WHY LINCOLN IS..........

WHY LINCOLN IS VOTED BEST PRESIDENT BY HISTORIANS, HAS MORE BOOKS WRITTEN ABOUT HIM THAN ANY OTHER PERSON IN HISTORY, HAS MORE VISITORS TO HIS MONUMENT THAN ANY OTHER NATIONAL MONUMENT, REMAINS THE MOST REVERED AMERICAN ACROSS THE WORLD, AND WHOSE DEATH DREW THE GREATEST PERCENTAGE OF CITIZENS TO EVER ATTEND A FUNERAL OR VIEW A CASKET.

With so much written about Lincoln it is difficult now to view the forest for the sake of the trees. Metaphorically speaking Lincoln was the biggest forest of human largeness in history. Documentation of each reason for this listed below requires attention to the details found in the research behind the thousands of books written about him. The below are the conclusions not the justifications. Others would no doubt add more to the list.

1. His humble beginnings and early life in bona-fide log cabins

2. His rise to an unusually superb use of the English Language with only 3 or 4 months of formal schooling in his life

3. His understanding of human nature and it's universality.

4. His ability to bring out the best in those with whom he came in contact

5. His wry sense of humor

6. A physical appearance which belied his genius and opened the door for his enemies to refer to him as the original ape.

7. A kindness to children, to animals, to every sort of ethnic human which remained steadfast despite the many cruelties thrust at him from every direction.

8. A personal strength which has best been described as a cable of steel which, while bending this way and that way to keep the ship from tipping over, gets to it's intended destination.

9. An eternal patience throughout the most trying of circumstances, including a Civil War, the early loss of his mother, the loss of 3 out of 4 of his children, and a wife whose mental state deteriorated under the same tragedies.

10. A personal space which was impenetrable by his closest of associates

11. A defense of the rights and dignity of humans irrespective of their ethnicity, their religion, their social or economic status, their culture, their divergent personalities---even when he knew this defense of those with whom he had so little in common would lead to his likely death. In a strange way Lincoln was a protector of all groups and a member of none. Even his skin color was some sort of strange swarthy nondescript shade of something or other.

12. The simplicity of his daily life. No pomp and circumstance, no tailored clothing, no best of anything, no pretenses about anything, no particular interests in the trappings of wealth or personal dress.

13. A personal honesty which disarmed many a virulent opponent.

14. An insistent availability to those from all walks of life through his open door policy held two afternoons a week.

15. Uncanny manipulative skills which enabled him to get divergent populations to pull generally in the same direction, if even for different reasons.

16. A persistence which emanated from an unreal ability to focus on matters at hand in precise logical ways regardless of his surroundings or the events unraveling in the varied theaters of his life.

17. A sensitivity to the plight of the unfortunate which radiated from his actions all his life.

18. A self depreciating humbleness which made others from all walks of life comfortable in his presence.

19. A thought process which started with an openness about any subject matter, encompassed input from divergent sources, and proceeded with impressionable logic to a conclusion.

20. A personality so complex and mysterious that others in his presence were often mesmerized by the essence of their experience. One person even refused to see Lincoln anymore because he hated the policies of Lincoln, always felt bested by any conversation with him, and angry that afterwards he could not resist a certain kindness toward Lincoln despite his wanting to feel otherwise.

21. The total absence of revenge for behaviors which he despised. He often reminded those in the north that if they were born in the south they would think and behave the same way. Lincoln concentrated on changes for the betterment of humanity, never revenge for past crimes against humanity.

22. His refusal to be drawn into any argument about inherent abilities or talents of any particular group of people. For Lincoln it was always about freedom and justice for all.

23. A religiosity which permeated his life despite never becoming a member of any church, attending church services, or professing allegiance to any of the rituals or varied peculiarities of the differing sects.

24. He wrote his own speeches and made very few of them.

25. He had no propaganda or spin machine, just 2 secretaries and 1 part time secretary. His written and personal communications with others as revealed by these others were the primary conduit of his thoughts to the public.

26. Lincoln rarely left Washington and then almost exclusively to visit his generals and the troops. He did not vacation and his work day was from 7 AM until 11PM. He did leave Washington to make a speech at Gettysburg. It was two paragraphs long and remains one of the most admired masterpieces of the English language and of our political history. It may have been written on a napkin.

It was so apt that the first words spoken by another person after Lincoln took his last breath were: "Now he belongs to the ages." I guess so.