Download Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States

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Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president
of the United States. He was president
during the Civil War.
Abe, as he was usually called, was
born in a log cabin near Hodgenville,
Kentucky, on February 12, 1809. He
was the second child, after his sister
Sarah, born to Tom and Nancy Hanks
Lincoln.
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The Lincoln’s were hardworking
pioneers. They moved frequently,
always looking for a better farm. When
Abe was seven, the Lincoln’s moved to
Indiana. They arrived just before
winter and put up a half-faced camp-
one that had three walls. The fourth
side, away from the wind, stood open.
On this side a fire burned all the
time during the cold winter. In the
spring, neighbors helped the Lincolns
build a more solid, four-sided log
cabin. One was had a row of pegs. Each
night, Abe climbed up these pegs to
his sleeping loft under the roof.
Abe and Sarah had to work on the farm,
so they usually could not go to
school. In fact, Lincoln later said he
had only a year’s schooling. But even
without school, Abe learned quickly.
He liked to read and would walk miles
to borrow books. He amazed neighbors
with how much he knew.
When Abe was eight, he was given an ax
and taught how to use it. For many
years, he used the ax to split logs
into rails for building houses and
fences.
Abe’s mother died when he was nine. A
year later, Abe’s father married Sarah
Bush Johnston, a widow with three
children. She was a loving mother to
the Lincoln children and encouraged
Abe in his learning. He grew strong
and tall. By the time Abe was 20, he
was 6 feet, 4 inches tall.
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When Abe turned 21, his
family moved again, this
time to Illinois. By now, he
was old enough to be on his
own. He decided to float a
flatboat down the
Mississippi River to New
Orleans. Months later, he
returned north to settle in
New Salem, Illinois. He
opened a story, but it
failed. Then he became a
surveyor, measuring plots of
land in the new state.
Lincoln thought of himself as “a piece
of floating driftwood” during this
time. But his honesty, friendliness
and storytelling mad him very popular
in New Salem. Lincoln thought he would
like to be in state government. The
first time he ran for the legislature,
he was not elected because he was not
well-known outside of New Salem. In
1834, he was elected to the Illinois
legislature. That same year, he began
borrowing law books and reading them
in his spare time. In two years, he
became a lawyer.
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In 1837, Lincoln moved to Springfield,
the new state capital. He practiced
law, and also met Mary Todd. They
married in 1842 and had four sons. But
only the oldest, Robert Todd Lincoln,
lived to adulthood.
Lincoln became a U.S. congressman in
1847. He served one term, then he
returned to his law practice in
Illinois. But the slavery issue caused
him to go back into politics in 1858.
He ran for the U.S. Senate, wanting to
stop the spread of slavery into new
states and territories. He and his
opponent, Senator Stephen A. Douglas,
debated each other seven times.
Douglas won the election, but Lincoln
gained national fame for his stand
against slavery.
Two years later, Lincoln ran for
president. Upset about Lincoln’s views
on slavery, the southern states
threatened to secede, withdraw, from
the United States if he was elected.
When Lincoln won the election, the
southern states left the Union and
formed the Confederate States of
America. The Civil War began in April
1861, a month after Lincoln became
president.
The war years were very hard
President Lincoln. People
blamed him when the North
lost battles. He was deeply
hurt by the great loss of
life on both sides. People
said his Kentucky-born wife
for
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favored the Confederate side. Lincoln
missed his son Willie, who died from
typhoid.
But Lincoln trusted that he was doing
the right thing. In January 1863, he
issued a document called the
Emancipation Proclamation. In it, he
declared that all slaves in the
Confederate States would be free. This
action helped end slavery in the
United States at the end of the Civil
War.
At a cemetery for soldiers killed at
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Lincoln made
a two-minute speech. This simple but
beautiful speech is remembered as the
Gettysburg Address.
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Listen to the Gettysburg Address
(http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speec
hes/getty)
Near the end of the war, Union
victories helped Lincoln win a second
term as president. He urged the North
to treat the South kindly and “bind up
the nation’s wounds”. The war ended on
April 9, 1865.
Five days later, Lincoln and his wife
went to see a play at Ford’s Theatre
in Washington, D.C. As they watched
from a balcony, a man named John
Wilkes Booth crept up behind them. He
shot Lincoln in the head Then he
leaped down onto the stage and ran
away.
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Lincoln died the next morning, April
15, 1865. A funeral train carried him
slowly home to Illinois. People stood
weeping by the railroad tracks the
whole way.
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National Geographics Video of Abraham
Lincoln
(http://video.nationalgeographic.com/v
ideo/player/kids/history-kids/abrahamlincoln-kids.html)
Lincoln Activities
Log Cabin Puzzle
Presidential Concentration Game
Online Word Search