Lincoln S Relevance Was Buried At His Funeral S 150Th Anniversary In Springfield

• Ryan Smith
• Reenactors in period garb gathered in Springfield for the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s funeral.

Clad in a blue wool Civil War-era military outfit, an actor playing Major General Joseph Hooker wrapped up a stately reenactment of Abraham Lincoln’s burial on Sunday in Springfield with a famous line from former secretary of war Edwin Stanton: “Now he belongs to the ages.”

Burlingame’s speech was compelling but felt hollow as I stopped to look at the faces of the several thousand spectators gathered in the shadow of Springfield’s Old State Capitol to celebrate “the black man’s president.” Minus a few dressed-up actors playing former slaves turned freemen, about the only faces of people of color I saw were members of Springfield’s homeless population.

Instead of acknowledging the checkered past and present in the century and a half since Lincoln’s tragic assassination, the anniversary commemoration kept its pedant’s eye on recreating the visuals of what Lincoln’s burial must have looked like on May 5, 1865—essentially throwing dirt on his modern relevance.