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Philip Spiess
Happy Lincoln's Birhday, everybody!
Everyone who knew Lincoln, and all the major biographers of Lincoln, comment on his great sense of humor. Yet, except for a few endlessly related anecdotes from his days in the White House (e.g., McClellan, writing to Lincoln from: "Headquarters in the Saddle"; Lincoln, commenting on McClellan: "His headquarters are where his hindquarters ought to be!"), you almost never hear of that of which Lincoln's humor consisted.
Here is one real Lincoln story from Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals (paraphrased from Goodwin): A young man, filled with patriotism, was enamored of the Colonial days and the American Revolution, and he searched out every item and object that he could find that related to that period. Indeed, during the 50th anniversary of American Independence in 1826, he learned of a lady living in Kentucky who had a wedding dress dating from the very time of Independence. He traveled to visit her (she was now in her '80s) and asked to see the dress. She brought a white silk dress out of a trunk and said, "This was my wedding dress; I was sweet 16 at the time." The young man, ecstatic to see the dress, lifted the hem and kissed it. The old lady, somewhat surprised at this, said, "And why do you kiss the dress?" The young man replied, "I so revere everything that old from that period that I must kiss it when I see it." With that, the old woman lifted up the dress she had on and said, "Well, then, you can just kiss my ass! It's sixteen years older than the dress!"
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