How old was abraham lincoln when he became president
Abraham Lincoln
President of the United States from to
For other uses, see Abraham Lincoln (disambiguation).
"President Lincoln" redirects here. For the troopship, see USS President Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln | |
|---|---|
Lincoln in | |
| In office March 4, &#;– April 15, | |
| Vice President | |
| Preceded by | James Buchanan |
| Succeeded by | Andrew Johnson |
| In office March 4, &#;– March 3, | |
| Preceded by | John Henry |
| Succeeded by | Thomas L.
Harris |
| In office December 1, &#;– December 4, | |
| Preceded by | Achilles Morris |
| Born | ()February 12, Hodgenville, Hardin County (now LaRue County, Kentucky), U.S. |
| Died | April 15, () (aged&#;56) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Manner&#;of&#;death | Assassination by gunshot |
| Resting place | Lincoln Tomb |
| Political party | |
| Other political affiliations | National Union (–) |
| Height | 6&#;ft 4&#;in (&#;cm)[1] |
| Spouse | Mary Todd &#; (m.&#;)&#; |
| Children | |
| Parents | |
| Relatives | Lincoln family |
| Occupation | |
| Signature | |
| Branch/service | Illinois Militia |
| Years&#;of service | April–July |
| Rank | |
| Unit | 31st (Sangamon) Regiment of Illinois Militia 4th Mounted Volunteer Regiment Iles Mounted Volunteers |
| Battles/wars | |
Abraham Lincoln (LINK-ən; February 12, &#;– April 15, ) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from until his assassination in He led the United States through the American Civil War, defending the nation as a constitutional union, defeating the Confederacy, playing a major role in the abolition ofslavery, expanding the power of the federal government, and modernizing the U.S.
economy.
Lincoln was born into poverty in a log cabin in LaRue County, Kentucky, and was raised on the frontier, mainly in Indiana.
Biography of john f. kennedy: Berkeley: Wilderness Press. Abraham Lincoln: A Biography. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — 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. Graebner, Norman
He was self-educated and became a lawyer, Whig Party leader, Illinois state legislator, and U.S. representativefrom Illinois. In , he returned to his successful law practice in Springfield, Illinois. In , angered by the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which opened the territories to slavery, he re-entered politics. He soon became a leader of the new Republican Party.
He reached a national audience in the Senate campaign debates against Stephen A. Douglas. Lincoln ran for president in , sweeping the North to gain victory.
Wilhelm winter biography of abraham lincoln Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln , vol. Lincoln watched the combat from an exposed position; at one point during the skirmish Captain Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. In return for investing a third of their capital in federal bonds, these national banks were authorized to issue federal banknotes. Chase , Seward's chief political rival.Pro-slavery elements in the South viewed his election as a threat to slavery, and Southern states began seceding from the nation. They formed the Confederate States of America, which began seizing federal military bases in the South. A little over one month after Lincoln assumed the presidency, Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter, a U.S. fort in South Carolina.
Following the bombardment, Lincoln mobilized forces to suppress the rebellion and restore the union.
Lincoln, a moderate Republican, had to navigate a contentious array of factions with friends and opponents from both the Democratic and Republican parties. His allies, the War Democrats and the Radical Republicans, demanded harsh treatment of the Southern Confederates.
He managed the factions by exploiting their mutual enmity, carefully distributing political patronage, and by appealing to the American people. Anti-war Democrats (called "Copperheads") despised Lincoln, and some irreconcilable pro-Confederate elements went so far as to plot his assassination. His Gettysburg Address became one of the most famous speeches in American history.
Lincoln closely supervised the strategy and tactics in the war effort, including the selection of generals, and implemented a naval blockade of the South's trade.
