Abraham Lincoln

Colorized portrait of Abraham Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and the sixteenth president of the United States. He served four consecutive terms as an Illinois state representative from 1834 to 1842. Lincoln served one term in the United States Congress; he was elected in 1846 but proved unpopular due to his opposition to the Mexican War. He ran for Senate twice, in 1855 and 1858, both times unsuccessfully. Lincoln was elected president in November 1860. His presidency took place during the American Civil War, which spanned almost the entirety of his first and second terms. He helped bring an end to slavery with the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation. The Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution, also instrumental in ending slavery, was passed under his presidency. Lincoln was reelected for a second term in November 1864. In April 1865, Lincoln was assassinated by actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth.

A replica of the Sinking Spring Farm cabin displayed in the Memorial Building at the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park.

Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, to parents Nancy and Thomas Lincoln. He was born in a one-room log cabin in Sinking Spring Farm in Hardin County, Kentucky (now known as LaRue County). He had an older sister named Sarah and a brother, Thomas, who died during infancy. When Lincoln was two, his family moved a short distance away to Knob Creek Farm. Five years later, in 1816, they moved to Indiana. In 1818, an outbreak of brucellosis, or milk sickness, occurred in the Pigeon Creek community where the Lincoln family was living. Lincoln's mother died of the outbreak in October 1818. Although his father soon remarried a widow with three children, eleven-year-old Sarah was left in charge of the domestic responsibilities after Nancy's death.

Lincoln attended school sporadically throughout his childhood, due to having to help with chores on the family farm. By the time he was fifteen, he had only received about one full year's worth of education. Although he lacked formal education, Lincoln was an avid reader and preferred learning over performing physical labor on the family's farm.

In March 1830, the Lincoln family moved to Illinois, where he got a job on a flatboat hauling freight on the Mississippi River to New Orleans. Soon after, he settled in the town of New Salem, where he worked as both a shopkeeper and a postmaster. In 1832, he briefly served as a soldier in the Black Hawk War.

Lincoln first embarked on politics in 1832 when he ran for the state legislature with the support of his neighbors. He lost but ran again in 1834 and won. His first term as an Illinois state representative began on December 1, 1834. He was reelected in 1836, 1838, and 1840, serving a total of four consecutive terms. Over the years he served, Lincoln became the leader of the Whig Party, the precursor to the modern-day Republican Party. His work as a representative included the relocation of the Illinois state capital from Vandalia to Springfield, which remains the capital today. Lincoln moved to Springfield in 1837, where he resided until he was elected president in 1861.

Lincoln met his future wife, Mary Todd, in Illinois in 1840, while serving in the Illinois House of Representatives. The two had a somewhat rocky courtship but eventually wed in November 1842. They went on to have four children together. Three of them died before age eighteen: Edward Baker Lincoln (1846–1850), William Wallace Lincoln (1850–1862), and Thomas “Tad” Lincoln (1853-1871). Their eldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln (1843–1926), would survive to adulthood and graduated from Harvard and serve under Ulysses S. Grant in the Civil War. He went on to serve as secretary of war under two presidents and a minister to England.

In addition to politics, Lincoln was educated in law. He received his license to practice in 1837 and opened a partnership with John Todd Stuart, a fellow state representative. Their firm was dissolved in 1841, and he opened a new one with Stephen T. Logan the same year. This firm was also dissolved in 1844, and Lincoln started a third firm, this time with William H. Herndon. In 1846, Lincoln ran for Congress and won. He served one term in the US House of Representatives, during which he lost support because he unpopularly opposed the Mexican War. After his term was over, Lincoln stepped away from politics to focus on running his law practice. Many of his cases were in regard to transportation, and he became a leading railroad attorney.

Lincoln got back into politics in 1854, when he ran again for the state legislature after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which let states determine whether they wanted to allow slavery. Lincoln was opposed to this act. He was elected but then refused the position out of a desire to run for Senate instead. He began running in January 1855 but eventually fell out of the race because he couldn't hold the majority vote. In June 1858, the newly formed Illinois Republican Party, which Lincoln helped create, nominated him as the party's candidate for senator, but again he lost the race.

