HR0016 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0016 LRB096 03131 JDS 13147 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The Honorable Barack Obama of Illinois was elected the 44th President of the United States on November 4, 2008; and

WHEREAS, Although other Illinoisans have been elected to the nation's highest office, Barack Obama is the first person, since Abraham Lincoln, to be elected President of the United States while a citizen of Illinois; and

WHEREAS, Barack Obama served in the Illinois General Assembly as a State Senator from 1997 until 2005; and

WHEREAS, The Republican side of the aisle in the Chamber of the Illinois House of Representatives is marked by a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican and Illinoisan to serve as President of the United States; and

WHEREAS, The Democratic side of the aisle in the Chamber of the Illinois House of Representatives is marked by a portrait of Senator Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln's political rival, who defeated Lincoln in a race for the United States Senate in Illinois in 1858, and who was an important leader of Illinois Democrats in the antebellum period; and

WHEREAS, Although Senator Douglas received his party's nomination for President of the United States in the 1860 election, he was not elected to that post; and

WHEREAS, Other Illinoisans have sought, unsuccessfully, the office of President of the United States in the period since the Lincoln administration; and

WHEREAS, the election of a President from our State is a rare event of epic importance; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that a portrait of President Barack Obama should be commissioned to replace the portrait of Senator Douglas and to serve as a visible marker of the Democratic side of the aisle in the Chamber of the Illinois House of Representatives; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the portrait of Senator Douglas should be moved to another appropriate and dignified location within the Illinois State Capitol, where it will continue to be displayed in tribute to Senator Douglas's position as a historical figure of the utmost importance in the development of the American nation.