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ABRAHAM LINCOLN

A CONCISE
HISTORY OF THE
GREATEST
PRESIDENT IN OUR
NATION’S HISTORY

BY ERIC J.
DEMICHELE
The Early Years
Born February 12th, 1809
 In a log cabin near Hodgenville, Kentucky
 Son of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln
 Moved to Indiana at age 7
 Mother dies in 1818 from milk sickness
 Father remarries to Sarah Bush Johnston


Lincoln loved to read
 Preferred reading to
working in the fields
 Led to difficult
relationship with his
father
 Borrowed books from
neighbors

The Lincolns moved again in 1830
 Illinois
 Lived in New Salem, Illinois until 1837
 Worked odd jobs – store clerk, surveying,
and postmaster
 Impressed residents with his character
 Earned nickname “Honest Abe”
Lincoln in Politics
Serving the State of Illinois
1832 – Lincoln unsuccessful in run for
Illinois legislature
 1834, 1836, 1838, 1840 – won these races
for Illinois legislature
 Member of the Whig party (remained a
Whig until 1856)
 Studied law in spare time, became lawyer in
1836

Lincoln and His Family

Met Mary Todd in
Springfield, IL in 1839
 Married her in 1842
 Next eleven years 4
children
 Robert, Edward,
William, and Thomas
Lincoln Goes to Washington
Congress
1846 – Lincoln elected to the House of
Representatives
 Opposed the Mexican War
 Opposed slavery
 After his term was over, he returned to
Illinois to practice law

Washington Cont’d

Made unsuccessful
attempt for seat in the
Senate in 1854
 1856 – received
support for Republican
Vice-Presidential
nomination
 Opposed the Dred
Scott decision
1858 – Engaged in a series of debates with
Stephen A. Douglas
 Lincoln was against the spread of slavery,
but was not an abolitionist
 Lost 1858 Senate race to Douglas, but
gained national recognition because of his
speeches
 Sought Republican Presidential nomination
in 1860 – Beats out William Seward
 Elected 16th President on Nov. 6th 1860

The Presidency

Trouble from the start
 Past Presidents leave a
mess
 Slavery Divides the
nation
 After Lincoln elected
– Southern States
secede from the union

Lincoln faced the greatest internal crisis of
any president in our country’s history- Civil
War
 Also faced – Enormous pressure, loss of
life, battlefield defeats, incompetent
generals, and assassination threats
 Lincoln’s number one goal was to “preserve
the Union”
 Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1st 1863
declared freedom for all slaves in the
Confederacy not under Union control
 Nov. 19th, 1863 gave Gettysburg Address –
Most famous speech
Presidency Cont’d
Homestead Act –
Domestic policy that
allowed poor people in the
East to obtain Land in the
West
 Signed tariff legislation to
protect American Industry
 Signed a bill that chartered
the first transcontinental
railroad.
 Foreign policy was to
prevent outside
intervention in the Civil
War

1864 – Ulysses S. Grant was named
general-in-chief of the armies of the U.S.
 1864 – Lincoln was re-elected with running
mate Andrew Johnson, defeating his former
general George McClellan
 1865 – April 9th, Robert E. Lee of the
Confederacy Surrenders to Grant at
Appomattox courthouse in Virginia

Lincoln Assassination

5 days after Lee
surrendered, Lincoln
shot by John Wilkes
Booth
 Ford’s Theatre
 Our American Cousin
 Booth killed and coconspirators found
guilty
Famous Lincoln Quotes

“A house divided against itself cannot stand. I
believe this government cannot endure
permanently half-slave and half-free. I do not
expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect
the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to
be divided. It will become all the one thing or all
the other.”

House Divided Speech in Springfield, IL 3-4-1858

“In giving freedom to the slave, we assure
freedom to the free – honorable alike in
what we give, and what we preserve. We
shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last
best hope of earth. Other means may
succeed; this could not fail. The way is
plain, peaceful, generous, just – a way
which, if followed, the world will forever
applaud, and God must forever bless.”

Second Annual Message to Congress, 12-11862

“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers
brought forth on this continent a new
nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to
the proposition that all men are created
equal.”

Gettysburg Address, 11-19-1863

“Whenever I hear one arguing for slavery I
feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him
personally.”

Speech to 114th Indiana Regiment, 3-171865

“The probability that we may fall in the
struggle ought not to deter us from the
support of a cause we believe to be just; it
shall not deter me.”

Speech on the Sub-Treasury, IL House of
Representatives 12-26-1839