Abraham Lincoln's Birthday

Today is the 201st anniversary of former President Abraham Lincoln's birthday. He was considered by historians to be one of the greatest presidents that the U.S. has ever known. He had a very humble background. He was born to Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. He was born in Hodgenville, Kentucky on February 12, 1809. He lived there until he was about seven years old, then his parents moved to Indiana. His mother died when he was around ten years old. His dad eventually remarried a woman named Sarah. Then when he was 21 years old around 1830, he moved to Illinois where he eventually became a lawyer, state legislator, and a U.S. Congressmen. He lived in Illinois until he was elected as America's sixteenth president in 1860. Lincoln possessed very little formal education. He taught himself law. He was mostly a self-educated president. When Lincoln became president in 1861, our nation became embroiled in a Civil War which lasted from 1861-65. The causes of the war were varied. One of the causes was over the dispute of state's rights vs. federal sovereignty. After the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter, South Carolina in April 1861, Lincoln was determined to preserve the Union. He felt saving the Union was more important than anything else. If he couldn't preserve the Union, he would've been a failure as president. Another major issue that had been brewing ever since we became a nation was the battle over slavery. There were states that supported slavery and there were other groups such as the abolitionists that opposed slavery. Slavery became an issue in the war after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by Abraham Linoln in 1863. That helped rally the blacks in support of the war. Slavery wasn't officially ended until eight months after Lincoln's death when the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified in December 1865. Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on Friday April 14, 1865 (Good Friday) and he died the next morning. Lincoln has been a legend in American history since that time. He's been known as the "Great Emancipator" as a result of the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 as well as slavery being completed ended after the war. There's never been a president quite like Lincoln since that time. He was definitely my favorite president.

Abraham Lincoln's birthday is a legal holiday in some U.S. states including California, Connecticut, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, and Indiana. Except for California and Indiana, Lincoln's birthday is observed on the anniversary of Lincoln's birth, which is February 12. the earliest known observance of Lincoln's birthday was in Buffalo, New York in 1874. Julius Francis, a Buffalo druggist, made it his life's mission to honor the slain president. He repeatedly petitioned Congress to establish Lincoln's birthday as a legal holiday. The day is marked by traditional wreath-laying ceremonies at the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site in Hodgenville, Kentucky and at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Last year was the Bicentennial celebration of Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday. On February 12, 2009, the annual wreath-laying ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial commemorated Lincoln's 200th birthday in grand fashion. An extended ceremony, organized by the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission (ALBC) and with help from MOLLUS featuring musical performances by the U.S. Marine Corps Band. The morning celebration featured remarks by Dick Durbin, Senate Majority Whip, Lincoln scholar and ALBC co-chair Harold Holzer, recently retired Rohide Island Supreme Court Chief Justice and ALBC commissioner Frank J. Williams, and author Nikki Giovannia, reciting her newest work, which was written especially for the Bicentennial. Also, as part of the Bicentennial, the U.S. Mint released four new pennies. The commemorative coins have new designs on the reverse showing the different stages of his life. The first coin went into circulation on February 12, 2009. The standard portrait of Lincoln's head remains on the front. The new designs include a log cabin representing Lincoln's birthplace, Lincoln as a young man reading while sitting on a log that he was taking a break from splitting, Lincoln as a state legislator in front of the Illinois capitol, and the partially built dome of the U.S. Capitol. There has never been an annual Federal holiday honoring Lincoln. For several years now "Presidents Day" is celebrated on the third Monday in February. Presidents Day combines both Lincoln's and Washington's birthday in February and now Presidents Day takes the place of both famous presidents of the past.

Abraham Lincoln will live on in infamy as undoubtedly one of the greatest, if not the greatest president that ever lived. He became president during the time of one of the greatest crises that's ever existed in American history. Sectionalism or various conflicts amongst the states was rampant for a number of decades prior to the Civil War ranging from issues such as the tariff to the spread of slavery in the new U.S. territories. There were also conflicts involving states rights vs. Federal sovereingty. The Civil War was the bloodiest war America had ever engaged in because it was a war between the North and South in the United States. Lincoln had a daunting task in preserving the Union. His most important goal was in preservation of the Union regardless of whether slavery was abolished or not. He was opposed to slavery and desired to see it someday abolished. However, he wasn't willing for the United States to be splintered in order to see that happen. Thankfully, following the Civil War, the Union was preserved and slavery was abolished completely. We as Americans owe a debt of gratitude to "Honest Abe" for his steadfast leadership and perseverance during one of America's greatest conflicts.