Public Laws ENACTED DURING THE
FIRST SESSION OF THE EIGHTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday, January 3, 1961, and adjourned sine die on Wednesday, September 27, 1961. Until noon January 20, 1961, DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, President; RICHARD M. NIXON, Vice President; SAM RAYBURN, Speaker of the House of Representatives; from January 20, 1961, JOHN F. KENNEDY, President; LYNDON B. JOHNSON, Vice President; SAM RAYBURN, Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Public Law 87-1 JOINT RESOLUTION To create a joint committee to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the first inaugural of Abraham Lincoln.
Whereas Saturday, March 4, 1961, will mark the centenary of Abraham Lincoln's taking the oath of office as sixteenth President of the United States; and Whereas the anniversary will be widely observed and noted throughout this land and overseas; and Whereas the occasion will coincide with exercises commemorative of the American Civil W a r of 1861-1865; and Whereas Mr. Lincoln stood at the head of the Government of the United States and its Armed Forces during those years of tragedy and travail; and Whereas he foresaw the difficulty of the task before him as "greater than that which rested on Washington"; and Whereas he sought the guidance of Almighty God, saying, "Without the assistance of that Divine Being... I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail."; and Whereas one who stood in the audience at his first inauguration would later write, "the shouts which have resounded for him at the Capitol are still ringing in my ears."; and Whereas from a wooden platform, projected from the eastern portico, beneath an unfinished dome, he pleaded and reasoned that day for reconciliation and the preservation of the Union, saying:
March 1, 1961 iH' J» Re». 155]
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