Yesterday, federal employees along with some state, financial and other institutions enjoyed the third day of a three-day weekend in honor of President George Washington’s birthday.
Years ago, people also took a day off from work to honor President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday earlier in the month. (His birthday was February 12, and he was born in 1809.)
In 2009, the US Mint honored the 200th anniversary of his birth year with a series of four coins, two of which recognized his professional life and political careers in Springfield, Illinois and Washington, DC.
The Illinois reverse on the 2009 Lincoln cent shows him in front of one of the buildings in which he spent part of his career.
The Washington, DC Lincoln cent reverse shows the partially completed Capitol building that was under construction during his time as president.
But, on February 22, 1859, 152 years ago today, Abraham Lincoln was holding political office neither in Illinois nor as our 16th president.
Instead, as one of his tasks that day, Mr. Lincoln wrote a letter for Governor Bissell of Illinois that vetoed the apportionment bill that would guarantee the democrat party’s majority in the state’s legislature. (The Library of Congress has an image of the letter and a transcription.) Being of the Republican party, this issue was near and dear to Mr. Lincoln.
Interestingly, the Library of Congress footnotes comment, “When Bissell’s message was returned to the House, Republican members withdrew to leave less than a quorum present, so that the Democrats could not pass the bill over Bissell’s veto.”
In another task for the day, Mr. Lincoln wrote a check to Kingsley North Company on this date in 1859 (also found at the Library of Congress).
Using the Measuring Worth calculators, his check for $10.50 in 1859 would be $279 in 2009 dollars and probably over $280 in 2011 money.
Doing a simple search on Kingsley North Company in 1859 did not readily yield any results for the definition of the business. For today’s businesses, the most prevalent Kingsley North establishment can be found in Michigan as a lapidary supplier. Mr. Lincoln probably did not purchase lapidary equipment.
But, it is interesting to speculate on what Mr. Lincoln bought or what services he purchased for $10.50 on Tuesday, February 22, 1859.