipation
Proclamation could not be construed as a mere wartime measure,
President Lincoln insisted that enactment of a constitutional
amendment abolishing slavery be included in the 1864 Republican Party
platform; and
WHEREAS, Upon reelection to a second term as President in 1864,
President Lincoln actively supported the passage in Congress of what
became the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, with the
copy of the joint resolution referring the 13th Amendment to the
states for ratification, which to this day is housed in the National
Archives, actually bearing President Lincoln's signature, even though
the President has no formal constitutional role in the amendment
process, and joint resolutions do not go to the White House for
either signature or approval; and
WHEREAS, President Lincoln ultimately reunified the nation and
brought about a successful conclusion to our nation's bloodiest war,
as the Civil War ended on April 9, 1865, with the surrender of
General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia to the Union
General, Ulysses S. Grant, at Appomattox Court House; and
WHEREAS, Only five days later, on April 14, 1865, President
Lincoln was shot while viewing a performance of "Our American Cousin"
at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., and died the next day, not
living to see his dreams of the formal abolition of slavery and the
restoration of the Union realized; and
WHEREAS, President Lincoln's accomplishments and legacy as the
"Great Emancipator" and "Preserver of Our Union" are perhaps
unsurpassed in the history of our nation, and it is particularly
appropriate to recognize President Lincoln, a portrait of whom hangs
in a place of honor in the Assembly Chamber; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby declares that
President Abraham Lincoln be honored on February 12, 2016, the
anniversary of his birthday, not only in recognition of his numerous
accomplishments and contributions to our nation, but also as the
virtual symbol of the American dream, whereby an ordinary person from
the most humble beginnings can reach the pinnacle of American
society to be elected President, and to serve his country with honor
and courage; and be it further
Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.