Okla-homey
2/12/2008, 06:40 AM
Feb 12, 1809: Abraham Lincoln is born
http://aycu31.webshots.com/image/9390/2005019266577000341_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005019266577000341)
199 years ago, on this day in 1809, Abraham Lincoln is born on the frontier of the young republic in Hodgenville, Kentucky. George Washington is universally and fondly remembered as the "Father of His Country."
Second only to Washington in the regard of his people, Abraham Lincoln is widely considered by historians to be the man most responsible for the continued existence of the then 85 year old nation when it was nearly fatally torn in half by internal strife over the issue of slavery.
http://aycu17.webshots.com/image/9936/2005097603474417417_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005097603474417417)
Lincoln, one of America’s most admired presidents, grew up a member of a poor family in Kentucky and Indiana. He attended school for only one year, but thereafter read on his own in a continual effort to improve his mind.
http://aycu06.webshots.com/image/8365/2005028239282150751_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005028239282150751)
As an adult, he lived in Illinois and performed a variety of jobs including stints as a postmaster, surveyor and shopkeeper, before entering politics. He served in the Illinois legislature from 1834 to 1836, and then became an lawyer having read law as a clerk in an Illinois law firm. In 1842, Lincoln married Mary Todd; together, the pair raised four sons.
http://aycu14.webshots.com/image/9893/2005002340242860019_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005002340242860019)
Mary Todd Lincoln
Lincoln returned to politics during the 1850s, a time when the nation’s long-standing division over slavery was flaring up, particularly in new territories being added to the Union. As leader of the new Republican Party, Lincoln was considered politically moderate, even on the issue of slavery. He advocated the restriction of slavery to the states in which it already existed and described the practice in a letter as a “minor issue” as late as 1854.
In an 1858 senatorial race, as secessionist sentiment brewed among the southern states, he warned, “a house divided against itself cannot stand”. He did not win the Senate seat but earned national recognition as a strong political force. Lincoln’s inspiring oratory soothed a populace anxious about southern states’ secessionist threats and boosted his popularity.
As a presidential candidate in the election of 1860, Lincoln tried to reassure slaveholding interests that although he favored abolition, he had no intention of ending the practice in states where it already existed and prioritized saving the Union over freeing slaves.
http://aycu05.webshots.com/image/8964/2006388432817314668_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2006388432817314668)
When he won the presidency by approximately 400,000 popular votes and carried the Electoral College, he was in effect handed a ticking time bomb. His concessions to slaveholders failed to prevent South Carolina from leading other states in an exodus from the Union that began shortly after his election. Leaders in those states were intent on preserving slavery at all costs because their agrarian economies and personal wealth depended on it.
By February 1, 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas had also seceded. Soon after, the Civil War began. As the war progressed, Lincoln moved closer to committing himself and the nation to the abolitionist movement and, in 1863, finally signed the Emancipation Proclamation which converted the war from one to save the Union to a crusade to end the horrid and repugnant institution.
http://aycu06.webshots.com/image/10085/2005031677323901495_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005031677323901495)
Lincoln in the field as commander-in-chief with his army
The document freed slaves only in the Confederate states, but did not address the legality of slavery in Missouri, Kentucky, Delaware or Maryland. The proclamation was legal because it tied the existence of slavery in the states in open rebellion to their continued ability to wage that rebellion. Outlawing slavery elsewhere would require a Constitutional amendment because slavery was provided for in the Constitution, thus it could not be outlawed in the US by executive order or even a federal statute. That amendment came in 1865 after the Confederacy was defeated, but sadly Lincoln did not live to see it
http://aycu36.webshots.com/image/8635/2005019527422954595_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005019527422954595)
Lincoln was the tallest president at 6’ 4.” As a young man, he impressed others with his sheer physical strength--he was a legendary wrestler in Illinois--and entertained friends and strangers alike with his dry, folksy wit, which was still in evidence years later.
