President’s Day – What Happened To It? Part II

Posted on February 20, 2006

scroll down for part I

The Republican Party was founding in the pre-Civil War years when tensions between the North and the South were at the highest. Abolitionists in the North prompted a political movement whereby the ending of slavery was a central theme. The first ever Presidential Nominee from the newly formed Republican Party was Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln was elected on the promise to slow the expansion of slavery west as the nation grew. His initial focus was to protect the Union while stopping the spread of slavery which was seen by Republicans as a blight on America.

Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.

Each President takes an oath of office which states that they swear “to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic.” This was the basis for not only defending states loyal to the Union, but the recapture of those which illegally left the Union. Secessionist states of the rebellion were a domestic enemy, and this insurrection needed to be quelled. Lincoln using all the power that his office had, suspended writs of habeas corpus, issued the Emancipation Proclamation (which freed all slaves within the Union and those states which were recaptured by the Army), and he instructed his Generals to use whatever means at their disposal to end the rebellion.

Lincoln was a deeply religious man. He has some serious family problems. Two of his children had died, his wife was a few fries short of a Happy Meal*, and his Presidency was faced with a war between the people of his nation. But he never lost sight of who bestowed the freedoms on our nation.

“Sir my concern is not whether God is on our side. My great concern is to be on God’s side.”

“It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels he is worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great god who made him.”

He further acknowledged this in his many writings and speeches, most notably in his Gettysburg Address.

“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 battle-field 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.”

So we celebrate the birthday of the 16th President of the United States because his actions saved the Union and freed people enslaved. He has been known throughout our history as “Honest Abe” of which he had a little humorous comment:

“If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?”

Lincoln had no formal education, but he taught himself. He had such a love for knowledge that he actually educated himself to the level of that of being an accomplished Attorney in his hometown of Springfield, IL. A true American story of struggle and overcoming of adversity. He battled illiteracy, multiple deaths in his family, a crazy wife, and managed to direct a war which saved the Union and ended the blight of slavery. And for this, he is known as the Father of the Republican Party.

So what has become of this holiday? When I was first starting in grade school, we still had separate days for each President. Martin Luther King Day did not exist as of yet. But once it was instituted, in order to do so without creating another paid day off for federal employees, the birthdays of Presidents Washington and Lincoln were combined and became President’s Day. A day which we now are supposed to celebrate the service of all 43 of our Presidents. But that has long gone.

Today President’s Day is used as a day to hock retail goods. President’s Day is used to sell everything from cars to furniture and everything in between. If it is something that not getting much attention in the retail market, it seems to go on sale on President’s Day.

Personally when I worked a part-time job selling furniture in the mid 90s, President’s Day was one of our biggest sales days. I don’t understand it. What has furniture to do with the service of the men who have served this nation as chief executive? Absolutely nothing. But try to reclaim this holiday from the NEA and see what kind of a fight you get.

* Happy Meal is a registered Trademark of the McDonald’s Corporation.

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3 Responses to “President’s Day – What Happened To It? Part II”

LomaAlta on February 20th, 2006 12:23 pm

Honor Mr. Lincoln, thank God for President Lincoln. He is all you say and more.

For those of you who haven’t had the opportunity, I do hope you get to Washington, DC and view the Lincoln Memorial. To see the statue of the man and to read his words is truly awe inspiring.
apostle on February 20th, 2006 2:37 pm

I like Reagan. I have a small tribute to him for President’s Day for those who are interested.
ttodd on February 20th, 2006 7:54 pm

One day in 1963, Feb 22 or so, my brother and I got up very early to go to a, in those days, TV store to buy a $5 B&#38;W TV to put in our room.

Well, we weren’t the first to get there so we got a $10 B&#38;W TV. Got to watch TV in our room.

Sellling things on GW’s birthday is not new . . . just new to some.