Abe Lincoln's Big Day

Having once been accused of being two-faced, Lincoln replied,
“If I had another face, do you think I’d be wearing this one?”

In honor of President Lincoln's birthday, here are four totally unrelated facts and opinions:

1. That guy was not only tall, but rear-end-of-a-well-beaten-pig ugly. No way he'd get elected nowadays.

2. The South should have been permitted to succeed secede. Slavery is an abomination, and those who opposed it were correct to do so, but I was never impressed with the assertion that the Union is "indivisible." Each state, individually, agreed to join the Union. Why in the world shouldn't they have been permitted to drop out? Jefferson Davis, who I do not admire, presented this case with great elegance and skill in his Farewell Address to the Senate.

3. According to Wikipedia: This photograph of Lincoln delivering his second inaugural address is the only known photograph of Lincoln giving a speech. Lincoln stands in the center, with papers in his hand. John Wilkes Booth is visible in the photograph, in the top row right of center

4. Everyone talks about the Gettysburg Address, which is certainly a great speech, but I prefer the Second Inaugural. Money quote:

Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just
God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes... Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether'.

Happy Birthday Mister President.