Who’s Abe Lincoln?

Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the United States. Best known for the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves, he is generally regarded by historians as one of the best leaders the nation has ever had. Although he came from extremely modest beginnings and received very little formal education, he had a passion for politics and was able to lead the country through the hardships of the civil war. He was elected to a second term as president in 16, but was assassinated a few weeks after he took office.

Early life

Abraham (“Abe”) Lincoln was born to Thomas and Nancy (Hanks) Lincoln in a log cabin at Sinking Spring Farm in Kentucky on February 12, 1809. He was the couple’s third child, although an older son died in infancy. His father was initially quite wealthy and respected in the community, but ended up losing much of his land due to a title issue. As a result, the family moved to Indiana when Abraham was seven to start afresh, eventually buying farmland.

In 1818, just two years after moving to their new farm, Nancy died of a condition brought on by consuming milk contaminated with plant toxins. Abe suffered greatly from the loss of his mother and had to work very hard with his family to keep the farm going. His responsibilities in his home meant that, like many frontier children, he was primarily self-taught, attending school only occasionally, although he enjoyed reading and borrowing books when possible.

Not long after Nancy’s death, Thomas remarried Sarah Bush Johnston, a widow with her children, and Sarah and Abe became very close. Abe provided an income for his family by helping build railroad fences. However, his relationship with his father was strained and he decided to leave home in 1831, the year after the family moved to Illinois. One of his first jobs was ferrying goods on a barge up the Mississippi River to New Orleans, Louisiana, which allowed him to see slavery firsthand. He also worked as a postman and shopkeeper.

Early career

In 1832, Abraham Lincoln was already interested in politics. Lui ran for the first time that year, trying to win a seat in the Illinois legislature. His first bid for political office was unsuccessful, but in 1834 he was elected and served four terms. Between 1834 and 1841, he studied and became a lawyer, and met his wife, Mary Todd, whom he married in 1842. They had four children, but three died relatively young.

Lincoln’s approach to politics was slightly different from the platform of the Whig Party, of which he was a member. He was pro-business and free enterprise, but his background of poverty made him sympathetic to the hardships faced by workers. He strongly believed in the Constitution, especially in his early years. After serving a single term in the United States House of Representatives from 1847 to 1849, he was almost ready to give up politics altogether.
Ascent to the presidency

In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which gave states and territories the ability to independently decide whether they wanted to allow slavery. Lincoln strongly opposed the passage of this law, because he believed that slavery would ultimately harm the economy and because he did not think it was in line with the intent of the Declaration of Independence. His interest in politics was reinvigorated, because he recognized the far-reaching effects the act could have.

After the decline of the Whig Party, Lincoln joined the Republican Party in 1856. The following year, the Supreme Court handed down a decision in Scott v. Sanford, denying blacks many of their basic rights. While he didn’t think the country’s founding fathers intended to equalize the races, Lincoln thought that, through the Declaration of Independence, they had championed the idea that a black man also had a right to at least life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Seeing how the slavery problem was causing a rift in the nation, in 1858, he challenged Stephen Douglas for his seat in the United States Senate. He didn’t win, but his campaign earned him the support that ultimately led to the Republican presidential nomination.

Two years later, despite being a candidate for the dark horse, Lincoln was elected the 16th President of the United States on November 6, 1860. The state of the nation at the time was not good: when he was sworn in, seven states had already separated from the Union, with slavery as a major dividing issue. Although he tried to reassure the South that he did not want to interfere with slavery in states where it already existed, just a month after taking office, Southerners attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina on April 12, 1861, and the Civil War was on.

The Civil War and the Emancipation of Slaves

Throughout the conflict, Lincoln made full use of his political and constitutional powers. He initiated many controversial acts, such as the blockade of Southern seaports and the suspension of habeas corpus for the arrest of more than 13,000 suspected Southern supporters. These decisions caused enormous hardship within the lower states, but the president was convinced that stopping the rebellion, even if it meant temporary agony, was necessary to keep the country from eventually falling apart.

As the war progressed, President Lincoln employed various strategies to try to gain an advantage, shifting control of the Union Army several times. With unification his main goal, he took steps with the support of Congress that banned slavery on federal territory and that outlined legal methods to free the slaves of the supporters of the rebellion. In short, the liberation of slaves became a military tactic rather than an ethical struggle, and on September 22, 1862, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which gave freedom to blacks in states not under Union control.
Following the order, in 1863, Lincoln delivered what many historians consider his most famous address, the Gettysburg Address, as part of the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery. In about three minutes he stated that the Civil War was a struggle against the founding fathers’ original principles of freedom and equality. The speech also paid tribute to those killed in the battle, saying that their deaths, which ultimately protected democracy, had not been in vain.
Continuing his abolition efforts for the good of the country, the president proposed an amendment to the constitution that would ban slavery in every state. Once drafted, it initially failed to pass Congress, but was adopted on January 31, 1865 at the second attempt. Almost a year later, on December 6, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified and slavery in America was officially over.
Reconstruction
Lincoln wanted to quickly restore peace between the north and south once the fighting was over. He was not in favor of harsh retribution against Southerners and offered pardons to anyone who signed an oath of allegiance to the United States. Under his leadership, Reconstruction began in parts of the South as early as 1863, although the war would not officially end until 1965.
Re-election and the end of the war
Despite the turmoil within the country, Lincoln was able to gain good support in the 1864 presidential election. During this time, the president relied on Ulysses S. Grant as his new Union Army Chief. Grant was able to push the southern forces back, but his tactics resulted in many casualties for the north, so Lincoln was unsure of his chances of making a second term. The election proved to be a landslide victory for Lincoln, however, due in part to the president’s work with Democrats who supported the war, including Andrew Johnson, who became his running mate. He was inaugurated for his second term on March 4, 1865, and just one month later, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, signaling the beginning of the end of the war.
Murder
John Wilkes Booth was an American actor who strongly opposed Lincoln’s policies. He conspired with his friends to kidnap him, but when those plans fell apart, Booth became determined to assassinate him. On April 14, 1865, a few days after Lee’s surrender, he went to Ford’s Theater, where he knew the president would be in attendance. Booth was able to force his way into Lincoln’s box and shot him in the head. Although the president lived through the night, he never regained consciousness and died the following morning.

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