200 Candles for Abraham Lincoln

Just about 200 years ago, or 10 score as Abraham Lincoln might say, one of the most iconic presidents in history was born. On February 12, 1809, Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks gave birth to a baby boy in a one room cabin. He would grow up to lead the United States and make two of the most well-known speeches in United States history, the Gettysburg Address and the Emancipation Proclamation. Now, 200 years later, his country still throws him a birthday party.

President Obama, another tall, elegant man from Illinois who swore into office with his hand on the Lincoln Bible, will be in Springfield on Thursday in the company of $95 ticket holders who are ready for a monumental start to Presidents’ Day Weekend. Although Obama has said, “I cannot swallow whole the view of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator,” he has looked to Lincoln for help in speech writing and inspiration in leadership. The two have drawn constant comparisons in the press, and one can only wonder how the United States would celebrate Barack Obama’s 200th birthday.

This week, many will celebrate Abe by using the new Lincoln postage stamps, visiting one of the many Lincoln-centered exhibits at museums and libraries, watching the new play about Lincoln at Ford’s Theater, or browsing through the Abraham Lincoln material at Internet Archive.

Here are some highlights from our collections:

  • Abraham Lincoln, a 1930 biographical film directed by D.W. Griffith
  • Gettysburg Address, audio version read by John Greenman
  • Abraham Lincoln, a book of quotes
  • The Face of Lincoln, a short film of a sculptor describing Lincoln’s life while sculpting his bust
  • The Works of Abraham Lincoln Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4,Vol. 5, Vol. 6, Vol. 7
  • Abraham Lincoln: A History
  • The Writings of Abraham Lincoln
  • Happy Birthday, Abe!

    –Cara Binder

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    17 thoughts on “200 Candles for Abraham Lincoln

    1. The Agra Indian

      If a country want to grow it should not forget its leaders of past, they are the glory and a very good learning resource for the young generation. It’s great to here and very inspiring that the country is still giving birth day party to its former president.

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    3. Larry

      President Lincoln was a great president of course but he was also considered a great man. I see no reason to insult the memory of such a great man by invoking false comparisons between him and an individual that is thought of as a basically morally corrupt person. In the fact that obama has done nothing great, as opposed to Lincoln. He supports the cowardly act of killing defenseless children and has said he considers babies a punishment, thereby in his view excuses the deplorable act of murder. Lincoln did not. Obviously obama thinks as president he should ridicule and slander his own country to the point many around the world view as traitorous, Lincoln did not. The act of obama and company spending the country into oblivion to pay back all the supporters that helped get him into office which can only be viewed as criminal, Lincoln did not. Lincoln actually believed in our Creator, he didn’t just hold a bible at the nearest church steps for a photo op as obabma does. Lincoln did not get help from criminals as in felons and terrorists that killed their own countrymen. Lincoln did not attend a so called church that spat nothing but racist views towards white people and tore their country down with every other word.

      To be honest there are no real comparisons between Lincoln and obama. There are however many stark contrasts between the two. It’s like the difference between day and night. Men of Lincolns’ caliber do things proudly in the light of day, for everyone to see, individuals of obamas’ caliber do things in the dark and shadows of night, for fear of being seen for what they really are. As the poster said, the media has made these and other ridiculous comparisons between the two, but consider the source, the liberal biased media has an agenda to push, they don’t report news anymore, they fabricate it as they go along. The same media has made comparisons between our Creator and the lowly obama, that about says it all about the so called media.

      I’m sure there will be many obama supporters that will take offense at what I say. Please don’t, my intent is to only make clear to the poster how such references as this during a time people are celebrating a great American from our past is very insulting, disrespectful and divisive. Lincoln was a great President and a Great man, let’s allow the country to celebrate him without false comparisons between himself and anyone else.

      One last note, this site should not be used for trolls to turn a subject into a political propaganda site. Keep this site for what is was meant to be. There are plenty of other sites that are just overflowing with political diatribe.

      1. blackbelt_jones

        Well, I did a little research, and it turns out that BarakObama and Abraham Lincoln are both Presidents of the United States, and since there haven’t been that many Presidents of the United States, I’d consider that a fairly exclusive distinction that both men share. Of course, that information comes from wikipedia, so take it with a grain of salt.

    4. DJ Psychomike

      The Presidents who broke our Constitution the most- are the ones we are taught to revere. Lincoln was a lawyer, but he chose the gun to deal with the South. Couldn’t he have sued the South over Federal property still there? What about the words “all men are created equal”? Why couldn’t the end of slavery have been done by arguing those words in court? Even if they failed, shouldn’t a lawyer have tried that route before sacrificing so many lives?

