Abraham Lincoln Presidancy

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in Hardin County, Kentucky. At the early age of 7 he and his family moved to Southern Indiana. When he was nine years old his mother passed, and he had to work to help support his family. He had very limited formal schooling because he was working, though he had very little education, he loved to read books and would borrow books from his neighbors.

At age 21, Lincoln and his family moved to southern Illinois. He settled in a town by the name of New Salem and found work as a shopkeeper.

In his early years in Illinois he began to develop an interest in politics, supporting the Whig party. In 1834 he won an election in the Illinois Legislature. Lincoln then studied law and was mostly self-taught, even passing the examination in the year 1836. In 1837 he again moved, this tome moving to Springfield Illinois. He spent a few years there working as an honest lawyer where we first hear the well-known nickname for him "Honest Abe. It was in this time period in which he met a woman by the name of Mary Todd, and they married in 1842.

In the year 1846 Lincoln was elected into the U.S House of Representatives but was rather disliked by the state of Illinois because he was not in favor of the war with Mexico, he decided not to seek reelection and headed back to Springfield in 1849. He didn't stay out of politics for long because of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. In October of 1854 He stood before a large crowd in Peoria to debate the Kansas-Nebraska Act with Stephen A. Douglas. Later Lincoln became a member of the Republican party due to his opposition to slavery. In 1858 he ran for senate delivering a multitude of speeches including the "house divided speech in which he exclaimed that there can't be a country in which was half pro-slavery and half anti-slavery. He lost the senate election but grew exponentially in popularity. In May of 1860 the Republicans chose Lincoln as their Presidential candidate. He faced off against three other candidates for the presidential position but had won the favor of the northern states leading to his victory in the presidential election. His election caused many southern states to secede because of his anti-slavery views.

After President Lincoln sent supplies to Union soldiers at Fort Sumter, the Civil War began. Most of the northerners including Lincoln believed that this would be a short and easy victory, they soon find out that they were gravely mistaken. If we fast forward to the Battle of Antietam, we see the Union come out victorious of that battle, but with a heavy toll and many casualties. Lincoln, exceedingly frustrated with General McClellan's performance, fires him. Throughout the war time period, Lincoln took a lot of criticism because of his suspension of civil liberties such as habeus corpus, Lincoln thought of such measures to be necessary to win the war.

On the first of January 1863 an early emancipation proclamation was put into effect, declaring all slaves in rebellious states free. In November of 1863 Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address. In 1864 Lincoln struggled in his campaign to be reelected but was able to do so and was to remain president for another four-year term. On March 4th Lincoln gave his 2nd inaugural address where he again expressed his desire to unify the country.

On April 9, 1865, The Civil War was ended and the Union, with the help and support of President Lincoln, was victorious and the country was to be reunited. Lincoln was unable to enjoy this victory for long because on April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth and went down as the first President in United States history to be assassinated. He regarded as one of the best Presidents in History.

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