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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 one thing or all the other.
― Lincoln's 'House-Divided' Speech in Springfield, Illinois, June 16, 1858.
Four score 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. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
― Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863.
It is also unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not given to the colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers.
― Lincoln expressing his support for black suffrage, April 11, 1865.
Abraham Lincoln (February 12th, 1809 - April 15th, 1865) was the 16th President of the United States. He was brought up in Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. His parents were poor pioneers and Lincoln was largely self-educated. In 1836, he qualified as a lawyer and went to work in a law practice in Springfield, Illinois. He sat in the state legislature from 1834 to 1842 and in 1846 was elected to Congress, representing the Whig Party for a term. In 1856, he joined the new Republican Party and in 1860 he was asked to run as their presidential candidate. In the presidential campaign, Lincoln made his opposition to slavery very clear. His victory provoked a crisis, with many southerners fearing that he would attempt to abolish slavery in the South. Seven southern states left the Union to form the Confederate States of America, also known as the Confederacy. Four more joined later. Lincoln vowed to preserve the Union even if it meant war.
Fighting broke out in April 1861. Lincoln always defined the Civil War as a struggle to save the Union, but in January 1863 he nonetheless issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in areas still under Confederate control. This was an important symbolic gesture that identified the Union's struggle as a war to end slavery. In the effort to win the war, Lincoln assumed more power than any president before him, declaring martial law and suspending the writ of Habeas corpus.
He had difficulty finding effective generals to lead the Union armies until the appointment of Ulysses S. Grant as overall commander in 1864. On 19 November 1863, Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address at the dedication of a cemetery at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg, a decisive Union victory that had taken place earlier in the year. In 1864, Lincoln stood for re-election and won. In his second inaugural address, he was conciliatory towards the southern states.
Five days after the surrender of Confederate commanding General Robert E. Lee, Lincoln was shot while watching the play Our American Cousin with his wife Mary Todd Lincoln at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. and he passed away the next morning. Two weeks after his assassination, his assassin, John Wilkes Booth was caught in a tobacco barn by Union troops, but he was murdered by a British immigrant-Union corporal Boston Corbett.
Biography
Birth and Early Life
Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in a log cabin near Hodgenville, Kentucky. He was the son of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, and he was named for his paternal grandfather. Thomas Lincoln was a carpenter and farmer. Both of Abraham's parents were members of a Baptist congregation which had separated from another church due to opposition to slavery. He was a descendant of Englishman Samuel Lincoln, who was from Hinghham, Norfolk.
When Abraham was seven, the family moved to southern Indiana. Abraham had gone to school briefly in Kentucky and did so again in Indiana. He attended school with his older sister, Sarah (his younger brother, Thomas, had died in infancy). In 1818, Nancy Hanks Lincoln died from milk sickness, a disease obtained from drinking the milk of cows which had grazed on poisonous white snake-root. Thomas Lincoln remarried the next year, and Abraham loved his new stepmother, Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln. She brought three children of her own into the household. Abraham attended school at irregular intervals. In all he spent less than 12 months going to school, and he didn't attend college at all.
As Abraham grew up, he loved to read and preferred learning to working in the fields. This led to a difficult relationship with his father who was just the opposite. Abraham was constantly borrowing books from the neighbors.
In 1828, Abraham's sister, who had married Aaron Grigsby in 1826, died during childbirth. Later in the year, Abraham made a flatboat trip to New Orleans. In 1830, the Lincolns moved west to Illinois.
The next year Lincoln made a second flatboat trip to New Orleans. Afterwards he moved to New Salem, Illinois, where he lived until 1837. While there he worked at several jobs including operating a store, surveying, and serving as postmaster. He impressed the residents with his character, wrestled the town bully, and earned the nickname "Honest Abe." Lincoln, who stood nearly 6-4 and weighed about 180 pounds, saw brief service in the Black Hawk War, and he made an unsuccessful run for the Illinois legislature in 1832. He ran again in 1834, 1836, 1838, and 1840, and he won all four times. Lincoln was a member of the Whig Party; he remained a Whig until 1856 when he became a Republican. Additionally, he studied law in his spare time and became a lawyer in 1836. Stories that Lincoln had a romance with a pretty girl named Ann Rutledge may well be true. Sadly, Ann died in 1835.
