Abraham Lincoln: 200 Candles

Happy Birthday Abe.

Let’s think about you for a few moments on this, the 200th anniversary of your birth.

Would it in any way be possible for you to be elected in the 21st century? I’m thinking not.

Look at you. You were, and I think you might have agreed with me on this, a homely man. The modern electorate had no desire for the homely. You would, at the very least, need a makeover.

Your formal education was, to put it mildly, lacking. At best you had a couple of years of formal education spread out over your childhood. That just wouldn’t do. We now live in a world, Abe, where many thought a Naval Academy education wasn’t good enough for a presidential candidate, certainly not compared with someone who matriculated from Harvard. You did however do a lot of reading on your own, so I guess we could say you were home schooled. That’s quite fashionable these days. We might be able to get away with that, as long as no one asks too many questions.

In your favor, you had very little legislative experience, which is a good thing. No record to run on, no way to judge you other than on what you say about yourself. That’s where you would shine. For an uneducated man you wrote speeches worthy of Shakespeare, only less dull and far more easily understood. No record to hold against you and you speak well. Those two things just might get you elected.

Unfortunately, you didn’t shoot hoops? Of course, they didn’t have basketball in your day, did they? We would have to find you a sport. We like our presidents to be athletic. Wood splitting? Well, I guess that might work. Reagan and George W. Bush like to clear brush on their ranches, although we may not want to draw too many comparisons to Bush right now. Not a good time. Too soon. Not with the Second Great Depression still going strong.

So what exactly did the voters, and all the people, at least in the North, see in Abraham Lincoln? They saw what we still see today. A man with not just intelligence, but wisdom, and compassion.

Lincoln would go on throughout his presidency to prove those perceptions of him correct. Lincoln had the wisdom to be humble in victory and defeat. The wisdom to show compassion for a vanquished foe in order to begin a healing process for the country.

Wisdom and humility are uncommon attributes in any person, much less a politician. Lincoln exemplified those attributes. He was able use those rare qualities to stir the country with his words, words that live on in speeches like the Gettysburg Address (“a government of the people, by the people, for the people) and his second inaugural address (“with malice toward none, and charity for all”).

Voters in 1860 also saw something in Lincoln that we still see today: ourselves. Lincoln the man, not the deity some make him to be now, had some of the same life problems as everyone else. His marriage could be difficult at time, he suffered from bouts of depression, he felt the pain of losing two children.Those are the travails of everyday people.

Yet this person with the problems of the ordinary man transcended his problems in a way that few have, before or since. Lincoln managed to prove true the saying all Americans have heard since childhood: anyone can grow up to be president. Anyone, even a man with the humblest of beginnings (let's not forget that log cabin birth), a paltry education and a spotty record of political success.

Abraham Lincoln proved that the American Dream can indeed come true, and that is a fact that resonates with all people even to this very day.