April 15th. . A Day That Will Live in Infamy. No… not Income Tax day. It is theA day Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed. This year, it is the sesquicentennial of the horrible crime – 150 years ago. My readers know that I revere Theodore Roosevelt above almost all Americans in history, and for myriad reasons. Yet I think that Lincoln was the closest we have had to a civic saint: certainly a secular saint for his wisdom, actions, and imparted words. I think so partly because he was not exalted, except by ballots, but more as he was the simplest of men; common; honest.
TR’s way of reaching the same assessment of Lincoln was to say (also about Washington): “There have been other men as great and other men as good; but in all the history of mankind there are no other two great men as good as these.”
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