IV 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 149 
Calling upon the Capitol Preservation Commission and the Office of the 
Architect of the Capitol to place the Lincoln-Obama Bible and a copy 
of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address on permanent display upon the 
Lincoln table at the Capitol Visitor Center for the benefit of all its 
visitors to fully understand and appreciate America’s history and Godly 
heritage. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 11, 2009 
Mr. FORBES (for himself, Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia, Mr. BOOZMAN, Mr. 
ROTHMAN of New Jersey, Mr. WAMP, Mr. CALVERT, Mr. HERGER, Mr. 
LAMBORN, Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey, and Mr. MARSHALL) submitted 
the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
on House Administration 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Calling upon the Capitol Preservation Commission and the 
Office of the Architect of the Capitol to place the Lin-
coln-Obama Bible and a copy of Lincoln’s Second Inau-
gural Address on permanent display upon the Lincoln 
table at the Capitol Visitor Center for the benefit of 
all its visitors to fully understand and appreciate Amer-
ica’s history and Godly heritage. 
Whereas each one of the 43 presidents of the United States 
since George Washington on April 30, 1789, has com-
menced his term of office by placing his hand upon the 
Holy Bible and solemnly swearing or affirming the Con-
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•HCON 149 IH 
stitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of Presi-
dent of the United States and to the best of his ability, 
preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the 
United States; 
Whereas each President, after taking the oath of office, has 
repeated President Washington’s petition prayer seeking 
divine help by saying, ‘‘So help me God’’; 
Whereas Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United 
States, has chosen to swear his Constitutional oath by 
placing his hand on the Holy Bible that the 16th Presi-
dent, Abraham Lincoln, used at his first inauguration on 
March 4, 1861; 
Whereas in Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, one of the 
most profound theological statements in American his-
tory, he referred to God 14 times, to verses in the Holy 
Bible 4 times, and invoked prayer 3 times in 701 words; 
Whereas the Lincoln Presidency tested the self-evident truths 
contained in the Declaration of Independence; 
Whereas the Civil War became the test of whether our Nation 
could endure as ‘‘a nation, conceived in liberty and dedi-
cated to the proposition that all men are created equal’’; 
Whereas President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Procla-
mation, and before his assassination on April 14, 1865, 
witnessed Congress pass the 13th amendment to the 
Constitution, which forever ended slavery in the United 
States fulfilling the Founding Fathers’ assertion made 89 
years earlier that all men are created equal; 
Whereas since the Civil War much has been accomplished in 
the struggle for civil rights; 
Whereas while much has yet to be done, we can take enor-
mous satisfaction in the fact that the election of Barack 
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•HCON 149 IH 
Obama to the Presidency represents that today, we truly 
are a ‘‘nation, conceived in liberty’’ and dedicated to the 
self-evident truths ‘‘that all men are created equal, that 
they are endowed by their Creator with certain 
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty 
and the pursuit of Happiness’’; 
Whereas with the Obama inauguration on January 20, 2009, 
we, with God’s help, rededicate ourselves anew to the 
eternal tasks before us necessary to ensure for genera-
tions to come that our ‘‘government of the people, by the 
people, for the people shall not perish from the earth’’; 
Whereas the Lincoln Bible which Obama selected for his oath 
of office represents the powerful 144-year epoch of the 
civil rights struggle from Lincoln to Obama; 
Whereas the people of the United States deserve the oppor-
tunity to see the ‘‘Lincoln-Obama Bible’’ and con-
template it as a witness to history; and 
Whereas the very table that President Lincoln used at his 
second inauguration is on permanent display at the Cap-
itol Visitor Center: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That Congress calls upon the Capitol Preser-
vation Commission and the Office of the Architect of the 
Capitol to place the Lincoln-Obama Bible and a copy of 
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address on permanent display 
upon the Lincoln table at the Capitol Visitor Center for 
the benefit of all its visitors to fully understand and appre-
ciate America’s history and Godly heritage. 
Æ 
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