OBAMA Y LA BIBLIA DE LINCOLN:UN CANTO A LA UNIÓN Y LA LIBERTAD

 obama-Lilncoln

Siguiendo en la línea de todo el halo histórico que arropa la llegada de Obama a la Casa Blanca, el Comité Presidencial de Investidura (PIC) anunció hace unos días que el futuro presidente jurará su cargo sobre la Biblia que empleó Abraham Lincoln en su primera investidura el 4 de marzo de 1861.

Será la primera ocasión desde entonces en la que un presidente jure su cargo sobre ese histórico ejemplar, encuadernado en terciopelo púrpura ,  con los bordes metalizados bañados en oro, que se conserva en la Biblioteca del Congreso.

Truth met with President Abraham Lincoln on October 29, 1864.
This painting of the meeting was done after Truth’s death by Albion (Michigan) artist, Franklin Courter.
Lincoln is portrayed showing Truth the “Lincoln Bible,”   presented to him by the “colored people” of Baltimore

La intención es clara

The Bible that Abraham Lincoln was sworn in on is part of the collections of the Library of Congress. There is no constitutional requirement for the use of a Bible during the swearing-in, but Presidents have traditionally used Bibles for the ceremony, often selecting one with personal or historical significance.

President-elect Obama will be the first President sworn in using the Lincoln Bible since its initial use in 1861. Use of this Bible will connect the President-elect to the past and heritage of Lincoln’s time.

The Bible is bound in burgundy velvet with a gold-washed white metal rim around the three outside edges of both covers. All its edges are heavily gilded. In the center of the top cover is a shield of gold wash over white metal with the words ‘Holy Bible’ chased into it. The book is 15 cm long, 10 cm wide, and 4.5 cm deep when closed. The 1,280-page Bible was published in 1853 by the Oxford University Press. Annotated in the back of the volume, along with the Seal of the Supreme Court, is the following: ‘I, William Thomas Carroll, clerk of the said court do hereby certify that the preceding copy of the Holy Bible is that upon which the Honble. R. B. Taney, Chief Justice of the said Court, administered to His Excellency, Abraham Lincoln, the oath of office as President of the United States …

From the transition team:

‘The Lincoln Inaugural Bible will be on display at the Library of Congress February 12th to May 9th, 2009, as part of an exhibition titled “With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition.” The exhibit will then travel to five other American cities. The Library is planning several other events and programming in commemoration of the bicentennial of the birth of the nation’s 16th president, who was born on February 12th, 1809. On March 4, 2009, the 147th anniversary of Lincoln’s first inauguration, the Library of Congress will also be convening an all-day symposium with several renowned Lincoln scholars.”

President-elect Barack Obama will take the oath of office on January 20, resting his hand on the same bible that President Abraham Lincoln did.  How fitting it is.

Both Obama and Lincoln were from Illinois.  However, the telling story is the symbolic one, the fact that Obama, who will be the Nation’s first African-American President, will take the ooath on the Bible of the President that freed African-Americans from the stain of slavery.

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La ceremonia de investidura que se celebrará el mediodía del 20 de enero en la escalinata del Capitolio será la culminación de cuatro días de celebraciones a los que se prevén que acudan la cifra récord de cinco millones de personas y más de 60.000 voluntarios por lo que las autoridades extreman las medidas de seguridad en las que intervienen el servicio secreto, la Policía del Capitolio y el Comité Presidencial de Investidura.

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Inaugural Bible, 1861

The Holy Bible.
Oxford: 1853
Rare Book & Special Collections Division
Gift of Mrs. Robert Todd Lincoln, 1928

Chief Justice Roger B. Taney administered the oath of office to Abraham Lincoln using the Bible shown here. With the brief words, “I, Abraham Lincoln, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” Lincoln was sworn in as the sixteenth president. The ceremony was witnessed by Clerk of the Supreme Court, William Thomas Carroll, who recorded the occasion in the back of this Bible.

Additional Views:
William H. Seward (1801-1872)
Holograph notes on Lincoln’s inaugural
address, 1861
Manuscript Division (3.6)