With malice toward none, with charity for all, ...let us strive on to finish the work we are in, ...to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, Mar. 4, 1865 16th president of US (1809 - 1865)
A year ago the world expected that Democrats would easily elect Hillary Clinton their nominee for president. It was a coronation we were told. Yet today she will concede the nomination to the junior senator from Illinois, Barack Obama. It hasn't been a civil war, but at times it's seemed close. Passions have run high, and the stakes couldn't be higher.
None of us are likely to see another contest of these proportions again in our lifetimes, but then again, none of us are likely to face a time when America was in such dire need of change.
So, Hillary will withdraw, and as Democrats we will have to come together if we are going to forge a positive future for the country we all love. As any Obama supporter will attest, the power of this particular campaign lies in the boundless capacity of the American people. How we welcome and support those who most cherished the idea of Hillary in the White House will send a powerful message. How graceful can Obama supporters be in victory? Because if we can now overcome the divisions of this tumultuous contest, we may in the years ahead overcome the divisions of these long and divisive years in American life.
Where today we welcome our cherished fellow democrats to the Obama campaign, in less than a year we will welcome our cherished fellow Americans to the Obama administration. After a near generation of divisive politics which have shaken our union to its foundations, we have the opportunity to re-unite the nation and again lead the world.
The opportunity before us, like the battle we have just left behind will not likely come again in our lives. A powerful vision of America is emerging; one based on fairness, universal opportunity and authentic American leadership. To make that vision a reality, America can't be divided. Thus, Democrats must unite today to win the right to govern. The future and the power of this rare and precious opportunity demand that we stop dividing over past slights, however dear, and begin uniting for our children and our nation.
Each of us has told himself or herself what they would like to be, what they would like the future to be. We are now looking at the distance between ourselves as we are and ourselves as we can be. It is our opportunity to recognize in each other the distance between what our nation is and what it can be. The ethos of "you're on your own", has run its course in American life, and we now have the opportunity to close the compassion gap, to truly live in an America where we're all in it together.
In the end, this isn't about Hillary's health care plan, or Obama's energy policy. It isn't about Iraq, or a divisive primary, or even the grave threats to the constitution. It's about remaking America in the image of our highest natures, and in the process discovering our best selves. It is about the opportunity to live and die with no gift left ungiven, no challenge left unmet, and no regret for what we might have done, who we might have been.
Hillary is a great Democrat, a great American and a great competitor. Nothing that has happened in the last year speaks against that. This moment and this opportunity, if we come together, can renew the promise of America for generations to come. And when we Democrats unite to win the White House and then govern with strength, wisdom, and honor, we will fulfill the promise that each of us was born with and generations to come will reap the benefits of the work we do together.
With malice towards none, we will unite, we will win the White House, and we will do the hard work necessary for America once again to lead the world by example.