Due to the recent occurrence of President’s Day a couple of days ago, I thought it would be appropriate to offer a biographical overview of arguably one of the greatest Americans in history. By no means was Abraham Lincoln perfect. He made some controversial decisions. He was great because he led the nation through the darkest period in history.
Lincoln was born in rural Kentucky in 1809 to Thomas and Nancy Lincoln. When he was about nine, his mother died. Abraham and his family settled in Illinois in 1830. It was soon after the move to Illinois when Abraham left for a business trip down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. He witnessed slavery firsthand for the first time here. It disgusted him. In 1840, Lincoln met Mary Todd and two years later they were married in Springfield, Illinois. Between 1843 and 1850 Abraham and Mary Todd had three sons. Sadly, only one would survive to adulthood.
Lincoln joined the Illinois army in 1832 during a war between settlers and Black Hawk Native Americans. The “Black Hawk War”, fought in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin was short-lived and Lincoln hardly saw any fighting. He was elected to the United States Congress in 1846. His views on slavery were strong. He believed that slavery was a moral evil and he supported the colonization of the West African coast with freed slaves. (Random note: this colonization program resulted in the creation of the nation of Liberia.)
In 1860, Lincoln ran for the office of the President. He was opposed by three other candidates. John Bell, a Tennessee moderate was quiet on the issue of slavery. John Breckinridge ran with the support of the Southern Democrats and was a strong supporter of slavery. Stephen Douglass ran for the Northern Democrats and he supported “popular sovereignty”. Popular sovereignty encouraged states to decide their policy on slavery based on popular votes where the voters voted directly on the issue. Lincoln won the election despite not carrying a single Southern state. The South was outraged and beginning with South Carolina, started to secede from the Union.
Until Lincoln’s inauguration in early 1861, James Buchanan did nothing to stop the Southern states from seceding. Upon his inauguration, Lincoln called up volunteers to defend the Union. This caused North Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee and Virginia to secede. The Civil War had practically begun.
During the Civil War, Lincoln made many decisions. Some of them were well respected and others were controversial. For example, Lincoln suspended the Writ of Habeus Corpus during the war. This enabled the government to imprison people without a trial. Lincoln also abolished slavery in the United States by establishing the Emancipation Proclamation. His most famous speech was the Gettysburg Address which he gave to an audience at Gettysburg a couple of months after the momentous battle fought there. That speech is possibly the most famous in American history, perhaps even World history.
Lincoln did not live to see the Union reunited. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth in Ford’s Theater in the waning days of the Civil War. The entire country mourned for the dead leader. He was one of the greatest leaders that the United States has seen in its history. He was the first modern President. In addition to leading the country through the darkest period in its history, he also expanding the economy and encouraged the settlement of Western lands.
Here are some quotes from Abraham Lincoln.
“Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”
“Nearly all men can stand adversity. If you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
“A house divided cannot stand.”