It’s Abraham Lincoln’s 199th birthday today. Some are celebrating by spending time in Lincoln’s shoes.

Related: Happy Birthday, Abe on Eight Forty-Eight

If you call Abraham Lincoln re-enactor Max Daniels today and get this message…

ambi: answering machine

It probably means he’s busy impersonating Lincoln.

After all, today is the anniversary of the 16th U.S. President’s birth. And a lot of Lincoln actors have their whole day booked. Daniels says when he’s working, he stays in character even during his lunch break.

DANIELS: The hostess asks us do we want a table or a booth. We usually tell them not to say booth because I get a headache just thinking about it.

Daniels is just one of dozens of Lincoln actors in Illinois. Some like Patrick McCreary do it because they already look the part. He says his height and facial structure give him a striking resemblance to Honest Abe.

MCCREARY: Which for some people means I am amazingly ugly and for others amazingly handsome.

But no matter how they trim their beard or how high their stovepipe hat stands, all these men play the part to preserve history and to bring the message of liberty as they say Lincoln would’ve done. And so on his 199th birthday, here’s what Illinois Lincolns McCreary, Daniels and Robert Lindsey say the president might’ve hoped for.

MCCREARY, DANIELS, LINDSEY: On this auspicious occasion of my pending birthday, I wish all people to find fulfillment in the work that they are doing and that… the nation gets back on to the road to liberty that our founding fathers sacrificed their lives and some of their fortunes for, but once the flag is up, it will be for the American people to keep it up.