Abraham Lincoln

(aged 56)

Politician

**Abraham Lincoln** (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was President of the United States from March 4, 1861 to April 15, 1865, succeeding James Buchanan and preceding Andrew Johnson; he previously served in the US House of Representatives (R-IL 7) from March 4, 1847 to March 3, 1849, succeeding John Henry and preceding Thomas L. Harris. A vocal opponent of slavery, Lincoln was the first Republican to hold the office of President, and his election to the presidency led to the secession of the American South to form the Confederacy. Lincoln led the Union in the ensuing American Civil War, and he was assassinated on the eve of final victory.

## Biography

### Early career

Abraham Lincoln was born in Hodgenville, Kentucky on February 12, 1809, and he was raised on the frontier in Kentucky and Indiana. He became a lawyer after educating himself, and he also entered politics as an American Whig Party member, serving in the State House of Representatives before entering the US House of Representatives in 1847. Lincoln became unpopular due to his opposition to the Mexican-American War, but he returned to politics as a leader of the nascent Republican Party in 1854. In 1858, he lost a heated US Senate race in Illinois to Stephen A. Douglas of the Democratic Party after engaging in a series of famous debates with him, but he became a celebrity for his arguments against slavery and states' rights. Lincoln, like many former Whigs of his time, identified as a conservative, once rhetorically asking, "What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried?" However, he was opposed by the conservative faction of his party during his presidency due to his acquired abolitionist views (he had formerly been a mere anti-extentionist), and he often expressed liberal social views, once declaring, "Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." According to Voteview, Lincoln was more conservative than 64% of the 30th House and more liberal than 68% of Whigs in the House during his service.

### Presidency

In 1860, Lincoln ran as the Republican presidential nominee, and he defeated Douglas and Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge to become the next President. Upon his election, eleven states in the American South seceded to form the pro-slavery Confederate States of America, and Lincoln remained the president of the remaining northern and western states. The Union fought against the CSA during the ensuing American Civil War of 1861-1865, and Lincoln originally sought only to preserve the union, with or without slavery. However, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, freeing several slaves in the rebelled states, and the Union recruited African-American soldiers into the US Army. In 1864, Lincoln defeated Democratic challenger and former Union general George B. McClellan to secure re-election as president, and he made the Southern Democrat Andrew Johnson his vice-president. In January 1865, he oversaw the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which would ensure that slavery was outlawed across the USA by constitutional law.

### Assassination

At 10:15 pm on April 14, 1865, five days after the surrender of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House, Lincoln was shot in the back of the head by John Wilkes Booth while viewing the play *Our American Cousin* at Ford's Theater in Washington DC. After stabbing Major Henry Rathbone, Booth then jumped down onto the stage where he shouted “*Sic semper tyrannis*,” meaning "thus always to tyrants" in Latin, and went on the run before being hunted down by Union troops and killed by Boston Corbett, just 2 weeks after Lincoln’s death. After being attended by Doctor Charles Leale and two other doctors, Lincoln was carried across the street to the Petersen House where he remained in a coma for eight hours and died of his gunshot wounds the following morning at 7:22 am on April 15, 1865. Andrew Johnson succeeded him as president. Lincoln was the first president to have been assassinated (although some believe that Zachary Taylor was the first), and he is currently seen as one of the greatest American presidents, due to his achievements.

## Gallery

Lincoln in 1865A painting of John Wilkes Booth shoots president Lincoln