On Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, which really does merit a federal holiday, it’s worth noting that there is no federal holiday called “Presidents’ Day” — nor should there be. The lone federal holiday in February is “Washington’s Birthday.” (If only more Americans would call it that!) Many states, however, have made the quasi-monarchical-sounding “Presidents’ Day” a state holiday. As of 1940, more than half the states apparently honored Lincoln’s birthday as a holiday, but only a smattering still do today. (California long observed both Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays as official holidays but ditched both in favor of “Presidents Day” soon after President Obama’s election.)
In addition to the obvious question of why we would want to have a national holiday that honors Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama, Lincoln’s own words are a reminder of the president’s appropriate place in our form of government and why, if forced to choose between the two, we’d be better off with a “Congress Day.”
