In the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln

By John Derby
August 11, 2010

You know you are in Abraham Lincoln country when you go to the Corn Dayz festival in Misner, Illinois and the guest speaker tells you about the court case in which Lincoln defended a local man for liable after another man stole his corn.

Then you drive to a town called New Salem where Lincoln spent ten years of his life from 1822 to 1832 as a young merchant and businessman, failing at both.

His name is on street signs, on small towns and there is a big museum in Springfield with relics of his life. Statues of him are in Peoria, Misner, New Salem as well as Springfield and most other towns in Illinois.

What you don't realize is that by walking in his footsteps you actually get to know the man, not as a president, but as a young man making all the mistakes that young men make.

For instance he lost most of the elections which he ran in and he lived in a state in which most of the voters were Democrats. The others were Whigs, not Republicans because the Republican party hadn't been started yet. Actually Lincoln was largely responsible for the Republican party, a blend of both, which  united against slavery.

As it turned out, that was the issue which finally got him elected president of the United States. Strange now that so many black people vote Democrat when it was a Republican who won them their freedom.
Lincoln, as a young attorney, became the clerk for a circuit judge and that was how he became so well known in Illinois. He had no formal education and learned the law and later to become a good public speaker on the circuit. In those days, politicians actually did stand on tree stumps to make speeches.

Visiting in Illinois gives one the feeling of middle America. It is the home of Caterpillar, the big industrial tractor company.

Peoria, the location of the plant, is also the location of the first settlement in the state, which was located on the Illinois River.

 The country is a well of American patriotism. Flags stand in front of almost every house and tractor pulls, car shows and craft booths are common sights at the country fairs held every weekend during the spring, summer and fall.

You are visiting Illinois and it is August, however one can only guess what the winters are like.  All doors to the outside have additional storm doors to keep out the cold.

 If your home isn't made of brick and you don't have a full basement to store things and hide from the tornadoes, then you are out of the norm.

You look out the window of your car and see rows of corn and soy beans and you know they are grown without irrigation. The rains come like clockwork making everything fertile and green.

You envision the river during its heyday, carrying barges loaded with grain to the mills. There are still huge silos which stand like giants at the cross roads in rural farm areas. The homes have few fences lending themselves to the good neighbor feeling and there is so little graffiti that spray paint can be purchased without an I.D.

These are self sufficient people who like Californians suffer from state governments which cannot live within their own means and cannot pass a balanced budget if their life depended on it.  We wonder what Abraham Lincoln would say about it now.