Exasperated by one Civil War military defeat after another, Lincoln wrote to a lethargic general “if you are not using the army I should like to borrow it for awhile.” An animal lover, Lincoln once declared, "I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it." Fittingly, a variety of pets took up residence at the Lincoln White House, including a pet turkey named Jack and a goat called Nanko. Lincoln’s son Tad frequently hitched Nanko to a small wagon and drove around the White House grounds.
Lincoln’s sense of humor may have helped him to hide recurring bouts of depression. He admitted to friends and colleagues that he suffered from “intense melancholia” and hypochondria most of his adult life. Perhaps in order to cope with it, Lincoln engaged in self-effacing humor, even chiding himself about his famously homely looks. When an opponent in an 1858 Senate race debate called him “two-faced,” he replied, “If I had another face do you think I would wear this one?”
Lincoln is remembered as “The Great Emancipator.” Although he waffled on the subject of slavery in the early years of his presidency, his greatest legacy was his work to preserve the Union and his signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.
http://aycu23.webshots.com/image/9222/2005030374722852548_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005030374722852548)
To Confederate sympathizers, however, Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation reinforced his image as a hated despot and ultimately led John Wilkes Booth, an alcoholic actor who refused service in the Confederate Army, to assassinate him on April 14, 1865 when he sneaked up and shot Lincoln in the back of the head. Lincoln's favorite horse, Old Bob, pulled his funeral hearse.
http://aycu40.webshots.com/image/11959/2005089467668828548_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005089467668828548)
Tomb in Springfield, IL.
Ironically, most historians agree that had Lincoln lived, Federal "reconstruction" policies would almost certainly have been less severe. The best evidence of this fact are his documented statements of intent to "let the South up easy" and the impeachment of his successor Andrew Johnson who angered those in the Congress who wished to punish the South when he refused to support extremist and punitive "Reconstruction" policies.
Today, there are committed "states rights-ers" who continue to pillory Lincoln's memory, citing his prosecution of the Civil War and the rise of federalism in which federal law always trumps state law as if Lincoln invented it. To them, it is respectfully suggested that they read again Article VI of the Constitution, an important term of a binding contract freely entered into by each state.
This Constitution and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding
http://aycu33.webshots.com/image/11472/2006372013699270534_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2006372013699270534)
http://aycu31.webshots.com/image/9390/2005019266577000341_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005019266577000341)
199 years ago, on this day in 1809, Abraham Lincoln is born on the frontier of the young republic in Hodgenville, Kentucky. George Washington is universally and fondly remembered as the "Father of His Country."
Second only to Washington in the regard of his people, Abraham Lincoln is widely considered by historians to be the man most responsible for the continued existence of the then 85 year old nation when it was nearly fatally torn in half by internal strife over the issue of slavery.
http://aycu17.webshots.com/image/9936/2005097603474417417_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005097603474417417)
Lincoln, one of America’s most admired presidents, grew up a member of a poor family in Kentucky and Indiana. He attended school for only one year, but thereafter read on his own in a continual effort to improve his mind.
http://aycu06.webshots.com/image/8365/2005028239282150751_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005028239282150751)
As an adult, he lived in Illinois and performed a variety of jobs including stints as a postmaster, surveyor and shopkeeper, before entering politics. He served in the Illinois legislature from 1834 to 1836, and then became an lawyer having read law as a clerk in an Illinois law firm. In 1842, Lincoln married Mary Todd; together, the pair raised four sons.
http://aycu14.webshots.com/image/9893/2005002340242860019_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005002340242860019)
Mary Todd Lincoln
Lincoln returned to politics during the 1850s, a time when the nation’s long-standing division over slavery was flaring up, particularly in new territories being added to the Union. As leader of the new Republican Party, Lincoln was considered politically moderate, even on the issue of slavery. He advocated the restriction of slavery to the states in which it already existed and described the practice in a letter as a “minor issue” as late as 1854.
In an 1858 senatorial race, as secessionist sentiment brewed among the southern states, he warned, “a house divided against itself cannot stand”. He did not win the Senate seat but earned national recognition as a strong political force. Lincoln’s inspiring oratory soothed a populace anxious about southern states’ secessionist threats and boosted his popularity.
