To the editor:
Cynics gleefully suggest that he could not be elected to any national office today. His family background was bleak and unpromising. He lacked a college degree. Indeed, he barely had any formal education at all, having attended school for less than two years. Although deeply spiritual, he never joined a church nor ever made a clear profession of standard Christian beliefs. He was plagued by long periods of depression and was married to a mentally unstable woman. His physical appearance was, to put it mildly, ungainly. Freakishly tall for his time period at 6 foot, 4 inches, unkempt and socially awkward, many considered him to be the ugliest man they had ever met. He had a habit of making ill-timed and off-color jokes of a type that would certainly get him in hot water with today’s press. His shrill, high tenored voice and strong Indiana accent made listening to his speeches an unpleasant oral experience. He had a habit of losing elections and had very little national exposure. And yet with all of these political image handicaps, Abraham Lincoln is often considered the greatest man ever produced in America. Historians and pollsters consistently rank him as the greatest American President.
There are two main reasons for this enshrinement. First, his life story is the very embodiment of the great American Dream. Born in a crude log cabin, no bigger than most of our living rooms today, near present-day Hodgenville, Kentucky in 1809, Lincoln once described his early life as “the short and simple annals of the poor.” From this humblest of beginnings, he, through hard work and self-study, became one of the finest lawyers in Illinois, a State Legislator, U.S. Congressman, national party leader and, finally in 1861, the President of the United States. Like an undefeated season in football, it is a record of achievement that can be matched but not broken.
Second, Lincoln did more than anyone else to insure that our “government of the people by the people and for the people” did “not perish from the earth.” Dealing with the loss of his son Willie, the near insanity of his wife, the failure of a succession of generals, military defeats, political opposition and rebellion in his own political party, and the violent deaths of over 600,000 of his fellow countrymen, he steadfastly kept his oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. Along the way, after an initial reluctance, he emancipated over four million humans. At his assassination, he became the last casualty of that terrible conflict and passed into legend.
Now we are about to celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth. However, with all of his import, Lincoln’s birthday, February 12th, has never been a national holiday. Today we have an all-encompassing “President’s Day” in February (this year on the 16th), as if Presidents like Warren G. Harding, Millard Fillmore and Chester Arthur deserve to sit on stage with the likes of Lincoln, Washington and FDR. The primary motivation of this watered down holiday, it seems, is to sell automobiles and washing machines at “President’s Day Sale” prices. The sad fact is that only seven states, all above the Ohio River, celebrate February 12th as a legal holiday.
It is not too late to find an activity to honor President Lincoln. The Lincoln Bicentennial Commission has been working since 2001 to commemorate the date of his birth. At www.lincolnbicenntenial.gov, a reader will find a complete list of events across the country, including the opening of a new exhibit at the Library of Congress entitled “With Malice Toward None.” Teachers in the area will find class activities for all age groups at this site, along with information about Abraham Lincoln’s life and the turbulent times he lived in. Or you can do it the old-fashioned way, take out a book about our 16th President (there are over 30,000 of them) and read it. Then, take a few moments next Thursday and reflect upon the man whom many Americans think represents what we stand for in a time when our country seems off-track; fairness, equality, steadfastness, and courage.
Rome, Ga.
