Lincoln — 27 August 2022 – Wanderers in Wonder

The resting place of our greatest President. Washington and FDR faced their challenges, but no president faced the kind of challenge Lincoln faced…Civil War. As we toured the Lincoln Library, tomb and memorial and his Springfield neighborhood I pondered the life and times of old Abe. A man beset by such tragedy. He buried his Mom at the age of nine. He buried his first love in his twenties. He buried three of his four children. His wife suffered from severe depression, never able to come to terms with the deaths of three of her four children, making his home life very challenging. He was vilified and mocked in the press. His political opponents referred to him as an ape. Even his Gettysburg Address was initially panned by the press. “A flat failure, and the people are disappointed”.

Through it all Lincoln stood tall and resolute. He defeated the rebels and saved the Union. Lincoln was the first member of the new Republican party to rise to the presidency. One does wonder what old Abe would think of the Republican party rallies today with all the flags of treason flying. None other than Robert E. Lee told his fellow southerners to bury the stars and bars along with the confederacy. General Lee refused to lend his name to fundraisers for the construction of confederate monuments and ordered his family not to bury him in his confederate uniform nor to have any symbols of the confederacy at his funeral. Sad that so many have failed to follow Marse Robert’s advice.

As to the Gettysburg Address…the premier orator of the times, Edward Everett, spoke for two hours before Lincoln spoke for two minutes, sent Lincoln a telegram the next day. “I wish I had come closer to the central idea of the occasion in two hours than you did in two minutes.”

Edwin Stanton, Lincoln’s Secretary of War, said it best of Lincoln as Lincoln expired…

“now he belongs to the ages”.

Lincoln’s neighborhood in Springfield was turned into a National Historic site in 1971. Two blocks of buildings were purchased by the Park Service. Those that could be returned to their 1860’s appearance were, others in such a state of disrepair were torn down.