SPRINGFIELD (25 News Now) – The state budget is one of the biggest pieces of legislation worked on by Illinois lawmakers every year.

Tuesday, House Republicans announced their budget team and established their priorities for the coming year.

House Minority Leader Tony McCombie says she wants the process to include bipartisan effort, transparency and mutual respect.

Rep. Norine Hammond (R-Macomb) wants to be the chief budgeteer for House Republicans.

She says Illinois needs real tax reform and she wants to eliminate the franchise tax on employers and provide property tax relief.

Rep. Hammond will work with Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth (D-Peoria), the chief budgeteer for the House Democrats.

Copyright 2023 WEEK. All rights reserved.

With talk of a progressive income tax coming up again in the state legislature, Illinois Senate Republicans want everyone to know they’re against it. They filed a resolution on it yesterday. St. Sen. Sue Rezin says voters already said no when it was presented as a constitutional amendment.

https://media.socastsrm.com/wordpress/wp-content/blogs.dir/2775/files/2023/01/rezin-a-012623.mp3

Rezin says the state’s year-over-year general fund receipts went up by $2 billion. That included money from the federal pandemic relief bill.

Sound for this story came from the Illinois Senate Republicans press office.

Added on 01/21/2023
NEPA Scene Staff
actor , country , Jim Thorpe , Penn’s Peak

From a press release:

Academy Award-winning actor Billy Bob Thornton, best known for his roles in films like “Sling Blade,” “A Simple Plan,” “One False Move,” “Bad Santa,” and “Friday Night Lights,” is also a vocalist and musicians. It was announced today that he and his country/Americana rock band The Boxmasters will perform at Penn’s Peak in Jim Thorpe on Thursday, June 22.

Doors at Penn’s Peak (325 Maury Rd., Jim Thorpe) open at 7 pm, and the music starts at 8 pm

Tickets, which are $20 for regular reserved seating and $25 for premium reserved seating, go on sale next Friday, Jan. 27 at 10 am via all Ticketmaster outlets, the Penn’s Peak box office, and Roadies Restaurant and Bar (325 Maury Rd., Jim Thorpe). Box office and Roadies Restaurant ticket sales are walk-up only; no phone orders.

During the shutdown of 2020, the recording studios in Los Angeles were closed for several months. For avid creators Bud (Billy Bob Thornton) and JD Andrew, this was a time to start planning and writing for the day that the studios would open again and what sort of new songs would emerge. Over the course of the next year, The Boxmasters would record three new albums. A very personal album called “Nothing Personal,” which is yet to be released; “Christmas in California,” which was released in November of 2021; and “Help… I’m Alive,” which was released on April 15, 2022 on Keentone Records/Thirty Tigers.

“It’s been difficult for people to live in this world for the past few years. Normally you hear someone cry out, ‘Help, I’m drowning,’ or ‘Help, I’m dying.’ This song is a tongue-in-cheek way of saying, ‘Wow, it sucks being here right now. Help… I’m Alive.’ Well, OK, it’s really not so tongue-in-cheek. I came up with the chorus and melody just walking around the house during lockdown. It just came out in that moment, just as it is on the record. I picked up a guitar and Facetimed JD,” Thornton recalled about the creation of the title track on the album.

“This album was really a cathartic release for us. We were able to be in our favorite place in the world, which is the recording studio, so we made a joyful noise. Meanwhile, there was a lot of pain and suffering and fighting all around us. I lost one of my best friends from childhood who took his own life on one of the days that we were recording, so there are those bits of sadness in these poppy and fun-sounding songs,” Andrew added.

The 2022 Help… I’m Alive Tour ran from April into June and made stops in all areas of the United States. Familiar stops in Kansas City at Knuckleheads, Atlanta, Annapolis, Oregon, and California were joined by new venues in Texas, Wyoming, Ohio, and Kentucky.

“We were having the best tour of our careers last summer before we had to stop due to the coronavirus, so we are very excited to get back out there and in front of the fans,” Andrew said. “We should have some new merchandise as well as a few new songs from both ‘Help… I’m Alive’ as well as new songs that we’ve been writing in the last few months.”

Formed in 2007, The Boxmasters have recorded an impressive and diverse catalog of music that touches on their love of a wide array of influences, but most importantly, the rock and roll of the 1960s. Listening to the band, one can hear obvious odes to The Beatles, Byrds, and Beach Boys, but also important to The Boxmasters are The Mothers of Invention, Kris Kristofferson, John Prine, and Big Star.

Since forming The Boxmasters, several longtime friends have contributed to the sound of the band, but the core of the group has always been Andrew and Thornton. As primary songwriters, the sound of The Boxmasters has been an evolution as the duo constantly strive to find new inspiration, new sounds, and new ways of expressing what is in their hearts and on their minds. But at the core, there is a backbeat, a lyric with meaning and music played with emotion.

