The other day on the Drudge Report I saw a
picture of the actor Daniel Day-Lewis in full Abraham Lincoln mode for his upcoming movie about America's 16
th president. The portrait was of a wizened Lincoln, stately but prematurely aged--no doubt from the great toll the Civil War had taken on him and his knowledge of what lay ahead, including the Executive Order he issued on January 1, 1863--the epic and country-changing Emancipation Proclamation--which freed the slaves in the 10 states that were then in active rebellion. As we know, Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865 and slavery was subsequently made illegal everywhere in the U.S. by the
Thirteenth Amendment, which took effect in December of that year.
- Saturday, August 11, 2012