Happy Birthday to one of our greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln. I feel it is altogether fitting and proper that Peyton wear his four score and seven years ago shirt today. (Ah, good old Gettysberg Address. Lincoln was so modest with his 'the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here', and now it's one of the most quoted speeches in history!)
I really wanted to finish reading 'Killing Lincoln' before today, but that didn't happen. Now I have to be on to something else, and I'll never know how it ends. (ha!)
But anyway, I really struggled with Lincoln's birthday. I mean, there is no denying how awesome he was (and pretty badass in his youth), but the boys already know so much about him, I didn't want to go over things they already knew (and bore them) just because it was Lincoln's birthday. And, I was ill prepared for today. I drug my feet on what to do for so long, I didn't have a plan besides his story written before we went to Disney, and I just had to kind of wing it. Maybe, Lincoln gets enough recognition, that his birthday didn't have to be a huge thing. But, I still feel like I half-assed this one, and I don't feel particularily great about it. But, Lincoln would tell me 'Whatever you are, be a good one', and I'm a pretty awesome mom and teacher, so I'll let this one slide. Thanks for the pick me up, Lincoln!
Before we even started our timeline, we had some treats: a couple of tall hats, and some prohibition cocktails, since it's a little known fact Lincoln was the only president who was ever a bartender.
After all the fun the last couple days, my batteries died quickly into our toy timeline, but I did charge up the batteries and recreate a few scenes just for documentation.
Lincoln was born in a one room log cabin in Kentucky, where he lived with his mom, Nancy, his dad, Thomas (seen here as Peter Pan), and his sister, Sarah (seen here as Candice, she makes a good older sister, right?) . His baby brother died in infancy.
Most of us know Lincoln weilded an axe when he was younger than Hayden, but not everyone knows in his youth he was also a wrestler. He didn't have a formal education, he just LOVED reading. He'd borrow any book he could get his hands on and self-educated himself. His dad wasn't all that great, and the family moved to Indiana after all kinds of disputes over land in Kentucky. A really good one at that. His mother died when he was little, and Sarah took care of him.
His dad remarried, and Lincoln became close to his new step-mother, and the family moved west to Illinois. But when Lincoln was just 19, his sister Sarah died and Lincoln was crushed. Adding to his depression, is the death of his alleged fist love, Ann. Some day they were going to be married before her death, other's say there's no actual evidence of them ever being together.
Lincoln became a lawyer, not by going to law school, but by reading law books. Illinois had such a law that you only needed to apply to be a lawyer and have a good moral compass (pretty ironic, huh?) to practice law. Lincoln earned himself the nickname "Honest Abe" because of this and the way he practiced law. Though, truth be told, Lincoln actually HATED to be called Abe. He didn't even prefer Abraham all that much. He liked to be called Lincoln, or Mr. Lincoln (So that's how I'm writing his blog, to appease him!)
Lincoln later met Mary Todd, a woman from a wealthy slave-owning family. They got engaged, but Lincoln broke it off. Later, they ran into each other at a party, resumed dating and this time they got married. I'm not sure Lincoln was totally sold on the marriage, since when he was asked where he was going the day he got married, he said 'to hell, I suppose'. (Mary is seen here as Munificent not because she was a villain, but she had such a hard life and spent most of it depressed, I wanted someone dressed in black)
The Lincoln's had four boys. Robert Todd Lincoln was the oldest (he's seen here as the largest Buzz since he is the only one to live to adulthood). Eddie, however, died when he was three. After he had died, Willie was born (he only lived until he was 12, and died when the Lincoln's were in the White House). The last of their four sons, was Tad. (He died after Lincoln's assassination at the age of 18)
So, if you paid any sort of attention in any sort of history class, you should know the rest. Lincoln was part of the Whig party, a self-proclaimed 'disciple of Henry Clay'(seen here as Fix it Felix sinxe Hans Solo was missing), who was forced to throw his support behind Zachary Taylor when it became obvious Clay wasn't going to get the nomination. And then, well, cherries, or bad milk, or something- and Millard Fillmore. And, goodbye Whig party. Then, the Lincoln Douglass debates, where he lost the Illinois Senate seat to Stephen Douglass but became famous for how well he did in the debates.
Then, with James Buchanan deciding not to run again, Lincoln becomes president without winning a single state in the south.
And, succession (starting with South Carolina) and Confederate president, Jefferson Davis (seen here as Captain Hook)
So, Lincoln gets inaugurated, knowing he was a target for assassination. He even came to D.C. in the middle of the night disguised. Lincoln knew he probably wouldn't make it through his presidency alive.
We have the start of the Civil War at Fort Sumter, and four long years of fighting.
