Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865: A Bicentennial Guide 

Abraham Lincoln 
(12 Feb 1809 - 15 Apr. 1865)

Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States, was born in Hardin County, Kentucky, son of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks.  He later described his upbringing as "the simple annals of the poor.'  In 1816 the family moved to Indiana because of uncertainty over land titles in Kentucky and partly (legend has it) that the family was opposed to slavery.  In 1818 Lincoln's mother died from "milk sick"--i.e., as a result of drinking milk from cows that had ingested white snakeroot.

Lincoln's father remarried in 1819 to Sarah Bush Johnston.  His stepmother encouraged young Abraham in his efforts to educate and better himself, in contrast to his father, who had little appreciation for learning.  The family moved to Illinois in 1830, and Abraham settled in New Salem (near modern-day Petersburg, Illinois) on the banks of the Sangamon River in 1831.

In New Salem Lincoln engaged in a variety of professional pursuits:  laborer, (failed) storekeeper, postmaster, and surveyor.  He reapplied himself to improving his education and volunteered for a local militia that was sent to fight in the Black Hawk War of 1832 (although they saw no military action).   He began his political career with a campaign for the state legislature that same year, losing that election but succeeding two years later as a member of the Whig Party.  He ultimately was elected to five terms in the General Assembly and one term in the U.S. House of Representatives.  In the meantime he took up the study of law and obtained his law license in 1836.  The following year he moved to Springfield and began his law practice, over the years becoming one of the most successful lawyers in the state, equally at home in civil, criminal, federal, and state venues.

He married Mary Todd on November 4, 1842 after a rather troubled courtship.  Together they had four sons:  Robert, Edward, William, and Thomas (Tad) Lincoln.  He abandoned elected office after his single term in Congress, having lost support back in his district resulting from his opposition to the Mexican War.  He spent the next years building his prospering law practice.

The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 inspired Lincoln to re-enter politics.  He ran successfully for the legislature and promptly resigned to become a candidate (unsuccessfully) for the U.S. Senate.  In 1856 he helped to found the Republican Party, running (again unsuccessfully) for the party's Vice Presidential nomination that year.  Two years later he campaigned for the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois against the Democratic incumbent, Stephen A. Douglas.  Although Douglas prevailed, their debates during that campaign made Lincoln a national figure and contributed to Lincoln's election to the Presidency in 1860.

With the secession of South Carolina in December 1860 and the subsequent secession of  ten additional states, President Lincoln was confronted with a civil war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and had social, political, and economic consequences that resonated long beyond his administration down to the present day.  He confronted a wide range of issues touching on the relationship between states and the federal government as well as between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, the nature of individual rights during a time of war, and the appropriate balance between freedom and security.

He maintained throughout the course of the conflict that his central purpose was to preserve the Union.  This principle is evident both in his most famous act, the Emancipation Proclamation that declared slaves in the rebellious states to be free, and in his Gettysburg Address, in which he underscored his belief that the very fate of democracy itself was at stake in the outcome of the conflict.

Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865 by actor John Wilkes Booth.  He died the following morning, a mere month after declaring in his second inaugural address:  "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations."

He is buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois.

Source:  James M. McPherson. "Lincoln, Abraham"; http://www.anb.org/articles/04/04-00631.html; American National Biography Online Feb. 2000. Access Date: Wed Jan 28 10:25:37 CST 2009

Bookmarks from the Lincoln Illinois Bicentennial Commission