Abraham Lincoln - Happy 200th!

A man ahead of his time...today is the real birthday, even though we celebrate on Monday along with George Washington, so we can get a three-day weekend. I am a big fan of Mr. Lincoln and will soon undertake an ambitious read - Team of Rivals, The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I've wanted to read it ever since one of my favorite Education Week instructors, Dr. Robert Young (a huge fan of this president) recommended it. It's a big book though and I just haven't cracked it. This is a resolution for this year because he did incredible things in making his enemies into his greatest supporters, putting aside their mean acts towards him and constructing a bipartisan cabinet in tough political times when our country was on the verge of total collapse.

I am confident he would be sad at the divisive nature our country has once again assumed (moral, political, etc.) but I am sure he rejoices in some of the improvements that reflect his beliefs (especially in regards to African-Americans). The country really suffered after his death and the slavery issues took a huge step backward. Had he continued at the helm, we would have seen a faster resolution. The thing that's sad to me now is that a man such as Lincoln could never be elected in this country today. He would have the money, the beauty, the charm, or the power. He also would not have been "bought" by special interest groups. Today's politics have digressed in this for sure. May we always remember the true heroes whose legends are based on goodness, virtue and self-sacrifice.

Below is the earliest verified photograph of Lincoln, a gift given by Robert Todd Lincoln to Frederick Hill Meserve, currently housed in the Library of Congress (made about 1848).
He often joked about his looks, once replying to a critic who called him two-faced, "If I had two faces, do you think I'd use this one?" I personally find him extremely handsome because of the greatness he exhibited and this attracts me much more than physical beautry.

The daguerrotype below is believed to be a first photograph of Abraham Lincoln, studied by a plastic and reconstructive surgeon in Paris and determined to be very likely the man himself but since it was not identified by name nobody can be absolutely certain.
His term as President of the United States during this time of turmoil visibly aged him far more than the actual years would typically do.

"More books, articles, and speeches are said to be presented yearly on Lincoln than on any man in history, and his philosophy of democratic government of the people, by the people, and for the people has become the philosophy of the democratic political organization of the United Nations, as well as the United States." (Edward J. Kempf, M.D. Wading River, N.Y. - April 1952, Volume 67, Number 4 edition of the A.M.A. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, Pages 419-433. (Copyright 1952, American Medical Association)

Click on post title to read more about this portrait.
More photos are here: Lincoln Images
Click to read his eloquent speech, The Gettysburg Address

"...our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal..."