Wilhelm winter biography of abraham lincoln author The European aristocracy the dominant class in every major country was "absolutely gleeful in pronouncing the American debacle as proof that the entire experiment in popular government had failed. Secretary of the Interior. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation recognized the legal freedom of the 3. Washington McKinley T.He suspended habeas corpus in Maryland and elsewhere, and he averted war with Britain by defusing the Trent Affair. In , he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared the slaves in the states "in rebellion" to be free. It also directed the Army and Navy to "recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons" and to receive them "into the armed service of the United States." Lincoln pressured border states to outlaw slavery, and he promoted the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution, which abolished slavery, except as punishment for a crime. Lincoln managed his own successful re-election campaign. He sought to heal the war-torn nation through reconciliation. On April 14, , just five days after the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, he was attending a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Mary, when he was fatally shot by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth.
Lincoln is remembered as a martyr and a national hero for his wartime leadership and for his efforts to preserve the Union and abolish slavery. He is often ranked in both popular and scholarly polls as the greatest president in American history.
Family and childhood
Early life
Main article: Early life and career of Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln was born on February 12, , the second child of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, in a log cabin on Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky.
He was a descendant of Samuel Lincoln, an Englishman who migrated from Hingham, Norfolk, to its namesake, Hingham, Massachusetts, in The family through subsequent generations migrated west, passing through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Lincoln was also a descendant of the Harrison family of Virginia; his paternal grandfather and namesake, Captain Abraham Lincoln and wife Bathsheba (née Herring) moved the family from Virginia to Jefferson County, Kentucky.[b] The captain was killed in an Indian raid in His children, including eight-year-old Thomas, Abraham's father, witnessed the attack.[c] Thomas then worked at odd jobs in Kentucky and Tennessee before the family settled in Hardin County, Kentucky, in the early s.
Lincoln's mother Nancy Lincoln is widely assumed to be the daughter of Lucy Hanks.
Thomas and Nancy married on June 12, , in Washington County, and moved to Elizabethtown, Kentucky. They had three children: Sarah, Abraham, and Thomas, who died as an infant.
Thomas Lincoln bought multiple farms in Kentucky, but could not get clear property titles to any, losing hundreds of acres of land in property disputes. In , the family moved to Indiana, where the land surveys and titles were more reliable.
They settled in an "unbroken forest" in Little Pigeon Creek Community, Hurricane Township, Perry County, Indiana. When the Lincolns moved to Indiana it had just been admitted to the Union as a "free" (non-slaveholding) state,[16] except that, though "no new enslaved people were allowed, currently enslaved individuals remained so".[17][d] In , Lincoln noted that the family's move to Indiana was "partly on account of slavery", but mainly due to land title difficulties.[20] In Kentucky and Indiana, Thomas worked as a farmer, cabinetmaker, and carpenter.
At various times he owned farms, livestock, and town lots, paid taxes, sat on juries, appraised estates, and served on county patrols.
Biography of abraham lincoln books Once, faced with a rail fence during practice maneuvers and forgetting the parade-ground instructions to direct his men over it, he simply ordered them to fall out and reassemble on the other side a minute later. On March 28, Scott recommended that both Pickens and Sumter be abandoned, basing his decision more on political than military grounds. Graff, Henry F. Thomas, Benjamin P.Thomas and Nancy were members of a Separate Baptist Church, which "condemned profanity, intoxication, gossip, horse racing, and dancing." Most of its members opposed slavery.
Overcoming financial challenges, Thomas in obtained clear title to 80 acres (32&#;ha) in Indiana, an area that became known as Little Pigeon Creek Community.
Mother's death
On October 5, , Nancy Lincoln died from milk sickness, leaving year-old Sarah in charge of a household including her father, nine-year-old Abraham, and Nancy's year-old orphan cousin, Dennis Hanks.
Ten years later, on January 20, , Sarah died while giving birth to a stillborn son, devastating Lincoln.
On December 2, , Thomas married Sarah Bush Johnston, a widow from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, with three children of her own. Abraham became close to his stepmother and called her "Mother". Dennis Hanks said he was lazy, for all his "reading—scribbling—writing—ciphering—writing poetry".[28] His stepmother acknowledged he did not enjoy "physical labor" but loved to read.
Education and move to Illinois
Lincoln was largely self-educated.
