Lincoln portrait to adorn Mahoning Courthouse

July 12, 2015 at 12:05a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

President Abraham Lincoln was the subject of more research and books than anyone in America or perhaps the world, second only to Jesus Christ, a historian and expert on the nation’s 16th president contends.

Suffice it to say he also will be the most-observed chief executive in the Mahoning County Courthouse.

“Nearly every moment of his life has been researched,” Dr. Ian Hunt, a historian with the Springfield, Ill.-based Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation, told a large audience that filled the courthouse rotunda’s first and second floors.

Hunt spoke to hundreds of elected officials, Civil War re-enactors, members of the Second Brigade Vietnam Veterans and Leather Necks motorcycle clubs and others during Saturday’s unveiling ceremony that showcased “America’s Story,” a 76-inch-by-5-foot painting of Lincoln by renowned Canfield artist Raymond A. Simon.

The one-hour gathering also recognized the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination and the end of the Civil War.

Simon’s portrait, which is accompanied by a plaque, also is the first piece of art to be on permanent display in the courthouse, noted Mahoning County Commissioner Anthony T. Traficanti, who was master of ceremonies.

“I never met a man who had so much love and heart for this community,” Traficanti said.

The commemorative painting is rich in symbolism and captures Lincoln’s steadfast belief in equality and freedom for all people.

It also depicts how far the country has come since the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ending slavery was ratified Dec. 6, 1865, but also how much more needs to be done to achieve equality, Simon has said.

The painting embodies the core principles of the 13th Amendment and shows Lincoln sitting on steps reading to five children of different races who are gathered around him.

Behind him is the Lincoln Memorial’s marble statue with ghostlike hands that capture the president’s compassionate, tolerant nature as well as his desire to successfully end the war.

Also featured are Lincoln’s spirit walking along a set of railroad tracks toward a new dawn for the nation as slaves await his arrival; a cannon drawing silent as the country strives for unity; an expectant mother standing in a cotton field with an expression of hope; and a carriage in the foreground taking Lincoln to his permanent place in history.

Likewise, the president loved to read to youngsters and “had a remarkable sense of humor,” Hunt said.

Well aware that slavery was big business, Lincoln first introduced the idea of compensated emancipation, which allowed slave owners to be paid in exchange for the slaves’ freedom, Hunt explained, noting that the Emancipation Compensation Act freed nearly 3,000 slaves.

The president pushed for the 13th Amendment’s passage before the Civil War’s end largely because of his strong belief in equality and fairness for all, the historian continued.

“I hope we can continue his legacy, and that Ray Simon’s painting will help in some small way,” Hunt said.

“It’s incredibly motivating to remind people of what we should be doing,” against a backdrop of racism, intolerance and divisiveness that continue today, said state Sen. Joe Schiavoni of Boardman, D-33rd.

Gordon R. Bury, past commander in chief of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, noted that Lincoln’s funeral was the longest in history. One of the stops for the three-week funeral was in Cleveland, where the president lay in state and thousands of people viewed his body, Bury said.

Making additional remarks was Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti. Providing its rendition of Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” was the Boardman High School marching band.

The ceremony ended with Lincoln re-enactor, local actor Tom O'Donnell, reading the Gettysburg Address.