An overview of Lincoln's connections to Michigan, given on the 200th anniversary of his birth.
February 12, 2009 Journal of the Senate
Senator George's statement is as follows:
Mr. President, this being the 100th anniversary of the founding of the NAACP and the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth, I did want to make a couple of comments about Michigan's Lincoln connections. As you heard earlier, Lincoln only visited once; that was to my district. In fact, we have several other connections to President Lincoln.
An 11-year-old girl, Grace Bedell, wrote to Lincoln from New York suggesting that he grow a beard. That letter is in Detroit. It is housed in the Detroit Public Library. When Henry Ford was putting together Greenfield Village, he purchased the Logan County Court House. It is a building in Illinois in which Lincoln practiced law. It was moved to the Henry Ford Greenfield Village, and it is there today. They also have in their possession the chair from Ford's Theatre in which Lincoln was assassinated.
It is not only objects that we have reflecting Lincoln, but we also have a word. It's Lincoln who is credited with coining the word "Michigander." He used it in Congress when referring to our U.S. Senator Lewis Cass. He was talking about Cass and he called him that "great Michigander" and this was later printed in the Congressional Record. That is the first printed use of the word "Michigander."
I noticed that many instead use the phrase "Michiganian," and I would suggest that during the course of the Lincoln bicentennial that we go back to using "Michigander." We also have two Lincoln scholars from Michigan. One is Carl Sandburg, the poet and author. He lived in Michigan for a while. He was not born here, but he wrote a two-volume biography of Lincoln. Then we have a living Lincoln scholar in Michigan, and his name is Dr. Weldon Petz. He is a retired public school teacher from the Detroit Public Schools. Weldon is a musicologist and his written extensively and has lectured extensively on Lincoln's connection to music. He has made many contributions to the field of Lincoln scholarship.
So, you see, we have many connections to Lincoln in Michigan. I am pleased to serve on the Michigan Lincoln Bicentennial Commission with the Senators from the 16th and 4th Districts. We have a number of activities planned throughout the year which I would invite you to participate in. The schedule for those activities can be found on the committee's website, which is MichiganLincoln.org.
So happy birthday, President Lincoln.