His formal schooling was from itinerant teachers. It included two short stints in Kentucky, where he learned to read, but probably not to write. In Indiana at age seven, due to farm chores, he attended school only sporadically, for a total of fewer than 12 months in aggregate by age Nonetheless, he remained an avid reader and retained a lifelong interest in learning.
Family, neighbors, and schoolmates recalled that his readings included the King James Bible, Aesop's Fables, John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, and The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Despite being self-educated, Lincoln was the recipient of honorary degrees later in life, including an honorary Doctor of Laws from Columbia University in June [36]
When Lincoln was a teen, his "father grew more and more to depend on him for the 'farming, grubbing, hoeing, making fences' necessary to keep the family afloat.
He also regularly hired his son out to work and by law, he was entitled to everything the boy earned until he came of age". Lincoln was tall, strong, and athletic, and became adept at using an ax. He was an active wrestler during his youth and trained in the rough catch-as-catch-can style (also known as catch wrestling). He became county wrestling champion at the age of [39] He gained a reputation for his strength and audacity after winning a wrestling match with the renowned leader of ruffians known as the Clary's Grove boys.
In March , fearing another milk sickness outbreak, several members of the extended Lincoln family, including Abraham, moved west to Illinois, a free state, and settled in Macon County.[e] Abraham then became increasingly distant from Thomas, in part, due to his father's lack of interest in education.
In , as Thomas and other family members prepared to move to a new homestead in Coles County, Illinois, Abraham struck out on his own. He made his home in New Salem, Illinois, for six years. Lincoln and some friends took goods, including live hogs, by flatboat to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he first witnessed slavery.[46]
Marriage and children
Further information: Lincoln family, Health of Abraham Lincoln, and Sexuality of Abraham Lincoln
President Lincoln with his youngest son, Tad, in
Speculation persists that Lincoln's first romantic interest was Ann Rutledge, whom he met when he moved to New Salem.
However, witness testimony, given decades afterward, showed a lack of any specific recollection of a romance between the two.[47] Rutledge died on August 25, , most likely of typhoid fever; Lincoln took the death very hard, saying that he could not bear the idea of rain falling on Ann's grave.
Lincoln sank into a serious episode of depression, and this gave rise to speculation that he had been in love with her.[49][50]
In the early s, he met Mary Owens from Kentucky. Late in , Lincoln agreed to a match with Owens if she returned to New Salem. Owens arrived that November and he courted her; however, they both had second thoughts.
On August 16, , he wrote Owens a letter saying he would not blame her if she ended the relationship, and she never replied.
In , Lincoln met Mary Todd in Springfield, Illinois, and the following year they became engaged. She was the daughter of Robert Smith Todd, a wealthy lawyer and businessman in Lexington, Kentucky. Their wedding, which was set for January 1, , was canceled because Lincoln did not appear, but they reconciled and married on November 4, , in the Springfield home of Mary's sister.[55] While anxiously preparing for the nuptials, he was asked where he was going and replied, "To hell, I suppose".
In , the couple bought a house in Springfield near his law office. Mary kept house with the help of a hired servant and a relative.
Lincoln was an affectionate husband and father of four sons, though his work regularly kept him away from home. The eldest, Robert Todd Lincoln, was born in , and was the only child to live to maturity.
Edward Baker Lincoln (Eddie), born in , died February 1, , probably of tuberculosis.
Lincoln's third son, "Willie" Lincoln, was born on December 21, , and died of a fever at the White House on February 20, The youngest, Thomas "Tad" Lincoln, was born on April 4, , and survived his father, but died of heart failure at age 18 on July 16, [f]
Lincoln "was remarkably fond of children" and the Lincolns were not considered to be strict with their own.
In fact, Lincoln's law partner William H. Herndon would grow irritated when Lincoln brought his children to the law office. Their father, it seemed, was often too absorbed in his work to notice his children's behavior. Herndon recounted, "I have felt many and many a time that I wanted to wring their little necks, and yet out of respect for Lincoln I kept my mouth shut.
