a quote for Presidents' Weekend

[zirconium]

The Lincoln legend prefers to call him a statesman, implying that he rose above the spoils system, the person claims of friends for jobs, the bargaining for votes in return for favors. Yet Lincoln never made the least effort to reform the political system of his country. He accepted the fact that political power is gained by a party and that the individual, no matter what his private convictions, has to support the whole party platform. He kenw that parties were held together by jobs. Although he generally gave some thought to the fitness of the candidate in paying off political favors, he gave more to the question of whether his congressional delegates would back him. In fact, the political game was instinctive with Lincoln. One of his most remarkable achievements was to keep together through four years of war and many disasters a party with no strong traditions, no personal devotion to himself, and considerable elements which disagreed with him on policy. This is not a role for a superman, but for a manipulator. Contemporaries were bound to call their leader wily or weak, particularly when they failed to control him. He made no claim to be a great man, and they were not likely to think of him in those terms.

- Olivia E. Coolidge, The Statesmanship of Abraham Lincoln (1976)

[I haven't seen the movie; I was thinning out some of my files last week, and came across my notes for my sermon on Lincoln (and others) in 2006, which attempted to discuss "the challenges of sustaining 'the breath recuperative of sane and heroic life' as citizens of this nation."]

Also from the archives:

An 1860 life mask and hand-cast of Lincoln, by Leonard Wells Volk (the caption at the museum mentions how the process of removing the mask yanked out some of Lincoln's facial hair, causing his eyes to water). It now resides at Tusculum College's President Andrew Johnson Museum (in northeast Tennessee).