Redtree Times

In times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and eternity.

–Abraham Lincoln, December 1, 1862 Message to Congress

Short on time but wanted to just put out a reminder that this is President’s Day. Abraham Lincoln always held high esteem in our family. Growing up, there was a  photo of Lincoln in our family photo albums. It was very old, small sepia-tone photo that most likely belonged to my mother’s grandmother, who had raised my mother from early childhood after her own mother had died.

From my genealogy work, I know that my great-grandmother was born just after the Civil War but her father and many of her uncles and cousins had fought for the Union Army in the conflict. There are plenty of offspring along the line named after the great Union generals Ulysses Grant and William Sherman but surprisingly none named after Lincoln.

I think they felt that would be going too far, that the name was too sacred, too burdensome a load to put on the shoulders of a child..

I have read similar accounts from other families who also had photos of Lincoln in their family photo albums. It speaks volumes for Lincoln’s moral and steadfast leadership in times of peril.

After the four years of the former guy’s tenure, it’s hard to believe that such leadership is possible. Let us hope that that are those out there in our future with same strength of character, with similar depths of honesty and moral courage willing to take on this difficult role.

Here’s reading of  Oh Captain! My Captain! from Walt Whitman, that captures the loss felt by the American nation at the time of Lincoln’s death.