Lincoln's Hat For Sale..

It is typical Illinois.

Abe would be ashamed.

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum Library Foundation is preparing to sell off several priceless artifacts from Lincoln’s life to pay off $9.7 million dollars in debt. Much like state government, the reality of such a mess only seems to hit those responsible in the eleventh hour. This debt has been around for a decade.

Back in 2007, the foundation purchased several rare artifacts—including one of his signature stove top hats---with a $23-million dollar loan. The due date for repayment is October of next year.

The lawmaker who holds the Illinois House seat once occupied by Lincoln, Representative Tim Butler says he was stunned by the news. So was I.

And the suggestion that the state should bail out the museum is simply the blind leading the blind. How do you look to state government when it itself is flat broke.

I looked it up. Illinois state government has compiled $14.6 billion in unpaid bills. It is currently running a deficit of $6-billion dollars….and an unfunded pension liability of $130 billion.  So the Lincoln debt is chump change…

Back in 1833 Lincoln and a partner bought a store. He took out a one year note to pay for his share. The store closed shortly thereafter as a miserable failure. His partner promptly died and Lincoln had to pay the whole note off. History doesn’t tell us how much he owed…or for how long his finances suffered while he paid it off. He once referred to it as (quote) his national debt.

The point was…he paid it off.

A lesson in practice completely lost on the foundation whose focus is preserving his memory in the state which proudly claims to be the Land of Lincoln. 

We can’t even afford to keep his hat.