the 16th president of the United States, guided his country through the most devastating experience in its national history--the CIVIL WAR. He is considered by many historians to have been the greatest American president.
Lincoln was born on Feb. 12, 1809, in a log cabin in Hardin (now Larue) County, Ky. Indians had killed his grandfather, Lincoln wrote, "when he was laboring to open a farm in the forest" in 1786; this tragedy left his father, Thomas Lincoln, "a wandering laboring boy" who "grew up, literally without education." Thomas, nevertheless, became a skilled carpenter and purchased three farms in Kentucky before the Lincolns left the state. Little is known about Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln.
Abraham had an older sister, Sarah, and a younger brother, Thomas, who died in infancy. Lincoln ran unsuccessfully for the Illinois legislature in 1832. Two years later he was elected to the lower house for the first of four successive terms (until 1841) as a Whig. His membership in the Whig Party was natural. Lincoln's father was a Whig, and the party's ambitious program of national economic development was the perfect solution to the problems Lincoln had seen in his rural, hardscrabble Indiana past. His first platform (1832) announced that "Time and experience . . . verified . . . that the poorest and most thinly populated countries would be greatly benefitted by the opening of good roads, and in the clearing of navigable streams. . . . There cannot justly be any objection to having rail roads and canals." Lincoln vied for the U.S. Senate in 1855 but eventually threw his support to Lyman Trumbull. In 1856 he joined the newly formed Republican Party, and two years later he campaigned for the Senate against Douglas. In his speech at Springfield in acceptance of the Republican senatorial nomination (June 16, 1858) Lincoln suggested that Douglas, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, and Democratic presidents Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan had conspired to nationalize slavery
In the same speech he expressed the view that the nation would become either all slave or all free: "A house divided against itself cannot stand." The Constitution protected slavery in peace, but in war, Lincoln came to believe, the commander in chief could abolish slavery as a military necessity. The preliminary Emancipation Proclamation of Sept. 22, 1862, bore this military justification, as did all of Lincoln's racial measures, including especially his decision in the final proclamation of Jan. 1, 1863, to accept blacks in the army. By 1864, Democrats and Republicans differed clearly in their platforms on the race issue: Lincoln's endorsed the 13TH Amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery, whereas McClellan's pledged to return to the South the rights it had had in 1860.
Abraham Lincoln - ( 1809 - 1865 )
Term of Office: 1861-1865
Admin. Policy: To Preserve the Union
Famous Quote: "I . . . consider . . . the Union is unbroken. . . I shall take care . . . that laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all States."
Political Affiliation: Republican
Achievement: Preserved the Union
"Honest Abe" Lincoln was born in Kentucky, USA along the frontier. Lincoln worked on a farm, and in a store in Illinois. He was a captain in the Black Hawk War, served in the Illinois legislature, and was a circuit judge.In 1858 the Lincoln-Douglas debates gave him national fame, though he lost the election for Senator. Abraham Lincoln became President and said in firm words that the fate of the Union would rest in the hands of the South, and that he would obey his oath, "the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend" the Union. Lincoln detested war, but when it came, he accepted the inevitable as the only means of preserving the Union. Following the war, Lincoln viewed the ex-Confederate States as states who had tried to secede, but never left the Union. On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln is often considered the greatest President in U.S. history.
President Lincoln stated in his Inaugural Address that he would do his duty and preserve the Union. It was all too clear that the nation was moving towards civil war as he took his oath of office. To Lincoln, secession was illegal. When the Civil War began, Lincoln abandoned his personal life, and fought to defend the Union.
The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln is well known for the Civil War. Lincoln considered to breakaway states to be in rebellion, and not separated from the Union, which accounts for his lenient policies for readmitting states into the Union after the war was over.
1809 - Abraham Lincoln was born on a stormy morning on February 12, l809 in a log cabin on the Kentucky frontier. He was born on a bed of poles covered with corn husks. Lincoln was named after his grandfather. His parents were Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks. He had one sister, Sarah.
1834 - Lincoln, age 24, served in the state government of Illinois. He was elected to the legislature as a Whig, where he denounced slavery, saying it was "founded on both injustice and bad policy."
1836 - On September 9, Lincoln received his law license and is a leader of the Whig party. He first practices law in Springfield, Illinois. He needed a place to keep his important papers handy, so he tucked them into his tall black hat.
1842 - On November 4, Lincoln married a lively girl from Kentucky, Mary Todd. She was born in Lexington, Kentucky on December 13, l8l8 to a prominent family. She and Lincoln became good friends. During their courtship, their relationship waxed and waned, but in the fall of 1842 they decided to get married.
1860 - Lincoln is elected the 16th President of the United States, the first Republican, receiving 180 of 303 possible electoral votes and 40 percent of the popular vote, with the South voting almost solidly against him. This was a difficult time to be president, since many Southern states did not agree with Lincoln on slavery, and declared they were not a part of the United States.
1761 - The South leaves the Union and the Civil war begins on April 12, with shots fired on Fort Sumpter. The U.S. struggled in a Civil War, but Lincoln was the glue that held our nation together. Fort Sumpter eventually was surrendered to South Carolina.
1863 - On January 1, President Lincoln issues the final Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves in territories held by Confederates and emphasizes the enlisting of black soldiers in the Union Army. The war to preserve the Union now becomes a revolutionary struggle for the abolition of slavery.
1864 - Lincoln is reelected President. He won the election defeating Democrat George B. McClellan. He carried 22 of the 25 participating states. He received 55 percent of the popular votes and 2l2 of 233 electoral votes. Lincoln told supporters, "I earnestly believe that the consequences of this day's work will be to the lasting advantage, if not the very salvation, of the country."
1865 - Civil War ends. General Lee's troops were surrounded and on April 7, Grant called upon Lee to surrender. The two commanders met on April 9, and agreed on the terms of surrender.
1865 - On April 13, Abraham Lincoln attended a play at Ford's Theatre and was shot. John Wilkes Booth, who hoped the throw the country into political chaos, had shot the President. Lincoln died on the morning of April 15. American's grieved at the loss of their President. Lincoln is buried in Springfield, Illinois. Americans will long remember President Abraham Lincoln, whose friends and enemies praised his selflessness and kindly spirit after his death.
Chronology of Abraham Lincoln
1860 - Lincoln Elected
1860 - South Carolina Secedes
1861 - Confederacy Formed
1861 - Fort Sumpter Attacked
1862 - Battle at Antietam
1863 - Emancipation Proclamation
1863 - Gettysburg
1864 - Homestead Act
1865 - Wade Davis Bill
1865 - Lee Surrenders
1865 - Lincoln Assassinated
