"Happy Birthday" the song was born in Kentucky. So was POTUS number sixteen, and today is his birthday. If he was alive, and wouldn't that be exceptional, Abraham -no middle name- Lincoln would be 200 years old. I've visited his birthplace just outside of Hodgenville, Kentucky, and I've been to his tomb in Springfield, Illinois. Fifty-six years, two months, four days and roughly 375 miles was the distance from his modest cradle to his grand grave.
I really do wonder what thoughts the perpetual student - practical teacher A. Lincoln would have if he were here right now. Being the great debater that he was, I can't imagine he was any slouch of a thinker. Being the always-willing-to-admit-there-may-be-a-better-way kinda man he was, we might be surprised at some of his views on a few things. As much as he didn't concern himself with his popularity, he refused to sign the Emancipation Proclamation with a shaky hand for fear history would think he hesitated. Even with a steady mind, his grip was sometimes weak - something he'd probably admit.
Lincoln was not nearly as popular alive as he is long dead. Even though he always spoke of his birth state with great affection and pride, it was here that he came in dead last in a field of four in the 1860 presidential race (he received 1,364 votes - not even one percent of the total) and didn't get half the votes here that his opponent did four years later.
We've attached ourselves to him now, but about 145 or so years ago this Commonwealth wanted nothing to do with the self-made trouble maker. As a matter of fact, it was other Kentucky-borns who always seemed to be a constant haunt to him throughout his personal and political life. His in-laws, the Todds in Lexington, didn't have much use for him. None of them voted for him. During his first presidential run, one of his opponents was Kentucky Senator and former Vice President John Breckenridge who got over fifty times the Kentucky votes Lincoln did. We all know that Lincoln's nemesis during most of his presidency was Confederate President Jefferson Davis, another native Kentuckian. The two were born within a hundred or so miles and eight months of each other. Nowadays Jefferson stares at the back of Lincoln's head in the rotunda of the Kentucky state capitol. Breckenridge stands in the room about half as tall, as though worshipping at Lincoln's feet.
There has been some debate over whether or not it was Lincoln's personal conviction that blacks should live as free people that motivated his noble actions. Some believe he simply wanted to hold things together, and that's noble enough since the end result was the same. Whatever the reason, today we are a better, much better nation and people because of the risks and decisions he undertook. Some have made him a saint. He'd disagree. History says that although he read his bible, he was barely religious and not much for attending church. To many he was a hero. He might even argue with you there. He knew his plans, and how woefully short he'd fallen in fulfilling them - partly because of Kentucky. To all of us he is an inspirer. He not only emancipated our darker brothers, he gave everyone else permission to accept them and respect them. We were all freed in that regard. To the world he was a visionary, and to a little over four million of us in this state, he's our long lost neighbor and son. And that's how you get on a penny.
"We may differ with him, and have differed with him, but when the judgment of future events has come, we found we were differing blindly; that he was right and we were wrong . . . experience and time have demonstrated that his was the only line of salvation for our country."
-Kentucky Governor Thomas E. Bramlette (1817-1875) shortly after learning of the death of President Lincoln.
“In no ‘northern’ state was he so vilified and hated. But he belonged to us, the people of Kentucky, because no claim shall come before the mother.”
-Historian John Kleber, University of Louisville in 2009
"I too, am a Kentuckian."
-President Abraham Lincoln in 1861
For more information on Abraham Lincoln's Kentucky heritage, life and connections go to http://www.kylincoln.org/.
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