Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial

I am officially caught up in the Lincoln Bicentennial craze. I am surrounded by books, KET (Kentucky Educational Television) programs and other such celebrations of the life and times of the 16th President. I am reading Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. She appears on a program about Lincoln on KET and the History Channel is a running a special titled "Stealing Lincoln's Body." Kentucky is Lincoln-crazed because it is "Lincoln's birthplace". Indiana is proud to be "Lincoln's childhood home" and of course Illinois is the "Land of Lincoln." All these sites cling to their heritage as places where Lincoln slept or chopped a tree, or steered a riverboat. Lexington has a special connection to Lincoln, for being the home of Mary Todd's family. Touring the Mary Todd Lincoln House (on West Main, next to Rupp Arena), on can sit on the same second floor landing where Lincoln would sit and read by daylight.

One of the most fascinating things I've learned about Lincoln has to do with the assassination attempt/conspiracy planned for Lincoln's visit to Baltimore on his inaugural tour in February 1861. Booth may have been among the conspirators. Lincoln [An interesting book about said conspiracy, which I have only had time to peruse but plan to read, is Michael Kline's The Baltimore Plot: The First Conspiracy to Assassinate Abraham Lincoln. Kline investigates the matter from a legal standpoint, attempting to piece together evidence, all of which is strictly circumstantial, since there were never any confessions.]