(See below for Springfield-only option.)

Journey back in time as we retrace the life of Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois, the city he called home from 1837 to 1861. Visit many of the important sites connected to our 16th president, including where he lived with his wife and children, where he practiced law, where he delivered his famous “House Divided” speech, where he attended church, and where he was buried. Immerse yourself in several museums and historic sites dedicated to Lincoln’s life and career. Gaze up close at documents in Lincoln’s own hand and other objects from his life. Enjoy personal visits with top Lincoln scholars and authors. Savor unique dining experiences in historic buildings. And much, much more.

ITINERARY:

Tuesday, September 8
Depart from Northern New Jersey (one or more locations, to be determined) and travel west to Columbus, Ohio. Partake in a hearty dinner, listen to a lecture about the Lincoln assassination and funeral train (which stopped in Columbus) by local historian John Ward and stay overnight at the Holiday Inn Columbus Downtown Capitol Square.

Wednesday, September 9
After breakfast, depart for Springfield, Illinois, where you’ll enjoy a welcome reception and dinner at The State House Inn, a registered historic building in the heart of downtown Springfield and your home for the next four nights. Your dinner will be enhanced by a presentation about The Papers of Abraham Lincoln from the project’s associate director, John Lupton, who will discuss some of the new Lincoln documents uncovered during his team’s search.

Thursday, September 10
Your full day of sightseeing starts with a visit to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum, where you’ll be greeted by Illinois State Historian Tom Schwartz. This 200,000-square-foot complex offers galleries, theaters and displays, showcasing a treasure trove of Lincoln documents and artifacts. After lunch, you’ll take a tour of the Lincoln Home, a two-story brown-frame building where Lincoln and his family lived for 17 years. The afternoon concludes with a visit to the Old State Capitol, a Greek Revival−style reconstruction of the first statehouse built in Springfield, where Lincoln served during his last term as a legislator and later gave his “House Divided” speech, in 1858. After dinner, you’re on your own: you may want to venture out for an optional walking tour to hear stories about Lincoln’s life, or relax at the inn and enjoy a drink in the cocktail lounge.

Friday, September 11
Today, you’ll head out of town, stopping first at the Abraham Lincoln Long Nine Museum in Athens. Dioramas tell the history of the building and Lincoln’s early connections to the area, including an 1836 campaign speech and an 1837 banquet he attended in which he led a toast, and period artifacts provide glimpses into the area’s past. Next, take a self-guided tour of the New Salem State Historic Site, a reconstruction of the village where the future president spent his early adult years. The buildings are furnished to reflect how they may have looked in the 1830s and include many actual articles used in New Salem during Lincoln’s time there. Following lunch, you’ll visit the Lincoln College Museum, where director and curator Ron Keller will regale you with some intimate observations about many of the Lincoln objects there, including the only copy in Lincoln’s handwriting of his favorite poem. Wrap up the day back in Springfield, where you’ll see the Lincoln Family Pew at the First Presbyterian Church and hear a talk about Lincoln and religion by Dr. Wayne C. Temple, the Illinois State Archives chief deputy director and a prominent Lincoln author and historian.

Saturday, September 12
Your day begins with a visit to the Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices, where Lincoln practiced law from 1843 to about 1852, except for his two-year tenure as a U.S. congressman in Washington. Learn about Lincoln’s law career and life on the Eighth Judicial Circuit as you watch a short film and take a tour of the three-story Greek Revival structure. Your next stop is the Lincoln Depot, where the president-elect delivered his Farewell Address from the rear platform of the train that would take him to the nation’s capital. You’ll then head to the Lincoln Tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery, where the president, his wife, Mary, and three of their four sons are interred; a giant bronze reproduction of Lincoln’s head makes for the perfect snapshot opportunity, and you’ll also see the public receiving vault where funeral services were held for Lincoln on May 4, 1865. After lunch, you’ll visit the Illinois State Capitol, a combination Renaissance Revival− and Second Empire−style building constructed a few years after Lincoln’s death. The afternoon concludes with a tour of the Dana-Thomas House, an early twentieth-century Frank Lloyd Wright showcase and perhaps the best known example of the Prairie School of Architecture.

A real treat awaits you for dinner at the historic Pasfield House, an 1896 Georgian-style residence that Springfield has designated as a City Landmark. You’ll feast on a delicious chicken repast as notable Lincoln portrayer Fritz Klein enthralls you by reprising segments of Lincoln speeches and answering your questions about the president as if you were an actual reporter at the time.

Sunday, September 13
After breakfast, depart for Columbus, where you’ll dine on a Victorian supper of regional home cooking at Miss Emma’s Table amid the majestic stone columns of the atrium at the Ohio Statehouse. The meal will be followed by the Ohio Portals of History Tour, in which first-person interpreters portray people who either worked at or visited the Ohio Statehouse or were prominent figures in the state’s history. You’ll repose again at the Holiday Inn.

Monday, September 14
Following your final breakfast, depart from Columbus and return home with wonderful memories of your vacation and a storehouse of knowledge about America’s 16th president.

