ABRAHAM LINCOLN

In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.

CONTENTS

1.INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................3
2.ABRAHAM LINCOLNS EARLY LIFE.........................................................................4
3.LINCOLNS ROAD TO THE WHITE HOUSE...............................................................5
4.A WARTIME PRESIDENT..............................................................................................6
5.EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION AND GETTYSBURG ADDRESS...................7
6.VICTORY AND DEATH.................................................................................................8
7.CONCLUSIONS...............................................................................................................9
8.BIBLIOGRAPHY.............................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION

I choose to speak about Abraham Lincoln becausehe stopped a bad thing in history. I
have always hated slavery, I think as much as any abolitionist said Abraham Lincoln. This is
just how I felt about slavery even though slavery still exists today and more than 27 million
people in the world are still in slavery of some kind. Many people from places around the world
are trafficking people every year into the United States and other countries.
Abraham Lincoln, a self-taught Illinois lawyer and legislator with a reputation as an eloquent
opponent of slavery, shocked many when he overcame several more prominent contenders to win
the Republican Partys nomination for president in 1860. His election that November pushed
several Southern states to secede by the time of his inauguration in March 1861, and the Civil
War began barely a month later. Contrary to expectations, Lincoln proved to be a shrewd military
strategist and a savvy leader during what became the costliest conflict ever fought on American
soil.
His Emancipation Proclamation, issued in 1863, freed all slaves in the rebellious states and
paved the way for slaverys eventual abolition, while his Gettysburg Address later that year
stands as one of the most famous and influential pieces of oratory in American history. In April
1865, with the Union on the brink of victory, Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed by the
Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth; his untimely death made him a martyr to the cause
of liberty and Union. Over the years Lincolns mythic stature has only grown, and he is widely
regarded as one of the greatest presidents in the nations history.

ABRAHAM LINCOLNS EARLY LIFE

Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a one-room log cabin in Hardin County,Kentucky;
his family moved to southern Indiana in 1816. Lincolns formal schooling was limited to three
brief periods in local schools, as he had to work constantly to support his family. In 1830, his
family moved to Macon County in southern Illinois, and Lincoln got a job working on a river
flatboat hauling freight down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. After settling in the town of
New Salem, Illinois, where he worked as a shopkeeper and a postmaster, Lincoln became
involved in local politics as a supporter of the Whig Party, winning election to the Illinois state
legislature in 1834. Like his Whig heroes, Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, Lincoln opposed the
spread of slavery to the territories, and had a grand vision of the expanding United States, with a
focus on commerce and cities rather than agriculture.

Lincoln taught himself law, passing the bar examination in 1836. The following year, he
moved to the newly named state capital of Springfield. For the next few years, he worked there
as a lawyer, earning a reputation as Honest Abe and serving clients ranging from individual
residents of small towns to national railroad lines. He met Mary Todd, a well-to-do Kentucky
belle with many suitors (including Lincolns future political rival, Stephen Douglas), and they
married in 1842.

LINCOLNS ROAD TO THE WHITE HOUSE

Lincoln won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1846 and began serving his
term the following year. As a congressman, Lincoln was unpopular with Illinois voters for his
strong stance against the U.S. war with Mexico. Promising not to seek reelection, he returned to
Springfield in 1849. Events conspired to push him back into national politics, however: Douglas,
a leading Democrat in Congress, had pushed through the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act
(1854), which declared that the voters of each territory, rather than the federal government, had
the right to decide whether the territory should be slave or free. On October 16, 1854, Lincoln
went before a large crowd in Peoria to debate the merits of the Kansas-Nebraska Act with
Douglas, denouncing slavery and its extension and calling the institution a violation of the most
basic tenets of the Declaration of Independence.

With the Whig Party in ruins, Lincoln joined the new Republican Partyformed largely in
opposition to slaverys extension into the territoriesin 1858 and ran for the Senate again that
year (he had campaigned unsuccessfully for the seat in 1855 as well). In June, Lincoln delivered
his now-famous house divided speech, in which he quoted from the Gospels to illustrate his
belief that this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. Lincoln then
squared off against Douglas in a series of famous debates; though he lost the election, Lincolns
performance made his reputation nationally. His profile rose even higher in early 1860, after he
delivered another rousing speech at New York Citys Cooper Union. That May, Republicans
chose Lincoln as their candidate for president, passing over Senator William H. Seward of New
York and other powerful contenders in favor of the rangy Illinois lawyer with only one
undistinguished congressional term under his belt.

