Wreaths and More Wreaths for Lincoln's 217th

By Ed Epstein

Washington, D.C.

February 12, 2026

For a guy who's been gone since 1865, Abraham Lincoln proved today on his 217th birthday that he can still draw a crowd.

The Lincoln Group's memorial wreath inside the Lincoln Memorial chamber.

Some two dozen memorial wreaths were placed at the foot of the epic sculpture by Daniel Chester French of a seated Lincoln inside the Lincoln Memorial at the west end of the National Mall in the nation's capital. The wreaths came from the president of the United States; the National Park Service; organizations of descendants of Union Civil War veterans; Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn.; the Lincoln family home Hildene in Manchester, Vt.; others; and, of course, the Lincoln Group.

The weather was cold, in the mid-30s, but it was much better than last year when the annual birthday event was curtailed because of a snowstorm.

Today's event at the memorial included music from a military ensemble, a reading of the Gettysburg Address, and a solo rendition of the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the document that was Lincoln's political lodestar.

Some of the wreath layers came in Civil War-era dress. This is retired Navy Capt. Ed Gantt representing the Civil War's United States Colored Troops.

So, it's important on the 16th president's birthday to remember what President-elect Lincoln said in Philadelphia on February 22, 1861, the birthdate of the first president, George Washington. Speaking at Independence Hall, where the Declaration was adopted in July 1776, Lincoln said: "All the political sentiments I entertain have been drawn, so far as I have been able to draw them, from the sentiments that originated and were given to the world from this hall. I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments of the Declaration of Independence."

And what were those sentiments from the Declaration? "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

It's up to us to live up to those goals laid out in the Declaration that formed the cornerstone of Lincoln's political beliefs.

Happy birthday, Mr. Lincoln.

For more on Lincoln and the semiquincentennial of the Declaration, visit Lincoln250.org

Photos by Ed Epstein