As a presidential candidate in the election of 1860, Lincoln tried to reassure slaveholding interests that although he favored abolition, he had no intention of ending the practice in states where it already existed and prioritized saving the Union over freeing slaves.
http://aycu05.webshots.com/image/8964/2006388432817314668_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2006388432817314668)
When he won the presidency by approximately 400,000 popular votes and carried the Electoral College, he was in effect handed a ticking time bomb. His concessions to slaveholders failed to prevent South Carolina from leading other states in an exodus from the Union that began shortly after his election. Leaders in those states were intent on preserving slavery at all costs because their agrarian economies and personal wealth depended on it.
By February 1, 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas had also seceded. Soon after, the Civil War began. As the war progressed, Lincoln moved closer to committing himself and the nation to the abolitionist movement and, in 1863, finally signed the Emancipation Proclamation which converted the war from one to save the Union to a crusade to end the horrid and repugnant institution.
http://aycu06.webshots.com/image/10085/2005031677323901495_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005031677323901495)
Lincoln in the field as commander-in-chief with his army
The document freed slaves only in the Confederate states, but did not address the legality of slavery in Missouri, Kentucky, Delaware or Maryland. The proclamation was legal because it tied the existence of slavery in the states in open rebellion to their continued ability to wage that rebellion. Outlawing slavery elsewhere would require a Constitutional amendment because slavery was provided for in the Constitution, thus it could not be outlawed in the US by executive order or even a federal statute. That amendment came in 1865 after the Confederacy was defeated, but sadly Lincoln did not live to see it
http://aycu36.webshots.com/image/8635/2005019527422954595_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005019527422954595)
Lincoln was the tallest president at 6’ 4.” As a young man, he impressed others with his sheer physical strength--he was a legendary wrestler in Illinois--and entertained friends and strangers alike with his dry, folksy wit, which was still in evidence years later.
Exasperated by one Civil War military defeat after another, Lincoln wrote to a lethargic general “if you are not using the army I should like to borrow it for awhile.” An animal lover, Lincoln once declared, "I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it." Fittingly, a variety of pets took up residence at the Lincoln White House, including a pet turkey named Jack and a goat called Nanko. Lincoln’s son Tad frequently hitched Nanko to a small wagon and drove around the White House grounds.
Lincoln’s sense of humor may have helped him to hide recurring bouts of depression. He admitted to friends and colleagues that he suffered from “intense melancholia” and hypochondria most of his adult life. Perhaps in order to cope with it, Lincoln engaged in self-effacing humor, even chiding himself about his famously homely looks. When an opponent in an 1858 Senate race debate called him “two-faced,” he replied, “If I had another face do you think I would wear this one?”
Lincoln is remembered as “The Great Emancipator.” Although he waffled on the subject of slavery in the early years of his presidency, his greatest legacy was his work to preserve the Union and his signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.
http://aycu23.webshots.com/image/9222/2005030374722852548_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005030374722852548)
To Confederate sympathizers, however, Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation reinforced his image as a hated despot and ultimately led John Wilkes Booth, an alcoholic actor who refused service in the Confederate Army, to assassinate him on April 14, 1865 when he sneaked up and shot Lincoln in the back of the head. Lincoln's favorite horse, Old Bob, pulled his funeral hearse.
http://aycu40.webshots.com/image/11959/2005089467668828548_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005089467668828548)
Tomb in Springfield, IL.
Ironically, most historians agree that had Lincoln lived, Federal "reconstruction" policies would almost certainly have been less severe. The best evidence of this fact are his documented statements of intent to "let the South up easy" and the impeachment of his successor Andrew Johnson who angered those in the Congress who wished to punish the South when he refused to support extremist and punitive "Reconstruction" policies.
Today, there are committed "states rights-ers" who continue to pillory Lincoln's memory, citing his prosecution of the Civil War and the rise of federalism in which federal law always trumps state law as if Lincoln invented it. To them, it is respectfully suggested that they read again Article VI of the Constitution, an important term of a binding contract freely entered into by each state.
This Constitution and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding
http://aycu33.webshots.com/image/11472/2006372013699270534_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2006372013699270534)