Abraham Lincoln, Born February 12, 1809

On this day in 1809, according to the Associated Press, "Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was born in a log cabin in Hardin (now LaRue) County, Kentucky." Here are a poem and two quotations about Abraham Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

Photograph by Alexander Gardner

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BORN FEB. 12, 1809
by Walt Whitman

Publish'd Feb. 12, 1888

To-day, from each and all, a breath of prayer -- a pulse of thought,
To memory of Him -- to birth of Him.


Two presidential quotations about Abraham Lincoln:

Mr. Lincoln has come and gone. . . . He has been raising a respectable pair of dark-brown whiskers, which decidedly improve his looks, but no appendage can ever render him remarkable for beauty.
     JAMES A. GARFIELD
     in a letter to Mrs. Garfield
     February 16, 1861

Lincoln was a very normal man with very normal gifts, but all upon a great scale, all knit together in loose and natural form, like the great frame in which he moved and dwelt.
     WOODROW WILSON
     in a speech in Chicago, Illinois
     February 2,1909