AN OVERVIEW OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S LIFE
Abraham
Lincoln was born Sunday, February 12, 1809, in a log cabin
near Hodgenville, Kentucky. He was the son of Thomas and
Nancy Hanks Lincoln, and he was named for his paternal
grandfather. Thomas Lincoln was a carpenter and farmer.
Both of Abraham's parents were members of a Baptist
congregation which had separated from another church due to
opposition to slavery.
When Abraham was 7, the family moved to southern Indiana.
Abraham had gone to school briefly in Kentucky and did so
again in Indiana. He attended school with his older sister,
Sarah (his younger brother, Thomas, had died in infancy).
In 1818 Nancy Hanks Lincoln died from milk sickness, a
disease obtained from drinking the milk of cows which had
grazed on poisonous white snakeroot. Thomas Lincoln
remarried the next year, and Abraham loved his new
stepmother, Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln. She brought 3
children of her own into the household.
As Abraham grew up, he loved to read and preferred learning
to working in the fields. This led to a difficult
relationship with his father who was just the opposite.
Abraham was constantly borrowing books from the neighbors.
In 1828 Abraham's sister, who had married Aaron Grigsby in
1826, died during childbirth. Later in the year, Abraham
made a flatboat trip to New Orleans. In 1830 the Lincolns
moved west to Illinois.
The next year Lincoln made a second flatboat trip to New
Orleans. Afterwards he moved to New Salem, Illinois, where
he lived until 1837. While there he worked at several jobs
including operating a store, surveying, and serving as
postmaster. He impressed the residents with his character,
wrestled the town bully, and earned the nickname "Honest
Abe." Lincoln, who stood nearly 6-4 and weighed about 180
pounds, saw brief service in the Black Hawk War, and he
made an unsuccessful run for the Illinois legislature in
1832. He ran again in 1834, 1836, 1838, and 1840, and he
won all 4 times. (Lincoln was a member of the Whig Party;
he remained a Whig until 1856 when he became a Republican).
Additionally, he studied law in his spare time and became a
lawyer in 1836. Stories that Lincoln had a romance with a
pretty girl named Ann Rutledge may well be true. Sadly, Ann
died in 1835.
In Springfield in 1839 Lincoln met Mary Todd. Three years
later they were married and over the next 11 years had 4
children: Robert (1843-1926), Edward ("Eddie") 1846-1850,
William ("Willie") 1850-1862, and Thomas ("Tad") 1853-1871.
Lincoln became a successful attorney, and the family bought
a home at the corner of Eighth and Jackson in 1844.
In 1846 Lincoln ran for the United States House of
Representatives and won. While in Washington he became
known for his opposition to the Mexican War and to slavery.
He returned home after his term and resumed his law
practice more seriously than ever. Early in 1851 Lincoln's
father died.
Lincoln's declining interest in politics was renewed by the
passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. He made an
unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate but received some
support for the Republican Vice-Presidential nomination in
1856. Also in 1856 Lincoln gave his Lost Speech. He opposed
the Dred Scott decision in 1857 and gave his famous "House
Divided" Speech on June 16, 1858. Additionally, he engaged
in a series of debates with Stephen A. Douglas in 1858.
Lincoln was against the spread of slavery into the
territories but was not an abolitionist. Douglas won the
Senatorial race, but Lincoln gained national recognition.
In 1860 he furthered his national reputation with a
successful speech at the Cooper Institute in New York.
Although William Seward was the pre-convention favorite for
the Republican Presidential nomination in 1860, Lincoln won
on the 3rd ballot. With Hannibal Hamlin as his running
mate, Lincoln was elected the 16th President on November 6,
1860, defeating Douglas, John Bell, and John C.
Breckinridge.
In February of 1861 the Lincolns left by train for
Washington, D.C. The President-elect was now wearing a
beard at the suggestion of an 11 year old girl. Lincoln was
sworn in on March 4.
After Lincoln's election, many Southern states, fearing
Republican control in the government, seceded from the
Union. Lincoln faced the greatest internal crisis of any
U.S. President. After the fall of Ft. Sumter, Lincoln
raised an army and decided to fight to save the Union from
falling apart. Initially Lincoln anticipated a short
conflict; he called for 75,000 volunteers to serve for
three months. Despite enormous pressures, loss of life,
battlefield setbacks, generals who weren't ready to fight,
assassination threats, etc., Lincoln stuck with this
pro-Union policy for 4 long years of Civil War. On January
1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect.
This was Lincoln's declaration of freedom for all slaves in
the areas of the Confederacy not under Union control. Also,
on November 19, 1863, Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg
Address which dedicated the battlefield there to the
soldiers who had perished. He called on the living to
finish the task the dead soldiers had begun.
Lincoln's domestic policies included support for the
Homestead Act. This act allowed poor people in the East to
obtain land in the West. Also, Lincoln signed legislation
entitled the National Banking Act which established a
national currency and provided for the creation of a
network of national banks. In addition, he signed tariff
legislation that offered protection to American industry
and signed a bill that chartered the first transcontinental
railroad. Lincoln's foreign policy was geared toward
preventing foreign intervention in the Civil War.
In 1864 Ulysses S. Grant was named general-in-chief of the
armies of the United States. The South was slowly being
worn down. Lincoln was re-elected as President with Andrew
Johnson as his running mate. Lincoln defeated the Democrat
George McClellan on November 8, 1864. On April 9, 1865,
General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant. Two days later
Lincoln addressed a crowd outside the White House. Among
other things, he suggested he would support voting rights
for certain blacks. This infuriated a racist and Southern
sympathizer who was in the audience: the actor John Wilkes
Booth who hated everything the President stood for.
On Good Friday, April 14, 1865, the Lincolns attended a
play entitled Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre. During
the performance Booth arrived at the theatre, entered the
State Box from the rear, and shot the President in the back
of his head at about 10:15 P.M. Lincoln was carried across
the street to the Petersen House where he passed away the
next day at 7:22 A.M. This was the first Presidential
assassination in American history, and the nation mourned
its leader. His death was the result of the deep divisions
and hatreds of the times. Lincoln's body was taken to
Springfield by train, and he was buried in the Lincoln Tomb
in Oak Ridge Cemetery on May 4, 1865. Because of the
assassination, Reconstruction took place without Lincoln's
guidance and leadership.
Abraham Lincoln is remembered for his vital role as the
leader in preserving the Union during the Civil War and
beginning the process that led to the end of slavery in the
United States. He is also remembered for his character, his
speeches and letters, and as a man of humble origins whose
determination and perseverance led him to the nation's
highest office.