ABRAHAM

LINCOLN
Abraham Lincoln

/ebrhm lkn/ (February 12, 1809 April 15, 1865) 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 Warits bloodiest war and its greatest moral,
constitutional and political crisis.[1][2] In doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery,
strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy.
Born in Hodgenville, Kentucky, Lincoln grew up on the western
frontier in Kentucky and Indiana. Largely self-educated, he became a lawyer in Illinois, a Whig
Party leader, and a member of the Illinois House of Representatives, where he served from
1834 to 1846. Elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1846, Lincoln
promoted rapid modernization of the economy through banks, tariffs, and railroads. Because
he had originally agreed not to run for a second term in Congress, and because his opposition
to the MexicanAmerican War was unpopular among Illinois voters, Lincoln returned
to Springfield and resumed his successful law practice. Reentering politics in 1854, he became
a leader in building the new Republican Party, which had a statewide majority in Illinois. In
1858, while taking part in a series of highly publicized debates with his opponent and rival,
Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln spoke out against the expansion of slavery, but lost the
U.S. Senate race to Douglas.
In 1860 Lincoln secured the Republican Party presidential nomination as a moderate from a
swing state. With very little support in the slaveholding states of the South, he swept the North
and was elected president in 1860. His election prompted seven southern slave states to form
the Confederate States of America before he was sworn into office. No compromise or
reconciliation was found regarding slavery and secession.
After the Confederates attacked Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, the North enthusiastically
rallied behind the Union. Lincoln concentrated on the military and political dimensions of the
war. His primary goal was to reunite the nation. He suspended habeas corpus, leading to the
controversial ex parte Merryman decision. Lincoln averted potential British intervention in the
war by defusing the Trent Affair in late 1861. His complex moves toward ending slavery
centered on the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. Lincoln used the U.S. Army to protect

escaped slaves, encouraged the border states to outlaw slavery, and helped push through
Congress the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which permanently
outlawed slavery. Lincoln closely supervised the war effort, especially the selection of top
generals, including his most successful general, Ulysses S. Grant. He also made major
decisions on Union war strategy; for example: a naval blockade that shut down the South's

1809

February 12:

Abraham Lincoln is born in Nolin Creek in

First political speech of Abe in favor of

improving navigation on the Sangamon River.

Kentucky. His humble home was a one room

log cabin
1831
1811

The Lincoln family

move to a 230 acre farm near Sinking Spring.

Salem, Illinois working as a clerk in the village

store

1832
1816

December: The

Lincoln family move to Indiana.

Abe settles in New

March: Abe becomes

a candidate for Illinois General Assembly

April: The Black Hawk War and Abe enlists
August 6: Abe loses election

1817

February: Legend

states that Abraham shot a wild turkey but

hated the experience and never hunted

Abe and William Berry become partners and

purchase a village store in New Salem.

again.
1833
1818

October 5: The death

of his mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln

The store fails and

leaves the partners in debt

Abe is appointed Postmaster of New Salem
October: Abe is appointed Deputy County

1819

December 2:

Surveyor.