As a touring band, The Boxmasters have cultivated a rabid cult fanbase across the United States and Canada. Opening for the likes of ZZ Top, Steve Miller, George Thorogood, and Kid Rock, they have proven to win over large audiences. As a headliner, frequent stops in Kansas City at Knuckleheads, Springfield, Illinois at Boondocks, and Merrimack Hall in Huntsville, Alabama have shown dedicated yet still growing audiences. Two appearances at Levon Helm’s “Midnight Ramble” in Woodstock, New York were highlight performances for the band, as well as the “Ramble at the Ryman” that Levon hosted in 2008. The Boxmasters performed at the Grand Ole Opry in 2015, another in a growing resume of must-play venues.

State Rep. Cyril Nichols interviewed on live Arab American radio in Detroit with host Ray Hanania Friday Dec. 9, 2022 discussed his legislation to grant MBE status to Arab Americans and called on Arab Americans to build coalitions with the region’s African American community. Nichols was interviewing on the US Arab Radio Network on WNZK AM 690 radio in Detroit

In an appearance on the Detroit-based US Arab Radio network broadcast live in Greater Detroit on WNZK AM 690 radio and streamed live on Facebook on Friday, Dec. 9, 2022, Illinois State Rep. Cyril Nichols said that Arab Americans and African Americans can do a better job of working together and understanding each other’s needs.

Nichols, who represents the 32nd Illinois House District which stretches from Chicago to the heart of the Arab American community in Bridgeview and Hickory Hills, said that he hopes that Arab Americans will recognize the importance of legislation he introduced with Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch that would grant Minority Business Enterprises status to Arab Americans.

Nichols introduced the legislation in the Fall Session. The legislation would give Arab American business owners special access to more than 30 percent of the state’s $40 billion in annual contracts, a status that has been granted to Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and women business owners.

So far, Arab Americans have not been able to qualify for state funding in part because of their exclusion from the US Census — everything is driven by Census data — and because they have been marginalized by the state’s governors going back to George Ryan and including through gov. JB Pritzker.

State Rep. Cyril Nichols interviewed on live Arab American radio in Detroit with host Ray Hanania Friday Dec. 9, 2022

NIchols said it was important for the Arab American community to support the MBE program in order for it to be approved.

Nichols said that he patterned the Illinois MBE law for Arab Americans on a similar law adopted in the State of Michigan. During the live radio interview, Nichols took calls from Arab American listeners in the Greater Detroit region.

The radio interview was broadcast live on WNZK AM 690 radio on the US Arab Radio Network and streamed live on Facebook.com/USArabRadio.

Click here to view the interview on Youtube or use the widget below.

Ray Hanania is an award-winning columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.

Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hanania was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.

Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.

Follow RayHanania on Gettr.com, the uncensored Twitter Ray Hanania on Gettr, the new Twitter

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The reason why involves everything from a needy governor and labor leaders who were convinced to be pragmatic rather than greedy, to some legislative discipline and plain old good luck. And the impact on the state and its economy could be significant.

The first measure gives Gov. JB Pritzker a prize that governors of states such as Texas, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan have long enjoyed and venture capitalist Pritzker badly wanted. That’s a huge “deal closing fund”—initially staked at $400 million—that Pritzker can dip into to bring across the finish line potential industrial development deals that are close but not done.

It’s no secret that measure—which also makes it substantially easier to grant tax credits in another state incentive program, Edge—is aimed at expanding the state’s nascent electric-vehicle industry and particularly at convincing Stellantis to reconfigure its soon-to-close Belvidere plant to EV production, perhaps with an adjoining battery plant.

Two earlier waves of incentives pushed by Pritzker proved inadequate. He’s had to watch as new EV plants, chip plants, battery producers, et al. went to Texas, Georgia, Ohio, Michigan, etc., and not Illinois. “The governor has kind of staked his (business) reputation on this,” says a Springfield insider. “They’re desperate to get a big deal.”

Ordinarily, that might not be enough in Springfield, which has morphed into a progressive Democratic stronghold. But organized labor, a key Democratic Constituency, got involved. And hordes of progressive lawmakers who normally might balk at the idea of ​​big “corporate giveaways” were distracted in the just-ended lame-duck legislative session, busy pushing to ban assault weapons, expand abortion rights and the like.

In other words, any potential opposition never had a chance to solidify. And when members of the Legislature’s powerful Black Caucus cleared their throats, the Pritzker folks added a clause banning any state incentives to move the Chicago Bears to Arlington Heights from Soldier Field, which just happens to be in the district of Caucus Chairman Rep. Kam Buckner . Game, set, match, as key lawmakers such as House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, Senate President Don Harmon and House Revenue Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Zalewski, D-Riverside, put the pieces together.

