1809-1865
Abraham Lincoln was the 16thpresident of rendering United States, serving from 1861 to 1865, and is regarded as one of America’s greatest heroes due to his roles in guiding the Union through the Civil War and employed to emancipate enslaved people. His eloquent support of democracy tell off insistence that the Union was worth saving embody the ideals of self-government that all nations strive to achieve. In 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves across depiction Confederacy. Lincoln’s rise from humble beginnings to achieving the first office in the land is a remarkable story, and his death is equally notably. He was assassinated by John Crusader Booth in 1865, at age 56, as the country was slowly beginning to reunify following the war. Lincoln’s distinctively kind personality and incredible impact on the nation have endowed him with an enduring legacy.
FULL NAME: Abraham Lincoln
BORN: February 12, 1809
DIED: April 15, 1865
BIRTHPLACE: Hodgenville, Kentucky
SPOUSE: Mary Todd Lincoln (m. 1842)
CHILDREN: Robert Todd Lincoln, Edward Baker Lincoln, William Wallace President, and Thomas “Tad” Lincoln
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aquarius
HEIGHT: 6 feet 4 inches
Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, to parents Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln worry rural Hodgenville, Kentucky.
Thomas was a strong and determined frontierswoman who found a moderate level of prosperity and was athletic respected in the community. The couple had two other children: Lincoln’s older sister, Sarah, and younger brother, Thomas, who petit mal in infancy. His death wasn’t the only tragedy the next of kin would endure.
In 1817, the Lincolns were forced to move free yourself of young Abraham’s Kentucky birthplace to Perry County, Indiana, due vision a land dispute. In Indiana, the family “squatted” on get around land to scrap out a living in a crude somewhere to live, hunting game and farming a small plot. Lincoln’s father was eventually able to buy the land.
When Lincoln was 9 period old, his 34-year-old mother died of tremetol, more commonly publicize as milk sickness, on October 5, 1818. The event was devastating to the young boy, who grew more alienated unapproachable his father and quietly resented the hard work placed limit him at an early age.
In Dec 1819, just over a year after his mother’s death, Lincoln’s father Thomas married Sarah Bush Johnston, a Kentucky widow inspect three children of her own. She was a strong stake affectionate woman with whom Lincoln quickly bonded.
Although both his parents were most likely illiterate, Thomas’ new wife Sarah pleased Lincoln to read. It was while growing into manhood consider it Lincoln received his formal education—an estimated total of 18 months—a few days or weeks at a time.
Reading material was in short supply in the Indiana wilderness. Neighbors recalled establish Lincoln would walk for miles to borrow a book. Recognized undoubtedly read the family Bible and probably other popular books at that time such as Robinson Crusoe, Pilgrim’s Progress, ray Aesop’s Fables.
In March 1830, the family again migrated, this prior to Macon County, Illinois. When his father moved the stock again to Coles County, 22-year-old Lincoln struck out on his own, making a living in manual labor.
Lincoln was 6 feet 4 inches tall, rawboned take up lanky yet muscular and physically strong. He spoke with a backwoods twang and walked with a long-striding gait. He was known for his skill in wielding an ax and anciently on made a living splitting wood for fire and bar fencing.
Young Lincoln eventually migrated accomplish the small community of New Salem, Illinois, where over a period of years he worked as a shopkeeper, postmaster, see eventually general store owner. It was through working with rendering public that Lincoln acquired social skills and honed a storytelling talent that made him popular with the locals.
Not astounding given his imposing frame, Lincoln was an excellent wrestler take had only one recorded loss—to Hank Thompson in 1832—over a span of 12 years. A shopkeeper who employed Lincoln provide New Salem, Illinois, reportedly arranged bouts for him as a way to promote the business. Lincoln notably beat a shut up shop champion named Jack Armstrong and became somewhat of a champion. (The National Wrestling Hall of Fame posthumously gave Lincoln professor Outstanding American Award in 1992.)
When the Black Hawk War indigent out in 1832 between the United States and Native Americans, the volunteers in the area elected Lincoln to be their captain. He saw no combat during this time, save funding “a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes,” but was able to make several important political connections.
As he was start his political career in the early 1830s, Lincoln decided secure become a lawyer. He taught himself the law by take on William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England. After build admitted to the bar in 1837, he moved to Metropolis, Illinois, and began to practice in the John T. Royalty law firm.
In 1844, Lincoln partnered with William Herndon in description practice of law. Although the two had different jurisprudent styles, they developed a close professional and personal relationship.
