Atchison, The Spirit of America (Michael Kuckelman’s Remarks)

I speak to you today as Chairman of the visionary Board of Directors of Benedictine College and thankful for the many donors who made this building possible.  Also, I speak to you as a son of Atchison. I grew up here, and I have always been passionate about the rich history of this community. This library is just the latest in a long line of ways in which Atchison embodies the Spirit of America.

More than two centuries ago — 50 years before the city of Atchison and the college was established — Lewis and Clark stopped right here on the Missouri River on July 4, 1804, and celebrated the first Fourth of July ever observed west of the Mississippi.

The Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railway was chartered in Atchison and was literally laid over the ruts of the Santa Fe Trail, carrying people and commerce west, binding together an expanding nation. And many years later a son of  Atchison, Mick Haverty, became one of the youngest Presidents of the Santa Fe railroad.

In December 1859, as our nation approached its greatest crisis, Abraham Lincoln came to Atchison, making it the furthest west Lincoln ever traveled in his life. Little more than a year later, on George Washington’s birthday in 1861, he stood at Independence Hall on his way to his inauguration and helped raise a new American flag bearing 34 stars. The newest star was the star for Kansas.

Standing at Independence Hall that morning, Lincoln said that every political sentiment he held sprang from the principles embodied in the Declaration of Independence, saying that it offered “hope to the world for all future time.” With the nation on the brink of Civil War, Lincoln argued that it was the principles written down in the Declaration that would save America.

And then he said something haunting. He said:

“If this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle . . . I would rather be assassinated on this spot than to surrender it.’

Four years later, Abraham Lincoln gave his life in the service of a nation he had fought to preserve. He would not give up those principles. His sacrifice, and that of countless Americans, gives all of us the responsibility to make sure that the spirit of America — hope to the world — is preserved and transmitted.

And now the Moritz Library in D’Aniello Hall stands here, commemorating the great ideas and great people that founded, fought for, and sacrificed for this nation and the liberties that we hold so dear. Think about how fitting that is.

• Lewis and Clark celebrated American independence on the Missouri River below us.
• A railroad bearing Atchison’s name carried the American story westward.
• Abraham Lincoln came to this town as the nation wrestled with the meaning of liberty—and little more than a year later stood at Independence Hall as the new star of Kansas was raised above it.

And today, on these bluffs overlooking that same Missouri River, we dedicate a great library inspired by Independence Hall. Here in the middle of the map, America still remembers who she is, upholding the principles that make life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness possible.  And today, I am proud to say, that here in Atchison—in this library—the Spirit of America will live on.

Thank you.

By Benedictine College