Lincoln's B-Day

This past Thursday was the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birthday. In my American Studies class we went and listened to teachers talk about Lincoln and about the different mythologies that people have about Abraham Lincoln. It was very interesting. I had no idea that Lincoln died on Good Friday. I think that it is amazing the coincidence of that. Lincoln was not very well liked or appreciated before he died, but afterwards he was honored and was considered a martyr. Before listening to the speakers, I had no idea that Lincoln was compared to Jesus and Moses, I think that it is amazing that a president can be compared to biblical characters. I don't know for sure, but I don't think that there are any other presidents that are compared to such big biblical characters like Moses and Jesus. I really did not know much about Lincoln before listening to the speakers and it was very interesting. I learned that he has two sons that died and their deaths was a public mourning for the Lincoln family. Every Thursday Lincoln would go into one of his sons room, because he had died on a Thursday. I never knew that Lincoln wanted his son to be buried in Springfield so Lincoln and his family were going to go on a train to Springfield with the casket, but then Lincoln was shot and him and his son were on the same car of the train on the way to Springfield both in their caskets. I think that it is amazing that he was with his son, which is what he wanted but not in the way that he wanted it to be. 

There are many myths about Lincoln also. We are not told any of that when we learn about him in elementary school, we are taught about the shooting in the theater and how he was shot. After he was shot he lived for about another 8 hours, I never knew that. They moved him to a place across the street from the theater and there was only enough space in that room for like 10 people and in all the stories and pictures, they show hundreds of people by Lincoln in his death bed, I think that the myth of all these people being by Lincoln on his death bed is kind of a funny thing to believe in because when a person is dying why would other people want to be around him unless they were really close to him or his family. 

I think that it is amazing that I never knew most of this stuff until we went and saw the teachers speak about the history of Lincoln. I kind of wish that there were no myths, and when you learn things you learn all the facts and that they are all true.