Lincoln Assassination and Emancipation Proclamation

Abraham, Lincoln was our 16th president who I felt did so much for the United States. He was born into a rather poor family, was self-taught and worked his way up to be the president by using his smarts and skills, I think he us by far one of our most important presidents because of all he had done, including the demolishment of slavery.

On February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born in Hardin County, Kentucky. His parents were both born in Virginia to families that are unknown as of now “Second Families” as he had called it. In 1816, his family moved to Southern Indian and here young Lincoln’s education was limited to small brief classes at small schools due to him having to work to support his family. According to Lincoln himself, the area was wild, roaming with bears and many other wild animals the woods around the area. during the time which they were living there his mother died when he was ten. Nonetheless his family prevailed and went on to move to Macon County in 1830, a small town in Southern Illinois. Here, he earned a job working at a river flatboat moving freight down from Illinois, down the Mississippi, to New Orleans: a major port for imported and exported goods in the U.S at the time.

After some time of working around Lincoln finally settled in the town of New Salem, Illinois. Once there here he worked as a shopkeeper and a post master, in the mist of all of this he got a bit wrapped up in politics and the world around him. He managed to become a supporter of the Whigs party and won the election into the Illinois Legislature. Like Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, young Lincoln was against the spreading of slavery to the territories that had yet to be settled upon. He favored the expansion of cities and evolution rather than agriculture.

The young male passed the Bar Exam in 1836 after personally teaching himself law. Later he moved to the new capital of Illinois: Springfield, working there as a lawyer which is also where he received the nickname of honest Abe after working with clients ranging from people in small towns to large companies. Around this time, he met his wife Mary Todd who he married in 1842 and ended up having four lovely baby boys with her.

Though his political career started when he was a lawyer his true journey to being president started when he was elected into the house of representatives in 1846 and served his terms the following, year. He was fairly unpopular as a congressman due to his opposition against the U.S war with Mexico. Aside from this factor he was against slavery and had denounced it and declared it the most clear and abrupt violation of the constitution. a

In 1858 he changed his political party to the Republicans who also believed in the abolishment of slavery since the Whigs were fading away fairly fast. A few years later he had given his house divided speech which expressed his views about the division between slavery and free in the union. In 1860 he ended up being the republican party’s presidential candidate and he ended up winning against opposing candidate John C. Breckinridge due to winning most of the southern votes.

Very recently after Lincoln had come into office the civil war began to quickly arise as the division of the union bubbled over. By time he had officially came into office seven slave states had seceded from the union and became the confederate stated of America which caused Lincoln to take immediate action and send troops down there to stop the bit of madness. Sadly, for Lincoln his wishfully quick union victory was sent to ashes after their defeat at the Battel of Bull Run/ this was only the beginning of a long war ahead of them. According to an abundance of articles Lincoln proved to be a good leader during the years of the war though never had experiencing the leadership portion of such things.

On January 1, 1863 Lincoln made the Emancipation Proclamation, stating that slavery be prohibited in the opposing states though did nothing about the border states that still had slavery. While this did not completely get rid of the slavery issue it was a huge turning point in the war, making it a war for freedom and less of a war for union division/ development. Months later he gave the Gettysburg Address which basically revisited the topic of the Emancipation Proclamation and gave his views over it, dating back to the founding fathers and the declaration of independence.

Well after the civil war had ended the election of 1864 soon rolled around and Lincoln found himself up against some tough competition though due to his victories in the civil war, he won the election with ease. During his second inaugural address he expressed that they had to recoil the union and settle the dispute between the slave and free states, seeking a compromise or solution. This reality of trying to get the states into shape was shorted lived after an actor John Wilkes booth assassinated our 16th president while he was at a theater performance.

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