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abraham lincoln
born:february 12,1809 in hodgenville,kentucky,united states
died:april 14,1865 in washington,dc,united states
occupation:president
source database:encyclopedia of world biography
table of contents
biographical essay|further readings
biographical essay
six**th president of the united states and president during the civil war,abraham lincoln(1809-1865)was immortalized by h** emancipation proc**tion,h** getty**urg address,and two outstanding inaugural addresses.
abraham lincoln was born on feb.12,1809,in a log cabin on a farm in hardin county,ky.h** father had come with h** parents from virginia and had grown to manhood on the kentucky frontier.he had evidently become moderately successful as a farmer and carpenter,for in 1803 he was able to pay £118 cash for a farm near elizabethtown.three years later he married nancy hanks,described as"intelligent,deeply religious,kindly,and affectionate,"but as"illiterate"as himself.of her family and background little authentic ** known.
lincoln's background
the young couple soon moved to the one-room cabin on nolin creek where their second child,abraham,was born.two years later the family moved to the farm on knob creek that abraham later remembered.there,when there was no pressing work to be done,abraham walked 2 miles to the schoolhouse,where he learned the rudiments of reading,writing,and arithmetic.
five years later the elder lincoln sold h** lands and carried h** family into the untracked wilderness of indiana across the ohio river.it was late fall,and there was time only to pull together a crude three-sided shelter of logs,brush,and le**es.the open side was protected by a blazing fire which had to be replen**hed at all times.the only water was nearly a mile away.for food the family depended almost entirely on game.
they began building a better home and clearing the land for planting.they were making progress when,in the summer of 1818,a dread d**ease known as milk sickness struck the region.first it carried off mrs.lincoln's uncle and aunt and then nancy hanks lincoln herself.on the shoulders of abraham's 12-year-old s**ter,sarah,fell the burden of caring for the household;the home was soon reduced to near squalor.
the next winter abraham's father returned to kentucky and brought back a second wife,sarah bush johnson,a widow with three children.abraham learned to love her and in later years referred to her as"my angel mother.
as time passed,the region where the lincolns lived grew in population,and james gentry's little store became a trading center around which the village of gentryville grew.there abraham spent much of h** spare time,early showing a marked talent for storytelling and mimicry.he grew tall and strong,and h** father often hired him out to work for nei**ors.through th** came the chance,with gentry's son allen,to take a flatboat of produce down the ohio and m**s**sippi rivers to new orleans-lincoln's first sight of anything other than frontier simplicity.
meanwhile lincoln's father had again moved h** family to a new home in illino**,where he built a cabin on the san**n river.th** was open prairie country,but the abundant trees along the streams supplied the rails to fence their fields.young lincoln,already skilled with h** ax,was soon splitting rails,not only for the lincoln farm but for others as well.
at the end of the first summer in illino** an attack of fever and ague put the lincolns again on the move.th** time it was to coles county.abraham,however,did not go along.he was now of independent age and had agreed with two friends to take a cargo of produce,belonging to one denton offutt,downriver to new orleans.offutt was so impressed with lincoln's abilities that he placed him in charge of the mill and store which he had establ**hed at new salem.
entering public life
th** was the turning point;the lincoln of h**tory began to emerge.to the store came people of all kinds to talk and trade and to enjoy the stories and rich human qualities stored up in th** unique man.the young ro**terers from clary's grove found him to be than a match for their champion wrestlers and became h** devoted followers.the members of the new salem debating society welcomed him;and when the black hawk war broke out,the volunteers of the region elected lincoln to be their captain.on h** return he announced himself as a candidate for the illino** leg**lature on a"henry clay-whig"platform of internal improvements,better educational facilities,and lower interest rates.he was not elected,but he did receive 277 of the 300 votes cast in the new salem precinct.
lincoln next formed a partnership with william berry and purchased one of the other stores in new salem.however,on the death of h** partner lincoln found himself responsible for a$1,100 debt.h** appointment as new salem postmaster and the chance to work as deputy surveyor of the country improved h** finances.he also was enabled to widen h** acquaintances and to win election to the state leg**lature in 1834.the skill with which lincoln conducted h** campaign so impressed john todd stuart,the whig leader of the county and an outstanding lawyer in springfield,that he took lincoln under h** care and inspired him to begin the study of law.
