February 12 is the day that both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born, and they were two men who impacted history. As such, they were both men I studied extensively in high school, and men that I've been bumping into a lot during my U.S. History studies over the past two weeks. Today's post is a repost of a paper I wrote my senior year about some misconceptions regarding the presidency of Lincoln. For further reading, I recommend The Real Lincoln, Lincoln Unmasked, The War Between the States, Dred Scott's Revenge, and Jefferson Davis's Memoirs.
Walking through the doors of our local community college to take a CLEP test this week, I was faced with a large banner declaring the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln. I stood there, staring up at his picture, thinking back to the bloody conflict of the Civil War, and thinking of a popular saying around our house: "He who wins the wars rewrites history."
In the spirit of Woodrow Wilson, Thomas Jefferson, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, modern American history books have deified Lincoln as the conservator of the Union, the Great Emancipator, one of the best Presidents in our nation's history. The Confederate flag has become a symbol of racial hatred and rebellion, and I doubt that, when I walk into my testing center in June, I'll see a banner heralding the birthday of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States (not that I'd want to; I'm more partial to Stonewall Jackson, personally =).
Read the rest here:
http://www.joyfullyathomeblog.com/2010/02/great-emancipator.html
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