GETTING TO KNOW ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Presidents' Day, 2013 seems to be the perfect day to share with you an awesome "gem" of a book that I received from my daughter, Michelle, this past Christmas. It is called, "Abraham Lincoln Traveled This Way," narrative by Michael Burlingame with Photography by Robert Shaw. If you are a Lincoln fan, or would just like to know this very humorous, humble man as he really was in life, this is a book not to be missed! Along with the dialogue, and actual writings and letters from Lincoln himself, there are stunning photos of the places Lincoln traveled and lived, particularly in Illinois, before he became president. As never before, here is where you can read about the real, human side of Lincoln as a boy, young man, poet, hard worker, lawyer and an all-around "great guy" who was loved by almost everyone he met. Some of my favorite quotes, I will share here:

As Lincoln reached his new home in Indiana from Kentucky, he writes, "We reached our new home about the time the State came into the Union. It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up." Lincoln was eight years old at the time. And later, he wrote a poem about his childhood here.

"My child-hood home I see again,

And gladden with the view,

And still as memories crowd my brain,

There's sadness in it too.

Oh, memory! thou mid-way world

Twixt Earth and Paradise,

When things decayed, and loved ones lost

In dreamy shadows rise.

 

So memory will hallow all

We've known, but know no more.

Now twenty years have passed away,

Since here I bid farewell

To woods, and fields, and scenes of play

And school mates loved so well.

Where many were, how few remain

Of old familiar things!

But seeing these to mind again

The loss and absence brings.

The friends I left that parting day--

Now changed, as time has sped!

Young childhood grown, strong manhood grey,

And half of all are dead. (1846)

And, upon his marriage to Mary Todd, he writes to a friend,

"Nothing new here, except my marrying, which to me, is matter of profound wonder."

And of everyday household things he humorously writes,

"Dear Sir: Some specimens of your soap have been used at our house and Mrs. L declares it is a superb article. She, at the same time, protests that I have never given sufficient attention to the "soap question" to be a competent judge."

I did not know this, but when Lincoln spoke his famous line, " a house divided against itself cannot stand," he made reference to the "great fabulists and philosopher, Aesop," who made this same point in his fable "The Bundle of Sticks."

I also think that Lincoln, who valued his friends above all else, wrote,"the better part of one's life consists of his friendships," and also said something very profound when he penned,
'How miserably things seem to be arranged in this world. If we have no friends, we have no pleasure, and if we have them, we are sure to lose them, and be doubly pained by the loss." (Amen to that!)

 

And shockingly, when Lincoln was quite angry, he made a speech at Bloomington, Ill. (where I live) and said,

"If I cannot rightfully murder a man; I may tie him to the tail of a kicking horse, and let him kick the man to death." Ah, Lincoln, a man of strong feelings, and not afraid to express them!

And, Lincoln being a lawyer himself for much of his life had much to say about lawyers. One of my favorite quotes being, "If in your own judgement you cannot be an honest lawyer, ....choose some other occupation, rather than one in the choosing of which you do, in advance, consent to be a knave."  And on preachers, lawyers and hired agents, he writes,

"The preacher, it is said, advocates temperance because he is a fanatic and desires a union of Church and State; the lawyer, from his pride and vanity of hearing himself speak; and the hired agent, for his salary."

And last but not least, did you know that Abraham Lincoln, with his family, visited Niagara Falls? Nor did I, but, in fact, they did, and actually wrote his thoughts when he wrote,

" Like scenes in some enchanted isle,

All bathed in liquid light

As distant mountains please the eye'

When twilight chases day--

As bugle tones, that, passing by,

In distance die away--

As leaving some grand water-fall

We lingering, list its roar"

O.K. one last item to share....Lincoln regarding his children wrote to his wife,

 

"Get another as soon as you can (person to take care of the kids, I suppose) to take charge of the dear codgers!"

In closing, I cannot say enough about this book, both in its insights into Lincoln as "just a man" like you and me, and for its beautiful photography. And who knew that Lincoln was a poet???