Abraham Lincoln  

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Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865) was the 16th President of the United States. He successfully led his country through its greatest internal crisis, the Civil War, only to be assassinated less than a week after the war ended.^[1] Lincoln's birthday, February 12, is now commemorated as Presidents' Day.

Fast Facts
Abraham Lincoln
16th President of the United States
In office March 4, 1861 – April 15, 1865
Vice President(s)	Hannibal Hamlin (1861 – 1865) Andrew Johnson (1865)
Preceded by	James Buchanan
Succeeded by	Andrew Johnson
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 7th district
In office March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1849
Preceded by	John Henry
Succeeded by	Thomas L. Harris
Born	February 12, 1809(1809-02-12) Hardin County, Kentucky
Died	April 15, 1865 (aged 56) Washington, D.C.
Nationality	American
Political party	• Whig (1832-1854) • Republican (1854-1864) • National Union (1864-1865)
Occupation	Lawyer
Religion	see: Abraham Lincoln and religion
Spouse	Mary Todd Lincoln
Children	Robert Todd Lincoln, Edward Lincoln, Willie Lincoln, Tad Lincoln
Parents	Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks
Signature

Abraham Lincoln

2.   Born in southeast Hardin County, Kentucky (now part of LaRue County), the first president to be born outside the original Thirteen Colonies, Lincoln was largely self-educated, having had only 18 months of schooling. He began his political career in 1832, at age 23, with an unsuccessful campaign for the Illinois General Assembly, as a member of the Whig Party. In 1834, however, Lincoln won election to the Illinois House of Representatives, serving four successive terms. After coming across the Commentaries on the Laws of England, he began to teach himself law. Admitted to the bar in 1837, Lincoln moved to Springfield, Illinois that same year and began to practice law with John T. Stuart.

3.   In 1846, Lincoln was elected to a term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He later damaged his political reputation with a speech in which he declared, "God of Heaven has forgotten to defend the weak and innocent, and permitted the strong band of murderers and demons from hell to kill men, women, and children, and lay waste and pillage the land of the just." Warned by his law partner, William Herndon, that the damage was mounting and irreparable, Lincoln decided not to run for reelection. In 1854, Lincoln returned to politics, joining the fledgling Republican Party, in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which expressly repealed the limits on slavery's extent as determined by the Missouri Compromise (1820). He ran against Illinois Democrat Stephen A. Douglas for Senator in 1858, but lost the election. Nevertheless, debating with Douglas as an outspoken opponent of the expansion of slavery in the United States, Lincoln won the Republican Party nomination in 1860 and was elected president later that year.

4.   During his term as President, Lincoln helped preserve the United States by leading the defeat of the secessionist Confederate States of America in the American Civil War. He introduced measures that resulted in the abolition of slavery, issuing his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and promoting the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which passed Congress and was ratified by the states later in 1865. At the close of the war, Lincoln held a moderate view of Reconstruction, seeking to speedily reunite the nation through a policy of generous reconciliation. In April 1865, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor and a Confederate spy from Maryland, while attending the play Our American Cousin. Booth had earlier planned to kidnap Lincoln in exchange for the release of Confederate prisoners but changed his mind after attending Lincoln's April 11 speech, promoting voting rights for blacks. Lincoln's assassination was the first presidential assassination in U.S. history, making him a martyr for the ideal of national unity.  more... at Chronology