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Marriage & Children
In Springfield in 1839, Lincoln met Mary Todd. Three years later they were married and over the next 11 years had four children: Robert (1843-1926), Edward ("Eddie") 1846-1850, William ("Willie") 1850-1862, and Thomas ("Tad") 1853-1871. Lincoln became a successful attorney, and the family bought a home at the corner of Eighth and Jackson in 1844.
Career in Congress and Presidency
In 1846, Lincoln ran for the United States House of Representatives and won. While in Washington he became known for his opposition to the Mexican War and to slavery. He returned home after his term and resumed his law practice more seriously than ever. Early in 1851, Lincoln's father died. He defeated James Buchanan's vice president for the 1860 election, John Breckinridge.
Heroism
- Before becoming president, he opposed the Dred Scott Decision that James Buchanan had infamously blackmailed the Supreme Court in ruling this case, as well as condemning him and Franklin Pierce for their part in expanding slavery and helping to divide this nation.
- He help modernize and improve the economy by signing the National Currency Act that established the Office of Comptroller of Currency and sign the first Income Tax to help ease burden of debts during the war.
- He help reunite the Union with his successful leadership during the Civil War.
- He managed to subvert his negative view regarding the enslaved by signing the Emancipation Proclamation that help free the slaves in the rebelled states.
- This law also prevented France and England from interfering with the Confederacy.
- He gave out famous speeches such as the Gettysburg Address and warn everyone that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth".
- He signed the Homestead Act, which gave any homeless citizens home and improve their land.
- He founded the National Academy of Sciences.
- He signed a proclamation that allowed West Virginia to join the United States.
- While it may not be a good move, he signed the First Confiscation Act that approved the government to seize the property of those who were directly involved in the rebellion.
- He made Thanksgiving Day a national holiday.
- On the day of his own assassination on April 14, 1865, he signed the Secret Service Act to ensure the safety of a president, vice president, families, etc.
- After firing George B. McClellan for his incompetence, Lincoln rightfully appointed General Ulysses S. Grant to help the North win the Civil War.
- He created the Department of Agriculture to help farmers in difficult times.
- He signed the Morrill Land Grant College Act, which was to help each senator and representative to distribute and further start building agricultural and mechanical schools.
- He planned to foster forgiveness between the North and South in order for both states to set aside their differences so they can peacefully rebuild America, although his assassination destroyed this plan for a better Reconstruction.
- He successfully did everything he can to help Congress to pass the Thirteenth Amendment, which would ban the institution of slavery.
- On April 11, 1865, he expressed his support in black suffrage and considered to give newly freed slaves the right to vote.
- Though no action, he was the first president to consider women having their own rights.
Last Days, Assassination, and Aftermath
On April 9, 1865, the Confederate General Robert E Lee surrendered, marking the beginning of the end of the war. The war had lasted for more than four years and more than 600,000 Americans had died.
Two days after Lee's army surrendered to Grant, Lincoln gave a speech in which he promoted voting rights for blacks, enraging John Wilkes Booth, the Confederate actor who had many failed attempts to kidnap Lincoln during the war. Booth told his henchmen that “This will be the last speech he will ever give”.President Lincoln awoke the morning of April 14 in a pleasant mood. Robert E. Lee had surrendered several days before to Ulysses Grant, and now the President was awaiting word from North Carolina on the surrender of Joseph E. Johnston. The morning papers carried the announcement that the President and his wife would be attending the comedy, Our American Cousin, at Ford's Theater that evening with General Grant and his wife. Even John Wilkes Booth learned about the news when he was picking up his mail at Ford's Theater, while Lincoln was holding up a meeting with General Grant and the cabinet members.
