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Suburban Republican: South Carolina should take down Confederate flag

Illinois lawmakers entered the debate over the Confederate flag when a suburban Republican Monday formally called for South Carolina leaders to remove it from that state's Capitol grounds.

State Rep. David McSweeney, a Barrington Hills Republican, filed a resolution in Springfield that wouldn't carry legal weight but was intended to convey lawmakers' opinion. A bipartisan group of lawmakers, including more than a dozen Democrats, have signed on.

The flag became the subject of debate after the racially motivated killing of nine people at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston last week. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley called Monday for the flag's removal from the Capitol grounds.

Land of Lincoln lawmakers invoked the Civil War president in writing the resolution.

"At times like this we are reminded of the words of Abraham Lincoln, who said that it is the work of all of us 'with malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds,'" the proposed resolution reads.

Illinois lawmakers are set to return to Springfield Tuesday.

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