Bethpage-Tribune_2003-02-14

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SERVING BETHPAGE, ISLAND TREES, OLD BETHPAGE, PLAINVIEW, SEAFORD AND PLAINEDGE
VOL. 41 NO. 7 February 14-20, 2003
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PRESIDENT'S DAY
Until 1971 both February 12 and February 22 were observed as federal
holidays to honor the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln (Feb. 12) and George
Washington (Feb. 22).
In 1971 President Richard Nixon proclaimed one single federal holiday, the
Presidents' Day to be observed on the third Monday of February, honoring all
past presidents of the United States of America.
George Washington's Birthday - February 22
Nickname: "The Father of our Country"
Amer. Revolutionary commander-in-chief (1775-83) and first president of
the U.S. (1789-97). Born into a wealthy family in Westmoreland Co., VA, he
was educated privately and worked as a surveyor from age 14. In 1752 he
inherited his brother's estate at Mount Vernon, include. 18 slaves whose ranks
grew to 49 by 1760, though he disapproved of slavery. In the French and
Indian War he was commissioned a colonel and sent to the Ohio Territory. After
E. Braddock was killed, Washington became commander of all Virginia forces,
entrusted with defending the W frontier (1755-58). He resigned to manage his
estate and in 1759 married Martha Dandridge Custis (1731-1802), a widow. He
served in the House of Burgesses 1759-74, where he supported the
colonists' cause, and in the Continental Congress 1774-75. In 1775 he was
elected to command the Continental Army. In the ensuing Amer. Revolution,
he proved a brilliant commander and stalwart leader despite several defeats.
With the war effectively ended by the capture of Yorktown (1781), he resigned
his commission and returned to Mount Vernon (1783). He was a delegate to
and presiding officer of the Constitutional Convention (1787) and helped
secure ratification of the Constitution in Virginia. When the state electors met .
to select the first president (1789), Washington was the unanimous choice. He
formed a cabinet to balance sectional and political differences but was
committed to a strong central government. Elected to a second term, he
followed a middle course between the political factions that became the
Federalists and Democratic-Republicans. He proclaimed a policy of neutrality in
the war between Britain and France (1793) and sent troops to suppress the
Gettysburg Address at the
dedication of the Civil War
cemetery at Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania, November 19,
1863
Four score and seven years ago
our fathers brought forth on this
continent, a new nation, conceived
in Liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created
equal.
Now we are engaged in a great
civil war, testing whether that nation,
or any nation so conceived and so
dedicated, can long endure. We are
met on a great battlefield of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion
of that field, as a final resting place
for those who here gave their lives
that that nation might live. It is
altogether fitting and proper that we
should do this.
but, in a larger sense, we can not
dedicate - we can not consecrate -
we can not hallow -- this ground. The
brave men, living and dead, who
struggled here, have consecrated it,
far above our poor power to add or
detract. The world will little note, nor
long remember what we say here,
but it can never forget what they did
here. It is for us the living, rather, to
be dedicated here to the unfinished
work which they who fought here
have thus far so nobly advanced. It is
rather for us to be here dedicated to
the great task remaining before us --
that from these honored dead we
take increased devotion to that
cause for which they gave the last
full measure of devotion - that we
here highly resolve that these dead
shall not have died in vain -- that this
nation, under God, shall have a new
birth of freedom -- and that
government of the people, by the
people, for the people, shall not
perish from the earth.
Whiskey Rebellion (1794). He declined to serve a third term, setting a 144-
year precedent, and retired in 1797 after delivering his "Farewell Address."
Known as the "father of his country," he is universally regarded as one of the
greatest figures in U.S. history.
Abraham Lincoln's Birthday - February 12
Nickname: "Honest Abe"
Lincoln was born on Feb. 12,1809, in a log cabin in Hardin (now Larus)
County, KY. Indians had killed his grandfather. Lincoln wrote, "when he was
laboring to open a farm in the forest" in 1786; this tragedy left his father
Thomas Lincoln "a wandering laboring boy" who "grew up, literally without
education." Thomas, nevertheless, became a skilled carpenter and purchased
three farms in Kentucky before the Lincolns left the state. Little is known about'
Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln. Abraham had an older sister, Sarah,
and a younger brother, Thomas, who died in infancy.
In 1815 the Lincolns moved to Indiana, "partly on account of slavery."
Abraham recalled, "but chiefly on account of difficulty in land titles in
Kentucky." Land ownership was more secure in Indiana because the Land
Ordinance of 1785 provided for surveys by the federal government; moreover
the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 forbade slavery in the area. Lincoln's
parents belonged to a faction of the Baptist church that disapproved of
slavery, and this affiliation may account for Abraham's later statement that he
was "naturally anti-slavery" and could not remember when he "did not think,
and feel" this way.
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States guided his
country through the most devastating experience in its national history -- the
CIVIL WAR. He is considered by many historians to have been the greatest
American president.
George Washington's
Famous Speech First
Inaugural Address in the City
of New York, Thursday, April
30, 1789
The Nation's first chief executive
took his oath of office in April in New
York City on the balcony of the
Senate Chamber at Federal Hall on
Wall Street. General Washington
had been unanimously elected
President by the first electoral
college, and John Adams was
elected Vice President because he
received the second greatest
number of votes. Under the rules,
each elector cast two votes. The
Chancellor of New York and fellow
Freemason, Robert R. Livingston
administered the oath of office. The
Bible on which the oath was sworn
belong to New York's St. John's
Masonic Lodge. The new President
gave his inaugural address before a
joint session of the two Houses of
Congress assembled inside the
Senate Chamber.
Second Inaugural Address
in the City of Philadelphia,
Monday, March 14, 1793
President Washington's second
oath of office was taken in the
Senate Chamber of Congress Hall in
Philadelphia on March 4, the date
fixed by the Continental Congress
for inaugurations. Before an
assembly of Congressmen, Cabinet
officers, judges of the federal and
disii^. courts, foreign officials, and a
small gathering of Philadelphians,
the President offered the shortest
inaugural address ever given.
Associate Justice of the Supreme
Court William Cushing administered
the o#th of office.
Courtesy of American Legion
Auxiliary Unit 86 Joan Poppe,
President