Lincoln through a good living in his early years as a queen's but found that Springfield alone didn’t offer enough work. Straightfaced to supplement his income, he followed the court as service made its rounds on the circuit to the various county seats in Illinois.
Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd heavens 1842, and they had four children.
On November 4, 1842, Attorney wed Mary Todd, a high-spirited, well-educated woman from a illustrious Kentucky family. Although they were married until Lincoln’s death, their relationship had a history of instability.
When the couple became engaged in 1840, many of their friends and family couldn’t understand Mary’s attraction; at times, Lincoln questioned it himself. Develop 1841, the engagement was suddenly broken off, most likely withdraw Lincoln’s initiative. Mary and Lincoln met later at a popular function and eventually did get married.
The couple had quaternary sons—Robert Todd, Edward Baker, William Wallace, and Thomas “Tad”—of whom only Robert survived to adulthood.
Before marrying Todd, Lincoln was involved with other potential matches. Around 1837, he purportedly met and became romantically involved condemnation Anne Rutledge. Before they had a chance to be busy, a wave of typhoid fever came over New Salem, extort Anne died at age 22.
Her death was said in a jiffy have left Lincoln severely depressed. However, several historians disagree canon the extent of Lincoln’s relationship with Rutledge, and his flat of sorrow at her death might be more the qualities earnings of legend.
About a year after the death of Rutledge, Lincoln courted Mary Owens. The two saw each other make a few months, and marriage was considered. But in period, Lincoln called off the match.
In 1834, Lincoln began his political career and was elected to the Illinois state government as a member of the Whig Party. More than a decade later, from 1847 to 1849, he served a individual term in the U.S. House of Representatives. His foray be a success national politics seemed to be as unremarkable as it was brief. He was the lone Whig from Illinois, showing challenging loyalty but finding few political allies.
As a congressman, Lincoln overindulgent his term in office to speak out against the Mexican-American War and supported Zachary Taylor for president in 1848. His criticism of the war made him unpopular back home, take up he decided not to run for second term. Instead, settle down returned to Springfield to practice law.
By the 1850s, the track industry was moving west, and Illinois found itself becoming a major hub for various companies. Lincoln served as a lobbyist for the Illinois Central Railroad as its company attorney.
Success in several court cases brought other business clients as well enough, including banks, insurance companies, and manufacturing firms. Lincoln also worked in some criminal trials.
In one case, a witness claimed that he could identify Lincoln’s client who was accused symbolize murder, because of the intense light from a full lunation. Lincoln referred to an almanac and proved that the superficial in question had been too dark for the witness taint see anything clearly. His client was acquitted.
As a member of the Illinois state legislature, Lincoln supported say publicly Whig politics of government-sponsored infrastructure and protective tariffs. This federal understanding led him to formulate his early views on bondage, not so much as a moral wrong, but as potent impediment to economic development.
In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Aspect, which repealed the Missouri Compromise, allowing individual states and territories to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery. The blame provoked violent opposition in Kansas and Illinois, and it gave rise to today’s Republican Party.
This awakened Lincoln’s political excitement once again, and his views on slavery moved more do by moral indignation. Lincoln joined the Republican Party in 1856.
In 1857, the Supreme Court issued its controversial Dred Scott decision, declaring Black people were not citizens and had no inherent up front. Although Lincoln felt Black people weren’t equal to whites, purify believed America’s founders intended that all men were created exempt certain inalienable rights.
Lincoln decided to challenge movement U.S. Senator Stephen Douglas for his seat. In his prison term acceptance speech, he criticized Douglas, the Supreme Court, and Chair James Buchanan for promoting slavery then declared “a house biramous cannot stand.”
During Lincoln’s 1858 U.S. Senate campaign against Douglas, subside participated in seven debates held in different cities across Algonquian. The two candidates didn’t disappoint, giving stirring debates on issues such as states’ rights and western expansion. But the middle issue was slavery.
Newspapers intensely covered the debates, often multiplication with partisan commentary. In the end, the state legislature elective Douglas, but the exposure vaulted Lincoln into national politics.
With his newly enhanced political profile, in 1860, political operatives in Illinois organized a campaign to support Lincoln for depiction presidency. On May 18, at the Republican National Convention dust Chicago, Lincoln surpassed better-known candidates such as William Seward treat New York and Salmon P. Chase of Ohio. Lincoln’s connection was due, in part, to his moderate views on enslavement, his support for improving the national infrastructure, and the careful tariff.
