By David J. Kent Washington, DC Nov. 10, 2025 Abraham Lincoln made his way to Washington, D.C. by a roundabout rail route in February 1861. Among his many stops was the city of Philadelphia, where on George Washington’s birthday he raised the American flag at Independence Hall. Lincoln acknowledged the import of the spot where the Declaration of Independence was signed: “I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself standing here in the place where were collected together t

Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer and a politician, not a historian. But as the 16th president, he saw the challenges of the Civil War against a backdrop of history, and particularly the history of the American Revolution.