SPRINGFIELD - Abraham Lincoln has a business card and Web site.

He does Civil War re-enactments, speaking engagements, conventions and dinner theater.

He is also Max Daniels, a Wheaton resident and 18-year Lincoln impersonator. Daniels was joined by 15 other men dressed in top hats, long coats and bowties, standing just inside the barricade at Tuesday's dedication ceremony posing for photos.

"This will be Abe in debate," Daniels said as he grabbed his coat lapels with his thumbs sticking out and had his photo taken with a passer-by.

Daniels, 66, said he stumbled into being a full-time Abraham Lincoln presenter after appearing in a play. He works with his wife, who poses as Mary Todd Lincoln.

"I was born in the South so obviously Lincoln was not somebody we studied with a great deal of zeal," he said. "It's been a real joy to go back and study our history and be amazed at what it took to get this nation founded."

While Lincolns were in abundance, other re-enactors mingled in the crowd including Ken Guernsey, who pretends to be Robert Johnston, an 1830's woodworker, at Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site. Guernsey, who sports a long white beard, was dressed in a plumed white shirt and checkered vest. It was his day off.

"I just decided to dress for the period," Guernsey said

All the actors said they spend a lot of time studying to make their roles more accurate.

However, the publishing of the controversial book "The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln," which suggests that the 16th president was a homosexual, has caused some problems for Daniels, who estimates that he performs more than 200 times a year.

"The word gay back then means something different. People will say how do you feel about being gay and I'll say I think everybody should be happy. If someone is too persistent, it's one of those smile and nod things," said Daniels, who insists that Lincoln was not gay. "You're always finding someone with a different point of view about Lincoln."

Earl Webb, who has portrayed Lincoln for six years, agrees that study is important to playing the role.

"I love the history part of it though not much of it sticks in my head," the Harrisburg resident chuckled.

Webb, a Southern Baptist minister, said he got hooked on people's reaction to his act.

"I love the response people give to someone who is presenting him," Webb said. "I hope that I portray the right attitude and the atmosphere about me that people can get an idea of what he was really like."

Webb said he tries to emulate "his honesty and his integrity -and the desires of his heart that all men should be free. That's what I try to do. I think that he is probably the only individual chosen by God that could have done it."

Matt Adrian can be reached at matt.adrian@;lee.net or 789-0865.