      Lincoln abandoned habeus corpus. He shut down newspapers that argued he should use the courts first. He jailed newspaper reporters without trial. He had troops fire on peaceful protests. He destroyed a system that forced the government to go to the states to declare war, and launched a war without the vote of Congress. He issued an arrest warrent for the head of the Supreme Court. None of this you will read in American history books.

      http://lincolntruth.blogdrive.com

      And speaking of abuse- a word to the many Islamist groups that post here. I marched with the Iranian Student Association against the Shah. I was to stay at their office in Washington, D.C. before the first national convention when a bomb went off hours before I arrived. I put my life on the line to tell people of the horrors of the secret police and tortures of political prisoners.

      Now I read reports of male rapes in secret prisons in Iran of protesters. Of murders and tortures. Of protesters taken from hospitals never to be heard from again. In numbers far beyond what the Shah did.

      The world I loved, the Middle East, has taken the idea that “kill them all, let God sort them out” from 911 to the tortures and murders in Iran into a violent pornography. Films of snipers killing American troops? Whom does this win over?

      Once I walked into a bombed out building that I could easily have been in when it happened. I was spied on by my government because I believed people in the Middle East had a right to justice and freedom. Then I saw the planes fly into buildings. The beheadings. The killings of people protesting. The declarations that what the people of this country think no longer matter, we are all just infidels.

      Once I walked along side you, and risked my life to do so. Many others did to. Turn away from the hate.

    5. Billnfl

      That’s simply not true in the way you meant it. To top it off your post is that of a troll as in spam. Disgusting. If you were a more well informed and educated individual you would know that we all share the same dna. Your implication is totally absurd. Just a typical trash talk that you would expect to find around the internet these days. I like the way the poster above stated it, ” I see no reason to insult the memory of such a great man by invoking false comparisons between him and an individual that is thought of as a basically morally corrupt person. “. I think that summed it up pretty well. I think you’ll see that history will look back upon this president as the worst in US history. It will set back blacks and racial progress in America for decades to come. Just when it seemed like most people of all races were coming together we had one individual like obama come along that was ushered into his position by groups more bent on self gratification than the good of the country. Many hope he will not be able to single handedly destroy the greatest nation in history. He is not like Lincoln in many ways. He is more like the so called Trojan Horse, although it will be one that could possibly do more harm not just to America, but to civilization in general than anyone can imagine. All we can do is hope and pray that other leaders come forward and take their place in history as more stabilizing figures in our very troubled times and correcting the damage done by obama and his cohorts. We can hope anyway. Good luck to us all.

    6. Scentsy Bricks

      Abraham Lincoln was seriously a huuuuuge influence on me. I look forward to learning more about him and thinking as though I can be that much closer to a relic of his.

      Thank you again for sharing

    7. Richard Gallaher

      The Politics Of Expediency:

      Lincoln did not legislate to free any of O’bama’s ancestor’s. The press reports O’bama saying that his white verified & certified American grandmother is wary, if not afraid of adult black Americans when has traveled with him when he was a child in the car with her.

      Abraham Lincoln is known on historical record to have been planning to have the American military conquer Haiti after the Civil War was concluded as a place for American negroes to relocate. He believed this would be necessary because he was convinced the two races could not get along/cohabit/integrate or even live peaceably segregated in America. After Lincoln’s murder, General U.S. Grant, who was one of Lincoln’s intimates, also publicly espoused his belief on the need for another country to be conquered for the purpose of solving interracial strife. He looked at a country in central America for this purpose, but his failed presidency kept him from getting a consensus politically to carry out Lincoln and his conviction on the subject.

      The past historical record of national interracial conflict resulting in untold thousands of interracial crimes of murder, assault, and all types of felony crimes, along with the highest imprisoned population in the world per ca-pita, with the majority being black, are proof enough that Lincoln’s convictions about an interracial American were prophetic and woefully true.

      Lincoln is also famous for saying regarding the Emancipation Proclamation that he that if the Union of the states could be preserved either by freeing the slaves Or not freeing the slaves, that is the course he would have followed. For O’bama, or any black person to exalt Lincoln or any of his disciples, such as Grant, is just politics in its lowest form, which may be construed as a shame to thinking men of both races.

    8. Chris

      Lincoln and obama are anything but related, even if they were related by DNA. Genetics has nothing to do with why one man is morally superior to another. Lincoln espoused then and inspires now. Everyone knows that those people who are personally revered for the quality of their character will have someone try to besmirch it, just like obama smeared Lincoln. I’d choose Lincoln every time for president over a racist president, and that includes obama.

    9. Balexert

      I am curious to see Lincoln on the big screen: Steven Spielberg has in project some kind of “biopic”. Liam Neeson was supposed to play Lincoln but he left the project…

      Balexert

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