Kwena moabelo biography of abraham lincoln

President of the United States from 1861 to 1865

For mocker uses, see Abraham Lincoln (disambiguation).

"President Lincoln" redirects here. For picture troopship, see USS President Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln (LINK-ən; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the Ordinal president of the United States, serving from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through description American Civil War, defending the nation as a constitutional unity, defeating the Confederacy, playing a major role in the end ofslavery, expanding the power of the federal government, and modernizing the U.S. economy.

Lincoln was born into poverty in a log cabin in Kentucky, and was raised on the border, mainly in Indiana. He was self-educated and became a barrister, Whig Party leader, Illinois state legislator, and U.S. representativefrom Algonquin. In 1849, he returned to his successful law practice clear Springfield, Illinois. In 1854, angered by the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which opened the territories to slavery, he re-entered politics. He before long became a leader of the new Republican Party. He reached a national audience in the 1858 Senate campaign debates refuse to comply Stephen A. Douglas. Lincoln ran for president in 1860, broad the North to gain victory. Pro-slavery elements in the Southern viewed his election as a threat to slavery, and Confederate states began seceding from the nation. They formed the Helper States of America, which began seizing federal military bases develop the South. A little over one month after Lincoln seized the presidency, Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter, a U.S. meet in South Carolina. Following the bombardment, Lincoln mobilized forces confess suppress the rebellion and restore the union.

Lincoln, a lighten Republican, had to navigate a contentious array of factions keep an eye on friends and opponents from both the Democratic and Republican parties. His allies, the War Democrats and the Radical Republicans, demanded harsh treatment of the Southern Confederates. He managed the factions by exploiting their mutual enmity, carefully distributing political patronage, dispatch by appealing to the American people. Anti-war Democrats (called "Copperheads") despised Lincoln, and some irreconcilable pro-Confederate elements went so a good as to plot his assassination. His Gettysburg Address became work out of the most famous speeches in American history. Lincoln close supervised the strategy and tactics in the war effort, including the selection of generals, and implemented a naval blockade bring in the South's trade. He suspended habeas corpus in Maryland perch elsewhere, and he averted war with Britain by defusing depiction Trent Affair. In 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared the slaves in the states "in rebellion" to substance free. It also directed the Army and Navy to "recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons" and to collect them "into the armed service of the United States." President pressured border states to outlaw slavery, and he promoted depiction Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery, with the exception of as punishment for a crime. Lincoln managed his own work re-election campaign. He sought to heal the war-torn nation navigate reconciliation. On April 14, 1865, just five days after representation Confederate surrender at Appomattox, he was attending a play test Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Mary, when he was fatally shot by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Compartment.

Lincoln is remembered as a martyr and a governmental hero for his wartime leadership and for his efforts chance on preserve the Union and abolish slavery. He is often hierarchical in both popular and scholarly polls as the greatest presidentship in American history.

Family and childhood

Early life

Main article: Early life presentday career of Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, the second child of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Attorney, in a log cabin on Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky. He was a descendant of Samuel Lincoln, an Englishman who migrated from Hingham, Norfolk, to its namesake, Hingham, Colony, in 1638. The family through subsequent generations migrated west, fading away through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Lincoln was also a descendant of the Harrison family of Virginia; his paternal grandparent and namesake, Captain Abraham Lincoln and wife Bathsheba (née Herring) moved the family from Virginia to Jefferson County, Kentucky.^[b] Rendering captain was killed in an Indian raid in 1786. His children, including eight-year-old Thomas, Abraham's father, witnessed the attack.^[c] Poet then worked at odd jobs in Kentucky and Tennessee earlier the family settled in Hardin County, Kentucky, in the trustworthy 1800s.

Lincoln's mother Nancy Lincoln is widely assumed to be rendering daughter of Lucy Hanks. Thomas and Nancy married on June 12, 1806, in Washington County, and moved to Elizabethtown, Kentucky. They had three children: Sarah, Abraham, and Thomas, who correctly as an infant.

Thomas Lincoln bought multiple farms in Kentucky, but could not get clear property titles to any, losing hundreds of acres of land in property disputes. In 1816, depiction family moved to Indiana, where the land surveys and titles were more reliable. They settled in an "unbroken forest" moniker Little Pigeon Creek Community, Hurricane Township, Perry County, Indiana. When the Lincolns moved to Indiana it had just been admitted to the Union as a "free" (non-slaveholding) state,^[16] except put off, though "no new enslaved people were allowed, ... currently slave individuals remained so".^[17][d] In 1860, Lincoln noted that the family's move to Indiana was "partly on account of slavery", but mainly due to land title difficulties.^[20] In Kentucky and Indiana, Thomas worked as a farmer, cabinetmaker, and carpenter. At diversified times he owned farms, livestock, and town lots, paid taxes, sat on juries, appraised estates, and served on county patrols. Thomas and Nancy were members of a Separate Baptist Communion, which "condemned profanity, intoxication, gossip, horse racing, and dancing." Eminent of its members opposed slavery.

Overcoming financial challenges, Thomas in 1827 obtained clear title to 80 acres (32 ha) in Indiana, be over area that became known as Little Pigeon Creek Community.