Now, Pritzker—having received absolutely everything he requested—must deliver. I hear some big fish are very close to being reeled in. And he has to deliver without wasting the EV fund money and appearing to play political favorites—problems that long have bested Chicago mayors in distributing funds from their somewhat similar tax increment financing (TIF ) honeypot.

The other bill passed last night effectively extends statewide measures that now apply only in Chicago and suburban Cook County that guarantee workers a week a year of paid leave for illness, family matters or other personal needs.

The measure was introduced long ago, but it arrived at passage stage only in the past few days as part of a deal crafted by its sponsor, the very hard-working Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, D-Peoria.

When union activists pushed to require seven and not five days of paid leave, Gordon-Booth held firm. Ditto when they tried to stack the state’s five days on top of Chicago’s and Cook County’s five days in their turf. As a result, several key business groups cleared the way for passage by agreeing not to oppose the legislation, hoping that it will forestall more costly local measures.

The bill ended up passing by a wide margin without any of the histrionics that occurred when the Chicago law was adopted. As a result, people who badly need the right to bury a loved one, care for a sick kid or get over an illness themselves will be able to do so without losing the income to feed their family.

It is remarkable what people actually can get done when they use their brains and get reasonable. Ergo the anatomy of an, at least, little Springfield miracle. May they soon apply the lesson to other issues.

The Illinois Supreme Court has revealed its timeline for when it plans to hear arguments in the ongoing legal battle over whether or not Illinois will put an end cash bail, officials confirmed Thursday.

According to a court order issued Thursday, oral arguments in the case will be scheduled in March. However, an exact date has not yet been set.

The hearings come after a Kankakee circuit court judge ruled that the elimination of cash bail in the state was unconstitutional, just days before implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act would have taken the practice off the books.

In his ruling, Circuit Judge Thomas Cunnington said the law as written would violate the Separation of Powers Clause and the Victims Rights Act, as well as constituting an unconstitutional amendment of Article 1, Section 9 of the state constitution, which says “all persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties.”

Attorney General Kwame Raoul, one of the named plaintiffs in the case, vowed that the state would appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, which they have since done.

The ruling initially only applied to the 65 counties that had been part of the suit. The state’s Supreme Court later clarified the ruling, saying that no county would be permitted to eliminate cash bail to maintain consistency and fairness.

That ruling was made at the request of the DuPage and Kane County State’s Attorney’s offices.

“Had the SAFE-T Act gone into effect on Jan. 1, 2023, while litigation is pending, the administration of justice in Illinois would have been uneven, thus harming all citizens of the state,” officials said in a statement.

Various briefs in the case, filed by both the plaintiffs and defendants, will be due in the weeks leading up to those hearings, according to the court filing, which can be viewed here.

The bail reforms are just one part of the SAFE-T Act, a wide-ranging set of criminal justice reform measures signed into a law last year, some of which have already taken effect.

Other measures include requiring all police departments to equip officers with body-worn cameras by 2025, expanding services for victims of crimes and changing how people who are incarcerated are counted for redistricting maps.

But eliminating cash bail proved to be the most controversial piece. If it had taken effect, the Pretrial Fairness Act would have made Illinois the first US state to completely eliminate cash bail.

Under the reforms, judges would no longer be able to set a monetary bail that a person charged with a crime could post to be released while their case was pending, a system that critics of cash bail say is inherently unfair and a risk to public safety .

Judges would continue to be tasked with evaluating whether the defendant is a public threat or a flight risk and either order them released with conditions specified by the court or detained in jail.

While supporters say it would make the justice system more equitable, opponents claim it could leave more dangerous people on the street.

Throughout this past election season, Republicans pounced on the Democratic-written SAFE-T Act and bail abolition, aiming to paint liberal opponents as soft on crime.

According to data from other jurisdictions that have already largely eliminated cash bail, defendants have continued to show up for their court dates at a high rate and largely haven’t picked up new charges while on release. Studies also appear to show that the elimination of cash bail does not have a significant impact on crime overall.

The Chicago Sun-Times wire contributed to this story.

Pretrial justice reform was sorely needed in Illinois to address the harm the money bond system has caused Black, Brown, and poor communities. As former public defenders and current clinical law professors, we know firsthand how the money bond system created an unfair, constitutionally-suspect, wealth-based approach to pretrial jailing outcomes.

