My Favorite
Posted on 09. Nov, 2008 by Deb in Just...Traveling, Just...an Observation
Lincoln, I have to say, is my favorite President.
This coming year is the 200th anniversary of his birth and there are several events in DC – mostly exhibits at various Smithsonian Museums. But also, the re-opening of the Ford’s Theater with two shows about Lincoln.
I’ve been to all the Monuments here in DC – Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington, FDR…. the Lincoln is the one I can go back to time and time again. I can stand in awe of the marble statue and read the words of the Gettysburg Address as well as the words of his Second Inauguration Speech. Both were short speeches, but powerful. His Second Inauguration Speech ends with this:
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
When I can, I prefer to stay in the heart of downtown DC… The hotel I love is in what was once the General Post Office. Lincoln stood on these grounds and raised the flag here at the dedication May 22, 1861. Across the street is what is now the American Art Museum and Portraiture Gallery. It was the Patent Office in 1865…and is where the 2nd Inaugural Ball was held. Blocks away is the Ford’s Theater, where Lincoln was shot, as well as the Petersen house, which is where Lincoln died.
Today I visited the “Mask of Lincoln” exhibit. Photography was just really beginning to rise, and Lincoln took advantage of the technology and sat for photos often. There were both photos of Lincoln as well as sketches. The audio tour was unique, at least to me: use your cell phone to call a number and use prompts to learn more about particular pieces of the exhibit. Anyway, the exhibit was really amazing….Seeing the young statesman….the photos during the stress of war…and after the loss of a child…. Truly worth every moment of time I spent there.
If Lincoln were running for President during the media / television age of today, I don’t think he would have made it. Reporters would have dug around and discovered his bouts of “melancholia” as well as the hints of his wife’s mental instability. He wasn’t the most handsome man, and we are living in a time where looks tend to be important. In walking around other parts of the museum, I saw the paintings of Stephen Douglas, whom he was running against in 1860 as well as the painting of George McClellan. Both Douglas and McClellan were younger looking and more handsome than Lincoln.
I know I’ve rambled a bit. I have always been a lover of history and this city is really deep in my heart and visiting here reminds me why it’s important that we know our past as we live our lives in the present and plan for our futures….
Time for bed. Night, friends….