Lincoln’s Birthday

Abraham Lincoln never smoked, chewed tobacco, or drank alcohol. Not only was the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln spiritual and intelligent, he was also a heck of a speech writer. He wrote his own speeches, and it is said that his famous Gettysburg Address wasn’t even the best one! Rumor has it that the speech Lincoln made to the Illinois Republican Convention on May 29, 1856 was his best, but it was either so enthralling that nobody remembered to take notes, or it was so controversial that nobody was allowed to print them. Either way, no record of it exists. Abraham Lincoln was also the first President to sport a beard.

Lincoln’s Birthday is a legal, public holiday in some U.S. states, observed on the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth on February 12, 1809. Arizona, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and New York observe the holiday.

In other states, Lincoln’s birthday is not celebrated separately, as a stand-alone holiday and was never a U.S. Federal Government holiday. Instead Lincoln’s Birthday is combined with a celebration of President George Washington’s birthday (also in February) and celebrated either as Washington’s Birthday or as Presidents’ Day, and on the third Monday of February, simultaneously with the Federal holiday, instead on Washington’s or Lincoln’s actual birthday.

The earliest known observance of Lincoln’s birthday occurred in Buffalo, New York, in 1874. Julius Francis, a Buffalo druggist, made it his life’s mission to honor the slain president. He repeatedly petitioned Congress to establish Lincoln’s birthday as a legal holiday.

Source: abebooks.com | ca.gov