Being a lifelong Republican, I feel as if I’ve always known Abraham Lincoln, but going to the U.S. Congress in 1971, I met the real Lincoln as I began to read about and understand his indefatigable leadership on behalf of the Union, his eloquence and magnanimity at Gettysburg, and his inspiration and courage in ending slavery.

Lincoln rarely spoke without mentioning the eternal ideals of democracy in the Declaration of Independence, his faith in the desire of all people to better their condition, and the universal essence of the American dream.

His Homestead Act and Morrill Land Grant College Act, among others, were guided by his lodestar of equality and opportunity and remind us on the eve of the twenty-first century that all people, everywhere, must have the right to dream, to be free, and to pursue happiness. It is only in this framework that we may truly practice “charity for all.”