Learn Our History Today: February 12

Learn Our History Today:  On February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States is born in Hodgenville, Kentucky.  It’s without question that Lincoln is one of our nation’s most admired presidents.  He is known as The Great Emancipator for his signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.  The Emancipation Proclamation was signed on January 1, 1863, proclaiming the freedom of the 3.1 million slaves throughout the 10 states of the rebellion. 

Lincoln had a quirky, self-deprecating sense of humor, which is believed he used to mask bouts of depression.  He often made cracks about his looks; for example, when one of his opponents in the Senate race of 1858 called him “two-faced,” Lincoln responded, “If I had another face, do you think I would wear this one?”  Standing 6’ 4”, he was the tallest president.

Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, which happened to be Good Friday.  John Wilkes Booth was a stage actor and a Confederate.  Lincoln’s assassination was planned as part of a larger conspiracy to help the Confederacy’s cause.  Booth’s co-conspirators, Lewis Powell and David Herold, were assigned to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward, while a third co-consiprator named George Atzerodt was assigned to kill Lincoln’s VP, Andrew Johnson.  Their thinking was that, by eliminating the top three of the Federal government, they would cause chaos throughout the government, thereby giving an advantage to the Confederacy.  While Booth successfully killed Lincoln at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C., during the play, Our American Cousin, his co-conspirators failed.  Seward was wounded, but Atzerodt lost his nerve to kill Johnson and fled D.C.

Also on this day in 1789, Patriot Ethan Allen passed away as the result of a stroke.  He was 52 when he died.  You may recall from an earlier post that Ethan Allen is known for being the leader of the Green Mountain Boys, a group which took the British fort at Ticonderoga along with Benedict Arnold in May, 1775. 

While Benedict Arnold is probably the first name that comes to your mind when you hear the word “treason,” Allen, too, was charged with treason for attempting to negotiate terms with the British that would allow the territory of Vermont to rejoin the British empire in the early 1780s after New York rejected it as one of the United States.  

You can read more about Ethan Allen here: http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/army/p/EthanAllen.htm

Learn Our History Today: January 21

On January 21, 1738, Revolutionary Patriot and hero Ethan Allen was born in northwestern Connecticut.  As a young man, Allen acquired land north of Connecticut and in 1770, he became the colonel-commandant of the Green Mountain Boys, a militia that defended the New Hampshire Grants.  And in 1777, when colonists in the area formally declared their independence from Britain, Allen played a key role in the creation of the public of Vermont.  But due to differences between Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York who all claimed the territory as their own, Vermont was unable to join the new republic as a state.  It wasn’t until two years after Allen’s death in 1789 that Vermont was made a state, the 14th in America.

Also on this day in 1977, President Jimmy Carter pardoned all who dodged the draft in the Vietnam War, whether the draft dodgers failed to register or simply left the country to avoid service.  Carter issued his pardon on his second day in office to any civilian who was convicted of violating the Military Selective Service Act between August 4, 1964 and March 28, 1973.