Abraham Lincoln once wrote: 

"Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation….We -- even we here -- hold the power, and bear the responsibility…We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth."

Fellow Republicans, we, too, cannot escape history. In our hands, thanks to your efforts, is once again the power and the responsibility of government. In our hands is Lincoln's legacy; a nation that is still the last best hope on earth.

There is so much in Lincoln's life, and Lincoln's words, that is relevant to our lives today. Let us recall some other words of Lincoln's: the conclusion of his Second Inaugural Address. This is what he said:

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."