July 22, 2015
Yesterday I visited President Lincoln’s Cottage at the Old Soldier\’s Home, and had a wonderful experience. Lincoln’s Cottage is where President Abraham Lincoln went during his time as president to really relax and kind of unwind. The cottage was an old soldier’s home where they stayed. Three other presidents stayed at this cottage and the cottage has a lot of history inside. In fact, the cottage is where Abraham Lincoln wrote the famous Emancipation Proclamation.
He pretty much used it to escape the heat and humidity of Washington D.C. Every summer he brought cartloads of things from the White House to the cottage. There is no record of what he brought, but it was plenty. The path to get to the cottage was also dangerous. One thing that scared a lot of people is that he used to travel by himself on horseback. One time on the trail a gunman shot at him and the bullet went through his top hat. Even though he didn’t tell his wife, she still begged him to stop going or at least take some kind of protection with him.
The cottage held some very historic things like the floors Lincoln walked, the same banisters he touched, and even a letter he wrote. The tour guide told me a very interesting story that Lincoln wrote that represented his frustration in trying to free the slaves.
The story was about a black sheep, a white wolf trying to eat the black sheep, and a shepherd. The black sheep represented the slaves, the white wolf the slave owners, and the shepherd represented Lincoln. The shepherd is prying the wolf off the black sheep and he eventually frees the sheep. The sheep tells him “thank you, you have freed me and given me my liberty”, and walks away happy. The wolf was mad and said to him that “you have taken my liberty and now, me and my family will starve without that sheep” and he walks away mad. The story pretty much represented that in freeing the slaves, he can’t make everybody happy.
The cottage was a great place to visit. I recommend it.