A WARTIME PRESIDENT

In the general election, Lincoln again faced Douglas, who represented the northern
Democrats; southern Democrats had nominated John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky, while John
Bell ran for the brand new Constitutional Union Party. With Breckenridge and Bell splitting the
vote in the South, Lincoln won most of the North and carried the Electoral College. After years
of sectional tensions, the election of an antislavery northerner as the 16th president of the United
States drove many southerners over the brink, and by the time Lincoln was inaugurated in March
1861 seven southern states had seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of
America. After Lincoln ordered a fleet of Union ships to supply South Carolinas Fort Sumter in
April, the Confederates fired on both the fort and the Union fleet, beginning the Civil War. Hopes
for a quick Union victory were dashed by defeat in the Battle of Bull Run (Manassas), and
Lincoln called for 500,000 more troops as both sides settled in for a long conflict.

While the Confederate leader Jefferson Davis was a West Point graduate, Mexican War hero and
former secretary of war, Lincoln had only a brief and undistinguished period of service in the
Black Hawk War (1832) to his credit. He surprised many by proving to be a more than capable
wartime leader, learning quickly about strategy and tactics in the early years of the Civil War,
and about choosing the ablest commanders. General George McClellan, though beloved by his
troops, continually frustrated Lincoln with his reluctance to advance, and when McClellan failed
to pursue Robert E. Lees retreating Confederate Army in the aftermath of the Union victory at
Antietam in September 1862, Lincoln removed him from command. During the war, Lincoln
drew criticism for suspending some civil liberties, including the right of habeas corpus, but he
considered such measures necessary to win the war.

EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION AND GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

Shortly after the Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg), Lincoln issued a preliminaryEmancipation

Proclamation, which took effect on January 1, 1863, and freed all of the slaves in the rebellious
states but left those in the border states (loyal to the Union) in bondage. Though Lincoln once
maintained that his paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to
save or destroy slavery, he nonetheless came to regard emancipation as one of his greatest
achievements, and would argue for the passage of a constitutional amendment outlawing slavery
(eventually passed as the 13th Amendment after his death in 1865).

Two important Union victories in July 1863at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Gettysburg,
Pennsylvaniafinally turned the tide of the war. General George Meade missed the opportunity to
deliver a final blow against Lees army at Gettysburg, and Lincoln would turn by early 1864 to
the victor at Vicksburg,Ulysses S. Grant, as supreme commander of the Union forces. In
November 1863, Lincoln delivered a brief speech (just 272 words) at the dedication ceremony
for the new national cemetery at Gettysburg. Published widely, the Gettysburg Address
eloquently expressed the wars purpose, harking back to the Founding Fathers, the Declaration of
Independence and the pursuit of human equality. It became the most famous speech of Lincolns
presidency, and one of the most widely quoted speeches in history.

VICTORY AND DEATH

In 1864, Lincoln faced a tough reelection battle against the Democratic nominee, the
former Union General George McClellan, but Union victories in battle (especially William T.
Shermans capture of Atlanta in September) swung many votes the presidents way. In his second
inaugural address, delivered on March 4, 1865, Lincoln addressed the need to reconstruct the
South and rebuild the Union: With malice toward none; with charity for all.

As Sherman marched triumphantly northward through the Carolinas, Lee surrendered to

Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9. Union victory was near, and Lincoln gave a
speech on the White House lawn on April 11, urging his audience to welcome the southern states
back into the fold. Tragically, Lincoln would not live to help carry out his vision
of Reconstruction. On the night of April 14, the actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes
Booth slipped into the presidents box at Fords Theatre in Washington and shot him point-blank
in the back of the head. Lincoln was carried to a boardinghouse across the street from the theater,
but he never regained consciousness, and died in the early morning hours of April 15.

CONCLUSIONS

I would consider my hero, Abraham Lincoln, a hero because he helped free the slaves
from slavery. Abraham Lincoln influences me by his actions he had made. Abraham Lincoln also
showed me to never give up on your dream to be something. When I learned that Abraham
Lincoln freed the slaves and ended slavery it made me change into a better person. When a
lady gave him extra change he didnt just keep it he went to give the lady back the extra
change. This action made me an honest person. I chose Abraham Lincoln as my hero because
he did a lot of work so that he could make a difference in the United States. This is why I chose
Abraham Lincoln as my hero.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/abraham_lincoln.html#A0Tp2vCL6W7RDWLR.9
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http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/biographies/abraham-lincoln/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln

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