After Lincoln lost the race for Senate in 1858, he traveled across the northern United States for sixteen months as a campaign speaker for multiple Republican political candidates. By doing this, he established his own network of supporters and campaign managers, whom he was able to use for running his presidential campaign. Lincoln's primary opponent for the Republican nomination was William H. Seward, a US Senator and the former governor of New York. On the third ballot, Lincoln received enough delegates to be handed the Republican nomination, and Senator Hannibal Hamlin was chosen as his running mate.

As the chosen Republican presidential nominee, Lincoln's primary opponent was now Democrat Stephen Douglas, to whom he had lost the 1858 Senate race. His other opponents included John C. Breckinridge of the Southern Democratic Party and John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party. Lincoln did not actively campaign after receiving the nomination, instead choosing to stay home and receive delegations who traveled to pay their respects. However, he had supporters that organized events and marches to help his campaign. Opponents of Lincoln criticized him for his limited experience in government, his manner of speaking, and his looks.

Lincoln was elected president on November 6, 1860. He was the first president of the newly formed Republican Party. He received about 40 percent of the popular vote, making him the first president to be elected with less than 50 percent of the popular vote. Lincoln's support came entirely from the North––he received the popular vote in every state but one and was not even listed on any Southern state ballot. He earned 180 votes from the Electoral College, the most by far of any other candidate.

Lincoln's election spurred multiple states in the South to secede from the United States due to his opposition to the practice of slavery. The state of South Carolina was the first to call a state convention in which its delegates voted to remove the state from the US. It was quickly followed by the states of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. These states, which were soon joined by Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina, made up what would soon be known as the Confederate States of America.

Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1861. On April 12, 1861, just over a month after his inauguration, the Civil War began with an attack on Fort Sumter. On April 15, Lincoln issued a proclamation calling the state militias––about 75,000 troops––to suppress the insurrection. He also called for an emergency Congress session to begin on July 4. US Senators began preparing for the session by assisting in war efforts. Lincoln's call for militias resulted in the secession of four additional states. By the end of 1861, multiple battles had taken place along a 1,700-mile span between Virginia and Missouri, including the First Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Ball's Bluff, and the Battle of Belmont. The battles, which continued until the end of the war in April 1865, saw more casualties as the years passed. Significant losses on both sides were observed in the Battle of Shiloh, the Battle of Seven Pines, the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Siege of Vicksburg, and the Battle of Gettysburg. Amidst the Civil War, Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act and the Morrill Land Act. He also established the United States Department of Agriculture.

One pivotal point of the Civil War occurred after the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862. The battle had some of the highest casualties of any battle in the war and resulted in the withdrawal of Confederate General Robert E. Lee to Virginia, making Union General George B. McClellan the victor. The victory allowed Lincoln to announce his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which he did on September 22, 1862. The Emancipation Proclamation, effective January 1, 1863, would free all enslaved people in Confederate states.

On February 25, 1863, Lincoln signed the National Currency Act, which created a national banking system for the US. After substantial amendments, it became known as the National Bank Act. It was partly developed out of a federal need to generate cash to fund the Civil War. On October 3, 1863, Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday.

Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863, in which he honored those killed in the Battle of Gettysburg, one of the most deadly battles of the Civil War. The speech was short and took only two minutes to deliver, but it has become one of the most notable and recognizable speeches in American history, especially the opening lines.

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives, that that nation might live."––Abraham Lincoln

On December 8, 1863, Lincoln introduced the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, or the ten percent plan, a preliminary plan for Reconstruction after the end of the Civil War. It offered a full pardon to anyone in a Confederate state who took an oath of loyalty to the Constitution and accepted the abolition of slavery and proposed that Confederate states be allowed to rejoin the Union if 10 percent of its voters took the oath. Some thought Lincoln's plan was too lenient, and other congressional Republicans drafted their own bill––the Wade-Davis Bill. This bill required that at least 50 percent of a state's white male population take the oath while also swearing they had never assisted the Confederacy. This bill was more popular among Congress, who passed it, but it was pocket vetoed by Lincoln. It was later passed after his assassination.