At 11 o'clock that morning, Lincoln held a meeting with Grant and the Cabinet. Following the conference, Grant gave his regrets that he and his wife could no longer attend the play that evening. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton pleaded with the President not to go out at night, fearful that some rebel might try to shoot him in the street. At lunch, the President told his wife the news about the Grant's before having his quick meeting with his Vice President, Andrew Johnson. After going out on an afternoon carriage ride to the Washington Navy Yard, the Lincolns nonetheless decided to maintain their announced plans and asked Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée, Clara Harris, to join them instead.
After having dinner with Mary and their two sons, Robert and Tad, Lincoln was in a last meeting with members of Congress until 8 P.M. when he told them that “I suppose it’s time to go, though I would rather stay.” before escorting Mary to the carriage.
After picking up Miss Harris and Major Rathbone, they arrived late to the play of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater at 8:30 P.M. The two couples swept up the stairs and into their seats. The box door was closed, but not locked. One hour later and before intermission, Officer John Parker left his post in the hallway leading to the box and went to a saloon next door for a drink with Lincoln's valet and coach driver, where John Wilkes Booth waited his time by having a few drinks to prepare himself for his evil deed. During the third act, the President and Mrs. Lincoln drew closer together, holding hands while enjoying the play. His last words were, "She won't think anything about it." while responding to Mary, who asked him of Clara Harris' reaction to the two holding their hands together. Meanwhile, Booth re-entered Ford’s Theater through the front door at about 10:10 P.M. and slowly made his way to the unguarded box, where he waited until 10:15 P.M. when Actor Harry Hawk (playing Asa Trenchard) said his now infamous line, "Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal — you sockdologizing old man-trap." Lincoln was laughing at this line when he was shot by Booth during the play’s funniest line. Lincoln immediately lost consciousness and slumped forward in his rocking chair. Katherine M. Evans, a young actress in the play, who was offstage in Ford's green room when Lincoln was shot, rushed on the stage after Booth's exit, and said; "I looked and saw President Lincoln unconscious, his head dropping on his breast, his eyes closed, but with a smile still on his face". After stabbing Rathbone in his left arm, Booth landed awkwardly on the stage, where he reportedly proclaimed the Virginia state motto. He quickly escaped from the theater and within a half hour later, he escaped from the city to the Maryland countryside on horseback, using the Navy Yard Bridge before joining David Herold in their escape.
In the aftermath of the shooting, a 23-year-old army surgeon named Charles Leale and two other doctors went to the box and started to attend him of his condition, breathing, and head wounds. After allowing Actress Laura Keane to cradle Lincoln’s head, Dr. Leale declared his dying patient’s wound mortal. Following this, Dr. Leale, his two doctors, and four soldiers carefully picked up the dying president from the floor of the box and slowly carry him outside of the theater. When their request to bring Lincoln next to the saloon has been declined and upon being ushered by a young man in front of the Petersen House, seven men slowly carry Lincoln to the other side of the street into the Petersen House and due to his 193 centimeter height, they lay him diagonally on a small bed of absent border William Clark. It was ironically the same bed that Booth once fell asleep upon. Inside the room, Dr. Leale ordered everyone out of the room and conducted a physical re-examination on Lincoln by removing all of his clothing, starting with his long froak coat and boats before applying mustard plasters, hot water bottles and blankets to comfort Lincoln. Surrounded by his family and friends (except William Seward, who was nearly killed by one of Booth’s henchmen, Lewis Powell, on the same night of the assassination), 56-year-old Abraham Lincoln remained in an unconscious coma for almost eight hours until he died at 7:22:10 a.m. the next morning without regaining consciousness. As he died, his breathing grew quieter and his face more calm. According to some accounts, at his last drawn breath, on the morning after the assassination, he smiled broadly and then expired. Lincoln's death is believed to have ended any hope of restoring the country from the Civil War without any hope and his plan for a better Reconstruction sadly died with him as well.
