A 150-Year Memory: The Death of Abraham Lincoln

President Abraham Lincoln
was shot by John Wilkes Booth on
April 14, 1865 at
10:15 p.m. in
Ford's Theater


He died the next morning,
April 15, 1865, at
7:22 a.m.

He was 56 years old.


According to Lincoln's secretary John Hay, at the moment of Lincoln's death, "a look of unspeakable peace came upon his worn features".

The group in the room then knelt and prayed.

Secretary of War Edwin Stanton then made a statement that has gone down in our national memory:

Now he belongs to the ages.

Just a Few Words

Only 272, to be exact. The best example of keeping it simple that politics may ever have seen before or since. It has become one of the great speeches of our history. (I'm already over 10% of the way there.)

November 19, 1863. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. In the middle of the Civil War the president had this to say:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Happy Birthday, Abe

Back in the olden days (before Monday holidays) today would have been celebrated as Abe Lincoln's birthday.

After seeing the amazing movie this past fall, today has even more meaning. A remarkable man in a difficult time.

We are the better for him.

What an Incredible Experience

Lincoln (5 !s are not enough. This movie stands alone.)
(Tomatometer: 91%)

How can I put the experience of this movie into words? There are few that can do it justice. Steven Spielberg and crew have produced one of the masterpieces of American cinema. Let's take it from the top:

• Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln. Lewis is probably one of the greatest, if not THE greatest actor in movies today. He hasn't lost an ounce of his powerful screen presence in the 24 years(!) since My Left Foot. He channels Lincoln and no one will ever look to Raymond Massey's portrayal as definitive anymore.

• Tommy Lee Jones is abolitionist congressman Thaddeus Stevens (PA). Jones never fails to engage as he grabs the screen and won't let go, even in a supporting role and wearing a God-awful ugly wig.

• Sally Field brings new life and insight to Mary Todd Lincoln. She has always received bad press and bad history. Mental illness and deep depression are her anchor weights. But they also hold down a remarkable woman in her own right.

• David Strathairn, versatile actor that he is, becomes Secretary of State William Seward, famous otherwise for Alaska. A fine political operative, he is led by Lincoln to do the impossible.

• The three arm-twisters uh, lobbyists, strike just the right comic relief. (Obviously John Goodman wouldn't have fit into this movie!)

• Steven Spielberg is still at the top of his game. Perhaps only Schindler's List can stand above Lincoln. In all these years he manages to find the heart and soul of the important story and let us experience it.

• Tony Kushner has certainly continued to hone his art. From Angels in America to Lincoln he is amazing.

The use of light and shadow is spectacular and almost miraculous. The ambiance of the movie grabs and carries you into the story. Storyteller Abraham Lincoln has his story told in great fashion.

I cried five times during the movie, starting in the very second scene as soldiers recite the Gettysburg Address to Lincoln. I cried at the passage of the 13th Amendment and at Lincoln's words in his second inaugural address. Why did I cry?

First and foremost this is the story of my country. This is the story of what finally made us THE United States of America, a single country, not a collection of states. I am at heart a crazy patriotic, American romantic.(The Battle Hymn of the Republic still brings tears!) I continue to believe strongly in the ideals and hopes this nation represents. Without the 13th Amendment banning slavery we would not be even as far as we are today.

Which is the other reason I found myself crying. This is nearly 150 years ago now. Yet the ideals for which Lincoln worked so hard, the prejudices and hatreds are often just barely under the surface today. Sure, sometimes they are hidden and draped in words that sound sane and patriotic. But they are neither! Racism, the continuing legacy of a nation built on slavery of one group because they are different, is real. It has infused our nation. It is still a poison in our system.

Sure, it is better today. Some even believe that racism has disappeared. Don't be so sure. Evil has a way of winning souls to its side through cunning and double-talk. I am a white, Euro-American. I grew up in a middle-American mostly white, European ethnic community in the 50s and 60s. Civil rights was THE #1 issue in my youth. (The close second was war.) Perhaps I am still too ready to see racism under every tree and around every corner. I hope so.

But this movie has reminded me of what I see going on today. It has shown the power of politics to distort and manipulate. In the midst of that Lincoln himself had to do his own manipulation. He knew, HE KNEW, that passing the 13th Amendment held the key to our national future. Sadly he didn't live to make his dream a reality.

But in this magnificent portrayal, Spielberg, Day-Lewis, Jones, Field, et. al. have reminded us of the great calling that

all men are created equal!

All!

And not just men.

(Argo, Flight, and Lincoln down. Life of Pi is next.

200 Years: Still Binding the Nation's Wounds

"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it." Lincoln's Cooper Institute Address, February 27, 1860.

"I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume II, "Speech at Chicago, Illinois" (July 10, 1858), p. 502.

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." Lincoln's First Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1861.

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country." Lincoln's Second Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862.

"...that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863.