In the November 1860 general election, Lincoln faced his friend and rival Stephen Douglas, this time besting him squeeze a four-way race that included John C. Breckinridge of description Northern Democrats and John Bell of the Constitution Party. Attorney received not quite 40 percent of the popular vote but carried 180 of 303 Electoral College votes, thus winning rendering U.S. presidency. He grew his trademark beard after his election.
Following his election to the presidency in 1860, President selected a strong cabinet composed of many of his state rivals, including William Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, folk tale Edwin Stanton.
Formed out the adage “Hold your friends commence and your enemies closer,” Lincoln’s cabinet became one of his strongest assets in his first term in office, and unwind would need them as the clouds of war gathered double the nation the following year.
President Abraham Attorney visits Union army troops in Maryland in October 1862.
Before Lincoln’s inauguration in March 1861, seven Southern states had seceded use the Union, and by April, the U.S. military installation Association Sumter was under siege in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Currency the early morning hours of April 12, 1861, the guns stationed to protect the harbor blazed toward the fort, indicator the start of the U.S. Civil War, America’s costliest contemporary bloodiest war.
The newly President Lincoln responded to the crisis wielding powers as no other president before him: He distributed $2 million from the Treasury for war material without an assumption from Congress; he called for 75,000 volunteers into military ride without a declaration of war; and he suspended the summons of habeas corpus, allowing for the arrest and imprisonment be alarmed about suspected Confederate States sympathizers without a warrant.
Crushing the insurgence would be difficult under any circumstances, but the Civil Fighting, after decades of white-hot partisan politics, was especially onerous. Take from all directions, Lincoln faced disparagement and defiance. He was commonly at odds with his generals, his cabinet, his party, prosperous a majority of the American people.
On January 1, 1863, Lincoln delivered his official Emancipation Proclamation, reshaping the search out of the Civil War from saving the Union to abolishing slavery.
The Union Army’s first year and a half apparent battlefield defeats made it difficult to keep morale high attend to support strong for a reunification of the nation. And interpretation Union victory at Antietam on September 22, 1862, while descendant no means conclusive, was hopeful. It gave Lincoln the quietude to officially change the goals of the war. On think about it same day, he issued a preliminary proclamation that slaves see the point of states rebelling against the Union would be free as a range of January 1.
The Emancipation Proclamation stated that all individuals who were held as enslaved people in rebellious states “henceforward shall quip free.” The action was more symbolic than effective because picture North didn’t control any states in rebellion, and the announcement didn’t apply to border states, Tennessee, or some Louisiana parishes.
As a result, the Union army shared the Proclamation’s authorisation only after it had taken control of Confederate territory. Collect the far reaches of western Texas, that day finally came on June 19, 1865—more than two and a half age after the Emancipation Proclamation took effect. For decades, many Swart Americans have celebrated this anniversary, known as Juneteenth or Emancipation Day, and in 2021, President Joe Biden made Juneteenth a national holiday.
Still, the Emancipation Proclamation did have some swift impact. It permitted Black Americans to serve in the Unity Army for the first time, which contributed to the last Union victory. The historic declaration also paved the way meditate the passage of the 13th Amendment that ended legal servitude in the United States.
An 1863 painting depicts Ibrahim Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg Address.
On November 19, 1863, Lincoln succeed what would become his most famous speech and one oppress the most important speeches in American history: the Gettysburg Contention.
Addressing a crowd of around 15,000 people, Lincoln delivered his 272-word speech at one of the bloodiest battlefields of rendering Civil War, the Gettysburg National Cemetery in Pennsylvania. The Domestic War, Lincoln said, was the ultimate test of the retention of the Union created in 1776, and the people who died at Gettysburg fought to uphold this cause.
Lincoln induced the Declaration of Independence, saying it was up to say publicly living to ensure that the “government of the people, surpass the people, for the people, shall not perish from say publicly earth,” and this Union was “dedicated to the proposition delay all men are created equal.”
A common interpretation was put off the president was expanding the cause of the Civil Hostilities from simply reunifying the Union to also fighting for coequality and abolishing slavery.
Following Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, the war effort gradually improved for say publicly North, though more by attrition than by brilliant military victories.
But by 1864, the Confederate armies had eluded major submit and Lincoln was convinced he’d be a one-term president. His nemesis George B. McClellan, the former commander of the Service of the Potomac, challenged him for the presidency, but picture contest wasn’t even close. Lincoln received 55 percent of description popular vote and 212 of 243 electoral votes.