You have the Battle of Gettysburg and the Gettysburg Address, the Emancipation Proclamation. You have his re-election, and the passage of the 13th amendment. And of course you have General Lee surrendering to General Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9th, and Lincoln famously telling Grant to 'Let em up easy' when they discuss what to do with Lee and his men. His goal isn't to further anger the South, it's reunification.
Five days later, you have Lincoln in his box at Ford's Theater with Mary Todd Lincoln, Henry Rathbone and his girlfriend, Clara Harris. Grant was supposed to be in the box that night, but he bailed to go see his kids in New Jersey instead.
Of course, Lincoln's box did have a body guard, until he went off to the bar. (We did talk about the conspiracy too, as it went from wanting to kidnap the president to wanting to assassinate him and everyone else in charge. Booth and his conspirators wanted to kill Secretary of State Seward, of Sewards Folly, Vice President Johnson, and General Grant as well.) Seward was the only one of those actually attacked, but he survived thanks to a metal neck brace he was wearing after having just been in a carriage accident.
So the guard left, and John Wilkes Booth waited until a line he knew would get a big laugh (so maybe the gun wouldn't be heard), and he shot the president. Rathbone lunged for him, but was attacked with a knife Booth had also been carrying.
Then, Booth jumped from the box to the stage (breaking his leg) and escaped out the back door on horseback.
A doctor from the audience ran up to the box in an attempt to help (seen here as Baymax, your personal health care companion), and the president was moved across the street to the Peterson house.
The next morning, Lincoln died.
And Andrew Johnson became the 17th president of the United States of America.
And Lincoln's funeral train took him all over the country and back to Springfield, Illinois where he's buried. (I've totally been there!)
We did a sort of 'Where are they now?" segment after that. (I mean not NOW, because that was 1865, they're obviously all dead.. but what happened to them)
Secretary of State Seward went on to serve in Johnson's cabinet, and even famously purchased the land for Alaska, that would be deemed 'Sewards Folly'.
Grant went on to become the 18th president of the United States, obviously.
John Wilkes Booth died in a barn in Virginia trying to avoid capture. His co-conspirators were all hanged.
Henry Rathbone, went on to marry Clara. But, he went insane little by little, always thinking he should have and could have done more to save the president. He eventually murdered Clara and their kids, and spent the rest of his life in a mental institution.
Tad Lincoln died at age 18, sending his mother into an even deeper depression.
Mary Todd Lincoln went crazy. I mean, who can blame her, three of her four kids and her husband died. But, apparently Robert Todd Lincoln had her committed which strained their relationship to say the least. Mary Todd Lincoln lived out her days after the mental institution with her sister.
Robert Todd Lincoln went on to live a full life, but not without tragedy. He was in New York at the Expo when McKinley was shot. He was with James Garfield when he was shot. Though he was at the White House when his father was shot after turning down an invitation to join them, he did rush to be by his bedside. After Garfield's assassination, he said about traveling with another president "they better not ask me, because there is a certain fatality about presidential functions when I am present". He lived into his 80's, and even saw the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
We added a few things to our Lincoln on the wall today. In case you missed it, he's holding a playbook from 'Our American Cousin', the play he was watching when he was shot.
He liked to keep important documents and papers in his hat.
There are so many good Lincoln quotes.
Some fun facts about Lincoln. Another one we talked about: He was the first president to pardon a turkey. Tad didn't want the turkey killed for Thanksgiving, and so the president 'pardoned' it.
In case you didn't know, Booth and his co-conspirators were at Lincoln's second inauguration.
The boys made their Lincoln cards, and stood next to Lincoln for the height comparison since Lincoln was our tallest president. Our Lincoln in the kitchen stands at a very accurate 6'4".
Peyton wanted Lincoln to hold his card, so we did a little rearranging and made it all work. It's getting a little crowded.
Then we made some Lincoln hats.
We decided Lincoln, who was not a fan of being called Abe, would not love that he's often called 'Honest Abe', so we fixed that with his historical hashtag: Let's get it trending #HonestLincoln
Lincoln was a pretty picky eater, and didn't eat a lot. But, he couldn't pass up Chicken Fricassee, so that's what Asa made us for dinner tonight.
He also made Lincoln's favorite, Mary Todd's Almond Cake. It's pretty yummy actually! I had it with some coffee after dinner, and was pleasantly surprised. Usually the older the president, the grosser the cake.
That's it for Lincoln's day. I hope I did it justice. I would have the boys watch Lincoln tonight in his honor (a great movie if you've never seen it), but Peyton and I have already watched it and the other two wouldn't be that interested. Plus, it's TGIT and my DVR is calling.
Next Up: Valentines Science, Art and Fondu!
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