San Ko Ko Htet June 21, 2008

Social Studies Extra Credit Mr. Goldstein

Biography of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States of America was born on February 12, 1809 in the in the
town of Hardin County, Kentucky to Thomas Lincoln, and Nancy Hanks, both uneducated farmers, who lived in a one-
room log cabin on Sinking Spring Farm. Lincoln was the first President to be born outside of the original thirteen
colonies.

In 1816, Lincoln’s family was forced to move to Perry County, Indiana. The move was partly because of slavery,
and partly because of difficulties with land deeds in Kentucky. It was hard for farmers in Kentucky to prove that they
owned property because Kentucky didn’t have a proper U.S. survey.

When Lincoln was nine years old, his mother died because of milk sickness, or a disease that affects an individual
who consumes dairy products, or meat from a cow that has fed on white snakeroot (a white plant with bushy thickets and
contains a toxin that when consumed by a cow, the meat or dairy product becomes contaminated). Soon, after the death of
Lincoln’s mother, his father remarried to a woman named Sarah Bush Johnston. Lincoln was very fond of his stepmother.

In 1830, more economic, and land-title (who was titled to the land) issues aroused in Indiana, so the Lincolns
settled in Macon County, Illinois. After they had settled there, the winters were extremely harsh and the Lincoln family
even considered moving back to Indiana. The next year, when Lincoln’s father moved the family to a new home in Coles
County, Illinois, Lincoln was twenty-two years old and set off on his own. Lincoln went to the village of New Salem in
Sangamon County, and later in that year Lincoln was hired by a New Salem businessman named Denton Offutt to bring
goods from New Salem to New Orleans via the Mississippi River.

Lincoln didn’t really have a good education. His education consisted of 18 months of schooling, but he was self-
educated and he was an enthusiastic reader. He was a talented wrestler and had great skills with an axe. Lincoln didn’t like
killing animals, not even for food, and tried to avoid it. Lincoln was 6’ 4”, unusually tall and strong.

Lincoln’s political career began in 1832, while Lincoln was 23. Lincoln campaigned for the Illinois General
Assembly, which is the Legislative Branch for the state of Illinois, as a member of the Whig Party (a political party in the
1800s), but it was unsuccessful. However, Lincoln was elected captain of the Illinois militia during the Black Hawk War,
which was a war between the Native Americans and the United States. In 1834, Lincoln won an election into the state
legislature, and after coming across the Commentaries of the Laws of England, which was an 18 th Century commentary on
the laws of England, he began to teach himself law. Lincoln served four successful terms in the Illinois House of
Representatives, as a representative from Sangamon County, and became a leader of the Illinois Whig Party.
 On November 4, 1842 Lincoln married Mary Todd, who was the daughter of a slave-owner from Kentucky. The
couple had four sons, but only one survived into adulthood. That child was Robert Todd Lincoln. The other three children
who died during childhood were Edward Baker Lincoln, William “Willie” Wallace Lincoln, and Thomas “Tad” Lincoln.

Lincoln was elected to a term in the United States House of Representatives in 1846. Although Lincoln was a
freshman House member, he spoke out against the Mexican War and other political ideas. Lincoln also spoke out against
the Kansa-Nebraska Act, which was an act that repealed the Missouri Compromise (a compromise that separated regions
into regions that were allowed to have slaves, and allowed to have slaves), and let the people decide whether slavery
should be allowed in the regions of Kansas and Nebraska. Lincoln supported anti-slavery and often spoke out about it.

In 1860, Lincoln was chosen as the Republican candidate for the 1860 presidential election. Lincoln ran against
Democrat Stephen Douglas and he won on November 6, 1860. Lincoln was the first Republican President, winning
entirely on the strength of his support in the North.

When Lincoln won the presidential election, secessionists- who are people who are loyal to their region rather
than the nation, and their states leaved the Union. South Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and
Texas seceded, or removed themselves, from the Union. Those states formed the Confederate States of America and their
leader was Jefferson Davis.

Lincoln hoped to maintain Union (hoped that the other slave states didn’t secede from the Union), and to avoid
war. Lincoln stated that secession of states from the Union was unconstitutional. The Confederacy already began seizing
federal forts in the South. The South believed the forts were a threat because the U.S. was a foreign power to them.
Lincoln had to face a difficult decision: should he let the Confederates take over federal property? But if he did, then he’s
saying that it was OK for the states to leave the Union. However, if he sent troops to hold the forts, he might start a Civil
War. Lincoln promised to take no action on the southern states unless they attacked the Union first. The Union was
attacked on April 12, 1861.

In April of 1861, the fighting began when the Union troops were attacked by Confederate troops at Fort Sumter,
South Carolina. The Unionists were forced to surrender the fort. After that occurred, Lincoln called for a volunteer army
from each state to recapture forts and to keep the Union intact. The remaining slave states that did not secede, which were
Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware still didn’t secede. Soon war was declared, and the war was known as, The
American Civil War.

In July, 1862 Congress passed the 2nd Confiscation Act. The purpose of the act was to weaken the rebellions set
forth by the slave owners. This new law was added to Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation
Proclamation (in effect on September 22, 1862) declared the freedom of all slaves in the Confederate States of America,
by January 1, 1863, and the slaves that were in the control of the Union were already free. The Proclamation also included
the states where it applied.

On November 19, 1863, President Lincoln gave one of his most famous speeches, known as the Gettysburg
Address. The speech was given in honor of the soldiers who gave their lives in the Battle of Gettysburg that occurred
during the Civil War. The Battle of Gettysburg was a Union victory, though many soldiers died in this bloody battle.

As war waged on, Lincoln began his “reconstruction era.” The reconstruction era was a time when the United
States was trying to find ways to resolve the Civil War issues, of slavery and the seceding. Lincoln wanted to reunite the
South with the Union.

On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee, who was the General for the Confederate Army during the Civil War,
surrendered at the Appomattox Court House in Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant, the General for the Union army. The
American Civil War was over. The rebel armies surrendered afterwards and there was no additional fighting.
 Abraham Lincoln was announced dead on April 15, 1865. Lincoln didn’t die because of old age; he died at the
age of 56. Lincoln and his wife attended a play on the night of April 14, 1865 along with the Grants (Ulysses and his
wife). A man who wanted to kill Lincoln for a long time got his chance that night. The man’s name was John Wilkes
Booth. Lincoln didn’t have his bodyguard at the time and when the noise began due to the comedy Booth jumped out with
a gun and shot the President in the head. Booth had gotten away but he was later caught and sentenced to death. A doctor
took Lincoln to treat his wounds but on April 15, 1865, Lincoln was announced dead. The country’s celebration to the end
and victory of the Civil War quickly changed into mourning.