Lincoln’s Birthday
Often in a president’s time,
there is controversy that they have to face.
However there’s controversy and then there’s controversy, and
everywhere that President Abraham Lincoln looked there was only one thing that
he saw: trouble. The sixteenth
president of the nation, Abraham Lincoln is remembered for his ability to chart
America’s course through troubled waters and leave the country in a much better
state than it had been when he first became president.
Born on February 12, 1809, President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday is celebrated
as a national holiday as part of President’s Day. The third Monday of February, President’s Day is a national
holiday designed for Americans to remember the contributions of arguably the
two most influential presidents in American history, President George Washington
and President Abraham Lincoln. Although
some may argue that other presidents recent (President Bill Clinton) and old
(President Thomas Jefferson) deserve to be honored on President’s Day (although
everybody agrees that President Calvin Coolidge does not deserve to be remembered
on this holiday), nobody will argue that President Washington and President
Lincoln deserve their own holidays.
So, you ask, what exactly
did Abraham Lincoln do in his presidency that makes him so deserving of having
his birthday commemorated as a holiday.
Well, for one, no other president had to deal with the specter of a
Civil War. Truly a uniter and not a
divider, President Abraham Lincoln had to dismiss his opposition to war and
take military action against the Confederate States of America, a group of
Southern States that had declared their secession to the United States of
America. Viewing war as the only way to
save the nation, America plunged into a dark period of its history in which the
Confederate Armies fought against the Union armies.
The Civil War has been the
only time in American history where parts of the nation fought against each
other. The reasons behind the Civil War
was complex and were based around the justifiable claims of Southern States
that the federal government was favoring the Northern State’s burgeoning
industrial economy at the expense of the Southern State’s agricultural based
economy. What resulted from this mess
was a bloody war that the Union armies eventually won. However, what is most notable about
President Abraham Lincoln’s presidency is the fact that the secessionist
movement of the American South was quelled but the fact that he was able to
unite the nation following this difficult time period.
Honest Abe, as he was known, was also famous for his eloquence. Lincoln’s speeches are internationally
renowned and his famous Emancipation Proclamation that theoretically outlawed slavery
in America (although it didn’t save former slaves from the similar experiences
of the sharecropping economy that closely mirrored the conditions of indentured
servitude following the Civil War) is among his biggest legacies. His eloquent Gettysburg Address continues to
have resonance as a speech outlining the need for a united America. That he was able to save the nation from
falling apart is a predominant reason why his birthday is commemorated as a
national holiday.
Abraham Lincoln is also remembered for a sadder reason. He is the first American president to have
been assassinated, which occurred on April 14, 1865 when James Wilkes Booth
entered Ford’s Theatre and shot President Lincoln. As one of the most enduring memories of Lincoln’s presidency,
Lincoln’s Birthday is a time where Americans should examine the life and
history of President Lincoln. His
policies were the origins of many American core values and his birthday should
be a time to feel inspired and examine different ways that we, as Americans,
can strengthen our nation. Considering
how fragmented the country is politically, it is important that Lincoln’s
Birthday (as well as George Washington’s Birthday) is a time that we examine
ways to unite the nation rather than divide it.
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