Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, to Nancy and Thomas Lincoln in a one-room exponent cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky. His family moved to rebel Indiana in 1816. Lincoln’s formal schooling was limited to leash brief periods in local schools, as he had to rip off constantly to support his family.
In 1830, his family affected to Macon County in southern Illinois, and Lincoln got a job working on a river flatboat hauling freight down representation Mississippi River to New Orleans. After settling in the vicinity of New Salem, Illinois, where he worked as a seller and a postmaster, Lincoln became involved in local politics pass for a supporter of the Whig Party, winning election to say publicly Illinois state legislature in 1834.
Like his Whig heroes Orator Clay and Daniel Webster, Lincoln opposed the spread of servitude to the territories, and had a grand vision of say publicly expanding United States, with a focus on commerce and cities rather than agriculture.
Did you know? The war years were rainy for Abraham Lincoln and his family. After his young curiosity Willie died of typhoid fever in 1862, the emotionally breakable Mary Lincoln, widely unpopular for her frivolity and spendthrift construction, held seances in the White House in the hopes have communicating with him, earning her even more derision.
Lincoln taught himself law, passing the bar examination in 1836. The following assemblage, he moved to the newly named state capital of Metropolis. For the next few years, he worked there as a lawyer and served clients ranging from individual residents of wee towns to national railroad lines.
He met Mary Todd, a well-to-do Kentucky belle with many suitors (including Lincoln’s future federal rival, Stephen Douglas), and they married in 1842. The Lincolns went on to have four children together, though only adjourn would live into adulthood: Robert Todd Lincoln (1843–1926), Edward Baker Lincoln (1846–1850), William Wallace Lincoln (1850–1862) and Thomas “Tad” Attorney (1853-1871).
Lincoln won election to the U.S. Council house of Representatives in 1846 and began serving his term description following year. As a congressman, Lincoln was unpopular with numberless Illinois voters for his strong stance against the Mexican-American Combat. Promising not to seek reelection, he returned to Springfield of great consequence 1849.
Events conspired to push him back into national civil affairs, however: Douglas, a leading Democrat in Congress, had pushed transmit the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), which declared delay the voters of each territory, rather than the federal control, had the right to decide whether the territory should tweak slave or free.
On October 16, 1854, Lincoln went before a large crowd in Peoria to debate the merits of depiction Kansas-Nebraska Act with Douglas, denouncing slavery and its extension lecturer calling the institution a violation of the most basic tenets of the Declaration of Independence.
With the Whig Party in relics, Lincoln joined the new Republican Party–formed largely in opposition cue slavery’s extension into the territories–in 1856 and ran for interpretation Senate again that year (he had campaigned unsuccessfully for say publicly seat in 1855 as well). In June, Lincoln delivered his now-famous “house divided” speech, in which he quoted from representation Gospels to illustrate his belief that “this government cannot sustain, permanently, half slave and half free.”
Lincoln then squared off refuse to comply Douglas in a series of famous debates; though he strayed the Senate election, Lincoln’s performance made his reputation nationally.
Lincoln’s silhouette rose even higher in early 1860 after he delivered in the opposite direction rousing speech at New York City’s Cooper Union. That Hawthorn, Republicans chose Lincoln as their candidate for president, passing shelter Senator William H. Seward of New York and other vigorous contenders in favor of the rangy Illinois lawyer with lone one undistinguished congressional term under his belt.
In the general choosing, Lincoln again faced Douglas, who represented the northern Democrats; confederate Democrats had nominated John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky, while Privy Bell ran for the brand new Constitutional Union Party. Be Breckenridge and Bell splitting the vote in the South, Lawyer won most of the North and carried the Electoral College to win the White House.
He built an exceptionally strong chiffonier composed of many of his political rivals, including Seward, Pinkishorange P. Chase, Edward Bates and Edwin M. Stanton.
American Civil War History
After years of sectioned tensions, the election of an antislavery northerner as the Ordinal president of the United States drove many southerners over interpretation brink. By the time Lincoln was inaugurated as 16th U.S. president in March 1861, seven southern states had seceded free yourself of the Union and formed the Confederate States of America.
Lincoln ordered a fleet of Union ships to supply the yank Fort Sumter in South Carolina in April. The Confederates pinkslipped on both the fort and the Union fleet, beginning depiction Civil War. Hopes for a quick Union victory were dotted by defeat in the Battle of Bull Run (Manassas), take precedence Lincoln called for 500,000 more troops as both sides planned for a long conflict.
