Lincoln's Birthday

1916 was a banner year for toys. One of the greatest toys ever created was designed and successfully put on the market by Frank Lloyd Wright’s son John. My childhood would not have been the same without it. Oh, the glorious fights my brother and I had over them(that’s the reason my kids never had them!) ......What were they??? What provided us with so many smiles (and frowns)? Lincoln Logs. I still smile when I see them.

Named for Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln logs were an instant success. They were more sophisticated than regular blocks and challenged children’s coordination and creativity. They were also one of the very first toys ever advertised on TV --1953’s Pioneer Playhouse.

I spent hours recreating the Kentucky cabin he was born in (Feb. 12, 1809) and the Indiana cabin he moved to in 1819. Well, it was actually a three-sided shelter until his father cleared enough land and had time to build the cabin. Spencer County, IN was a wild, unsettled frontier and neighbors were few and far away.

In his entire life, Abe was only able to go to school for a total of one year. This lack of formal education fueled his hunger for knowledge. His mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, was completely uneducated and could not read or write, but she encouraged her children to study by themselves. She died when he was nine years old. Two years later, however, Thomas Lincoln remarried and Abe's stepmother was instrumental in encouraging him to read. He was often found reading next to a pile of logs that he should have been splitting.

As he grew older, Abe noticed that people loved to listen to stories. He began telling tall tales in the general store where he worked. Customers came and stayed when they knew he was there, just to hear him talk. The family moved once again, this time to Illinois.

In 1834 he was elected into the House of Representatives and began studying to become a lawyer.

I n 1847 he was elected into Congress, but his opinions did not ensure him a long stay there. He was vehemently against slavery and took stands on other controversial issues. He was not elected for a second term, so he returned to his law practice.

A few years later, slavery became a stronger issue, and more people were willing to abolish it. Lincoln joined the Republicans, a new political party that was opposed to slavery. The Republicans nominated him for the U.S. Senate in 1858, and in his acceptance speech, he stated:

"A house divided against itself cannot stand... This government cannot endure, permanently half-slave and half-free... I do not expect the Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall but I do expect it will cease to be divided. "

Nominated by the Republican Party in 1860 as its candidate for the Presidency of the United States, Lincoln won by a small margin.

South Carolina seceded from the Union before he was even inaugurated. Other states followed to form the Confederate States of America. The North and South were divided, and the Civil War began. The war was not only over the abolition of slavery, but also the rights of individual states to make their own choices on other issues.

The Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania was the largest, bloodiest battle ever fought on American soil. On November 19, 1863, at a ceremony to establish Gettysburg as a national monument, Lincoln delivered what was to become one of the finest orations in American history, the Gettysburg Address.

The Gettysburg Address
November 19, 1863

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation may live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people shall not perish from the earth.

Lincoln was elected to a second term in 1864.

April 9, 1865. The South surrendered, and the Civil War ended

April 14, 1865 President and Mrs. Lincoln attended a play at the Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. A few minutes past ten o'clock, an actor who disagreed with Lincoln's political opinions stepped into the Presidential box and shot the President. He died the following morning.

Here’s a few quotations from Lincoln

"...As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy"
Letter, August 1858

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises. The great point is to bring them the real facts."

"If we do not make common cause to save the good old ship of the Union on this voyage, nobody will have a chance to pilot her on another voyage. "

"It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him."

"When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion."

Often portrayed as a somber man, we tend to forget that he had an incredible sense of humor, that he laughed, told tall tales and played.

So on this day, if you can't go to the Lincoln Memorial, then pull out your Lincoln logs, build a cabin and smile.

His favorites were lamb shanks, chicken and oysters But his favorite dessert was his wife Mary’s White Cake.

Mary Todd Lincoln’s White Cake

Ingredients
1 cup blanched almonds
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
2 cups granulated sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk
6 eggs, separated (best when eggs are cold)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Confectioners’ sugar

Method
Using a food processor or a spice grinder, pulverize almonds until they resemble coarse flour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a Bundt cake pan.

With an electric beater or stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until light yellow in color and fluffy.

Sift flour and baking powder three times. (I don’t make a rule of this practice, but with three cups of flour, it seemed like a good idea to incorporate some air and help make this cake as light as possible.) Fold flour mix into creamed butter and sugar, alternating with milk, until well blended. Stir in almonds and beat well.

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until they have stiff, firm peaks. (Use egg yolks for another use – French toast, possibly?) Beaters must be washed and dried thoroughly before whipping egg whites or they will not stiffen properly. Fold egg whites gently into batter with a rubber spatula. Add vanilla extract.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for one hour, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Cool for at least 20 minutes before inverting, then allow to completely cool before serving. Sift confectioners’ sugar on top.