After the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the end of the Civil War, there were scattered observances of his birthday. As early as 1866, patriotic organizations held banquets to honor Lincoln’s birthday. Buffalo, New York, conducted a city-wide observance in 1874. Clergymen often gave sermons about Lincoln, the Emancipation Proclamation and the preservation of the Union.

 In 1879, the United States Congress established a holiday for government workers to observe the birthday of George Washington on February 22^nd. It was considered important to honor the father of our country. States and municipalities began to recognize the holiday as well. The members of Congress did not consider a holiday for Lincoln’s birthday.

 In the decades after the Civil War there was little agreement on how to remember the sacrifices by the North and the South. The subject was too controversial for Congress to even consider naming a holiday for Lincoln. To this day there is no official holiday honoring Lincoln’s birthday. However, many Northern states did designate February 12^th as a holiday for workers.

 In 1968, Congress approved the Uniform Monday Holiday Law which made the third Monday of February a national holiday honoring George Washington’s birthday. The holiday would never again fall on February 22^nd. The third Monday always falls on the 15^th through the 21st.

 The intent of the law was to establish three-day weekends for the majority of national holidays. It was said families would have more time to spend together. There was little mention of the fact that retailers and other businessmen saw the longer weekends as opportunities for more sales.

 Advertisements soon were declaring “Presidents Day Sales.” It was assumed that Lincoln’s February 12^th birthday was included in the expression, but it was not true.

 Carl Sandburg, through years of study and struggle, finally came to the theme of his life’s work: the common man. Abraham Lincoln was the epitome of that theme.

 In February, 1910, Sandburg wrote an article for the Milwaukee Social-Democratic Herald in honor of Lincoln’s birthday. It was the first time he used his own name to sign his writing. This is part of what he wrote:

“Let us not forget Abraham Lincoln was a shabby, homely man who came from among those who live shabby and homely lives....He came into life sad–down in the sad world of labor–labor burdened and tragic and exploited.....He never forgot the tragic, the weary underworld from which he came–the world of labor, the daily lives of toil, deprivation and monotony. Against those things he fought. He struggled for more–more food and books and better conditions for the workers....”