![]() ![]() He gave his earnings to a father who didn’t appreciate and often denigrated his own son. He worked hard on the frontier in order to survive. He knew it all too well: he lost his mother and his sister to death when he was just a boy. to meet his historical fate, he knew about personal loss and suffering. From his earliest childhood right on up to the time he entered the presidential box at Ford’s Threatre in Washington, D.C. That is, perhaps, the most remarkable thing about Abraham Lincoln: that for all his obvious gifts and his great humanity, he knew what it was to suffer loss and uncertainty and of those, he, too, had in abundance. But it would not be done without great suffering, not only for the nation, but for himself. Knowing full well the problems he faced-and they would be many-he sought the office and struggled through years of hatred and war and worked to somehow make a country civil again and direct it toward a better path. Lincoln.” Despite his accomplishments and his securing the greatest gift his fellow citizens could bestow upon one-as President of the United States-he found himself a Chief Executive of a nation tearing itself apart over contentious issues that had never been properly dealt with since the founding of the nation. Douglas on the campaign trail, to those on the other side of “Dixie.” And yet, that what Abraham Lincoln was made of and most remarkable of all, it took some people a long time to realize that: from the Clary Grove boys out in the Illinois prairie to Mary Todd to Stephen A. And without humor, the greatest of traits are just leaden anchors ready to sink the possessor-which for Lincoln, was his life preserver.) Add to that a generous portion of self-knowledge, humility and concern for his fellows and you have a rare person indeed. (Most people passing through life-if they’re lucky-possess a few of those traits, though not all of them. It is a rare thing to come across a human being that is seen to be intelligent, savvy, perceptive, and adaptable as well as having a sense of humor that borders on self-deprecating wit, with generous dollops of irony to spare. Lincoln (knowing full well his well-earned reputation for looking rather homely and unkempt in appearance) looked down at his interlocutor and said, “My dear sir, if I had two faces, would I be wearing this one?” Lincoln, I declare, you are a two-faced man!” Thereupon Mr. During one political meeting-as the story goes-an agitated man made his way up to the front and accosted him, saying, “Mr. Like anyone else in life, he had his detractors. However, he was more than that and the people in his time sensed it and knew it. Perhaps the most important thing about Abraham Lincoln-and what makes him so enduring in the popular memory-was the plain fact that he was so human.Ībraham Lincoln made no apologies for being a politician he was one and he enjoyed it-but he believed it was an honorable profession. ![]() ![]() But on this Presidents’ Day and the anniversary of his birthday (February 12, 1809) just past, there will be no fear in saying that he will ever cease to be a figure of fascination for the historian and the biographer. Little did he know-or could ever realize-what an impact his 56 years would have upon his times and beyond. ![]() When he was a youngster, he had scribbled some doggerel about someday being famous, not knowing “where or when” and wondering whether his life would amount to much or have any meaning after he had left this Earth. In historical terms, that stretch of years isn’t much but for the ordinary person studying the man and his times, it is another world. To use Abraham Lincoln’s formulation, he was born some ten score and six years ago in a log cabin in the backwoods of Kentucky-which comes out to be some 206 years ago. ![]()
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