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(1809-1865)
Abraham Lincoln
(1809- 1865)
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Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States. He preserved the Union during the U.S. Civil War and brought about the manumation of slaves.
His rise from humble beginnings to achieving the highest office in the land is a notable story.
Lincoln was murdered at a time when his country needed him to complete the great task of reunifying the nation. His eloquent support of democracy and insistence that the Union was worth saving embody the ideals of self-government that all nations strive to accomplish. Lincoln's distinctively humane personality and incredible impact on the nation have endowed him with an enduring legacy.
Growing Up
Abraham Lincoln came from humble beginnings. He was born in a single-room log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky. His parents were Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. His father lost everything when Abraham was young and they had to move to Perry County, Indiana where they struggled to get by. When he was just nine years old, his mother died and his sister Sarah took care of him until his father married again.
Abraham had very little formal education, but had a strong interest in books and learning. Most of what he learned was self-educated and from books he borrowed. His family later moved to Illinois where Lincoln would set out on his own.
As a young man, Lincoln worked several jobs including shopkeeper, surveyor, and postmaster. For a time, he even split firewood with an axe for a living. He soon moved into politics and won a seat in the Illinois Legislature when he was 25.
Before He was President
Lincoln served on the Illinois State Legislature for several terms. During that time he studied the law and began to work as a lawyer. He ran for the U.S. Congress in 1845. He won the election and served as a congressman for one term. After serving as congressman he continued to work as a lawyer. Later, Lincoln ran for the U.S. Senate, he did not win but he did gain national recognition for his arguments against slavery, during the debates.
In 1860, Lincoln ran for President of the United States. He was a member of the fairly new Republican party which strongly opposed allowing any of the southern states to secede. The republicans were also against slavery. They said they would allow for slavery to continue in the southern states, but that it would not be allowed to spread to new U.S. states or territories.
Abraham Lincoln came from humble beginnings. He was born in a single-room log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky. His parents were Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. His father lost everything when Abraham was young and they had to move to Perry County, Indiana where they struggled to get by. When he was just nine years old, his mother died and his sister Sarah took care of him until his father married again.
Abraham had very little formal education, but had a strong interest in books and learning. Most of what he learned was self-educated and from books he borrowed. His family later moved to Illinois where Lincoln would set out on his own.
As a young man, Lincoln worked several jobs including shopkeeper, surveyor, and postmaster. For a time, he even split firewood with an axe for a living. He soon moved into politics and won a seat in the Illinois Legislature when he was 25.
Before He was President
Lincoln served on the Illinois State Legislature for several terms. During that time he studied the law and began to work as a lawyer. He ran for the U.S. Congress in 1845. He won the election and served as a congressman for one term. After serving as congressman he continued to work as a lawyer. Later, Lincoln ran for the U.S. Senate, he did not win but he did gain national recognition for his arguments against slavery, during the debates.
In 1860, Lincoln ran for President of the United States. He was a member of the fairly new Republican party which strongly opposed allowing any of the southern states to secede. The republicans were also against slavery. They said they would allow for slavery to continue in the southern states, but that it would not be allowed to spread to new U.S. states or territories.
Lincoln and Slavery
As a member of the Illinois state legislature in 1834, Lincoln supported the Whig politics of government-sponsored infrastructure and protective tariffs. This political understanding led him to formulate his early views on slavery, not so much as a moral wrong, but as an impediment to economic development.
In 1854, Congress passed the Kanasne-brasker act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise, allowing individual states and territories to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery. The law provoked violent opposition in Kansas and Illinois, and it gave rise to the Republican party.
This awakened Lincoln's political zeal once again, and his views on slavery moved more toward moral indignation. Lincoln joined the Republican Party in 1856.
In 1857, the Supreme Court issued its controversial Dred Scott decision declaring African Americans were not citizens and had no inherent rights. Though Lincoln felt African Americans were not equal to whites, he believed America's founders intended that all men were created with certain inalienable rights.
President Abraham Lincoln
With his newly enhanced political profile, in 1860, political operatives in Illinois organized a campaign to support Lincoln for the presidency. On May 18, at the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Lincoln surpassed better-known candidates such as William Seward of New York and Salmon P. Chase of Ohio.
Lincoln's nomination was due in part to his moderate views on slavery, his support for improving the national infrastructure, and the protective tariff.
In the general election, Lincoln faced his friend and rival, Stephen Douglas, this time besting him in a four-way race that included John C. Breckinridge of the Northern Democrats and John Bell of the Constitution Party.
Lincoln received not quite 40 percent of the popular vote, but carried 180 of 303 Electoral college votes, thus winning the U.S. presidency.
Abraham Lincoln: Assassination
Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, by well-known actor and Confederate sympathizerJohn wike at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.
He was taken to the Petersen House across the street and laid in a coma for nine hours before dying the next morning. His death was mourned by millions of citizens in the North and South alike.
Lincoln's body lay in state at the U. S. Capitol before a funeral train took him back to his final resting place in Springfield, Illinois.
Legacy
Lincoln is frequently cited by historians and average citizens alike as America's greatest president. An aggressively activist commander-in-chief, Lincoln used every power at his disposal to assure victory in the Civil War and end slavery in the United States.
Some scholars doubt that the Union would have been preserved had another person of lesser character been in the White House. According to historian Michael Burlingame, "No president in American history ever faced a greater crisis and no president ever accomplished as much."
Lincoln's philosophy was perhaps best summed up in this Second Inaugural Address, when he stated, "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
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