Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a log cabin near Hodgenville, Kentucky, to Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. The family moved to Indiana in 1816 and later to Illinois. Lincoln had little formal education but was an avid reader. He worked as a rail-splitter, storekeeper, and postmaster before studying law. He became a lawyer in 1836 and served in the Illinois state legislature from 1834 to 1842 as a member of the Whig Party. He married Mary Todd in 1842, and they had four sons, though only one survived to adulthood. Lincoln served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives (1847–1849) and then returned to law practice. He opposed the Mexican-American War and the spread of slavery into new territories. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 reignited his political career, leading him to join the newly formed Republican Party. In 1858, he engaged in a series of famous debates with Stephen A. Douglas for a U.S. Senate seat, which he lost, but gained national attention. In 1860, Lincoln won the Republican nomination for president and defeated a divided Democratic Party, carrying the North and winning an electoral majority. His victory prompted Southern secession, and seven states formed the Confederacy before his inauguration. In his first inaugural address, Lincoln stated he had no intention of abolishing slavery where it existed but would preserve the Union. The Civil War began in April 1861 with the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter. Lincoln assumed extensive war powers, including suspending habeas corpus and blockading Southern ports. He appointed generals such as Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman and oversaw the Union war effort. The war increasingly focused on emancipation. On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring slaves in rebel states free. This shifted the war's purpose to ending slavery and allowed African Americans to serve in the Union Army. In 1863, Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of a cemetery, redefining the war as a struggle for national unity and equality. He was reelected in 1864, defeating former General George B. McClellan, which ensured the war would continue until Union victory and the end of slavery. Lincoln supported the Thirteenth Amendment, passed by Congress in January 1865 and ratified later that year, which permanently abolished slavery. After the Confederate surrender in April 1865, Lincoln advocated a lenient Reconstruction policy to reintegrate the South. On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln at Ford's Theatre; he died the next morning. Lincoln's assassination made him a martyr. His leadership preserved the Union, and his actions set the stage for emancipation and civil rights. He is consistently ranked among the greatest U.S. presidents.