Public Law 87–1

JOINT RESOLUTION

To create a joint committee to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the first inaugural of Abraham Lincoln.

Whereas Saturday, March 4, 1961, will mark the centenary of Abraham Lincoln’s taking the oath of office as sixteenth President of the United States; and

Whereas the anniversary will be widely observed and noted throughout this land and overseas; and

Whereas the occasion will coincide with exercises commemorative of the American Civil War of 1861–1865; and

Whereas Mr. Lincoln stood at the head of the Government of the United States and its Armed Forces during those years of tragedy and travail; and

Whereas he foresaw the difficulty of the task before him as “greater than that which rested on Washington”; and

Whereas he sought the guidance of Almighty God, saying, “Without the assistance of that Divine Being … I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail.”; and

Whereas one who stood in the audience at his first inauguration would later write, “the shouts which have resounded for him at the Capitol are still ringing in my ears.”; and

Whereas from a wooden platform, projected from the eastern portico, beneath an unfinished dome, he pleaded and reasoned that day for reconciliation and the preservation of the Union, saying:

“I take the official oath today, with no mental reservations, and with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws, by any hypercritical rules …. I hold, that in contemplation of universal law, and of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual …. It is safe to say that no government proper, ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination …. Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our national fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, would it not be wise to ascertain precisely why we do it? Will you hazard so desperate a step, while there is any possibility that any portion of the ills you fly from, have no real existence? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to, are greater than all the real ones you fly from? Will you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake? … Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wire may be divorced, and go out of the presence, and beyond the reach of each other; but the different parts of our country cannot do this. They cannot but remain face to face; and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between them …. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”; and

Whereas the better angels do, in fact, touch us: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

Approved March 1, 1961.