Happy Birthday Abraham Lincoln.

[trof]

According to Garrison on tonight's Prairie Home Companion.
Happy Birthday Abe.
You wouldn't like it here now.
:-(

[Padraig18]

1. Happy birthday, Mr. President!

Yeah, he'd be rather disappointed at what's become of his party.

x(

[arwalden]

2. If Abe Had Lived, He Would Be 196 Years Old!!!

[Padraig18]

3. Would he get enough SS so he didn't have to work at McD's?

One has to pause and wonder, these days...

:shrug:

[CubsFan1982]

4. My favorite President

And the greatest of the 42. Too bad that douchebag Booth had to ruin everything like he did. Maybe the South might be a halfway progressive place by now.

[Padraig18]

6. The South would have been a very different place.

Much of the bitterness and animosity that existed for a century would have been stillborn, had Lincoln lived to manage the post-war era.

x(

[CubsFan1982]

7. Or

As one of my professors posited, perhaps Lincoln, rather than Johnson, would have faced the Radicals' wrath, and maybe we'd have a much more jaundiced view of the man and his Presidency had he not been assassinated.

[JohnKleeb]

10. I actually admire Johnson somewhat

he was brave to stand up for Catholics, not too many people know that he did that but when he was in congress, he was a huge defender of Catholicism, very rare at the time, especially for a southerner.

[CubsFan1982]

16. I didn't know that

Raises him up just a bit in my view, but the fact that he was a virulent racist (even for his own time) still unsettles me. Overall, Andrew Johnson really wasn't much of an admirable character, but thank you for pointing out one of his more positive sides.

[JohnKleeb]

18. Yeah he wasnt a good guy but he did do that

History at that time was so funny, I would been an indepdent, thank god my family wasnt here yet, see I would agree with the republicans on slavery, like Sumner and that crowd but also a big defender of Catholicism, like many urban dems were. Shrug, history is fun!

[CubsFan1982]

36. I'm not sure what I would be.

Seems to me my affiliation would vary from year to year. I'd probably have been a Republican from the Civil War until Grover Cleveland or William Jennings Bryan came along.

[Dookus]

5. Happy birthday

Abie-baby, happy birthday to you!

[Aristus]

8. Happy Birthday, sir!

I salute you.


P.S. I've visited your birthplace half a dozen times or so. Did you see me?

[Guy Fawkes]

9. He was actually kind of a racist and a 'flip flopper'...

If you review the history surrounding the presidential race that elected him, you'll find that he changed possition about racism a lot- and was almost as bad as everyone else.

[CubsFan1982]

12. Not really any more of a racist

Than anyone else in his time. Remember, we can't judge people in 1860 by 2005 standards.

[Guy Fawkes]

14. I'm not judging him based on modern standards..

I'm comparing him to other people that were around at the time. Remember, there were a few white abolitionists and anti-racists.

[Padraig18]

13. Not quite true.

For the time, he was fairly progressive. He wasn't a fire-breathing abolitionist, but he was astute enough to see that it was economically non-viable in the long term, and had ideas of how it should/could be phased out. Like many men of his time, his position evolved as time went on.

[JohnKleeb]

17. Lincoln was a moderate

from what I gather. Not an abolitionist, not a defender of Slavery. I am not condoning him but Lincoln was not like William Lloyd Garrison on the issue of slavery.

[Padraig18]

19. "I would be neither slave, nor master".

That fairly well summarizes his 'political' stance in 1860, although his personal, moral view of slave was far more 'radical'.

[JohnKleeb]

15. well would you rather have him, John Breckridge, Stephen Douglas,

or John "What the fuck is the constiution union party" Bell. I know what you mean, Ive read a little on it too.

[CubsFan1982]

20. Breckenridge was a douchebag

At least Douglas stuck around and supported Lincoln during the first few months of his Presidency, before he died. Breckenridge finished presiding over the Senate, packed his bags, and accepted a commission in the rebel army. Numbnut.

[JohnKleeb]

21. Yep, he was also a terrible general and the youngest VP ever

oh and in case anyone doesnt know the constiution union party was a lot like the Whig party, which I know nil about. I am a 20th century history expert but not much on 19th.

[CubsFan1982]

24. The Whig Party

Basically, the Whigs were the immediate antecedents of the Republican Party, although it included many pro-slavery Southerners. It was formed to oppose Andrew Jackson. When the Whigs died out after the 1852 elections, the Northern Whigs formed the Republican Party (or the anti-Catholics formed the Know-Nothing Party), and the Southern Whigs joined the Democrats.

/takes off geeky professor hat :D

[JohnKleeb]

26. I knew that much

The whigs had a southern and pro slavery wing which the republicans did not. The Know-Nothing party I obviously am no fan of. I still have no idea what party I would join. I would be an ardent abolitionist but I would also be very pro Irish-German immigrant, and for kindness to the Natives.

[Padraig18]

22. Douglas died rallying the country to the Union cause.

Douglas was a man of honor, and spoke vigorously in favor of Lincoln's "one Union, indisoluble and perpetual" policy.

[CubsFan1982]

28. Literally

He contracted typhoid on a speaking tour rallying support for the Union. Douglas is someone I have a lot of respect and admiration for because of that.

[JohnKleeb]

29. Can't say I am really proud of how my state was during that time period

though I do say Lee had some honor, Jefferson Davis wanted him to start a Guerilla war but he decided not to because he felt it would be bad for the country.

[CubsFan1982]

30. Why? Massachusetts didn't secede.

:P

[JohnKleeb]

32. haha

I need to go to Massachuetts sometime.

[CubsFan1982]

33. It's awesome

The Boston area, at least. I was there last summer for the DNC and College Democrats conventions and I had a blast. Especially for a history major, it was great; I was walking around with my mouth hanging open almost the whole time. :)

[JohnKleeb]

34. Yeah I wanted to be there for DNC but I had to work and money

and me aren't friendly. Yeah I bet, its a cool place. I may go to college there.

[CubsFan1982]

35. I had an understanding boss

And I saved up my nickels and dimes for that trip. Plus, it also helped that the college paid for airfare and accomodations. We stayed in one of the dorm halls at Boston University for about $30/night. And compared to some of the dorms I've seen in my college trips around Illinois, those dorms were freakin' palaces. Very spacious, nice views.

[trof]

11. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum will not only preserve history – it will make history by enabling millions of visitors from around the world to experience the Lincoln story in its entirety, as nowhere else.

With your help, we can introduce people of all ages – but especially the young – to what has been called "The Great American Story"
http://www.alplm.org/home.html

The curator talked about this on PHC tonight.
It sounds fascinating.

[Padraig18]

31. The first government project in IL to be on time AND under budget, too.

:P

[terrya]

23. If what the recent research about him is true...

about Lincoln having intimate relationships with men, I wonder what he would think of homosexuality, the gay rights movement and the push for same-sex marriage if he was around today.

[JohnKleeb]

25. Dont know

but it would be interesting that the man who was so instrumental in starting the republican party which has been so hostile towards gays over the years turned out to be gay or bi. I hear Lincoln's predecessor was Gay too, Buchanan, Buchanan to me is a douche historically.

[CubsFan1982]

27. From what I've heard

The research that "proves" Lincoln was gay is rather flawed, or taken out of context. I had a link to a review in the Illinois Times, but I can't find it at the moment.

Although, if it were proven that he was gay, it wouldn't change my view of the man at all. Like Kleeb said, though, I think you have a more slam-dunk case with Lincoln's immediate predecessor, James Buchanan.