Dear Mr. Lincoln, 

 

Seven score and seventeen years ago, an assassin’s bullet in Ford’s Theater took you to meet your Maker — where your soul now belongs to the Ages. 

 

I take great pleasure in sending you my heartfelt greetings. And in saying that, after all these years, and for every new generation of Americans, you have surpassed Washington as the most popular U.S. president in history. Yes, he of “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen” fame. Yes, the one considered the only indispensable man of the American Revolution. 

 

So how did you do it? 

 

Why are there more books written about you than any other person in world history, save for Jesus Christ? 

 

Now I don’t write this last sentence to embarrass you, but am only making a factual comment. 

 

I have my suspicions why such is the case. It seems to me that your unmatched popularity with generations of Americans up through my time is directly due to your fascinating life story, remarkable achievements, and personal character. Few others have risen like you, from your humble beginnings of being born in a log cabin, and being self-educated with less than a year of grade school. And fewer still have endured so many political disappointments early in life, losing election after election after election after election for at least six State or Federal government positions. 

 

Yet despite this, or maybe it’s more accurate to say because of this, the hand of God was upon you to become the 16th President of the United States. My guess is that you would not have agreed with this sentiment at the beginning of your administration in 1861. But I suspect that, near the end of it, in your heart of hearts, you came to see this hand of God on your life as a very likely possibility. 

 

Undoubtedly, your claim to fame in every generation is the abolition of slavery and the saving of the Union in the tragedy of the Civil War. These two achievements will forever cement you in the people’s memory. 

 

And on a personal level, you had an extremely likable personality. Your love for telling folksy stories, making people laugh, and treating all people with the utmost respect. You used humorous anecdotes and insightful stories to convey powerful truths and points to support your persuasive arguments. 

 

I am reminded of an enjoyable movie about your life. I should tell you here that a “movie” is like a series of pictures which tell a story with audible voices and sounds. Imagine seeing a play, but not in a theater with real people, but seeing the images and sound recreated on a flat object like a white wall inside a house. 

 

Anyway, my digression is only to tell you of this “movie”, which happens to bear your name. In it, the actor who plays you begins to tell your favorite Ethan Allen story. And then War Secretary Edwin Stanton interrupts and shouts “No! No, you’re – you’re going to tell a story! I don’t believe – that I can bear – to listen to another one of your stories right now!” And then he storms out, muttering to himself. The scene made me laugh. Ha! And I think I can almost hear you laughing uproariously now at your friend Stanton. 

 

You were quick to earn the affection and admiration of nearly every person you came across. And you built up a strong circle of friends, and proved loyal to your friends, whether they were in Springfield or Washington, north or south. We today would call you open and transparent. 

 

But there is one even more important element to your popularity. It was your genius with words. Your eloquence. All the poetry-laced messages of your writings and your speeches, down through the ages, speak powerfully and memorably to Americans. Using your familiarity with Shakespeare and the Bible, your rich words extend the warmth we tend to feel for you. 

 

We today feel we can actually get to know you, the man, in all these books and stories and words – and what we see and read, we like. 

 

In stark contrast, George Washington to us remains aloof and distant. In his life, he was unapproachable and kept to himself. As a current historian named Joseph J. Ellis puts it, Washington is “always an icon – distant, cold, intimidating” – which is epitomized by the fact that “there were no words on the Washington Monument”. 

 

Yes, after being dormant for decades, they finally did complete construction of that 555-foot Washington monument. Washington the man stood isolated and distant, just like that marble monument today towering in the distance in a city, both of which bear his name. Surely you gazed out from the White House throughout your presidency at the half-constructed monument. When it was finally completed in 1884, the Washington Monument could claim to be the world’s tallest structure. 

 

Here’s a picture of the partially-completed Washington Monument, as it stood during your presidency.

(Uncle Ted to insert photo)

 

Today, only one mile away from the Washington Monument stands another cherished monument. This one is for you, Mr. President. It’s called the Lincoln Memorial, which was completed in 1922. It is the most visited site in Washington, DC. In a recent year, 8 million people from all over the world visited your memorial to pay their respects to you. The memorial is shaped like a vast Greek temple containing a huge statue of you, with words from your Gettysburg Address and your Second Inaugural Address etched into its marble walls. And your words touch the hearts and minds of all those who enter that place, including mine. For they truly resonate in my heart and soul. 

 

But it is not only your statue and the words of your speeches which create the magic. In my view, in some mysterious way, the steps to the Lincoln Memorial call out to people to gather ‘round. 

 

These marble steps simultaneously invite all to sit or stand, bask in the hope and ideals and tranquility of the space. Here, in the midst of often turbulent and crazy times, the Lincoln Memorial offers much to our nation and the world and to the people who gather. Courage. Resolve. Heart. Confidence. 

 

(Uncle Ted to insert photo)

Here’s pictures of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. on the steps of your Lincoln Memorial, August 28, 1963. The Washington Monument stands in the distance.

 

It was on these very steps of your Lincoln Memorial that, on August 28, 1963, a Black Christian minister named Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a famous speech. It was called the I Have a Dream speech in front of 250,000 people crowded on the steps. Reverend King started his speech by referencing your Emancipation Proclamation. 

 

He had hoped that his speech on that pivotal day would be fondly remembered, maybe even in the same breath as your Gettysburg Address. He got his wish. No American today does not know Reverend King’s enthralling oratory and his clarion call back to the birth of the nation “that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the ‘unalienable rights’ of ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’.” 

 

His words were called Lincolnesque, and cast the nation’s eye on a future compass: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

 

(Uncle Ted to insert photo)

Here’s pictures of Ben Gates and Riley on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, from the movie “National Treasure” (2004). The Washington Monument stands in the distance.

 

40 years later, those same steps were featured a movie called National Treasure. This was a fictional story of an extremely likable guy named Ben Gates and his sidekick Riley who contemplated actually stealing the original Declaration of Independence while sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. It was an ingenious story about a vast treasure hidden by Freemasons during the Revolutionary War. And they put a secret map to the treasure in invisible ink on the back of the original Declaration of Independence. I’m sure you would find this movie to be a creative, amusing, and entertaining story. 

 

For Martin Luther King, Jr., his perspective of time encompassed the ideals of the past, the failures of the present, and the imperatives of the future. For Ben Gates, it was, of course, all imaginary time. 

 

But in both cases, there stood the Washington Monument on the horizon – distant as ever. And also in both cases — here was the mystique of your life and presidency, continuing to invade our history, our aspirations, and our imagination. 

 

As for me, both images – the real and the imaginary – are seared in my memory. 

 

For the steps of your Lincoln Memorial is my absolute favorite spot in Washington, DC. I have sat on those welcoming steps many times – on nearly every visit to the city. Trying to take in the history and grandeur of that scene and that moment in time. Past. Present. Future. Tranquility in a crazy world. Warmth. Hope. Life. And importantly – humility. 

 

Is it any wonder that you have earned your rightful place in the hearts and minds of your fellow Americans and fellow citizens of the world – in your day and to the Ages which you belong? 

 

Your obedient servant, 

Ted at Common Reason