Dear mr. lincoln,
Mr. President, like all school kids, I learned about the textbook you – you know, the log cabin, self-educated by firelight, store clerk honest to a fault, rail-splitter, country lawyer, and so on. I wonder if you shake your head and blush now in the Beyond when thinking about that larger-than-life Abe as Legend, and if you’d have a Shakespeare soliloquy befitting or a funny folksy story to illustrate the perils of getting above one’s raising or too big for one’s britches.
I fondly recall reading your letter from Grace Bedell, that11-year-old girl from New York who suggested you grow a beard to improve your appearance during the 1860 campaign for presidential election. You wrote her a gentle and gracious reply, and took her advice. That touched me in a way and may have something to do with my writing you today.
Mr. President, I’m two decades older than you when you stepped foot in the Ford Theater. I’ve been a big admirer of yours, having read many biographies about you and histories of the Civil War. I can’t begin to fathom the depths of suffering and anguish the country endured – and you, too. As if that wasn’t enough, losing your sons Edward and Willie as well. Victory had lifted an enormous weight, but you had no heart nor appetite to celebrate. I see it in your eyes and furrowed face in Matthew Brady’s photographs. I can’t help but wonder whether Booth’s bullet was God’s mercy for a weary and spiritually depleted Abraham with little more to give.
I see you as strong and unswerving in duty and principle, yet forgiving and gentle – knowing matters of the heart from an early age.
Sir, what I admire most about you is that you’d never gotten too settled or complacent with a set of beliefs or ideas, that your thinking was always evolving and leaning toward the ideals of the founders. And this was why you appointed a contentious bi-partisan cabinet who would keep you honest (pun intended) and give you cogent counter-arguments for discussion before making decisions.
Mr. Lincoln, can you tell us from the other side of the veil what we should do to save our nation equally divided and misguided? I’d understand if you say you’d decided to cut off news from us in the Beyond. If I had to guess when, I’d say it was after your Reconstruction plans went tumbling down under Andrew Johnson and presidents to follow.
Yours Truly, Paul R. Scollan