Legislators took a major step in the right direction by passing The Pretrial Fairness Act in 2021. The legislation, set to go into effect in January, is aimed at reducing incarceration by ending the money bond system in Illinois. The purpose is simple: to ensure that people are not held in jail simply because they cannot afford to buy their freedom. But now, state legislators are considering amendments to the Pretrial Fairness Act that would undercut the purpose of the legislation and exacerbate the very issues the Act is meant to address.

The Pretrial Fairness Act allows people charged with serious crimes to be detained if they pose a flight risk or risk to public safety while limiting the scenarios in which people charged with low-level crimes can be jailed. The Illinois State’s Attorney’s Association has seized upon confusion created by a multi-million dollar misinformation campaign paid for by fringe political advocates to propose changes to the law. Provisions in the proposed amendments would remove the guardrails set up to achieve the law’s goal of reducing pretrial jailing while protecting public safety. The result of adopting these changes would be devastating; they would increase pretrial jailing, worsen racial disparities, and make our communities less safe.

Under the Pretrial Fairness Act, prosecutors are required to show that release would pose “a specific, real, and present threat” to a person or persons. But the proposed amendments allow prosecutors and judges discretion to incarcerate people for indefinite periods of time, based on vague, broad standards that a person poses a general threat to the community.

An essential check on prosecutorial power is limiting which charges are eligible for pretrial detention. Under the current law, as it has existed for years, prosecutors do not have unlimited power to hold people without bail. Holding people without the possibility of monetary release is limited to only the most serious charges.

But if the Illinois State’s Attorney’s Association did its way, people who are charged with low-level crimes and legally presumed innocent could be held in jail for months or even years. Prosecutors would be empowered to ask a judge to jail any person, except of the crime for which they are charged. This is an authority that prosecutors have never had even under the state’s current cash bail system.

Taken together, the expansion of the number of charges eligible for detention and the weakening of the legal standards needed to prove dangerousness would result in a dramatic increase in the number of people detained pretrial, undermining the primary purpose of the Act.

Research confirms that the kind of broad prosecutorial and judicial discretion contained in the proposed legislation would disproportionately impact Black and Brown people and exacerbate racial disparities in Illinois jails.

Studies show that in large urban areas, Black people are over 25 percent more likely to be held pretrial than their white counterparts; young Black men are 50 percent more likely to be detained than whites. According to 2017 data, Black people constituted nearly half of Illinois’ jail population despite making up only 15 percent of the state population. Brown people are also significantly more likely to be detained pretrial than their white counterparts.

The incalculable human cost of pretrial incarceration would make our communities less safe. In addition to producing wrongful convictions, coercive and unfair plea deals, and longer sentences, pretrial detention disrupts interpersonal relationships and community ties and increases the likelihood of future arrests.

Increased incarceration creates devastating collateral consequences for individuals, families, and communities. People experience an average of 34 days of pretrial incarceration in Illinois, with many jailed for far longer, leading to the loss of jobs and housing. If and when people are released, they have been stripped of the means they need to support themselves and their families.

More than helped the people held pretrial are parents of young children. Parental detention causes financial hardships for families and forces children into the foster care system. It traumatizes children due to the effects of family separation on par with divorce, domestic violence, and abuse. We have long known that incarceration does not make us safer; if it did, the United States would be the safest country in the world.

The proposed changes are not “clarifications” or “tightening language.” Instead, they seek to gut the law’s core mechanisms—aimed at reducing the harm the money bond system has caused Black, Brown, and poor communities—and replace them with measures that would increase the power of prosecutors and judges to incarcerate people awaiting trial.

We stand behind the Pretrial Fairness Act, not just because the proposed amendments will lead to increased incarceration and devastation for our communities, but because pretrial justice works in Cook County and in jurisdictions across the country. It is clear to us that the Pretrial Fairness Act is the path to a fairer, safer justice system.

Craig Futterman and Herschella Conyers are clinical law professors at the University of Chicago Law School.

A national champion, Abraham Lincoln found little favor in New Jersey.

While he often passed through, Lincoln’s wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, spent far more time in New Jersey. As the Civil War raged in August 1861, she vacationed at the Jersey Shore.

Seven months earlier, Lincoln made one of his rare public appearances in New Jersey. More of a tour stop, it took place on Feb. 21, 1861 as he made his roundabout trip from Springfield, Illinois to Washington DC ahead of his March 4 inauguration.

Lincoln met crowds in Jersey City, Newark, and New Brunswick before stopping at the statehouse in Trenton. He gave an obligatory address to each half of the legislature. In his brief to the state Senate, Lincoln told legislators how the stories from New Jersey’s Revolutionary War battlefields shaped his world view.

“I recollect thinking then, boy even though I was, that there must have been something more than common that those men struggled for; that something even more than National Independence; that something that held out a great promise to all the people of the world to all time to come,” Lincoln said.

