My Time with Lincoln

“I don’t know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be”…Abraham Lincoln
My Time with Lincoln
On this day of writing, I have been in good company, company I wish I could spend more time with, but the demands of the day insist that I close the pages and pursue the business of running a weekly newspaper.
The man I have been with for the last few days has had such a profound influence on me and countless millions who have taken the time to study his mind and life.
You may know him as a country boy born in Kentucky so long ago that it was still almost a wilderness and his humble beginnings have become the basis of hope for many a poor soul who aspires to elevate himself by work and education.
This man did just that; he treasured any book he could buy or borrow when education was not a “right” he could claim, and wait for someone to hand to him. He actively pursued it and eventually became a lawyer by “reading law” on his own. His own partner said of him, “His ambition was a little engine that knew no rest.”
His philosophy as an attorney could well be followed today and our country could be much the better for it. He said, “Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.”
Most of us learned the traditional stories in school of his tucking notes, bills and such in his tall silk hat, but how many of us learned of his tenderness towards a wife who made his life extremely hard by her moodiness, outrageously embarrassing spending habits and public fits of temper? In spite of herself, it seems she was loved by the man who was always her champion. He asked others to excuse her behavior by citing the great losses they both endured in the deaths of two sons.
As he watched her during a reception, her husband commented, “My wife is as handsome as when she was a girl and I fell in love with her, and what’s more, I have never fallen out.”
It is his words that endear him but his deeds bear out the words and that creates the respect. Words that defined the man and his job…”A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided.”
Springfield, Ill. 1858
“I have said nothing but what I am prepared to live by, and if it be the pleasure of Almighty God, die by.”
Independence Hall, Philadelphia 1861
“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union.”
Letter to Horace Greeley 1862
This man whom I leave with such regret said on the occasion of his second Inaugural address in 1864 “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds.”
Happy 200th Birthday, Mr. Abraham Lincoln, your country still remembers.
Art Hall, Publisher