SPRINGFIELD | In a handbill to voters during his first campaign more than 176 years ago, Abraham Lincoln wrote, "I am young and unknown to many of you. I was born and have ever remained in the most humble walks of life."
That's a legacy Barack Obama hopes to tap when he returns to the Land of Lincoln today.
Lincoln lost that race for the state Legislature. But 30 years later, the log-cabin-born, self-taught man from Springfield got himself elected president, salvaged the nation from the Civil War and set in motion an end to slavery.
"A Hollywood scriptwriter couldn't produce Lincoln's life," said historian Kim Bauer, who runs Decatur's Lincoln Heritage Project.
So why wouldn't Obama, the Illinois senator whom Democrats plan to nominate for president next week in Denver, want to evoke such "mystic chords of memory" on his way west?
The nation's first major-party black nominee will appear at Springfield's Old State Capitol, where Lincoln served and later delivered his famous "House Divided" speech -- which foretold slavery's demise -- 150 years ago this summer.
Obama announced his groundbreaking campaign at the same site in February 2007, and will introduce his vice presidential nominee there.
"When you think of an African-American presidential candidate, it closes the loop that Lincoln opened, which was about human equality, about the worthiness of every person," said Greg Koos, executive director of the McLean County Museum of History in Bloomington. "It resonates powerfully for people."
It's also good politics, said state Sen. Kirk Dillard, a Hinsdale Republican whose wife, Stephanie, is the great-great-granddaughter of former GOP Gov. Richard Oglesby, who nominated Lincoln for president and bestowed on him his nickname, "The Railsplitter."
"There are multiple reasons why Senator Obama chooses a Lincoln site, including covering for his short time in Illinois, trying to show people who are leery that he has Midwestern values and trying to draw a parallel on experience between he and Lincoln since both made a gigantic, quick step toward the presidency," Dillard said.
Born in Hawaii, Obama lived abroad before heading to Chicago about a quarter-century ago to work as a community organizer. After 10 years in the state Senate, he is four years into his first term in the U.S. Senate.
Lincoln lived in Illinois 30 years before he was elected president, having served eight years in the Legislature and one term in Congress.
"A presidential race is to a great extent about symbolism," Koos said. "Barack Obama has demonstrated he has the ability to evoke potent and powerful symbols about the highest office that anyone can achieve in the United States."