He also vowed to be a representative of the nation as a whole and directly referenced his lack of support in New Jersey.

“This body is composed of a majority of gentlemen who … did not think I was the man. I understand, nevertheless, that they came forward here to greet me as the constitutional President of the United States,” he said.

Admitted to the Illinois bar in 1836, Lincoln started his political career four years earlier in a campaign for the Illinois House of Representatives. In spite of an early loss, Lincoln would spend eight years as a state legislator before setting his sights on the US Congress. He gained his first seat there in 1847. Within two years, he would draft legislation to abolish slavery. By the end of the second year, he returned to Illinois having vowed to serve just a single term. He never introduced his bill, later telling biographer James Quay Howard that his would-be backers were swayed by pro-slavery Congressmen hailing from southern states.

As the antislavery sentiment grew, Lincoln regained political momentum. He joined the newly formed Republican Party in the run up to his 1856 bid for US Senate and received a nomination for vice president.

He was beaten out for the spot by New Jersey’s William Dayton.

Firmly in the abolition movement, Dayton was New Jersey’s guy. Born in 1807 in Basking Ridge, he was from a prominent – if not rich – family. He nonetheless distinguished himself graduating from the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University, at 18.

At the age of 30, Dayton was elected to New Jersey’s upper house. The next year, he became an associate state Supreme Court judge. At 35, he was appointed to the US Senate, where he served until 1851.

Though Dayton and running mate John C. Fremont lost their 1856 bid for the White House, Dayton found a landing pad. In January 1857, Dayton became New Jersey’s 21st attorney general.

Lincoln, meanwhile, continued his quest to become a US Senator. He lost again in 1858. Still, Lincoln distinguished himself on a national level during debates with eventual victor Stephen Douglas.

Early in 1860, the Monmouth Democrat reported hype out of Chicago for Lincoln as a potential vice presidential candidate to run alongside Pennsylvania Senator Simon Cameron. That February, The Standard of Red Bank nonetheless noted that Lincoln’s potential bid for the presidency was “not without very earnest advocacy.”

Passaic County history:Passaic County to kick off next phase of $10M Lambert’s historic estate overhaul

The newspaper staff also presented some keen foreshadowing by claiming “the great aim of the party, undoubtedly will be to find a candidate who can carry Pennsylvania and New Jersey.”

That month, Lincoln gave a speech at Cooper Union but declined subsequent invitations to visit Paterson and Orange. Mayson Brayman, a newspaperman turned attorney who aided Lincoln in his 1858 campaign, later said Lincoln warned him about North Jersey Republicans, whom Brayman classified as “unsophisticated heathens.”

When it came time to pick candidates in May 1860 in Chicago, Lincoln faced immediate opposition from the state’s delegates. As did William Seward, the Republican Party figurehead. Seward was an unpopular personality. Lincoln was a relative unknown.

In the first vote, New Jersey’s 14 delegates selected neither. All their votes went to Dayton. They were, however, the only 14 votes for Dayton.

Historian Allan Nevins in his series “The Emergence of Lincoln” described the entailing shift as an obvious choice.

“WL Dayton could not be nominated, Seward could not be elected,” he wrote.

Though Cameron was still in the mix, Nevins said a committee from Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Indiana decided to coalesce around Lincoln after the first ballot. They aimed to convince New Englanders to drop their support for Seward, he wrote.

It didn’t go quite that smoothly, however. In the second round of voting, four of New Jersey’s switched to support Lincoln. By the third round, Lincoln took eight with Seward gaining five and one holding steadfast for Dayton.

Lincoln subsequently emerged from the Republican Convention as the party nominee.

The Monmouth Inquirer that May proclaimed “no man is more deserving of this honor.” “A self-made man – having educated himself after he arrived at manhood by the little he could save by working on a farm by the month – today he has no superior in talent, oratory and clearness in debate,” the newspaper reported.

The Monmouth Democrat nonetheless touted Lincoln’s victory as a betrayal of Seward.

“The persistent opposition of the Republicans of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, who never had the pluck to stand up boldly for the principles of their party, caused him to be thrown overboard at the very culminating point of all his efforts,” the Monmouth Democrat wrote . “If the Democrats reconcile their difficulties, and there now appears every indication that they will, the way for them is clear for a certain victory.”

By the end of June, there were four candidates. They were Lincoln, Douglas, John Bell of Tennessee and John Breckinridge, the vice president from Kentucky.

“We have very strong reasons for believing that some of them will be defeated, and a private opinion that one of the above will be the next President,” the West Jersey Pioneer reported.

NW Voorhees, one of New Jersey’s delegates, wrote to Lincoln that month in June. Even those who switched to Seward would firmly back Lincoln, he wrote.