Thomas Lincoln marries a widow, Sarah Bush

Johnston who becomes stepmother to
Abraham Lincoln

1834

August 4: Lincoln is

elected to the Illinois General Assembly

Abe starts to study law

1830
family move to Illinois

March: The Lincoln

Abe meets Ann Rutledge

1835

January: The death of

William Berry and Abe's debt increases to

Mary Todd accepts his proposal of marriage

and the couple become engaged

$1000
August 25: Ann Rutledge dies from fever
Becomes leader of the Whig Party

1841

January 1: Abe

breaks off his engagement to Mary Todd

Suffers from depression

1836

August 1: Re-elected

to the Illinois General Assembly

March 1: Establishes new law partnership

with Stephen T. Logan

September 9: Lincoln receives his law license

Starts to court Mary Owens

1842

Abe resumes his

courtship with Mary Todd

1837

April 15: Moves

Springfield

September: Challenged to a sword duel by

James Shields over the publication of letters
which taunted the Democrat Shields

Establishes as a law partner of John T. Stuart

His proposal to Mary Owens is declined

September 22: Duel averted by an

explanation of letters
November 4: Abe marries Mary Todd in

1838

August 6: Re-elected

Springfield

to the Illinois General Assembly

1843
1839

Practises as a lawyer

Abe fails to get Whig

nomination for U.S. Congress

on the 8th Judicial Circuit in Illinois

August 1: Robert Todd Lincoln is born to Abe

December 3: Admission to United States

and Mary

Circuit Court
Meets Mary Todd at a Christmas dance.

1844

December: Abe sets

up his own law practice and dissolves

1840

June: Abe presents

partnership with Logan

his first case before the Illinois Supreme

Court

1846

March 10: Edward

August 3: Re-elected to the Illinois General

Baker Lincoln is born

Assembly

May 1: Nominated as Whig candidate for U.S.

Congress

August 3: Abe is elected to the U.S. House of

Representatives.

1855

Fails in his quest to

become a U.S. Senator.

1847

The Lincoln family

moves to a boarding house in Washington,

D.C.

1856

May 29: Assists in the

formation of the new Republican party of

December 22: Presents resolutions to

President Polk about U.S. hostilities with
Mexico.

Illinois
Abe campaigns in Illinois for John C. Fremont
the Republican presidential candidate

1848

January 22: Gives a

speech against war policy regarding Mexico

1857

June 26: Speech

against the Dred Scott decision which ruled

that Dred Scott must remain a slave

1849

March 31: Abe

leaves politics to practice law in Springfield

1858

June 16: Nominated

as Republican senator from Illinois to oppose

the Democrat Stephen A. Douglas.

1850

February 1: The
1859

death of Edward Baker Lincoln

Lincoln resumes his role in the 8th Judicial
Circuit gaining a reputation as an outstanding

Illinois legislature

choose Democrat Stephen A. Douglas for the

U.S. Senate defeating Lincoln

lawyer and earning the nickname of 'Honest

Abe'

1860

March 6: Speech on

December 21: William Wallace Lincoln

slavery in New Haven, Connecticut

(Willie) is born.

May 18: Nominated to be the Republican

candidate for President of the United States
1853

April 4: Thomas (Tad)

November 6: Abraham Lincoln is elected as

16th U.S. president

Lincoln is born.

December 20: South Carolina secedes from

1854

Abe is elected to

Illinois legislature but declines the seat in an

attempt to become a U.S. Senator.

the Union shortly followed by Mississippi,

Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and
Texas.

April 9: General Robert E. Lee surrenders his

1861

February 11: Leaves

Springfield for Washington

March 4: President Lincoln delivers his First
Inaugural Address

Confederate Army to General Ulysses S.

Grant at the village of Appomattox Court
House in Virginia
April 14: President Lincoln and his wife Mary
go to Ford's Theater to see the play "Our

April 12 Attack on Fort Sumter - Confederates

American Cousin" . During the third act of the

under General Pierre Beauregard open fire

play John Wilkes Booth shoots the president

marking the start of the Civil War

in the head at approx 10:13 p.m.

For details of the career of President Lincoln

April 15: President Abraham Lincoln dies at

and the progress of the American Civil War

7:22 in the morning. Vice President Andrew

between 1861 and 1865 click Civil War

Johnson assumes the presidency

Timeline

April 26: John Wilkes Booth is shot and killed

in a tobacco barn in Virginia.
1865

March 17: A kidnap

May 4: Abraham Lincoln is buried in Oak

plot by John Wilkes Booth fails when Lincoln

Ridge Cemetery, outside Springfield,

fails to arrive as expected at the Soldiers

Illinois.Lexington.[74] He was an affectionate,

Home

though often absent, husband and father of

four children.