FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                                                                                  CONTACT: Erin McNeill

February 10, 2009                                                                                                                  (617) 722-1551

Senator Marc Pacheco hails 200^th anniversary of President Lincoln’s birthday,

notes parallels with today’s historic White House

 The Massachusetts state Senate and House of Representatives will hold a joint session on Thursday, Feb. 12 to mark the 200^th birthday of Abraham Lincoln, the president who penned the Emancipation Proclamation.

 State Sen. Marc R. Pacheco, (D-Taunton) is pleased to note that the celebration honoring a pivotal American leader comes just as the United States enters a new era under the leadership of the nation’s first African-American president.

 “During Lincoln’s presidency, the nation was nearly torn apart over the question of slavery. Today, the first African-American president hails from the very same state that, 200 years ago, gave us the man who ended slavery in the United States. Our country’s journey has been one of both highs and lows.  Sometimes it takes us a while, but eventually we reach our destination.”

 Pacheco noted that in 1848, Abraham Lincoln, then a congressman from Illinois and a leader of the Whig party, traveled to Taunton to campaign on behalf of Whig party candidates.  The Whig party eventually collapsed over the issue of allowing the spread of slavery into the territories.

 During Thursday’s joint session, a student from Dorchester’s Codman Academy Charter School will recite the Gettysburg Address.