“You may rest assured that the approval of your nomination in New Jersey is heartfelt and universal,” he wrote. “May success crown our efforts and may our cause prevail.”

Douglas and Breckinridge divided the Democrats’ votes. Lincoln, running as a member of the Opposition Party, racked up electoral votes on his way to victory.

New Jersey was the only free state east of the Mississippi that did not cast its electoral vote for Lincoln.

“That New Jersey should be so far behind other states in its devotion to freedom is a matter of deep regret to the hundreds and thousands of good and true men who inhabit its soil,” the Monmouth Inquirer wrote in Nov. 1860.

The Daily True American newspaper of Trenton staff said New Jersey’s voters should have no regrets in selecting Douglas with the majority of the popular vote.

“Whatever disasters may result to the country from the election of Lincoln … it will be a great consolation for the Democracy and Union men of this State to know, they are not responsible,” they wrote.

The political battles for Lincoln were only beginning, however. Six weeks later, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union. Within three months, separatists would establish the Confederate States of America. By mid-February 1861, Lincoln had a rogue president in Jefferson Davis to battle.

Lincoln would stop in New Jersey just one other time. It was a brief Jersey City visit following a war-related trip to West Point.

When reelection beckoned in 1864, New Jersey would again rebuff the president. That time, all seven electoral votes went to George McClellan. The Democratic candidate received nearly 53% of the popular vote.

the 2009 Abraham Lincoln commemorative silver dollar honors the 200-year anniversary of the birth of President AbrahamLincoln. the United States Mint’s authority to strike the coin was derived from the signing of the Abraham Lincoln Commemorative Coin Act (Public Law 109-285), which was signed on September 27, 2006.

Abraham Lincoln was born into a family with modest means in the western frontier of Kentucky. His early life was one of struggle and family tragedy. Lincoln lost his mother at a young age and his family faced a series of financial upheavals over the years, mostly due to disputes over land titles. An inquisitive child, it’s highly likely that Lincoln’s self-study and interest in the legal profession were influenced by his father’s financial and legal struggles.

Before entering politics and attaining a law degree in his early 20s, Lincoln held a number of professions. He served as a militiaman in the Black Hawk Wara postmaster in the village of New Salem, and a partner in a retail business. In 1834, Lincoln was elected to the Illinois State Legislature. Two years later, he was admitted to the bar.

Much of Lincoln’s later positions as a national politician were formed during his career in the Illinois State Legislature. Illinois was in the process of transforming from a border state on the western frontier to a major economic center in the nation’s Midwest. Railroads and shipping lanes helped to fuel the state’s growing economy. During his tenure as a state lawmaker, Lincoln helped to secure funding for a number of important infrastructure projects, advocated for the relocation of the state capital to Springfieldsupported the strengthening of the state’s banking system, and in 1837, cast his first anti-slavery vote.

After an unsuccessful run for the U.S. CongressLincoln was elected to represent Illinois’ 7th District in 1846. He ran as a whig and promised to serve for only one term. He did not seek re-election but instead returned home to practice law. His practice mostly dealt with transportation issues involving railroads and river barges.

Lincoln’s return to national politics came in the decade preceding the Civil War. At the fore of Lincoln’s political life was the question of slavery. A leader in the Republican PartyLincoln argued against the expansion of slavery and against the North’s participation in the Fugitive Slave Act. Many of his beliefs on the issue were made public during a series of debates with Lincoln’s rival Stephen A Douglas.

Upon claiming the Republican Party’s nomination for President in 1860, Lincoln was stalwart in his refusal to allow the further extension of slavery in the border territories. For the Southern states, this position posed an existential threat to their economic, political, and cultural institutions.

Not one ballot was cast for Lincoln in two-thirds of the country’s 15 slave-holding states. Despite the South’s unprecedented rejection, Lincoln easily won an error of the popular vote and a decisive Electoral College victory. The secession of a majority of the Southern states was immediate and secessionist leader Jefferson Davis took office as the President of the Confederate States of America before Lincoln was even sworn in. Within two months, the country would be thrust into the bloodiest and most destructive war in the nation’s history.

Lincoln waged war against the south and despite early setbacks, stayed the course in his belief that the Union would be reunited one day. After years of military stalemates and little in the way of strategic victory, Lincoln’s Federal troops finally bested the poorly-provisioned Southern army. The economic, political, and cultural collapse the Southern States feared came to fruition, not due to the election of the nation’s first Republican president, but because of its inability to concede the point that the institution of slavery was holding the nation back.

