Barack Obama to be sworn in using Lincoln Inaugural Bible

Here's one for all those who thought Obama would be using the Koran:

Barack Obama will take the oath of office using the same Bible that Abraham Lincoln was sworn in on at his first inauguration, marking the President-elect's latest symbolic gesture to follow in the foot steps of the nation's 16th president.

Obama, who will become the first African-American president when he is sworn in Jan. 20, will be the first president to use the Lincoln Bible since its initial use in 1861.

"President-elect Obama is deeply honored that the Library of Congress has made the Lincoln Bible available for use during his swearing-in," Emmett Beliveau, executive director of the presidential inaugural committee, said in a statement.

Obama launched his presidential campaign in February 2007 at the Historic Old State Capitol building in Springfield Ill., where Lincoln gave a famous speech condemning slavery.

During the speech, Obama said that "divided we are bound to fail. But the life of a tall, gangly, self-made Springfield lawyer tells us that a different future is possible.

"He tells us that there is power in words. He tells us that there is power in conviction, that beneath all the differences of race and religion, faith and station, we are one people."

The theme for Obama's inaugural ceremony - "A New Birth of Freedom” is taken from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

Earlier this year, when asked which book, aside from the Bible, he would find essential in the Oval Office, Obama said, "Team of Rivals,” Doris Kearns Goodwin's 2005 bestseller about how Lincoln surrounded himself with advisers who coveted the president's job.

For the inauguration, Obama plans to take a train trip from Philadelphia to Washington, evoking Lincoln's inaugural trek.

The Bible, bound in burgundy velvet with a gold-washed white metal rim around the three outside edges of both covers, was originally purchased by William Thomas Carroll, clerk of the Supreme Court, for Lincoln's swearing-in ceremony on March 4, 1861.

Lincoln could not use his family bible for his inaugural ceremony because it was packed away with the First Family's belongings and still en route to the White House at the time of the ceremony.

All the edges of the 1,280-page bible are heavily gilded. In the center of the top cover is a shield of gold wash over white metal with the words "Holy Bible" chased into it.

The Bible will be on display at the Library of Congress Feb. 12th to May 9th, 2009, as part of an exhibition titled "With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition." The exhibit will then travel to five other American cities.