Early life

In 1816 Thomas Lincoln moved his family across the Ohio River to the backwoods of southwestern Indiana. Young Abe helped his father build a log cabin, clear the fields, and take care of the crops. When Abe was 9 his mother died. After a year Thomas rode back to Kentucky and married a widow, Sarah Bush Johnston. He brought her and her three children to the log cabin in Indiana. Abe and his stepmother developed an enduring mutual affection.

Abe received little formal education, attending school for less than a year altogether. He made up for it by reading as much as he could.

Early career and marriage

In 1830 the Lincoln family moved to Illinois. Having just reached the age of 21, Abe settled on his own in the town of New Salem. He tried a variety of jobs, including rail-splitter, flatboatman, storekeeper, postmaster, and surveyor.

Finally Lincoln settled on law as an occupation and began to study law books on his own. In 1836 he received his law license and began to practice. The next year he moved to Springfield, Illinois, where he joined a law partnership. He went on to become one of the most distinguished and successful lawyers in Illinois.

In 1839 Lincoln met Mary Todd, a high-spirited and well-educated young woman from a prominent family. They married in 1842 and had four sons.

Political career

Meanwhile, in 1834, Lincoln had been elected to the Illinois legislature. He was reelected in 1836, 1838, and 1840. He eventually became a leader of the state Whig Party.

In 1847 Lincoln went to Washington, D.C., to serve in the United States House of Representatives. His term was not a great success, however. In 1849 he returned to Springfield and devoted himself to the law.

The issue of slavery brought Lincoln back to politics in 1854. He did not suggest interfering with slavery in states where it was already lawful. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, however, enabled the people of each new territory to vote on whether the territory would be slave or free, thus threatening to extend slavery. Lincoln gave a series of speeches protesting the act.

In 1856 Lincoln helped to organize the Illinois branch of the new Republican Party. This party was formed by people who wanted to stop the spread of slavery. Lincoln became the leading Republican in Illinois.

In 1858 Lincoln challenged the Democrat Stephen A. Douglas in an election for the United States Senate. Douglas, who was running for a third term, had supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The two candidates took part in a series of debates on the slavery issue. Douglas was reelected, but the debates had made Lincoln well known and respected.

Nomination and election

Realizing his new national fame, Lincoln sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1860. In the election that November, Lincoln received less than half the popular votes. The Democrats were divided, however, allowing Lincoln to win the presidency.

The Southern states feared that a Republican president would abolish slavery. They felt that secession—withdrawal from the Union—was their only hope. Secession began in December 1860 when South Carolina withdrew from the Union. By the time Lincoln took office in March 1861 six more Southern states had seceded. They organized a separate government—the Confederate States of America—with Jefferson Davis as president.

Civil war

In his inaugural address Lincoln assured the South that he would respect its rights. He also made an appeal for the Union to be held together. On April 12, 1861, however, the American Civil War began when Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter, a Union fort in South Carolina.

Lincoln's main goal during the war was to save the Union, but he also struggled with the issue of slavery. He believed that the slavery question must be settled if the United States were to survive as a nation. Therefore he worked out a plan to free the slaves.

On September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This famous decree promised freedom for slaves held in any of the Confederate states that did not return to the Union by the end of the year. The Confederate states paid no attention to this warning. Therefore, Lincoln signed the final proclamation on January 1, 1863. The remaining slaves in the United States were freed in 1865 by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

The war lasted for four years. It put a terrible strain on Lincoln, who had to make all the important decisions. Although he knew very little about warfare, he became an effective commander in chief for the Union forces.

In July 1863 the Union armies defeated the Confederate forces in a major battle at the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. On November 19, 1863, the battlefield was dedicated as a national cemetery. That day Lincoln delivered a speech known as the Gettysburg Address. Although less than three minutes long, it became one of the most famous speeches in United States history.

In November 1864 Lincoln was elected to a second term as president. When he gave his inaugural address on March 4, 1865, the end of the war was in sight. He looked forward to welcoming the Southern states back into the Union.

Victory and death

Little more than a month later, on April 9, 1865, Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate army to Union leader Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.To celebrate the end of the war, Lincoln took his wife and two guests to Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on the night of April 14. During the play John Wilkes Booth—a young actor and supporter of slavery—crept into the presidential box and shot Lincoln in the head.

The badly wounded president was carried to a boardinghouse across the street. He died the next morning. A funeral train carried the president's body back home to Springfield, Illinois, where he lies buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery.