OFFICE OF THE MAYOR
CITY OF CHICAGO
RAHM EMANUEL MAYOR
PROCLAMATION
WHEREAS, widely heralded by scholars and residents as one of the top three U.S. Presidents of all time, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States is one of Illinois' favorite and most venerated sons; and
WHEREAS, since the onset of his successful legal and political career and the start of his family in the "Prairie State," the State of Illinois has long been referred to as the "Land of Lincoln;" and
WHEREAS, the City of Chicago stands as the heart - a world-renown hub for art, culture and industry - ofthe State of Illinois; and
WHEREAS, Abraham Lincoln, won the nomination for the U.S. presidency at the Republican National Convention held at the 'Wigwam' (Lake Street near the River) in Chicago in 1860; and
WHEREAS, Abraham Lincoln successfully led the United States through the American Civil War thereby maintaining the Union, and also shepherded a "new birth of freedom" for the United States of America with the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation and the passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution; and
WHEREAS, Abraham Lincoln was a visionary, whose remarkable work resulted in the creation of the Medal of Honor, our system of land grant universities across the United States which eventually established the University of Illinois and the Homestead Act which settled the United States' western frontier as well as the Pacific Railway Act linking the eastern and western United States via railroad, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Academy of Sciences and complete nationalization of the U.S. monetary system; and
WHEREAS, Abraham Lincoln was shot down by an assassin's bullet on April 14, 1865 and died a national hero at 7:22 a.m. on April 15, 1865 - the first American president to be assassinated -sacrificing his life that the nation might live; and
WHEREAS, Chicago Mayor F. C. Sherman and the Chicago City Council, then the Common Council, passed a resoluti...
Click here for full text