The Smithsonian’s American History Museum is home to the inkwell President Abraham Lincoln used while writing the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln’s Birthday had always been a state holiday in IL, and many supported joining the two days as a way of giving equal recognition to two of America’s most famous statesmen.
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Federal Presidents Day is a myth; it’s actually Washington’s Birthday but not Washington’s real birthday.
The third Monday in February in one of those three-day weekend holidays that is an enigma for most Americans.
Things get even more confused when the holiday falls, as it does this year, one day after Valentine’s Day. President George Washington was born February 22, 1732. But after the observance was changed to the third Monday in February, the holiday has become to be known as “Presidents’ Day” to celebrate both Abraham Lincoln’s birthday and Washington’s birthday. The nation had unofficially observed February 22 as a holiday from 1800 – the year after Washington’s death – until 1879, when President Rutherford B. Hayes signed a bill that cleared the way for it to be an official national holiday.
Trivia: While Colorado state government’s calendar calls the holiday President’s Day, the federal government calls it Washington’s Birthday. Nonetheless, the holiday has been widely recognized as a time to honor all of those who have served in our nation’s highest office.
For some of us, the break means a family ski vacation, for others a trip to warmer climes, and yet for others, perhaps a day just to relax and dream about the coming warmer weather with the thought that April 1 is just six weeks away. President Lincoln’s words in his annual message to Congress in 1862 still ring true today: “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country”.
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Crapo, a Republican, represents Idaho in the U.S. Senate.
