The Last Battle of the American Civil War

Do you know who the last US President to call Illinois his political home was.

The Answer may change tonight with the election of Barack Obama, but at this point the last one was Abraham Lincoln.

The American people may vote for a leader who is African American, a leader who has limited experience of national politics and a leader with a young family from a poor background who has pulled himself up with hard work and represented the poor as a lawyer.

Lincoln was not African American but he was the rest, he had limited federal experience, was married with a young family who only one of his sons lived passed his childhood, was born in a log cabin in Kentucky and worked as a lawyer representing the poor.

The very fact that today America gets to vote for an African American is thanks to Lincoln and the many thousands of Americans who fought and died in the Civil War, it is thanks to the men and women who saw slavery as an abomination and it is thanks to the many people who risked their lives to help fugitive slaves stay safe.

Lincoln and Obama have one last thing in common, both in their own way are figures in the American Civil War, Lincoln President at its start and if all goes well Obama the President at its end.

Because today could be seen as the Last Battle of the American Civil War.