WASHINGTON -- President Johnson today retraced the steps of Abraham Lincoln on a mission of emancipation.
One hundred and four years ago to the day, Lincoln traveled the mile and a quarter from the White House to the Capitol to sign a bill freeing Negro slaves who were being used to aid the Southern rebellion.
Today, Johnson made the same trip to sign, in the same room and at the same table, legislation aimed at assuring the right to vote to the descendants of the slaves Lincoln freed.
The president, accompanied by his cabinet, arrived at the Capitol about noon, met congressional leaders in the speakers office and proceeded to the Great Rotunda. Johnson spoke to the nation by radio and television, discussing the bill and the promise it holds for greater racial equality.
Flanked by Lawmakers
After the 15-minute address, the chief executive, flanked by lawmakers of both parties, proceeded to the ornate "President's Room" just off the senate chamber.
There, in the light of the massive gold-plated chandelier which has illuminated Constantino Brumidi's cherub-framed murals for nearly a century, Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Lincoln worked In the same room just 104 years ago and, like Johnson, had his cabinet around him. But Johnson also had millions of persons, in the United States and abroad, watching over his shoulder via television.
The bill Lincoln signed was little more than a gesture. On Aug. 6, 1861, the government of the United States was in no position to enforce an emancipation law. Only two weeks earlier, its armies had been routed at First Bull Run, and Washington was trembling at rumors of Confederate advances.
The measure today was something else again. Backed by the resources of the strongest national government America has ever known, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 charted a course aimed at eliminating, without further delay, the long-standing barriers Negroes have had to face on their way to the ballot box in.
