Folks who look at our divided country and think they have absolutely nothing in common with people who don\u2019t share their views or race or culture or financial status or educational level need only look to Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson to find their assumptions may be wrong.<\/p>\n
This remarkable truth was the core message delivered to a standing-room-only crowd of over 200 at Allentown\u2019s Lehigh Valley Heritage Museum recently.<\/p>\n
The museum, part of the Lehigh County Historical Society, hosted America\u2019s foremost Lincoln scholar, Harold Holzer, for a presentation and book signing at its 432 W. Walnut St., location.<\/p>\n
He explained how the third president, Jefferson, and the 16th, Lincoln, who never met each other, had more in common than their vast differences would portend.<\/p>\n
Jefferson, primary author of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, which declared the American colonies free from England, promoted universal and religious rights for all.<\/p>\n
Lincoln, inspired by Jefferson\u2019s Declaration, which Lincoln saw as the standard for a free society, wrote his own freedom document in 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves in Confederate states.<\/p>\n
The irony, of course, is that Jefferson\u2019s principles espoused in the Declaration did not extend to his personal life.<\/p>\n
Apparently he did not believe the \u201cunalienable rights\u201d pertained to Blacks, for he owned hundreds of slaves over the years.<\/p>\n
Although Lincoln considered Jefferson\u2019s character repulsive, he shared the third president\u2019s aspiration to freedom and believed the Declaration of Independence established core principles of American democracy.<\/p>\n
According to Holzer, the Declaration was \u201cLincoln\u2019s American scripture, his own political religion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both presidents found great value in the Declaration\u2019s words and relied on the document for guidance and political resolve.<\/p>\n
Lincoln celebrated Jefferson\u2019s Declaration that all should be equal, and he thought the country could be saved on this principle and become an ideal democracy.<\/p>\n
Both men are revered in history for writing brilliant, dramatic freedom documents that had to be fought for, and Lincoln was greatly inspired by Jeffersonian principles.<\/p>\n
But, in reality, they were galaxies apart in many ways.<\/p>\n
Jefferson was born into wealth and lived on a plantation. Lincoln rose from poverty and was born in a log cabin.<\/p>\n
Jefferson was educated at preparatory schools and graduated from the College of William and Mary in Virginia.<\/p>\n
Lincoln attended lab schools, similar to one-room school houses, and he did not go to college.<\/p>\n
Surprisingly, Holzer said Jefferson died $100,000 in debt, and Lincoln left a $100,000 estate when he was assassinated.<\/p>\n
Jefferson owned human beings, whereas Lincoln was repelled by slavery.<\/p>\n
Yet several remarkable similarities existed between the men.<\/p>\n
Both were elected to their state\u2019s legislature at age 25. Both were avid readers. And both were inventors.<\/p>\n
Lincoln\u2019s invention demonstrated his interest in technology and mechanics. He is the only U.S. president to hold a patent.<\/p>\n
Lincoln had worked with riverboats in his younger years and was familiar with the boats getting stuck on sandbars.<\/p>\n
So he invented a device that would lift ships in shallow waters without having to unload their cargo.<\/p>\n
A scale model of the device, which Lincoln whittled himself, is in the Smithsonian Institution.<\/p>\n
Jefferson is noted for several inventions, including the portable writing desk, revolving bookstand and moldboard plow to lift and turn soil.<\/p>\n
Most of all, both presidents prized liberty.<\/p>\n
Jefferson\u2019s Declaration of Independence liberated the American colonies from English rule.<\/p>\n
Lincoln\u2019s Emancipation Proclamation began the process of liberating slaves.<\/p>\n
He was the first president to advocate for Black voting rights.<\/p>\n
Our free society exists today thanks to these two men.<\/p>\n
Without Jefferson and Lincoln, \u201cthere would be no America,\u201d Holzer asserted.<\/p>\n
Award-winning Lincoln scholar, Harold Holzer, greets audience members and signs copies of his book at the Lehigh Valley Heritage Museum.PRESS PHOTO BY BONNIE LEE STRUNK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Folks who look at our divided country and think they have absolutely nothing in common with people who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-142237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}