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| 1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| 2 | WHEREAS, The Honorable Barack Obama of Illinois was elected | ||||||
| 3 | the 44th President of the United States on November 4, 2008; | ||||||
| 4 | and
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| 5 | WHEREAS, Although other Illinoisans have been elected to | ||||||
| 6 | the nation's highest office, Barack Obama is the first person, | ||||||
| 7 | since Abraham Lincoln, to be elected President of the United | ||||||
| 8 | States while a citizen of Illinois; and
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| 9 | WHEREAS, Barack Obama served in the Illinois General | ||||||
| 10 | Assembly as a State Senator from 1997 until 2005; and
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| 11 | WHEREAS, The Republican side of the aisle in the Chamber of | ||||||
| 12 | the Illinois House of Representatives is marked by a portrait | ||||||
| 13 | of Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican and Illinoisan to | ||||||
| 14 | serve as President of the United States; and
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| 15 | WHEREAS, The Democratic side of the aisle in the Chamber of | ||||||
| 16 | the Illinois House of Representatives is marked by a portrait | ||||||
| 17 | of Senator Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln's political rival, who | ||||||
| 18 | defeated Lincoln in a race for the United States Senate in | ||||||
| 19 | Illinois in 1858, and who was an important leader of Illinois | ||||||
| 20 | Democrats in the antebellum period; and
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| 1 | WHEREAS, Although Senator Douglas received his party's | ||||||
| 2 | nomination for President of the United States in the 1860 | ||||||
| 3 | election, he was not elected to that post; and
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| 4 | WHEREAS, Other Illinoisans have sought, unsuccessfully, | ||||||
| 5 | the office of President of the United States in the period | ||||||
| 6 | since the Lincoln administration; and
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| 7 | WHEREAS, the election of a President from our State is a | ||||||
| 8 | rare event of epic importance; therefore, be it
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| 9 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | ||||||
| 10 | NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that a | ||||||
| 11 | portrait of President Barack Obama should be commissioned to | ||||||
| 12 | replace the portrait of Senator Douglas and to serve as a | ||||||
| 13 | visible marker of the Democratic side of the aisle in the | ||||||
| 14 | Chamber of the Illinois House of Representatives; and be it | ||||||
| 15 | further
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| 16 | RESOLVED, That the portrait of Senator Douglas should be | ||||||
| 17 | moved to another appropriate and dignified location within the | ||||||
| 18 | Illinois State Capitol, where it will continue to be displayed | ||||||
| 19 | in tribute to Senator Douglas's position as a historical figure | ||||||
| 20 | of the utmost importance in the development of the American | ||||||
| 21 | nation.
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