Abraham Lincoln Statue, Lincoln, Nebraska - Philatelic Photographs on Waymarking.com

Nebraska became a state in 1867, just a couple years after the end of the Civil War and the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. A bill was raised by territorial officials to move the seat of government from the territorial capital of Omaha to a more centralized location south of the Platte River where many recent homesteaders had settled. This bill also stipulated that the new capital would be named Lincoln. This was not meant so much to honor the recent President, but rather was added by some wily politicians to keep the capital in Omaha. They figured that the bill would be defeated, as Lincoln was unpopular among many of the settlers. It didn’t work and the small town of Lancaster was chosen as the new State Capital and renamed Lincoln.

In 1903, local officials got the idea of erecting a monument on the capitol grounds honoring the birth centennial of their city’s namesake President. Prominent sculptor Daniel Chester French (along with architect, Henry Bacon) received the commission and the new Lincoln Monument was unveiled in 1912. This predates the current capitol building by over a decade. In fact, this Lincoln memorial is the only part of the old capitol complex to be retained when the new hi-rise capitol was built in the early 1920s. Daniel Chester French and Henry Bacon were to later collaborate on the huge Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.

The monument consists of a bronze statue of a contemplative Lincoln standing in front of a granite wall which contains the complete text of his Gettysburg Address. This latter feature may be why the statue was chosen for the design of the postage stamp which specifically commemorated the 85th anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Of course, the address was not delivered in Nebraska (Lincoln never set foot in the territory) but rather in the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

In the weeks following the Battle of Gettysburg (American Civil War, July 1-3, 1863), land was acquired for a cemetery to bury the Union dead. It was named the Soldier’s National Cemetery (later Gettysburg National Cemetery) and was officially dedicated on November 19, 1863. President Lincoln was asked to make a “few appropriate remarks” at the dedication ceremony following the main speech by Massachusetts orator, Edward Everett. Everett’s speech lasted over two hours while Lincoln’s “remarks” lasted only two or three minutes. But it was Lincoln’s short address (in which he mused that no one would remember what was said) that has become one of America’s most famous speeches.

Today, a large monument stands in the Gettysburg National Cemetery which is often cited as the spot where the Gettysburg Address was delivered. But experts agree that the actual site of the dais was a short distance away, just over the boundary with Gettysburg’s Evergreen Cemetery – about fourscore and seven yards from the monument by my reckoning.

Stamp Issuing Country: United States Date of Issue: 19-Nov-1948 Denomination: 3c Color: bright blue Stamp Type: Single Stamp Relevant Web Site: [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log User Rating   07/24/2022 bobfrapples8 visited it