昨天是總統節(2/15/2016) 總統看總統，會喜歡那個總統呢？歐巴馬說他喜歡林肯…….
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總統節快樂！上周我到伊利諾伊州，有機會想一下我最喜歡的總統是誰？讓我想到出身伊利諾伊州的林肯。
林肯在當時並不像今天那麼受人肯定，他沒有接受正統的學校教育，他的生意與律師執業也不成功，他在國會只任職一期就離開，因為他反對美國與墨西哥打仗，損傷了他的名聲。但是有件事發生，搖撼了他的良知。議會有效地推翻密蘇里協定，這是個有瑕疵的法律，在北方禁止奴隸，又在南方合法化。
接下來六年，他跟Stephen Douglas等人，在奴隸議題上，有很多辯論。就在舊的國會大廳階梯上，他說出了有名的一段話，：「一個分裂的家，無法繼續；這個政府，一半奴隸，一半自由，是無法永續經營的。」
林肯繼續下去，成為了第一位共和黨總統。我相信是最偉大的總統。透過他的意志，他的話語，特別是他的人格，他將一個國家凝結在一起，並讓人民自由。
晚上，有時我會走過大廳，到林肯曾用來做辦公室的房間，裏頭還放著蓋茲堡演說的原件，幾句話常在我心，這些話界定了美國建國實驗。「一個新的國家，在自由精神中孕育出來，獻給所有人都是生而平等的理念。」這段話，林肯比任何人更有感覺。他深知要實現這段話，所需要的重擔。他瞭解透過辛勞與犧牲，我們的國家才得以建立，而自由才得以保存。
Happy Presidents Day, everyone! Last week, I traveled back to Springfield, Illinois – where I got a chance to reflect a little bit on my favorite president and fellow Illinoisan - Abraham Lincoln.
As I said there, Lincoln wasn't always the giant of history that we think of today. He didn't have formal schooling. His businesses and his law practice often struggled. He left Congress after just one term because his opposition to the Mexican-American War damaged his reputation. But then, something happened that shook his conscience. Congress effectively overturned the Missouri Compromise, that flawed law that had prohibited slavery in the North and legalized it in the South.
Over the next six years, his arguments with Stephen Douglas and others helped shape the national debate around slavery. And it was on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield where he uttered those brilliant words, that "A house divided against itself cannot stand;" and that "this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free."
Lincoln went on to become the first Republican President, and I believe our greatest president. Through his will, his words, and most of all, his character, he held a nation together and helped free a people.
Late at night, I sometimes walk down the hall to a room Lincoln used as his office that contains an original copy of the Gettysburg address. I linger on a few words that have helped define our American experiment: "A new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Lincoln grasped, maybe more than anyone, the burdens required to give those words meaning. And he understood that it is through the toil and sacrifice of ordinary men and women that our country is built and freedom is preserved.
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