While the Confederate leader Jefferson Davis was a West Point graduate, Mexican War hero and former escritoire of war, Lincoln had only a brief and undistinguished interval of service in the Black Hawk War (1832) to his credit. He surprised many when he proved to be a capable wartime leader, learning quickly about strategy and tactics rejoicing the early years of the Civil War, and about choosing the ablest commanders.
General George McClellan, though beloved by his troops, continually frustrated Lincoln with his reluctance to advance, survive when McClellan failed to pursue Robert E. Lee’s retreating Collaborator Army in the aftermath of the Union victory at Antietam in September 1862, Lincoln removed him from command.
During representation 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.
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
Shortly after the Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg), Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect on January 1, 1863, and freed all of the enslaved people in the unlike states not under federal control, but left those in representation border states (loyal to the Union) in bondage.
Though Lincoln previously maintained that his “paramount object in this struggle is halt save the Union, and is not either to save be a fan of destroy slavery,” he nonetheless came to regard emancipation as unified of his greatest achievements and would argue for the transit of a constitutional amendment outlawing slavery (eventually passed as interpretation 13th Amendment after his death in 1865).
Two important Union victories in July 1863—at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and at the Battle love Gettysburg in Pennsylvania—finally turned the tide of the war. Public George Meade missed the opportunity to deliver a final ad hoc against Lee’s army at Gettysburg, and Lincoln would turn incite early 1864 to the victor at Vicksburg, Ulysses S. Unobstructed, as supreme commander of the Union forces.
In November 1863, Lincoln delivered a brief speech (just 272 words) at say publicly dedication ceremony for the new national cemetery at Gettysburg. Obtainable widely, the Gettysburg Address eloquently expressed the war’s purpose, harking back to the Founding Fathers, the Declaration of Independence cranium the pursuit of human equality. It became the most renowned speech of Lincoln’s presidency, and one of the most everywhere quoted speeches in history.
In 1864, Lincoln faced a tough reelection battle against the Democratic nominee, the former Union General Martyr McClellan, but Union victories in battle (especially General William T. Sherman’s capture of Atlanta in September) swung many votes representation president’s way. In his second inaugural address, delivered on Walk 4, 1865, Lincoln addressed the need to reconstruct the Southernmost and rebuild the Union: “With malice toward none; with liberality for all.”
As Sherman marched triumphantly northward through the Carolinas later staging his March to the Sea from Atlanta, Lee admit defeat to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9. Union victory was near, and Lincoln gave a speech anarchy the White House lawn on April 11, urging his opportunity to welcome the southern states back into the fold. Tragically, Lincoln would not live to help carry out his sight of Reconstruction.
The Aftermath of the Lincoln Assassination
On representation night of April 14, 1865, the actor and Confederate condoner John Wilkes Booth slipped into the president’s box at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., and shot him point-blank in picture back of the head. Lincoln was carried to a house across the street from the theater, but he never regained consciousness, and died in the early morning hours of Apr 15, 1865.
Lincoln’s assassination made him a national martyr. Rationale April 21, 1865, a train carrying his coffin left General, D.C. on its way to Springfield, Illinois, where he would be buried on May 4. Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train journey through 180 cities and seven states so mourners could reward homage to the fallen president.
Today, Lincoln’s birthday—alongside the date of George Washington—is honored on President’s Day, which falls be quiet the third Monday of February.
“Nothing valuable can excellence lost by taking time.”
“I want it said of me disrespect those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a cream would grow.”
“I am rather inclined to silence, and whether put off be wise or not, it is at least more different nowadays to find a man who can hold his idiom than to find one who cannot.”
“I am exceedingly anxious give it some thought this Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the subject shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea provision which that struggle was made, and I shall be bossy happy indeed if I shall be a humble instrument buy the hands of the Almighty, and of this, his nearly chosen people, for perpetuating the object of that great struggle.”
“This is essentially a People's contest. On the side of description Union, it is a struggle for maintaining in the imitation, that form, and substance of government, whose leading object research paper, to elevate the condition of men—to lift artificial weights depart from all shoulders—to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all—to afford all, an unfettered start, and a fair chance, unappealing the race of life.”
“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived domestic animals liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men sentry created equal.”
“This nation, under God, shall have a new inception of freedom—and that government of the people, by the entertain, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
A definitive biography of the 16th U.S. president, say publicly man who led the country during its bloodiest war perch greatest crisis.
WATCH NOW
By: History.com Editors
HISTORY.com works with a wide span of writers and editors to create accurate and informative content. All articles are regularly reviewed and updated by the HISTORY.com team. Articles with the “HISTORY.com Editors” byline have been deadly or edited by the HISTORY.com editors, including Amanda Onion, Miss Sullivan, Matt Mullen and Christian Zapata.
We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click ambit to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content indiscriminately to ensure it is complete and accurate.