Being that this day marks the day when we celebrate the lives of all our past Presidents, I thought it fun to publish a couple of essays on the lives of the Presidents whose faces are chiseled on Mount Rushmore.
DON’T CALL ME ABE – THE GREAT EMANCIPATOR
Outside of the well-publicized and written about accomplishments of our 16th President of the United States including the Gettysburg Address, his opposition to slavery, and then his tragic assassination, I found there was much more to the man than what we learned in school.
President Lincoln, who was said to vehemently dislike being called by the name Abe, had very little formal education. Despite his formal schooling amounting to about 18 months, Lincoln demonstrated himself as an ardent ‘student of life’. Self-taught and self-motivated, much like today’s home schooled children; Lincoln was an avid reader and excelled in many subjects. Embracing the Law as his field of study, Lincoln passed the bar and began practicing law at the age of 28 having never attended law school.
President Lincoln was the only president to hold a patent. His invention was for a device to be used to free steamboats that ran aground. Lincoln was also a gifted story-teller, and about that stovepipe hat he favored…he used to store letters, notes and documents in there!
Our President Lincoln also holds honors in the Wrestling Hall of Fame. His 6′ 4″ height gave him an advantage apparently as his record still stands as 300 matches with only 1 defeat. I wonder if the fact that he liked to talk smack in the ring made him such a formidable opponent!
Abraham Lincoln was a very advanced thinker. He championed and rallied for Women’s Voting Rights years before suffrage was fashionable. To learn about Christianity, he read the bible. Even though he considered himself a Christian, he never attended any established organized church.
President Lincoln cemented his place in history by demonstrating a persona of determination and perseverance . He was not a stranger to failure; he had failures in business as well as politics, and he lost his first presidential bid. Throughout his life, Lincoln suffered from depression while he lost and fought on various issues. However, Lincoln never gave up on a cause which is probably the very attribute that was responsible for presenting the American people with so much social change. He is probably our most famous President to date.
I liked this quote I found; it says a lot. I hope you like it, too.
“With malice toward none; and charity for all.” – Abraham Lincoln
