In the Capitol Rotunda today, President Obama paid homage to the predecessor he admires most. "What Lincoln never forgot, not even in the midst of civil war, was that despite all that divided us -- north and south, black and white -- we were, at heart, one nation and one people, sharing a bond as Americans that could not break." Obama observed that he was speaking in a building constructed in part by slaves and immigrants, and that Lincoln insisted the work go on during the Civil War, even though the metal supporting the Capitol Dome might have been used for bullets.
