Thursday, February 12, 2009

Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial




200 years ago today, Abraham Lincoln was born in a one room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm in Hardin County, Kentucky.

While his religious views have been debated to death, his greatest earthly accomplishments were eliminating slavery in the United States and preserving the Union. It is said that when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation that he had been shaking many people's hands that day and when he started to sign, he put the pen down. Someone asked him about it and he said that this would be the greatest moment in history and he didn't want a shaky signature making people think he wasn't sure about what he was doing. With that, he picked up the pen and signed the document.

Happy Birthday, Mr. President.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

About 25 years ago I went to Gettysburg and did the 'walk-thru' of one of the Ohio regiments. You have a map and start at sunrise, and walk the entire route they walked. At the end of the day I was at Cemetery Hill, and a National Park employee read Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. You could have heard a pin drop, even in the grass.
If you get a chance someday to go to Gettysburg, do the walk. It's free and it will make you so aware of how great the speach really is.
B & J S

Rick Boyne said...

I have been to Gettysburg, but, like you, it was a long time ago. 1980, I think. I was a part of a youth tour, so I didn't have the luxury of doing the walk.

Sounds enticing, though.