Two weeks after the assassination, another man named Boston Corbett, a British immigrant-Union sergeant, shot Booth right in the barn, paralyzing his body, after David Herold surrendered. He died about three hours later at approximately 7:29 A.M. on April 26, 1865. Within two months, Booth’s conspirators were arrested and tried for their involvement in Booth’s conspiracy. Four of the eight remaining conspirators were sentenced to be hanged; Lewis Powell, David Herold (another henchman who aided Booth in the 2 week manhunt until they were caught in a barn, where Herold surrendered), George Atzerodt (German immigrant who didn't kill Vice President Andrew Johnson as he got drunk at the Kirkwood Hotel), and Mary Surratt (tavern keeper) were hanged on July 7, 1865. Four other people were sentenced to be transferred to another prison location in the Dry Tortugas, Florida; Dr. Samuel Mudd (doctor who aided Booth on the morning of the 15th), Ned Spangler (an employee at Ford's Theater), Samuel Arnold, and Michael O'Laughlin (two of Booth's childhood friends). Mary Surratt was the first and only woman ever hanged by the federal government.
Numerous unanswered questions were left unanswered about what happened and some conspiracy theories regarding Lincoln's assassination still exists.
Ten weeks after Lincoln's death, the Civil War was officially over. And Lincoln's Gettysburg declaration was realized. That, "Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth."
Legacy
Lincoln has been consistently ranked both by scholars and the public as one of the greatest U.S. presidents, alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. He is often considered the greatest president for his leadership during the American Civil War and his eloquence in speeches such as the Gettysburg Address.
From the moment he passed away, he will be remembered for many generations to come.
Trivia
- Lincoln was born in a log cabin in Kentucky.
- He sailed down the Mississippi as a child.
- He was a well-practiced lawyer.
- Only president to hold a patent.
- He was the first of only four presidents to be assassinated (the other three were James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F Kennedy) and the first one to wear a beard.
- Despite his political triumphs, Lincoln's private life was sad. He suffered long bouts of depression throughout his life and suffered an apparent breakdown after the death of Ann Rutledge, to whom he was very close. He pulled himself through his tragic life together, though, to serve and save his country.
- He and John F. Kennedy share some similarities
- Both men were elected to Congress in the year ending in 46 Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846, whereas Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946)
- Both men were elected as presidents in the year ending in 60 (Lincoln was elected as president in 1860, whereas Kennedy was elected as president in 1960)
- Their names contain seven letters
- Concerned with Civil Rights (Lincoln wanted the slaves to be freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared freedom for slaves in the Confederacy, whereas Kennedy proposed the Civil Rights of 1964)
- They were in their 30's when they got married to women in their 20's (Lincoln (born February 12, 1809) married Mary Anne Todd (born December 13, 1818) on November 4, 1842, whereas Kennedy married Jacqueline Bouvier (born July 28, 1929) on September 12, 1953)
- Both men were shot by on a Friday, sitting next to their wives and a second man of another couple was injured in the attack (Lincoln, his wife, and two guests were at Ford's Theater when he was shot and Major Henry Rathbone was seriously injured in the attack when his left arm got stabbed (Rathbone recovered), whereas Kennedy was sitting in a Ford Lincoln, next to Jackie, when he and Governor John Connally were shot, but Connally survived)
- Both men were shot by Southerners, who were also killed by Northerners before coming to trial ( Lincoln was shot and killed by John Wilkes Booth, who was later killed two weeks later by Boston Corbett, whereas Kennedy was shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, who was later killed two days later by Jack Ruby.)
- Both men were succeeded by a Southern man named Johnson, born in the year ending in 08 (Lincoln was succeeded by Andrew Johnson (born in 1808), whereas Kennedy was succeeded by Lyndon Johnson (born in 1908))