TOUR INCLUDES:

Services of a professional tour director
Luxury motor coach transportation
Six nights’ hotel accommodations
Six breakfasts, two lunches and four dinners
All admissions to attractions
All taxes, baggage handling and gratuities

COST PER PERSON:

$995 based on double occupancy

$1,295 based on single occupancy

We are also offering an option for those who would prefer to join the tour in Springfield, beginning with the welcome reception and dinner on September 9 and concluding with the breakfast on September 13. The price of this option is $795 based on double occupancy and $995 based on single occupancy.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

$200 deposit per person to hold reservation.

Cancellation policy: Individual cancellations will be subject to hotel and supplier expenses that cannot be recovered or 50 percent of the tour costs, whichever amount is greater. Because all monies cannot be refunded to those who must cancel their travel arrangements, including fares for air, train or other modes of travel outside of that arranged by Ultimate History Buffs, trip cancellation/interruption  insurance is recommended.

Ultimate History Buffs does not like to cancel tours, as substantial planning and expenses are involved. However, if we have to cancel because there is not enough participation or because of other circumstances, all monies paid us will be refunded.

Passenger responsibility: In arranging transportation, accommodations and other services outlined above, Ultimate History Buffs acts solely as an agent for the owner or operator of such services, and our responsibility is limited to that of an agent. We do not accept responsibility for accidents, injuries, damage to property, or personal loss to you or any travel companions in connection with any travel services rendered, and are not responsible for any occurrences or conditions beyond our control, including but not limited to negligence, vehicle or equipment malfunctions, strikes, weather-related events, or theft. Ultimate History Buffs reserves the right to make itinerary changes in the event of unforeseen circumstances.

TO REGISTER FOR THE TRIP:

Download the reservation form and, if paying by check, make it out to “Ultimate History Buffs,” then either mail both to the address indicated on the form, or mail the check and send an email to bruce@ultimatehistorybuffs.com with the information required on the reservation form.

To pay by credit card, click here. You will still need to mail the reservation form, or send the information via email.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

Please call 973-222-3664 or e-mail us at bruce@ultimatehistorybuffs.com.

That was the determination of a presidential quiz I took recently on the social networking site Facebook called “Which president are you?” Granted, the quiz was mostly tongue-in-cheek, but still, couldn’t the end result have been a little bit more ego-stroking? The application developer who created the quiz warned that the answer might be surprising. That was an understatement! I mean, with questions such as “You’re in a bar and a fight is about to break out. What weapon do you use?”, and the responses to choose from listing such objects as “a bottle of Bordeaux” and “hot sauce,” I suppose I shouldn’t have taken the test too seriously (being the thoughtful person that I am, I ticked off “your intellect”). But curiosity got the best of me, and I plowed through the 10 questions (some of which were actually relevant to the topic, such as “How many branches of the federal government are there, and how many do you think there should be?” and “What is the most important issue facing the president today?”).

Anyhow, my answers led to the conclusion that I was the modern-day incarnation of our 13th president. After I got over my initial indignation, I read over the summary that purported to explain why one of the most forgettable leaders of our country and I were cut from the same cloth. Like Millard Fillmore, I apparently was “a great compromiser. “You can negotiate deals between both sides of a fiercely divided party quite well. Although this means you can’t openly have strong opinions about things, it keeps people from losing their heads.” The summary went on to say, “Though having attention thrown upon you is disliked, you can handle it well. You are compatible with Jimmy Carter or Henry Clay.”

Oh, great! Now I was being identified with another mediocre president, the one who failed to resolve the Iran hostage crisis, as well as with a politician whose most significant legislative achievement only served to postpone the inevitable resolution to the slavery question.

But the more I thought about it, the qualities I was said to share with Fillmore and the others didn’t seem so bad after all. And, interestingly, the description of these personality traits turned out to be fairly insightful. I’ve always considered myself phlegmatic, a temperament that embodies, among other qualities, diplomacy, open-mindedness and reserve.
In Fillmore’s case, receptiveness to others’ ideas led the way to his approval of the Compromise of 1850, the bill crafted in the Senate by fellow Whig Henry Clay that admitted California as a free state and abolished the slave trade in the District of Columbia, but also left open the question of slavery in the New Mexico territory to “popular sovereignty” and required the return of runaway slaves under the aegis of the Fugitive Slave Law. While Fillmore personally abhorred slavery, he recognized his duty to “give it such protection as is guaranteed by the Constitution, till we can get rid of it without destroying the last hope of free government in the world.” Although neither North nor South was completely placated by the Compromise, the legislation helped allay tensions and preserve peace for a few more years.

Fillmore’s inclination to avoid expressing extreme viewpoints extended to his foreign policy (where he enjoyed some success in opening up new markets in the Far East for American manufacturing). He didn’t believe in U.S. imperialism, opposing efforts by some in the United States to annex Hawaii—though he did apply the Monroe Doctrine principles to the island when the French tried to seize it. “Our true mission,” he declared in his Second Annual Message to Congress in 1851, “is not to propagate our opinions upon other countries our form of government by artifice or force, but to teach my example and show by our success, moderation, and justice the blessings of self-government and the advantages of free institutions.”

A century and a quarter later, Jimmy Carter followed the same philosophy when he successfully brought Anwar Sadat and Mechachim Begin together at Camp David to hammer out a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel.

So maybe being pegged for a Carter or a Millard Fillmore isn’t the worst label that could be attached to someone. Not that I still wouldn’t want to be Lincoln or Roosevelt!