Abraham Lincoln is unerringly the second president that students learn about in elementary school, right after George Washington. For as long as I can remember, the only thing taught about "Honest Abe" was that he was born in a log cabin and had to walk 12 miles to the library, riding in both meaning, "unlike you little kids who have a library in your own school and I don't even use it." Of course, I learned other anonymous and boring facts about our 16th president in possible lecture notes on names and dates. President during the Civil War, killed by John Wilkes Booth in 1865. Author and interpreter of the Gettysburg Address and the Emancipation Proclamation In a word, the faceless president seemed remarkable,. but unworthy of the title of "second choice president taught in grade school." Of course, in my cynically skeptical mind, "second choice" was still unremarkable for a vile profession, notorious for its lies. , his betrayals and his smirks, cannot claim to be an “honest” man, and even less a great president. Perhaps elementary school teachers celebrated Lincoln because he died before his betrayals caught up with him and before anyone could find dirt on the president. Or Lincoln was a mythical fluke. Very early on, I had discovered his biblical height and his majestic beard, as well as his improbable self-education and his remarkable eloquence. Yet he remained a politician sneaky enough to rise to the presidency, a position that leaves no room for greatness. A contradiction then appeared: either politicians could achieve greatness, or Lincoln, too, did not achieve it. My solution appealed to the latter. Douglas Donald's Lincoln changed my thinking and convinced me of the greatness of the sixteenth president and, potentially, his profession. Despite his... middle of paper... filled it out. Lincoln's irrefutable morality and obvious greatness provide the only counterexample needed to debunk a theory. It was my own theory, my conception that politics and its practitioners are hopelessly corrupt by their very nature. My conclusions from a humble biography showed that my human stereotype was invalid. Lincoln simply proved that greatness could and can triumph in politics, and that example should be followed in all aspects of life. In a deeper sense, Lincoln was a counterexample to my cynical view of human nature. Perhaps there are others, who conquer the indecisive, the amoral and the hesitant with resolution, action and eloquence. Abraham Lincoln represents the potential of every human being. Morality may never be so recognized, but they will certainly die, martyrs, alongside their big brothers who proved that the human mission was possible..