Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional and political crisis. In so doing he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy. More
Reared in a poor family on the western frontier, Lincoln was a self-educated lawyer in Illinois, a Whig Party leader, state legislator during the 1830s, and a one-term member of the Congress during the 1840s. He promoted rapid modernization of the economy through banks, canals, railroads and tariffs to encourage the building of factories; he opposed the war with Mexico in 1846. After a series of highly publicized debates in 1858 during which he opposed the expansion of slavery, Lincoln lost the U.S. Senate race to his archrival, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas. Lincoln, a moderate from a swing state, secured the Republican Party presidential nomination in 1860. With almost no support in the South, Lincoln swept the North and was elected president in 1860. His election prompted seven southern slave states to form the Confederacy. No compromise or reconciliation was found regarding slavery.
Abraham Lincoln timeline
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Abraham Lincoln is Born
Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, to Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, two uneducated farmers, in a one-room log cabin on the 348-acre... Read more
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Lincoln's Family Relocates to Indiana
Abraham Lincoln spent 14 of his most formative years-from age 7 to 21-in Southern Indiana. Today, Indiana's Lincoln attractions include his boyhood... Read more
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Mother Nancy Hanks Lincoln Dies of Milk Sickness
Among the many obscure ailments that afflicted Midwestern pioneers, it is doubtful if one has been more shrouded in mystery than was milk sickness.... Read more
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Father Thomas Lincoln Remarries Widow Sarah Bush Johnston
Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln (December 13, 1788 - April 12, 1869) was the second wife of Thomas Lincoln and stepmother of President of the United... Read more
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Lincoln's Elder Sister Sarah Lincoln Dies during Childbirth
Sarah Lincoln Grigsby, sister of Abraham Lincoln, would never know her younger brother's success and fame, nor how he would be remembered. As a... Read more
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Lincoln Works on Cargo Flatboat Bound for New Orleans
When, in 1860, the Ship of State seemed like to run aground hopelessly, it was his determination and ingenuity that averted total wreck. As in his... Read more
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Lincoln Family Relocates to Illinois
Abraham Lincoln arrived with his family in the area in 1830 to settle a section of government land bisected by the river. The site, now Lincoln... Read more
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Lincoln Makes Second Flatboat Trip to New Orleans
In 1830 the Lincolns left Indiana for Illinois. Abraham made a second flatboat trip to New Orleans, and in 1831 he left home for New Salem, in... Read more
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Lincoln Separates from Family
In 1831, Abraham Lincoln was a young man of 22 when he and a couple of companions floated down the Sangamon River in a flatboat on their way to New... Read more
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Lincoln Becomes a Candidate for Illinois General Assembly
Lincoln began his political career in 1832 at age 23 with an unsuccessful campaign for the Illinois General Assembly as a member of the Whig Party.... Read more
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Lincoln Makes First Enlistment in the Black Hawk War
His first enlistment was as elected captain of a company in the 4th Regiment of Mounted Volunteers, of Gen. Samuel Whiteside's Brigade. Lincoln... Read more
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Lincoln Re-enlists in the Black Hawk War
Lincoln re-enlisted on the same day he mustered out of his old company, and was mustered in on May 29 as a private in Captain Elijah Ises' Company,... Read more
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Lincoln Enlists in Black Hawk War for a Third Time
Lincoln's third enlistment was as a private in Captain Jacob M. Early's "Spy Company." This unit mustered in approximately June 20, 1832, and... Read more
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Lincoln Becomes Postmaster of New Salem
Lincoln was appointed his postmaster's position by President Andrew Jackson, a Democrat, on May 7, 1833. In Lincoln's 1860 autobiography, he... Read more
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Lincoln Takes up Work as a Surveyor
‘In the fall of 1833 came Abraham Lincoln’s entry into the most highly technical and responsible work he had known. Writing of it later, he said,... Read more
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Lincoln is Elected to the Illinois State Legislature
In 1834, he won an election to the state legislature and, after coming across the Commentaries on the Laws of England, began to teach himself law Read more
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Lincoln is admitted to the Bar
Admitted to the bar in 1837, he moved to Springfield, Illinois that same year and began to practice law with John T. Stuart. With a reputation as... Read more
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Abraham Lincoln Weds Mary Todd
On November 4, 1842 Lincoln married Mary Todd, daughter of a prominent slave-owning family from Kentucky. The couple had four sons. Robert Todd... Read more
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Lincoln Elected to Congress as Whig Representative from Illinois
In 1846 Lincoln was elected to one term in the U.S. House of Representatives. A staunch Whig, Lincoln often referred to party leader Henry Clay as... Read more
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Lincoln Receives a Patent
As a young man, Abraham Lincoln took a boatload of merchandise down the Mississippi River from New Salem to New Orleans. At one point the boat slid... Read more
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Lincoln Represents the Alton & Sangamon Railroad
In 1851, he represented the Alton & Sangamon Railroad in a dispute with one of its shareholders, James A. Barret. Barret had refused to pay the... Read more
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Lincoln Delivers Peoria Speech
Speech on the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise Abraham Lincoln Speech at Peoria, Illinois October 16, 1854 The repeal of the Missouri... Read more
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Lincoln Uses Judicial Notice in the "Armstrong Case"
The Trial The acquittal represented a personal and professional triumph for Lincoln, who once rocked the defendant's cradle in New Salem.... Read more
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Abraham Lincoln Delivers the House Divided Speech
A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the... Read more
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Lincoln Loses First of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates on Slavery
August 21, 1858, was the day that Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas met in Ottawa, Illinois, in the first of the famous Lincoln-Douglas... Read more