The Thirteenth Amendment, which called for the emancipation of all enslaved people with no compensation to their owners, was approved by the US House of Representatives on January 31, 1865. It had previously passed in the Senate in April 1864 but failed to get enough votes in the House at that time. Although not necessary, Lincoln signed the amendment before sending it to the states for ratification. He did not live long enough to see it put into practice. It wasn't until December 1865 that enough states had ratified the amendment to make it constitutionally binding.

The end of the Civil War came on April 9, 1865, with the Battle of Appomattox Court House, in which Confederate General Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. Lee chose to surrender after realizing his troops were greatly outnumbered; they were also lacking supplies and would soon have to turn to pillaging to survive. News of the surrender took weeks to travel throughout the country; an additional six small battles occurred in that time, the final of which ended on May 13, 1865.

On June 8, 1864, the National Union Party renominated Lincoln as that year's Republican presidential candidate, with Andrew Johnson as his running mate. The Democratic National Convention nominated George B. McClellan as the Democratic candidate on August 29, 1864. On November 8, 1864, Lincoln was reelected as president of the United States. He earned 55 percent of the popular vote and 212 electoral votes; McClellan received only twenty-one electoral votes. Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1865. He served less than six weeks of his second term before he was assassinated.

On April 14, 1865, Lincoln and his wife Mary attended a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. The couple sat in a private box above the stage with army officer Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris. At 10:15 p.m., John Wilkes Booth entered the box and, from behind, shot Lincoln in the back of the head with a .44-caliber single-shot derringer pistol. Rathbone then rushed at Booth, and Booth stabbed Rathbone in the shoulder before leaping onto the stage below and yelling, “Sic semper tyrannis,” meaning “Thus ever to tyrants.” The fall broke Booth's leg, but he managed to escape and leave the theater on horseback, though not before being recognized by some audience members.

Sketch of Lincoln's deathbed by medical illustrator Hermann Faber, who accompanied Surgeon General Joseph Barnes to the boardinghouse.

After hearing the gunshot and the ensuing scream of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, a doctor in the audience––Charles Leale––hurried to the box and found Lincoln slumped over in his seat and struggling to breathe. Soldiers carried him to a boardinghouse across the street to administer medical aid. Surgeon General Joseph Barnes soon arrived at the house and evaluated Lincoln's condition; he determined nothing could be done to save Lincoln, who was likely to die that night. At his bedside were Vice President Andrew Johnson, various members of his cabinet, and close friends. Mary Todd Lincoln was not at her husband's bedside but rather in an adjoining room to his, as she was overcome with grief, along with their son Robert.

On April 15, 1865, at 7:22 a.m., President Lincoln was pronounced dead. He was fifty-six. On April 18, his body was brought to the Capitol rotunda in preparation for his burial. On April 21, his remains were put on a train destined for Springfield, Illinois. His body was embalmed to preserve it for public viewing. The train stopped in ten cities along the way for viewings, attracting approximately one million people. Millions more lined up along the railroads on the route to pay their respects as the train passed. The three-week journey spanned 1,700 miles and passed through four hundred towns and cities. Also on the train was the body of Lincoln's son William, who died three years prior at age eleven from typhoid fever. His casket was being held in a Georgetown cemetery vault to be interred in Springfield at the end of Lincoln’s presidency. Lincoln and William were interred at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield on May 4, 1865. Mary Todd did not attend the funeral, nor was she present on the train to Springfield. She was overcome with grief for weeks after Lincoln's death.

After John Wilkes Booth escaped from Ford Theatre, he fled Washington D.C. and met up with an accomplice; the two headed for Maryland, all the while being pursued by Union soldiers. They eventually made it to a barn in Virginia, where they hid to avoid capture. On April 26, 1865, pursuing Union soldiers surrounded the barn and set fire to it in an attempt to force them out. Booth's accomplice, David Herold, came out, but Booth stayed inside. A soldier proceeded to shoot Booth in the neck, allegedly because Booth raised his gun at them. Booth was carried out of the building and died after three hours. Four of his conspirators, including Herold, were soon convicted for their roles in the assassination. They were executed by hanging on July 7, 1865.