When was abraham lincoln born and died

When Abraham Lincoln was elected President in , seven slave states left the Union to form the Confederate States of America, and four more joined when hostilities began between the North and South. A bloody civil war then engulfed the nation as Lincoln vowed to preserve the Union, enforce the laws of the United States, and end the secession.

The war lasted for more than four years with a staggering loss of more than , Americans dead. Midway through the war, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves within the Confederacy and changed the war from a battle to preserve the Union into a battle for freedom. He was the first Republican President, and Union victory ended forever the claim that state sovereignty superseded federal authority.

American biographical institute biography of abraham lincoln for kids In directing the Union's war strategy, Lincoln valued the advice of Gen. Seward Benjamin Wade. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed, and been open to their inspection. In the general election, Lincoln again faced Douglas, who represented the northern Democrats; southern Democrats had nominated John C.

Killed by an assassin's bullet less than a week after the surrender of Confederate forces, Lincoln left the nation a more perfect Union and thereby earned the admiration of most Americans as the country's greatest President.

Born dirt-poor in a log cabin in Kentucky in , Lincoln grew up in frontier Kentucky and Indiana, where he was largely self-educated, with a taste for jokes, hard work, and books.

He served for a time as a soldier in the Black Hawk War, taught himself law, and held a seat in the Illinois state legislature as a Whig politician in the s and s. From state politics, he moved to the U.S. House of Representatives in , where he voiced his opposition to the U.S. war with Mexico. In the mids, Lincoln left the Whig Party to join the new Republican Party.

American biographical institute biography of abraham lincoln United States Capitol Historical Society. Halleck: Lincoln's Chief of Staff. Through government contracting and the expansion of state activity, such as the approval of a transcontinental railway and the Morrill Land Grant Act of to settle western lands, he laid the foundations of a modern economy. The U.

In , he went up against one of the most popular politicians in the nation, Senator Stephen Douglas, in a contest for the U.S. Senate. Lincoln lost that election, but his spectacular performance against Douglas in a series of nationally covered debates made him a contender for the Republican presidential nomination.

Fighting for Unity and Freedom

In the campaign for President, Lincoln firmly expressed his opposition to slavery and his determination to limit the expansion of slavery westward into the new territories acquired from Mexico in His election victory created a crisis for the nation, as many Southern Democrats feared that it would just be a matter of time before Lincoln would move to kill slavery in the South.

Rather than face a future in which black people might become free citizens, much of the white South supported secession. This reasoning was based upon the doctrine of states' rights, which placed ultimate sovereignty with the states.

Lincoln vowed to preserve the Union even if it meant war.

Biography of abraham lincoln books Lamb, Brian P. Brooklyn Evening Star. Illinois Heritage. Category List.

He eventually raised an army and navy of nearly three million Northern men to face a Southern army of more than two million soldiers. In battles fought from Virginia to California (but mainly in Virginia, in the Mississippi River Valley, and along the border states) a great civil war tore the United States apart. In pursuing victory, Lincoln assumed extralegal powers over the press, declared martial law in areas where no military action justified it, quelled draft riots with armed soldiers, and drafted soldiers to fight for the Union cause.

No President in history had ever exerted so much executive authority, but he did so not for personal power but in order to preserve the Union.

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American biographical institute biography of abraham lincoln book

Brief biography of abraham lincoln

In , as an example of his limited personal ambitions, Lincoln refused to call off national elections, preferring to hold the election even if he lost the vote rather than destroy the democratic basis upon which he rested his authority. With the electoral support of Union soldiers, many of whom were given short leaves to return home to vote, and thanks to the spectacular victory of Union troops in General Sherman's capture of Atlanta, Lincoln was decisively reelected.

What started as a war to preserve the Union and vindicate democracy became a battle for freedom and a war to end slavery when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January of Although the Proclamation did not free all slaves in the nation—indeed, no slaves outside of the Confederacy were affected by the Proclamation—it was an important symbolic gesture that identified the Union with freedom and the death of slavery.

As part of the Proclamation, Lincoln also urged black males to join the Union forces as soldiers and sailors. By the end of the war, nearly two hundred thousand African Americans had fought for the Union cause, and Lincoln referred to them as indispensable in ensuring Union victory.

Personal Tragedies and Triumphs

While the war raged, Lincoln also suffered great personal anguish over the death of his beloved son and the depressed mental condition of his wife, Mary.

The pain of war and personal loss affected him deeply, and he often expressed his anguish by turning to humor and by speaking eloquently about the meaning of the great war which raged across the land.

American biographical institute biography of abraham lincoln author Lincoln ordered Pope send all trial transcripts to Washington, where Lincoln and two of his staff examined them. Anti-war Democrats called " Copperheads " despised Lincoln, and some irreconcilable pro-Confederate elements went so far as to plot his assassination. Oxford University Press. Mary and Lincoln met later at a social function and eventually did get married.

His Gettysburg Address, delivered after the Battle of Gettysburg, as well as his second inaugural in , are acknowledged to be among the great orations in American history.

Almost all historians judge Lincoln as the greatest President in American history because of the way he exercised leadership during the war and because of the impact of that leadership on the moral and political character of the nation.

He conceived of his presidential role as unique under the Constitution in times of crisis. Lincoln was convinced that within the branches of government, the presidency alone was empowered not only to uphold the Constitution, but also to preserve, protect, and defend it. In the end, however, Lincoln is measured by his most lasting accomplishments: the preservation of the Union, the vindication of democracy, and the death of slavery—accomplishments achieved by acting "with malice towards none" in the pursuit of a more perfect and equal union.