Today is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States and is generally considered by most people to be one of the best. Our current President often compares himself to Lincoln and even he acknowledges that old Abe is the only President that even comes close to his greatness. I won’t argue that point, but Abraham Lincoln had a lot of qualities, and quirks, that makes him stand out among the leaders of our country.
In the past I’ve taken the occasion of his birthday to try to learn a little more about him. I may have mentioned this before, but Lincoln is the only president to have been issued a patent. In 1849, Lincoln obtained Patent No. 6,469 on a device that was designed to keep boats afloat when they passed over a sandbar or entered shallow water.
Illinois may be know as the Land of Lincoln, but he was born in a log cabin in Kentucky in 1809, and moved with his family to southern Indiana in 1816. Lincoln didn’t migrate to Illinois until 1830.
Before gun control became a hot topic, Lincoln — a hands-on commander-in-chief, was very interested in the artillery used by the Union troops during the Civil War. He often met with inventors demonstrating military prototypes at the White House. Although there was a standing order against firing weapons in the District of Columbia, Lincoln personally test-fired muskets and repeating rifles on the lawns around the White House — now known as the Ellipse and the National Mall.
Lincoln is enshrined in the Wrestling Hall of Fame. As a young man, he was an accomplished wrestler, being defeated only once in approximately 300 matches.
On April 14, 1865, Lincoln signed legislation creating the U.S. Secret Service. That evening, he was shot at Ford’s Theatre. This may sound like bad timing, but the original mission of the Secret Service was to combat widespread currency counterfeiting. It wasn’t until 1901, after two other presidents had been killed, that the Secret Service was formally assigned to protect the President.
In 1876 a gang of Chicago counterfeiters attempted to steal Lincoln’s body from his tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois. The plan was to hold the corpse for a ransom of $200,000 and obtain the release of the gang’s best counterfeiter from prison. Secret Service agents infiltrated the gang and disrupted the operation.
When he occupied the White House, Lincoln used the current Lincoln Bedroom as his personal office, to meet with Cabinet members and sign documents — including the Emancipation Proclamation. So Lincoln never slept in the Lincoln Bedroom — at least not in a bed. Today, the room still contains a few pieces of office furniture along with a handwritten copy of the Gettysburg Address.
Lincoln was the first president to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda… and just to wrap this up, Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks, was a distant relative of Tom Hanks, making the president and the actor fourth cousins, four times removed.
We’re almost half-way through February — still celebrating all these great February events.
Happy Birthday Abe.
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