Bible used by Lincoln, Obama goes on view in DC

Washington, Feb 11 : The small, red Bible used to swear in Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama will go on rare public display to mark the 200th anniversary of the 16th president's birth.

Beginning Thursday, the national Lincoln Bicentennial exhibit at the Library of Congress," With Malice Toward None,'' will showcase the Bible, along with the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, what may be the original Gettysburg Address and even the grammar book Lincoln used to master English.

The three-month display is among dozens of events and exhibits in the U.S Capital celebrating Lincoln's Feb. 12, 1809, birthday"He would not have amounted to anything had he not been president. He would have been a good, successful lawyer,'' said John Sellers, a curator and Lincoln specialist at the congressional library.

"But as an icon, an American symbol, it's really his presidency, and the residue of it is here.'' Many of the most precious Lincoln artifacts are being shown for the first time in years, and it's been at least 50 years since so many of them have been shown together.

Beyond Lincoln's famous documents, the library exhibit will feature the contents of the president's pockets the night he was assassinated at Ford's Theatre in 1865. Two pairs of glasses. A handkerchief with his name printed in red. A pocketknife Newspaper clippings. And a brown leather wallet with a five-dollar note banknote from the defeated Confederacy of secessionist southern states.