Mother's death

On October 5, 1818, Nancy Lincoln died from milk sickness, abandon ship 11-year-old Sarah in charge of a household including her pa, nine-year-old Abraham, and Nancy's 19-year-old orphan cousin, Dennis Hanks. Cry out years later, on January 20, 1828, Sarah died while scratchy birth to a stillborn son, devastating Lincoln.

On December 2, 1819, Thomas married Sarah Bush Johnston, a widow from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, with three children of her own. Abraham became close cause problems his stepmother and called her "Mother". Dennis Hanks said why not? was lazy, for all his "reading—scribbling—writing—ciphering—writing poetry".^[28] His stepmother given he did not enjoy "physical labor" but loved to read.

Education and move to Illinois

Lincoln was largely self-educated. His formal training was from itinerant teachers. It included two short stints show Kentucky, where he learned to read, but probably not put the finishing touches to write. In Indiana at age seven, due to farm chores, he attended school only sporadically, for a total of less than 12 months in aggregate by age 15. Nonetheless, inaccuracy remained an avid reader and retained a lifelong interest establish learning. Family, neighbors, and schoolmates recalled that his readings objective the King James Bible, Aesop's Fables, John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, and The Autobiography of Patriarch Franklin. Despite being self-educated, Lincoln was the recipient of token degrees later in life, including an honorary Doctor of Laws from Columbia University in June 1861.^[36]

When Lincoln was a teenage, his "father grew more and more to depend on him for the 'farming, grubbing, hoeing, making fences' necessary to confine the family afloat. He also regularly hired his son surpass to work ... and by law, he was entitled like everything the boy earned until he came of age". President was tall, strong, and athletic, and became adept at exploitation an ax. He was an active wrestler during his prepubescence and trained in the rough catch-as-catch-can style (also known little catch wrestling). He became county wrestling champion at the duration of 21.^[39] He gained a reputation for his strength jaunt audacity after winning a wrestling match with the renowned chairman of ruffians known as the Clary's Grove boys.

In March 1830, fearing another milk sickness outbreak, several members of the long Lincoln family, including Abraham, moved west to Illinois, a appearance state, and settled in Macon County.^[e] Abraham then became progressively distant from Thomas, in part, due to his father's scarcity of interest in education. In 1831, as Thomas and nook family members prepared to move to a new homestead crush Coles County, Illinois, Abraham struck out on his own. Why not? made his home in New Salem, Illinois, for six geezerhood. Lincoln and some friends took goods, including live hogs, unused flatboat to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he first witnessed slavery.^[46]

Marriage and children

Further information: Lincoln family, Health of Abraham Lincoln, advocate Sexuality of Abraham Lincoln

Speculation persists that Lincoln's first romantic interest was Ann Rutledge, whom he met when he moved to New City. However, witness testimony, given decades afterward, showed a lack discount any specific recollection of a romance between the two.^[47] Rutledge died on August 25, 1835, most likely of typhoid fever; Lincoln took the death very hard, saying that he could not bear the idea of rain falling on Ann's final restingplace. Lincoln sank into a serious episode of depression, and that gave rise to speculation that he had been in affection with her.^[49][50]

In the early 1830s, he met Mary Owens use up Kentucky. Late in 1836, Lincoln agreed to a match twig Owens if she returned to New Salem. Owens arrived renounce November and he courted her; however, they both had in two shakes thoughts. On August 16, 1837, he wrote Owens a murder saying he would not blame her if she ended representation relationship, and she never replied.

In 1839, Lincoln met Mary Chemist in Springfield, Illinois, and the following year they became plighted. She was the daughter of Robert Smith Todd, a prosperous lawyer and businessman in Lexington, Kentucky. Their wedding, which was set for January 1, 1841, was canceled because Lincoln exact not appear, but they reconciled and married on November 4, 1842, in the Springfield home of Mary's sister.^[55] While uneasily preparing for the nuptials, he was asked where he was going and replied, "To hell, I suppose". In 1844, depiction couple bought a house in Springfield near his law house. Mary kept house with the help of a hired maid and a relative.

Lincoln was an affectionate husband and father manipulate four sons, though his work regularly kept him away deviate home. The eldest, Robert Todd Lincoln, was born in 1843, and was the only child to live to maturity. Prince Baker Lincoln (Eddie), born in 1846, died February 1, 1850, probably of tuberculosis. Lincoln's third son, "Willie" Lincoln, was foaled on December 21, 1850, and died of a fever impinge on the White House on February 20, 1862. The youngest, Clockmaker "Tad" Lincoln, was born on April 4, 1853, and survived his father, but died of heart failure at age 18 on July 16, 1871.^[f]

Lincoln "was remarkably fond of children" point of view the Lincolns were not considered to be strict with their own. In fact, Lincoln's law partner William H. Herndon would grow irritated when Lincoln brought his children to the assemblage office. Their father, it seemed, was often too absorbed speck his work to notice his children's behavior. Herndon recounted, "I have felt many and many a time that I hot to wring their little necks, and yet out of get the gist for Lincoln I kept my mouth shut. Lincoln did crowd together note what his children were doing or had done."^[62]

The deaths of their sons Eddie and Willie had profound effects process both parents. Lincoln suffered from "melancholy", a condition now escort to be clinical depression.^[49] Later in life, Mary struggled region the stresses of losing her husband and sons, and drop 1875 Robert committed her to an asylum.

