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Abraham as a young lad.
Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 to Nancy and Thomas Lincoln in a one-room log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky. His family moved to southern Indiana. Lincoln’s formal schooling was limited to three brief periods in local schools, as he had to work constantly to support his family. -
Supporter of the Whig Party.
His family moved to Macon County in southern Illinois and Lincoln got a job working on a river flatboat hauling freight down the Mississippi River. After settling in the town of New Salem Lincoln became involved in politics as a supporter of the Whig Party winning election to the Illinois state legislator.
Like his Whig heroes Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, Lincoln opposed the spread of slavery to the territories and had a vision of the expanding United States with a focus on commerce. -
lawyer.
He decided to attempt a career as a lawyer, but rather than going to law school, Lincoln was self-taught. He rigorously studied by reading a large selection of previous legal cases and law books, and in 1836, at the young age of 25, he obtained his law license For the next few years, he worked there as a lawyer and serving clients ranging from individual residents of small towns to national railroad. -
Marriage and children.
He met Mary Todd, a well-to-do Kentucky belle with many suitor. They got married in 1842. The Lincolns went on to have four children together, though only one would live into adulthood: Robert Todd Lincoln (1843–1926), Edward Baker Lincoln (1846–1850), William Wallace Lincoln (1850–1862) and Thomas Lincoln (1853-1871). -
Wining the house of Representatives.
Lincoln won election to the U.S. House of Representatives and began serving his term the following year. As a congressman, Lincoln was unpopular with many Illinois voters for his strong stance against the Mexican-American War. Promising not to seek reelection. -
Fighting against slavery.
Events conspired to push him back into national politics. Douglas a leading Democrat in Congress had pushed through the passage of the Kansas Nebraska Act which declared that the voters of each territory. Rather than the federal government had the right to decide whether the territory should be slave or free. Lincoln went before a crowd to debate the Kansas Nebraska Act denouncing slavery and calling the institution a violation of the most basic tenets of the Declaration of Independence. -
House dived
With the Whig Party in ruins, Lincoln joined the new Republican Party formed largely in opposition to slavery’s extension into the territories and ran for the Senate again that year . In June, Lincoln delivered his now-famous “house divided” speech, in which he quoted from the Gospels to illustrate his belief that “this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free.” -
Rising up.
Lincoln rose even higher, after he delivered another speech at New York City. That May, Republicans chose Lincoln as their candidate for president passing over Senator William H. Seward of New York and other powerful contenders in favor of Illinois lawyer with only one undistinguished congressional term under his belt. In the general election, Lincoln again faced Douglas. Lincoln won most of the North and carried the Electoral College to win the White House. -
Inaugurated to be president.
After years of sectional tensions, the election of an antislavery northerner as the 16th president of the United States drove many southerners over the brink. By the time Lincoln was inaugurated as 16th U.S. president. seven southern states had seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. -
After the battle
Shortly after the Battle of Antietam. Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation which took effect and freed all of the slaves in the rebellious states not under federal control but left those in the border states in bondage. Though Lincoln once maintained that his paramount object in this struggle to save the Union and is not to save or destroy slavery. He nonetheless came to regard emancipation as one of his greatest achievements and would argue for the passage of a constitutional. -
Preparing for a conflict.
Lincoln ordered a fleet of Union ships to supply the federal Fort Sumter in South Carolina in. The Confederates fired on both the fort and the Union fleet, beginning the Civil War. Hopes for a quick Union victory were dashed by defeat in the Battle of Bull Run (Manassas), and Lincoln called for 500,000 more troops as both sides prepared for a long conflict. -
Removed from command
General George McClellan, though beloved by his troops, continually frustrated Lincoln with his reluctance to advance, and when McClellan failed to pursue Robert E. Lee’s retreating Confederate Army in the aftermath of the Union victory at Antietam , Lincoln removed him from command.
During the war, Lincoln drew criticism for suspending some civil liberties, including the right of habeas corpus, but he considered such measures necessary to win the war. -
Brief speech.
Lincoln delivered a brief speech at the dedication ceremony for the new national cemetery at Gettysburg. Published widely, the Gettysburg Address eloquently expressed the war’s purpose, harking back to the Founding Fathers, the Declaration of Independence and the pursuit of human equality. -
Reelection.
Lincoln faced a tough reelection battle against the Democratic nominee, the former Union General George McClellan, but Union victories in battle (especially General William T. Sherman’s capture of Atlanta in September) swung many votes the president’s way. -
Second inaugural address.
In his second inaugural address, Lincoln addressed the need to reconstruct the South and rebuild the Union: “With malice toward none; with charity for all.” -
Assassination.
The actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth slipped into the president’s box at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., and shot him point-blank in the back of the head. Lincoln was carried across the street from the theater but he never regained consciousness, and died in the early morning hours of April
15, 1865.