All human beings have flaws and weaknesses. Abraham Lincoln was a human being. Therefore, Abraham Lincoln had flaws and weaknesses.
This simple categorical syllogism is valid, yet we often forget that the historical luminaries we consider heroes struggled with private difficulties and imperfections just like the rest of us. Many Americans regard Abraham Lincoln not only as a hero who rose head and shoulders above the men and women of his time—literally as well as figuratively—but also as a near mythological figure from the past. He appears on the U.S. penny, the $5 bill, and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, which resembles a Greek temple. Historians and the public alike rightly regard him as one of the greatest of our presidents.