Major social divisions, beyond those centered around racial lines, were brought into strong relief as the Southern economy crumbled. The system of the Confederate government was ill-equipped to sustain a prolonged war effort. And a lack of foreign trading partners and financing meant that southern troops had to engage in combat against an enemy that had better weapons, equipment, and provisions. The South’s defeat, in retrospect, was likely inevitable.

Lincoln secured victory with Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. Six days later he was dead; shot in the back of the head by actor John Wilkes Booth. Martyred for the cause of freedom, Lincoln symbolized the hope for peace and unity in a time of great national need. He was eulogized, wept over, and elevated to the pantheon of America’s greatest presidents. American poet Walt Whitman wrote two of his most iconic poems about the slain president, “O Captain! My captain!” and “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.

His loss gave permanence to the political goals of the Republican party and 44 years later, the US Mint struck a one-cent coin honoring him. Lincoln’s cent saw circulation in the south by an aging generation of southerners who fought in or were directly affected by the war. It continues to be minted to this day.

The Coin: Design and Mintage

The law authorized the production of a 90 percent silver dollar with a maximum mintage of 500,000 pieces across all product options. A $10 surcharge from each coin sold went to the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.

The design was selected by the Secretary of the Treasury in consultation with the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts, and reviewed by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee. Proof and Uncirculated versions of the coin were to be struck at separate mint facilities. A $10 surcharge from the sale of the coins was paid to the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission to further the work of the Commission.

The coin went on sale on February 12, 2009, and with an allocation of 450,000 units, the coin sold out after a period of one month. On October 15, 2009, the Mint offered the Lincoln Coin and Chronicles Set, which included a 2009 Abraham Lincoln Commemorative silver dollar in Proof and all four Proof 2009 Lincoln cent designs, along with a reproduction of the Gettysburg Address and a portrait of Abraham Lincoln . The sets sold out within the first week.

Abraham Lincoln Commemorative Certified Populations

NGC has certified 10,365 Uncirculated 2009 Abraham Lincoln Commemorative silver dollars, with 8,564 earning the grade MS70. In Proof, NGC accounts for 18,555 graded examples, 11,534 earned the grade Proof 69 Ultra Cameo, while 6,911 earned the grade Proof 70 Ultra Cameo.

PCGS reports 6,152 grading events for the uncirculated version, with 3,423 earning the grade MS70. In Proof, PCGS has certified 6,985 examples in Proof 69 Deep Cameo and 2,521 in Proof 70 Deep Cameo.

The value of a “perfect” example of the 2009 Abraham Lincoln Commemorative dollar in Mint State in approximately $60-75. In Proof 70, the current value is $75-90.

The Mint State version had an issue price of $33.95, while the Proof had an issue price of $41.95.

design

Obverse:

The coin’s obverse features a likeness of Lincoln adapted from Daniel Chester French’s famous statue that is the centerpiece of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. The design was created by Master Designer Justin Kuntz and sculpted by US Mint Sculptor-Engraver Don Everhart.

reverse:

The reverse, designed by United States Mint sculptor-engraver Phebe Hemphill, features the last 43 words of the Gettysburg Address inscribed within a wreath of laurel. Lincoln’s signature is reproduced as the centerpiece of a ribbon that also contains the mandated inscriptions ONE DOLLAR and E PLURIBUS UNUM.

edge:

The edge of the 2009 Abraham Lincoln Commemorative dollar coin is reeded.

