Lincoln Memorial

摘要

"One of the greatest events of mod-ern times" was how The Economist described the election of the new president. "No one should doubt the magnitude of what [he] achieved", we went on to say, 150 years later. The first quotation is taken from our article of November 1860 on Abraham Lincoln's ascension to America's presidency; the second from our leader on the victory that put Barack Obama in the White House. Our hope that Lincoln's victory was "no mere accidental fluctuation of public opinion in the direction of the anti-slavery cause" proved well-founded and his presidency set America on a longrnand painful course that eventually saw a black man hold his inaugural celebration at a memorial built in Lincoln's honour.