Life and history of America’s most loved President, Abraham Lincoln

A successful lawyer,statesman and republican and perhaps one of the greatest and most well loved leader world has ever seen, Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865.

Lincoln came from humble beginnings- he was born, the second child of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln  Hodgenville, Kentucky and raised in poverty . On October 5, 1818,a 9 year old Lincoln lost his mother Nancy to  milk sickness.Nancy left her 11 year old elder daughter in charge of Lincoln and their father and Dennis Hanks, her orphaned cousin.But in an unfortunate turn of events, ten years later, Sarah also passed away in pregnancy complications, devastating Lincoln.

With the exception of some schooling  by itinerant teachers here and there,By  the sheer power of  will self educated himself-Family, neighbors, and schoolmates recalled that his reading included the King James Bible, Aesop’s Fables, John Bunyan‘s The Pilgrim’s Progress, Daniel Defoe‘s Robinson Crusoe, and The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and went on to became a lawyer, Whig Party leader, Illinois state legislator, and U.S. Congressman from Illinois.

In 1842, Lincoln married Mary Todd, daughter of Robert Smith Todd- a lawyer and a wealthy businessman from Lexington,Kentucky.Together they had 4 sons-Robert,Edward,Willie and Tad.Unfortunately only Robert survived till maturity.Lincoln was known to be an affectionate husband and a loving father.He suffered pangs of clinical depression facing the grief on the loss of sons.Later, when Lincoln had also passed, seeing the dire condition of his mother, Robert admitted her to an asylum.

From 1832 Lincoln did many things- he started a failed general store with a friend, then entered politics running for the Illinois State Assembly in his first second state house campaign but since it wasn’t successful he captain in the Illinois Militia during the Black Hawk War.

In 1834 his second state house campaign was marker with success, this time as Whig Party member which was a political party active in the United States in the 19th century . He opposed both slavery and abolition. In 1837 he declared, “[The] Institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy, but the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its evils.”Lincoln further soared in politics by winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1846. However he  was unpopular with many Illinois voters for his strong stance against the Mexican-American War. Promising not to seek reelection, he returned to Springfield in 1849.

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was the least known of all of the contenders for the Republican Party’s nomination for president. and thus to overcome his disadvantage, Lincoln adopted an unobtrusive publicity campaign marked by his robust opposition to slavery.Lincoln’s reign as the President was dominated by the Civil War. The timely release of his published debates with Stephen A. Douglas and a carefully orchestrated speaking campaign in New York and parts of New England that made him significantly noticeable in the eyes of major Republican Party leaders, all worked to his advantage.

 Lincoln orchestrated a successful campaign for the 1860 Republican nomination for president and had made his opposition to slavery very clear.His victory was controversial and marked by a situation of crisis. Many southerners feared that he would attempt to abolish slavery in the South.A year later, war broke out.

Seven southern states left the Union to form the Confederate States of America, also known as the Confederacy and four more later joined the movement too. Lincoln vowed to preserve the Union and had once maintained that his “paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery,” Fighting broke out in April 1861. Lincoln always defined the Civil War as a struggle to save the Union. However in January 1863 he nonetheless issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in areas still under Confederate control.He regarded emancipation as one of his greatest achievements and an important symbolic gesture that identified Union’s struggle.

Lincoln’s had his mind towards winning the war and turning the tide of events.He suspended all the legal rights and assumed martial law-something which wasn’t done by any U.S. President in the past. After finally finding an effective general to lead the Union armies, Ulysses S Grant overall commander in 1864, two important victories emerged.First at at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and second at the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania.

On 19 November 1863, Lincoln delivered perhaps one of the most speeches in history, the Gettysburg Address. In just 272 words he had eloquently expressed the war’s purpose, harking back to the Founding Fathers, the Declaration of Independence and the pursuit of human equality at the dedication ceremony for the new national cemetery at Gettysburg

In 1864, Lincoln stood for re-election. He faced a tough reelection battle against the Democratic nominee, the former Union General George McClellan. However, he won, thanks to  Union victories in battle swung many votes. In his second inaugural address, he was conciliatory towards the southern states Lincoln addressed rebuild the Union: “With malice toward none; with charity for all.”

Lincoln was assassinated 5 days after the Confederate general Robert E Lee surrendered, effectively ending the war.He was shot in the back of the head on 14th April 1865 while he was at the Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. by John Wikes Booth.Booth was an actor and a firm supporter of the Confederacy.Lincoln never regained consciousness and was declared  dead the next day.