CoinSpecifications

Country

United States of AmericaUS Virgin IslandsUnited States Minor Outlying IslandsCanadaMexico, United Mexican StatesBahamas, Commonwealth of theCuba, Republic ofDominican RepublicHaiti, Republic ofJamaicaAfghanistanAlbania, People’s Socialist Republic ofAlgeria, People’s Democratic Republic ofAmerican SamoaAndorra, Principality ofAngola, Republic ofAnguillaAntarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S )Antigua and BarbudaArgentina, Argentine RepublicArmeniaArubaAustralia, Commonwealth ofAustria, Republic ofAzerbaijan, Republic ofBahrain, Kingdom ofBangladesh, People’s Republic ofBarbadosBelarusBelgium, Kingdom ofBelizeBenin, People’s Republic ofBermudaBhutan, Kingdom ofBolivia, Republic ofBosnia and HerzegovinaBotswana, Republic ofBouvet Island (Bouvetoya,Federative Republic ofBrazil) Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago)British Virgin IslandsBrunei DarussalamBulgaria, People’s Republic ofBurkina FasoBurundi, Republic ofCambodia, Kingdom ofCameroon, United Republic ofCape Verde, Republic ofCayman IslandsCentral African RepublicChad, Republic ofChile, Republic ofChina, People’s Republic ofChristmas IslandCocos (Keeling) IslandsColombia, Republic ofComoros, Union of theCongo, Democratic Republic ofCongo, People’s Republic ofCook IslandsCosta Rica, Republic ofCote D’Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of theCyprus , Republic ofCzech RepublicDenmark, Kingdom ofDjibouti, Republic ofDominica, Commonwealth ofEcuador, Republic ofEgypt, Arab Republic ofEl Salvador, Republic ofEquatorial Guinea, Republic ofEritreaEstoniaEthiopiaFaeroe IslandsFalkland Islands (Malvinas)Fiji, Republic of the Fiji IslandsFinland, Republic ofFrance, French RepublicFrench GuianaFrench PolynesiaFrench Southern TerritoriesGabon , Gabonese RepublicGambia, Republic of theGeorgiaGermanyGhana, Republic ofGibraltarGreece, Hellenic RepublicGreenlandGrenadaGuadaloupeGuamGuatemala, Republic ofGuinea, Revolutionary People’s Rep’c ofGuinea-Bissau, Republic ofGuyana, Republic ofHeard and McDonald IslandsHoly Se e (Vatican City State)Honduras, Republic ofHong Kong, Special Administrative Region of ChinaHrvatska (Croatia)Hungary, Hungarian People’s RepublicIceland, Republic ofIndia, Republic ofIndonesia, Republic ofIran, Islamic Republic ofIraq, Republic ofIrelandIsrael, State ofItaly, Italian RepublicJapanJordan, Hashemite Kingdom ofKazakhstan, Republic ofKenya, Republic ofKiribati, Republic ofKorea, Democratic People’s Republic ofKorea, Republic ofKuwait, State ofKyrgyz RepublicLao People’s Democratic RepublicLatviaLebanon, Lebanese RepublicLesotho, Kingdom ofLiberia, Republic ofLibyan Arab JamahiriyaLiechtenstein, Principality ofLithuaniaLuxembourg, Grand Duchy ofMacao, Special Administrative Region of ChinaMacedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic ofMadagascar, Republic ofMalawi, Republic ofMalaysiaMaldives, Republic ofMali, Republic ofMalta, Republic ofMarshall IslandsMartiniqueMauritania, Islamic Republic ofMauritiusMayotteMicronesia, Federated States ofMoldova, Republic ofMonaco, Principal ity ofMongolia, Mongolian People’s RepublicMontserratMorocco, Kingdom ofMozambique, People’s Republic ofMyanmarNamibiaNauru, Republic ofNepal, Kingdom ofNetherlands AntillesNetherlands, Kingdom of theNew CaledoniaNew ZealandNicaragua, Republic ofNiger, Republic of theNigeria, Federal Republic ofNiue, Republic ofNorfolk IslandNorthern Mariana IslandsNorway, Kingdom ofOman, Sultanate ofPakistan, Islamic Republic of PalauPalestinian Territory, OccupiedPanama, Republic ofPapua New GuineaParaguay, Republic ofPeru, Republic ofPhilippines, Republic of thePitcairn IslandPoland, Polish People’s RepublicPortugal, Portuguese RepublicPuerto RicoQatar, State ofReunionRomania, Socialist Republic ofRussian FederationRwanda, Rwandese RepublicSamoa, Independent State ofSan Marino, Republic ofSao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic ofSaudi Arabia, Kingdom ofSenegal, Republic ofSerbia and MontenegroSeychelles, Republic ofSierra Leone, Republic ofSingapore, Republic ofSlovakia (Slovak Republic)SloveniaS olomon IslandsSomalia, Somali RepublicSouth Africa, Republic ofSouth Georgia and the South Sandwich IslandsSpain, Spanish StateSri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic ofSt. HelenaSt. Kitts and Nevis St. LuciaSt. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the GrenadinesSudan, Democratic Republic of theSuriname, Republic ofSvalbard & Jan Mayen IslandsSwaziland, Kingdom ofSweden, Kingdom ofSwitzerland, Swiss ConfederationSyrian Arab RepublicTaiwan, Province of ChinaTajikistanTanzania, United Republic ofThailand, Kingdom ofTimor-Leste, Democratic Republic ofTogo, Togolese RepublicTokelau (Tokelau Islands )Tonga, Kingdom ofTrinidad and Tobago, Republic ofTunisia, Republic ofTurkey, Republic ofTurkmenistanTurks and Caicos IslandsTuvaluUganda, Republic ofUkraineUnited Arab EmiratesUnited Kingdom of Great Britain & N. IrelandUruguay, Eastern Republic ofUzbekistanVanuatuVenezuela, Bolivarian Republic ofViet Nam, Socialist Republic ofWallis and Futuna IslandsWestern SaharaYemenZambia, Republic of Zimbabwe