These past few days I’ve been to Lincoln’s country. That’s Abraham Lincoln and the country is the city of Springfield, Illinois. It’s an amazing place.
Springfield puts Lincoln in an entirely different context from what you read in history books. The canon tells us he was our sixteenth president, that he presided during the bloodiest war of our history, and that John Wilkes Booth, an actor with southern loyalties, assassinated him.
But Springfield tells us so much more about the man. It was here that he courted and married Mary Todd. It was here that he had four sons and buried one of them before he ever became President. It was here that he lived twenty-seven years of his life as an attorney, member of the community, and political aspirant. In other words, Springfield puts a human face on the larger-than-life icon.
It was also here that Lincoln came home to rest when an assassin ended his life just six days after the Civil War ended. Visit his tomb and you’ll come away with a sense of the country’s sadness. Then look behind his monument and realize that his wife and three sons are buried here too. Personal sadness trumps the nation’s.
One leaves Springfield with a bevy of questions. How would the reconstruction of the South have played out with Lincoln in charge? Would he have run for another term? Would he have been happy returning to Springfield’s more bucolic environment? We’ll never know.
But, if you want to learn more about Abraham Lincoln, I urge you – if you’re ever in the neighborhood – to visit Springfield, Illinois and spend a couple days becoming acquainted with the man behind the myth. Truth is, two days is hardly enough time to get to know him, but it’s better than just passing through.
Leave a Reply