article_snippet.sent: (CNN)As Americans mark the 150th anniversary of Lincoln death this week, let us remember that Lincoln not only belongs to the ages, but also belongs, in a special way, to Illinois.
article_snippet.sent: Lincoln's two greatest legacies -- indivisible union and irreversible emancipation -- grew organically from Lincoln Midwestern roots.
article_snippet.sent: Retracing Lincoln's assassination 150 years later .
article_snippet.sent: Many other Midwesterners in Lincoln's era embraced slavery and secession.
article_snippet.sent: In the 1860 election that brought him to power, Lincoln swept almost all the Northern states, but did miserably in the slaveholding south.
article_snippet.sent: John Wilkes Booth, the dastard who ended Lincoln's life 150 years ago this week, was an embittered extremist from a slave state.
article_snippet.sent: LincolnLincoln's murder .
article_snippet.sent: Which takes us back to Lincoln.
article_snippet.sent: Today, both parties at their best claim Lincoln.
article_snippet.sent: In the largest sense, then, all Americans, of both parties and all regions -- whether or not all Americans, of both parties and all regions -- whether or not they have ever set foot in Illinois -- have ever set foot in Illinois -- are living in the Land of Lincoln.
highlights_snippet.sent: Lincoln's two biggest legacies, keeping union together and abolishing slavery, had Midwestern roots .
  