What Will You Do For Lincoln's Day ?

[Rob Wick]

I have to say I'm not as sentimental on the idea of Lincoln Day speeches as some may be. Ida Tarbell gave her share of addresses and was interviewed nearly every year on what Lincoln would think of current events--a topic she found distasteful and refused to answer, at least in the way people wanted. An example of this would be a letter to R.A. Hipplehauser of the Associated Press in which Tarbell answered the question in the way she believed it should be.

While doing research several years ago, I came across a reel of microfilm that contained several different Lincoln Day speeches given at various times around the country (sadly, I didn't keep the bibliographical information, as I think that would make an interesting topic for a paper). Most of them were hagiographical in nature and told very little that a person would find of historical value. Most of them were of the nature "Lincoln was great. He loved his wife, his children, his dog, his country and all mankind." While not necessarily and totally injurious to a real understanding of Lincoln, they were generally trite and full of misinformation that has since seeped into the public mind. Those speeches remind me of the speech that Ronald Reagan gave in 1992 when he gave several bogus lines supposedly uttered by Lincoln but in reality written by the Rev. William John Henry Boetcker, who, according to the New York Times, was "a minister from Erie, Pa., who was born in 1873 and ordained in Brooklyn and who became a lecturer and pamphleteer. Mr. Boetcker first printed his 10 maxims in 1916 in a leaflet entitled "Lincoln on Private Property." Originally, one side of the leaflet contained some words by Lincoln; the other side had maxims by Mr. Boetcker. It was republished in 1917, 1938 and 1945 by the Inside Publishing Company, which Mr. Boetcker apparently controlled."

I obviously don't think honoring Lincoln on his birthday is a bad thing and I really dislike the vanilla-tinged nonsense that is President's Day, but I think many of those speeches given in the past did far more harm to Lincoln's memory than forgetting about him ever would.

Best
Rob