Link: http://lehrman.isi.org/blog/post/view/id/313
Lincoln's Birthday
By Dr. Michael Burlingame, February 12, 2010 in Uncategorized
Today is the 201st birthday of America's 16th president.
Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln speaks to us not only as a champion of freedom, democracy, and national unity, but also a source of inspiration. Few will achieve his world historical importance, but many can profit from his personal example, encouraged by the knowledge that despite a childhood of emotional malnutrition and grinding poverty, despite a lack of formal education, despite a series of career failures, despite a miserable marriage, despite a tendency to depression, despite a painful midlife crisis, despite the early death of his mother and his siblings as well as of his sweetheart and two of his four children, he became a model of psychological maturity, moral clarity, and unimpeachable integrity. His presence and his leadership inspired his contemporaries; his life story can do the same for generations to come. -- from Abraham Lincoln: A Life