SPRINGFIELD - Gov. Pat Quinn Monday honored Illinois students who qualified for the Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Students across the state visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum a month after the bee was held in Washington, D.C.

"If he didn't know how to read and he didn't know how to spell, he wouldn't have been the great president that he was," Quinn said of Lincoln.

Among those attending the event were spellers Gina Liu of Charleston Middle School, Jonathan Suh of Oakdale Elementary School in Normal and Vignessh Kumar of Wilson Middle School in Moline.

Quinn asked each student to spell a word. Some, including "gridlock" and "mudslinging," were related to the tumultuous times Illinois politics has seen in the last year.

Suh was asked to spell "whistleblower." Liu spelled "legislature" and Kumar spelled "emancipation," a word more related to Abraham Lincoln than recent Illinois events.