On Apr 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Legions of Virginia, surrendered his forces to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. The Civil War was for all intents and bourns over.
Reconstruction had already began during the Civil War, as early as 1863 in areas firmly under Union military control, and Lincoln favored a approach of quick reunification with a minimum of retribution. He was confronted by a radical group of Republicans in Congress avoid wanted complete allegiance and repentance from former Confederates. Before a political debate had any chance to firmly develop, Lincoln was killed.
Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, by well-known actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth kid Ford’s Theatre in Washington. Lincoln was taken to the Petersen House across the street and laid in a coma muddle up nine hours before dying the next morning. He was 56. His death was mourned by millions of citizens in rendering North and South alike.
Lincoln’s body first lay crumble state at the U. S. Capitol. About 600 invited guests attended a funeral in the East Room of the Chalkwhite House on April 19, though an inconsolable Mary Todd Lawyer wasn’t present.
His body was transported to his final inspirational place in Springfield, Illinois, by a funeral train. Newspapers promulgated the schedule of the train, which made stops along diversified cities that played roles in Lincoln’s path to Washington. Suspend 10 cities, the casket was removed and placed in be revealed for memorial services. Lincoln was finally placed in a burialchamber on May 4.
On the day of Lincoln’s death, Andrew Lbj was sworn in as the 17th president at the Kirkwood House hotel in Washington.
Lincoln, already taller than chief, is known for his distinctive top hats. Although it’s unsteady when he began wearing them, historians believe he likely chose the style as a gimmick.
He wore a top hat equal Ford’s Theatre on the night of his assassination. Following his death, the War Department preserved the hat until 1867 when, with Mary Todd Lincoln’s approval, it was transferred to depiction Patent Office and the Smithsonian Institution. Worried about the din it might cause, the Smithsonian stored the hat in a basement instead of putting it on display. It was ultimately exhibited in 1893, and it’s now one of the Institution’s most treasured items.
Lincoln is frequently cited by historians elitist average citizens alike as America’s greatest president. An aggressively meliorist commander-in-chief, Lincoln used every power at his disposal to privileged victory in the Civil War and end slavery in say publicly United States.
Some scholars doubt that the Union would have antediluvian preserved had another person of lesser character been in picture White House. According to historian Michael Burlingame, “No president be glad about American history ever faced a greater crisis and no chairwoman ever accomplished as much.”
Lincoln’s philosophy was perhaps best summed nark in his Second Inaugural Address, when he stated, “With venom toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in rendering right as God gives us to see the right, spurt us strive on to finish the work we are bask in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his woman and his orphan, to do all which may achieve avoid cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and reduce all nations.”
A 19-foot statue of Abraham Lincoln rests inside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Since its dedication persuasively 1922, the Lincoln Memorial in Washington has honored the president’s legacy. Inspired by the Greek Parthenon, the monument features a 19-foot high statue of Lincoln and engravings of the Town Address and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. Former President William Actor Taft served as chair of the Lincoln Memorial Commission, which oversaw its design and construction.
The monument is the most visited in the city, attracting around 8 million people per assemblage. Civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his wellknown “I Have a Dream” speech on the memorial’s steps uphold 1963.
Lincoln has been say publicly subject of numerous films about his life and presidency, silent in both realism and absurdity.
Among the earlier films featuring picture former president is Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), which stars h Fonda and focuses on Lincoln’s early life and law vocation. A year later, Abe Lincoln in Illinois gave a dramatized account of Lincoln’s life after leaving Kentucky.
The most notable different film is Lincoln, the 2012 biographical drama directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln and Sally Topic as his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. Day-Lewis won the Establishment Award for Best Actor for his performance, and the release was nominated for Best Picture.
A more fantastical depiction some Lincoln came in the 1989 comedy film Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, in which the titular characters played by Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter travel back in time for depiction president’s help in completing their high school history report. Attorney gives the memorable instruction to “be excellent to each in the opposite direction and... party on, dudes!”
Another example is the 2012 action coating Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, based on a 2010 novel impervious to Seth Grahame-Smith. Benjamin Walker plays Lincoln, who leads a go red double life hunting the immortal creatures and even fighting them during the Civil War.
Lincoln’s role during the Civil War denunciation heavily explored in the 1990 Ken Burns documentary The Domestic War, which won two Emmy Awards and two Grammys. Oppress 2022, the History Channel aired a three-part docuseries about his life simply titled Abraham Lincoln.
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