Philadelphia Owed Abraham Lincoln a Bigger Party for his Birthday.

Abraham Lincoln is unquestionably one of the five greatest men in America's history, if not the greatest. Historians rank either Lincoln or George Washington as America's most important President.

This past February 12 was Lincoln's 200th birthday and quite frankly - the City of Philadelphia - the National Parks Service - and the Historical Society - all blew it.

Rightfully so, the city spent an entire year honoring Philadelphia's favorite son, Benjamin Franklin's 300th birthday. But the Lincoln 200 celebration came and went without much notice because instead of having it on his birthday, the city planned it for July 2-5. Lincoln was overshdowed by fireworks, the Jersey Shore and Cheryl Crow.

It amounted to the city giving Lincoln a nod in afterthought, with a funny Lincoln impersonator entertaining visitors on Independence Mall, an insult to what Lincoln means to that sacred ground.

What's that? You didn't know that Lincoln played a part in Philadelphia history?

Abraham Lincoln visited Independence Hall twice and finished the work started by our founding fathers.

In the mid-1800's, Independence Mall was revered, but it was still a working government building. In 1850 the U.S. District Court rented the second floor of the Hall. That arrangement allowed the tragic contradiction of the Founding Fathers to once again haunt this hallowed building.

In 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote that “all men are created equal,” even though he himself was a slave owner and did not have the courage to live up to his words. John Adams, Ben Franklin and other pointed out the hypocrisy of forming a “free” country where there were slaves, but to no avail. The vote on the declaration had to be unanimous and the delegates from the Southern States would not sign a document that abolished slavery.

Fast forward to 1850, Congress passes a tough new Fugitive Slave Act, again to appease the south. Southern slave owners could come north and reclaim runaway slaves in court as property. The center of these trials from 1850 to 1854 was the second floor of Independence Hall.

It was a stunning act of duplicity. Men, women and children were being shackled and re-enslaved right above the room where the country was founded on the idea that all me have the right to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” People were losing their independence in Independence Hall. It was blasphemy of a sacred idea. The hypocrisy of the founding fathers had come home to roost.

The stains of Independence Hall’s vile history of duplicity would be removed appropriately by the man who signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and declared that all men would finally be free in America as promised.

The election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States assured that the nation would go to war over the issue of slavery. The South had made it abundantly clear that they would secede from the union if Lincoln won. On his way to his inauguration, Lincoln stopped at Independence Hall. The building was once again on the center stage at a defining moment in American history. The nation was in crisis and Lincoln was there on the birthday of another President who led through a time of crisis. It was Washington’s Birthday, February 22, 1861, and Lincoln raised a new flag with 34 stars on it over the state house, Kansas was the newest of the United States.

Lincoln then gave a speech. It is clear in the speech that the gentleman from Illinois knew his place in history. It was clear that he knew the time was at hand to live up to the true promise of the Declaration of Independence.

Lincoln said:

“I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself standing here in the place where were collected together the wisdom, the patriotism, the devotion to principle, from which sprang the institutions under which we live. You have kindly suggested to me that in my hands is the task of restoring peace to our distracted country. I can say in return, sir, that all the political sentiments I entertain have been drawn, so far as I have been able to draw them, from the sentiments which originated, and were given to the world from this hall in which we stand.

I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. (Great cheering.)

I have often pondered over the dangers which were incurred by the men who assembled here and adopted that Declaration of Independence—I have pondered over the toils that were endured by the officers and soldiers of the army, who achieved that Independence. (Applause.)

I have often inquired of myself, what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the mother land; but something in that Declaration giving liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but hope to the world for all future time. (Great applause.)

It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. (Cheers.) This is the sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence.”

Lincoln was ready to remove the inherent hypocrisy from the term “all men are created equal.” But he also acknowledged that the founding fathers had their hands tied in 1776. It was Lincoln’s belief that they knew in their infinite wisdom that this day would come.

And then Lincoln said something ominously stunning, “But if this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it.”

Lincoln returned to Philadelphia Hall in a casket four years later. On April 22, 1865, Lincoln laid in state inside Independence Hall. He was assassinated 8 days earlier by John Wilkes Booth, a confederate sympathizer. Lincoln believed that the founding fathers, in their Declaration, did not as much create, as prophesied an America where all men are free. When Lincoln accepted the task of making the prophecy of the fathers come true, at the site of the signing of the Declaration, he prophesied his own death. It was only right that his body return to the site of both bold statements.

Lincoln’s body laid in state in Independence Hall for three days. 85 thousand people waited to pay their respects, the line went past Broad Street. The Liberty Bell was positioned at the head of the casket. The inscription was plain to see for all who made the pilgrimage to pray at the side of this martyr for freedom, “PROCLAIM LIBERTY THROUGHOUT THE LAND AND TO ALL INHABITANTS THEROF.”

If you haven’t visited Independence Hall recently, you should. Like the freedoms that it represents, Philadelphians sometimes take the Hall and much of our other historical sites for granted.

But there is an aura of greatness inside that humble building and you can’t help but feel it. Adams, Jefferson and Franklin still speak to us, years after their great experiment.

And when you go, remember Abraham Lincoln. The signers of the Declaration were willing to lay down their lives for Freedom. Lincoln did. And not just for a few, but for all men.

It was Lincoln who proved the experiment of America could indeed work.

Now that you know, don't you think Abraham Lincoln deserved more from this city?


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