In 1829, Abraham made a flatboat trip to New Orleans. The next year, he and his family moved to West Illinois. In 1831, Abraham made another flatboat trip to New Orleans. Afterwards, he moved to New Salem Illinois and lived there until 1837. While he was living in New Salem Illinois, he worked at an operating store, surveying and serving as a post master. He was liked by all residents because of his character. He wrestled the town bully and earned the nickname “Honest Abe”. 6 4’ 180 lbs, Abraham ran for the Illinois legislature in 1832 and lost. He ran again in 1834, 1836, 1838, and 1840 and won all four times. He was a member of the Whig Party and remained a Whig until 1859 when he became a republican.
Lincoln studied to be a lawyer and became one on 1836. He married a girl named Ann Rutledge who was with Lincoln for eleven years. They had four children together; Robert (1843-1926), Edward (1846-1850), William (1853-1862), and Thomas (1853-1871). Lincoln became a great attorney and bought a house at the corner of Eighth and Jackson in 1844.
In 1846, Lincoln ran for the House of Representatives and won. While in Washington, he became famous for his fight against the Mexican War and Slavery. After his term in the House of Representatives, he returned home and continued his law practice. In Early 1851, Lincoln’s father died. His interest in politics renewed by the passage of The Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. He ran fir U.S senate and lost. In 1856, he got support from the Republican Vice- Presidential nomination. In 1856, he gave his “Lost Speech” and in 1857, he opposed the Dread Scott decision and gave his famous “House Divided” speech on June 16, 1858. Lincoln engaged in a series of debates with Stephen A. Douglas in 1858. Lincoln was against the spread of slavery into the new territories, but was not an abolitionist. Douglas won the senatorial race but was Lincoln who won the recognition of the nation. In 1860, he continued stealing the nation’s ears by his speech at the Cooper Institute in New York.
Lincoln won on the third ballot for The Republican Presidential nomination in 1860. On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected for the 16th president and Hannibal Hamlin was the Vice President. Lincoln defeated John C Breckinridge, John Bell and Douglas, In February of 1861, the Lincoln family left to Washington D.C. The President started wearing a beard because an eleven years old girl suggested it.
After Lincoln got elected, many southern states feared Republicans controlled the government and separated from the Union. Lincoln faced the greatest crisis of any U.S President. After Ft. Sumter fell, Lincoln raised an army and decided to go to war to save the Union from falling apart. Despite the big pressures, loss of lives, battle field setbacks, generals who were not ready to fight, and assassination threats, he wanted United States to stay United.
Lincoln stuck with his policy for four years of the Civil War. He put the Emancipation Proclamation into effect on January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation gave all slaves freedom from areas of Confederacy that are not under the union control. On November 19, 1863, Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address which dedicated the battlefield to the soldiers who died. He called on the living to finish the task of the dead had begun.
Lincoln’s policies included support for the Homestead Act. It allowed poor people in the East to obtain land in the West. Lincoln signed legislation called the National Banking Act. It established a national currency and provided for the creation of a network of national banks. He signed tariff legislation that offered protection to American Industry. Lincoln also signed a bill that chartered the first transcontinental railroad.
In 1864, Ulysses S. Grant got named General in Chief of the Armies of the United States and the south was slowly being worn down. Lincoln was re-elected for president and Andrew Johnson was the Vice president. Lincoln defeated George McClellan who was a democrat. General Robert E. Lee, who was the General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederacy, surrendered. Two days after, Lincoln addresses a crowd outside to White House. He spoke about supporting voting rights for certain blacks.
On April 14, 1865, the Lincolns went to a play called “Our American Cousin” at the Ford Theatre. At 10:15pm (during the play), John W. Booth (who is a racist Southern sympathizer who heard Lincoln speak in front of the White House, whom also hated everything about Lincoln) entered the State Box and shot Lincoln on the back of his head. Lincoln was carried across the street to the Peterson House. The next day, at 7:22am, Lincoln passed away. That was the first Presidential assassination in American history. HI assassination was the result of a deep hatred and division of the time. Lincoln’s body was taken to Springfield by train and buried in the Lincoln Tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery on May 4, 1865. Because of his death, Reconstruction took place without his presence 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.”