lincoln served four successive terms in the leg**lature and became floor leader of h** party in the lower house.meanwhile,he mastered the law books he could buy or borrow and in september 1836 passed the bar examinations and was admitted to practice.he played an important part in h**ing the state capital moved from vandalia to springfield,and in 1837 he moved there to become stuart's law partner.coming into a firm already well establ**hed,lincoln had a secure legal future.he not only practiced in springfield but rode the eighth circuit of some 160 miles through the san**n valley.he did not,however,neglect politics,and in 1846 he was elected to the u.s.congress.
in these years lincoln had become engaged to mary todd,a cultured and well-educated kentucky woman who was v**iting relatives in springfield.after a rather stormy courtship,they were married on november 2,1842.the part which mary played in lincoln's life ** still a matter of controversy.
national politics
lincoln's election to congress came just as the war with mexico began.like many whigs,he doubted the justice of the war,but since it was popular in illino** he kept quiet.
when congress convened in december 1847,lincoln,the only whig from illino**,voted for the wilmot prov**o whenever it came up.when william a.richardson,illino** democrat,presented resolutions declaring the war just and necessary and mexico the aggressor,lincoln countered with resolutions declaring that mexico,not the united states,had jur**diction over"the spot"where blood was first shed.these resolutions,together with one to abol**h sl**ery in the d**trict of columbia,brought sharp critic**m from the people back in illino**.lincoln was"not a patriot."he had not correctly represented h** state.although the whigs won the presidency in 1848,lincoln could not even control the patronage in h** own d**trict.h** political career seemed to be ended.h** only reward for party service was an offer of the governorship of far-off oregon,which he refused.he could only return to the practice of law.
war on the horizon
during the next 12 years,while lincoln rebuilt h** legal practice,the nation was drifting steadily toward sectional confrontation.victory in the mexican war,h**ing added vast western territory to the united states,had ra**ed anew the **sue of sl**ery in the territories.to southerners it involved the security and rights of sl**ery everywhere;to northerners it was a matter of morals and democratic obligations.tempers flared and the cr**** developed.only the frantic efforts of henry clay and daniel webster brought about the comprom**e of 1850 as a temporary truce.the basic **sues,however,were not eliminated.four years later stephen a.douglas,by h** bill to organize the kansas-nebraska territory according to"squatter sovereignty"and"with all questions pertaining to sl**ery.left to the dec**ion of the people,"reopened the whole bitter struggle.
douglas's bill,plus the repeal of the m**souri comprom**e,brought lincoln back into politics.he had always viewed sl**ery as a"moral,social and political wrong"and looked forward to its eventual abolition.although willing to let it alone for the present in the states where it ex**ted,he would not see it extended one inch.douglas's popular sovereignty doctrine,he thought,revealed an indifference to the moral **sue and ignored the growing northern determination to rid the nation of sl**ery.so when douglas returned to illino** to defend h** position,lincoln seized every opportunity to point out the weakness in it.
republican leader
lincoln's failure to receive the nomination as senator in 1855 convinced him that the whig party was dead,and by summer 1856 he became openly identified with the new republicans.at their state convention that year he delivered what many h**e considered h** greatest speech.it was an appeal aimed at welding all anti-nebraska men into a vigorous and successful party.thus,lincoln had made himself the outstanding leader of the new party.at the party's first national convention in philadelphia,he received 110 votes for vice president on the first ballot.though he was not chosen,he had been recognized as an important national figure.
violence in kansas and the supreme court dec**ion in the dred scott case soon centered national attention on illino**.there douglas,who had broken sharply with the new admin**tration over acceptance of the prosl**ery lecompton constitution,had returned to wage h** fight for reelection to the senate.it would be an uphill struggle,with the fate of the national democratic party in the balance.it would not be like earlier elections,for illino** had grown rapidly and the population majority had shifted from the southern part of the state to the central ...