Even if the world has forgotten, let's remember that today is Abraham Lincoln's Birthday. It's a day that should be dear to all of us, especially school children.

When I was a kid, February was a month with two great one-day holidays. And they were especially great because they had meaning; Lincoln's Birthday on February 12th and Washington's on February 22d. We got off for each of them. And, if you threw into the mix Valentine's Day (although it wasn't a day off), February became a very good month.

We virtually abolished the holidays, rolling all our sentimental feelings about two great presidents into one new holiday that occurs on a different Monday each year. By act of Congress this new holiday is called Presidents' Day, and it's a bonanza for department store sales and other commercial happenings. This year, it will be one week from today, on February 19th, tucked between Lincoln's Birthday on the 12th and Washington's on the 22d.

Presidents' Day is a desecration of our heritage. Many school children today barely know when Lincoln and Washington were actually born. And it's especially sad for kids in this part of the world. For Lincoln and Washington had special ties to New York. Some of the best, and most significant, hours of their lives were spent here.

Abraham Lincoln arrived in New York on February 25th, 1860. He bought a new hat and had his photograph taken by the famous photographer, Matthew Brady. Lincoln was an awkward-looking man in a wrinkled, ill-fitting suit standing six feet four. This ungainly Midwesterner traveled downtown to Cooper Union, where an audience of elite New Yorkers, including aspiring leaders of the new Republican Party, were waiting to hear from this potential dark horse candidate for President.

Lincoln spoke for an hour and a half. He declared: "Even though much provoked, let us do nothing through passion or ill temper.... Let us have the faith that right makes might and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it." The speech was carried in full in New York newspapers the next morning and tens of thousands of pamphlets containing the speech were distributed throughout the nation.

The "right makes might" speech had spectacular consequences. Senator William Henry Seward, front-runner for the Republican nomination for President, saw his support melt away. Three months later, Lincoln won the nomination. Lincoln spoke of New York with affection by saying, "Brady and the Cooper Institute made me President."

George Washington also had strong, sentimental links to New York. It was here, at Fraunces Tavern, which still stands at Pearl and Broad Streets, that he tearfully said farewell to his officers at the end of the Revolutionary War. "With a heart full of love and gratitude I now take my leave of you."

Six years later, George Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States at Federal Hall. Chancellor Robert Livingston administered the oath of office and Washington repeated, "I do solemnly swear that I will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States ...So help me God!" Then Washington kissed the Bible.

Livingston, with tears in his eyes, proclaimed, "It is done! Long live George Washington, President of the United States!"

In this era, Presidents' Day is a day for sales; Advertisers played a major role in changing the holiday title. To a small extent students are still educated up to the holiday about our great Presidents, especially Lincoln and Washington. But we have trashed the memory of two of our most distinguished ancestors by turning this month into a shopping frenzy.

The reverence for history, the patriotism embodied in past observances of the birthdays of these two statesmen has been lost. Congress took it away from us, back in 1968, with the Uniform Holidays Bill. Only Congress can restore these holidays to the honored place in our lives they deserve.