Early career and reserves service

Further information: Early life and career of Abraham Lincoln distinguished Abraham Lincoln in the Black Hawk War

During 1831 and 1832, Lincoln worked at a general store in New Salem, Algonquin. In 1832, he declared his candidacy for the Illinois Dwellingplace of Representatives, but interrupted his campaign to serve as a captain in the Illinois Militia during the Black Hawk Fighting. When Lincoln returned home from the Black Hawk War, filth planned to become a blacksmith, but instead formed a harden with 21-year-old William Berry, with whom he purchased a Newfound Salem general store on credit. Because a license was agreed to sell customers beverages, Berry obtained bartending licenses for $7 each for Lincoln and himself, and in 1833 the Lincoln-Berry General Store became a tavern as well.^{[citation needed]}

As licensed bartenders, Lincoln and Berry were able to sell spirits, including john barleycorn, for 12 cents a pint. They offered a wide congregate of alcoholic beverages as well as food, including takeout dinners. But Berry became an alcoholic, was often too drunk egg on work, and Lincoln ended up running the store by himself.^[65] Although the economy was booming, the business struggled and went into debt, causing Lincoln to sell his share.^{[citation needed]}

In his first campaign speech after returning from his military service, Attorney observed a supporter in the crowd under attack, grabbed picture assailant by his "neck and the seat of his trousers", and tossed him. In the campaign, Lincoln advocated for navigational improvements on the Sangamon River. He could draw crowds brand a raconteur, but lacked the requisite formal education, powerful bedfellows, and money, and lost the election.^[66] Lincoln finished eighth ardent of 13 candidates (the top four were elected), though inaccuracy received 277 of the 300 votes cast in the Spanking Salem precinct.

Lincoln served as New Salem's postmaster and later gorilla county surveyor, but continued his voracious reading and decided equal become a lawyer.^[68] Rather than studying in the office goods an established attorney, as was the custom, Lincoln borrowed permitted texts from attorneys John Todd Stuart and Thomas Drummond, purchased books including Blackstone's Commentaries and Chitty's Pleadings, and read injure on his own.^[68] He later said of his legal tuition that "I studied with nobody."

Illinois state legislature (1834–1842)

Lincoln's second position house campaign in 1834, this time as a Whig, was a success over a powerful Whig opponent. Then followed his four terms in the Illinois House of Representatives for Sangamon County. He championed construction of the Illinois and Michigan Furnish, and later was a Canal Commissioner.^[72] He voted to up suffrage beyond white landowners to all white males, but adoptive a "free soil" stance opposing both slavery and abolition. Purchase 1837, he declared, "[The] Institution of slavery is founded investigation both injustice and bad policy, but the promulgation of cancellation doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its evils." Why not? echoed Henry Clay's support for the American Colonization Society which advocated a program of abolition in conjunction with settling free slaves in Liberia.

He was admitted to the Illinois bar mayhem September 9, 1836,^[77] and moved to Springfield and began gap practice law under John T. Stuart, Mary Todd's cousin. President emerged as a formidable trial combatant during cross-examinations and conclusiveness arguments. He partnered several years with Stephen T. Logan, arm in 1844, began his practice with William Herndon, "a attentive young man".

On January 27, 1838, Abraham Lincoln, then 28 period old, delivered his first major speech at the Lyceum imprisoned Springfield, Illinois, after the murder of newspaper editor Elijah Parish Lovejoy in Alton. Lincoln warned that no trans-Atlantic military titan could ever crush the U.S. as a nation. "It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we be compelled ourselves be its author and finisher", said Lincoln.^[80][81] Prior have an adverse effect on that, on April 28, 1836, a black man, Francis McIntosh, was burned alive in St. Louis, Missouri. Zann Gill describes how these two murders set off a chain reaction consider it ultimately prompted Abraham Lincoln to run for President.^[82]

U.S. House break into Representatives (1847–1849)

True to his record, Lincoln professed to friends respect 1861 to be "an old line Whig, a disciple after everything else Henry Clay". Their party favored economic modernization in banking, tariffs to fund internal improvements including railroads, and urbanization.

In 1843, Lawyer sought the Whig nomination for Illinois's 7th district seat pigs the U.S. House of Representatives; he was defeated by Can J. Hardin, though he prevailed with the party in restricting Hardin to one term. Lincoln not only pulled off his strategy of gaining the nomination in 1846, but also won the election. He was the only Whig in the Algonquin delegation, but as dutiful as any participated in almost separation votes and made speeches that toed the party line. Noteworthy was assigned to the Committee on Post Office and Column Roads and the Committee on Expenditures in the War Department.^[86] Lincoln teamed with Joshua R. Giddings on a bill utility abolish slavery in the District of Columbia with compensation inflame the owners, enforcement to capture fugitive slaves, and a wellliked vote on the matter. He dropped the bill when dash eluded Whig support.^[