"A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have. "
"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other"
•Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin near Hodgenville, Kentucky on February 12, 1809.
•Lincoln was the first president born outside the original 13 states.
•When Lincoln was seven, his family moved to Indiana and cleared land for a new farm.
•In 1818, when Lincoln was nine, his mother, Nancy Hanks, died. His father remarried.
•Lincoln received sporadic education as a child, walking two miles to a schoolhouse when he was not needed to work on the family farm.
•Despite a lack of formal schooling, Lincoln read widely, often borrowing books
Library of Congress•By the age of 17 Lincoln had grown to his adult height of six feet, four inches.
•Lincoln was known locally for his strength and his prowess for splitting timber for fence rails.
•Lincoln developed a skill for storytelling.
•In 1828 Lincoln and a friend worked taking a boat down the Mississippi to New Orleans. It was Lincoln's first sight of the world beyond the frontier communities of his youth.
•On the 1828 boat trip, Lincoln and his friend Allen Gentry fought off a gang of slaves that tried to rob them.
•In New Orleans the 19-year-old Lincoln was said to have been offended by the sight of large slave markets.
1830s: Abraham Lincoln as a Young Man
Library of Congress•In 1830 Lincoln, who was 21, moved with his family to the town of New Salem, Illinois.
•In 1832 Lincoln briefly served in the Black Hawk War. This would be his only military experience.
•In Illinois, Lincoln tried a variety of occupations, including storekeeper.
•A young woman Lincoln knew, Ann Rutledge, died in 1835, and stories persist that he was thrown into a deep depression over it. Historians still debate the relationship between Lincoln and Ann Rutledge.
•Continuing to educate himself, he read law books and in 1836 he was admitted to the bar.
•In 1837 he moved to Springfield, Illinois to take up a law practice.
•Lincoln served in the Illinois legislature from 1834-1841, as a member of the Whig Party.
The election of Lincoln as President in 1861, sparked the South to succeed from the North. Southern independence sentiment had been growing for many years and the election of a president opposed to slavery was the final straw. However, Lincoln resolutely opposed the breakaway of the South and so this led to the American civil war. The civil war was much more costly than many people anticipated and at times Lincoln appeared to be losing the support of the general population. But, he managed to keep the Republican party together, stifflying dissent by promoting the various Republican factions into the cabinet. Lincoln oversaw many of the military aspects of the war and promoted the general Ullysees S Grant to oversee the northern forces.
Although the war was primarily about succession and the survival of the Union, Lincoln also issued his memorable Emancipation Proclamation that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy.
Eventually after 4 years of attrition the Federal forces secured the surrender of the defeated south. Lincoln had saved the union and also brought to head the end of slavery.
Dedicating the ceremony at Gettysburg Lincoln declared
"that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Lincoln was tragically assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, an actor on, April 14, 1865. He is widely regarded as one of America’s most influential and important presidents. As well as saving the union Lincoln was viewed as embodying the ideals of honesty and integrity.
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