Click here to see an open letter from the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission Liaison.
An Open Letter from
Michael P. Riccards
February 12, 2009, marks the bicentennial anniversary of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States. Numerous polls of American historians have ranked the Civil War executive as the greatest president that the nation has had; his emancipation of the slave population in slave states and his determined efforts to end involuntary servitude everywhere by Constitutional amendments mark him as an international figure in the expansion of liberty.
The Congress has created an Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission in Washington, DC, which is coordinating activities in commemorating that birthday. On April 16, 2008, Governor Jon Corzine of New Jersey appointed me to be our state’s liaison to that Commission. Locally, we have created a website that gives one a complete listing of the national commission’s ongoing activities, and it also includes links to the websites of other states besides New Jersey that are planning activities. I urge you to look at both the national and the state activities. I want also to solicit information and notices of activities being planned in New Jersey to honor Abraham Lincoln over the next year or so.
Those wishing to contact me can call me at the Hall Institute of Public Policy at 609-392-2237 or email me at mriccards@gmail.com. I welcome your ideas and contributions to this common national celebration, for in understanding Lincoln more, we understand the nation and our way of government better.
I want to express my thanks to the Hall Institute of Public Policy for its support of this important activity, which is indeed associated with its commitment to public education and enlightenment. I am also grateful to Jarrett E. Chapin for staff support, to Richard A. Lee for publicity, and to Diana M. Riccards for research and development. It is for all of us a labor of love.
Dr. Michael P. Riccards