Lincoln did not note what his children were doing or had done."[62]
The deaths of their sons Eddie and Willie had profound effects on both parents. Lincoln suffered from "melancholy", a condition now thought to be clinical depression.[49] Later in life, Mary struggled with the stresses of losing her husband and sons, and in Robert committed her to an asylum.
Early career and militia service
Further information: Early life and career of Abraham Lincoln and Abraham Lincoln in the Black Hawk War
During and , Lincoln worked at a general store in New Salem, Illinois.
Wilhelm winter biography of abraham lincoln for kids Add to My Battlefields Educators Library. The two saw each other for a few months, and marriage was considered. The war years were difficult for Abraham Lincoln and his family. As the war continued, many in the North came to resist the sacrifices required by the war, and recruiting declined.In , he declared his candidacy for the Illinois House of Representatives, but interrupted his campaign to serve as a captain in the Illinois Militia during the Black Hawk War. When Lincoln returned home from the Black Hawk War, he planned to become a blacksmith, but instead formed a partnership with year-old William Berry, with whom he purchased a New Salem general store on credit.
Because a license was required to sell customers beverages, Berry obtained bartending licenses for $7 each for Lincoln and himself, and in the Lincoln-Berry General Store became a tavern as well.[citation needed]
As licensed bartenders, Lincoln and Berry were able to sell spirits, including liquor, for 12 cents a pint.
They offered a wide range of alcoholic beverages as well as food, including takeout dinners. But Berry became an alcoholic, was often too drunk to work, and Lincoln ended up running the store by himself.[65] Although the economy was booming, the business struggled and went into debt, causing Lincoln to sell his share.[citation needed]
In his first campaign speech after returning from his military service, Lincoln observed a supporter in the crowd under attack, grabbed the assailant by his "neck and the seat of his trousers", and tossed him.
In the campaign, Lincoln advocated for navigational improvements on the Sangamon River. He could draw crowds as a raconteur, but lacked the requisite formal education, powerful friends, and money, and lost the election.[66] Lincoln finished eighth out of 13 candidates (the top four were elected), though he received of the votes cast in the New Salem precinct.
Lincoln served as New Salem's postmaster and later as county surveyor, but continued his voracious reading and decided to become a lawyer.[68] Rather than studying in the office of an established attorney, as was the custom, Lincoln borrowed legal texts from attorneys John Todd Stuart and Thomas Drummond, purchased books including Blackstone's Commentaries and Chitty's Pleadings, and read law on his own.[68] He later said of his legal education that "I studied with nobody."
Illinois state legislature (–)
Lincoln's second state house campaign in , this time as a Whig, was a success over a powerful Whig opponent.
Then followed his four terms in the Illinois House of Representatives for Sangamon County. He championed construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and later was a Canal Commissioner.[72] He voted to expand suffrage beyond white landowners to all white males, but adopted a "free soil" stance opposing both slavery and abolition.
In , he declared, "[The] Institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy, but the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its evils." He echoed Henry Clay's support for the American Colonization Society which advocated a program of abolition in conjunction with settling freed slaves in Liberia.
He was admitted to the Illinois bar on September 9, ,[77] and moved to Springfield and began to practice law under John T.
Stuart, Mary Todd's cousin. Lincoln emerged as a formidable trial combatant during cross-examinations and closing arguments. He partnered several years with Stephen T. Logan, and in , began his practice with William Herndon, "a studious young man".
On January 27, , Abraham Lincoln, then 28 years old, delivered his first major speech at the Lyceum in Springfield, Illinois, after the murder of newspaper editor Elijah Parish Lovejoy in Alton.
Lincoln warned that no trans-Atlantic military giant could ever crush the U.S. as a nation. "It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher", said Lincoln.[80][81] Prior to that, on April 28, , a black man, Francis McIntosh, was burned alive in St.
Louis, Missouri. Zann Gill describes how these two murders set off a chain reaction that ultimately prompted Abraham Lincoln to run for President.[82]
U.S. House of Representatives (–)
True to his record, Lincoln professed to friends in to be "an old line Whig, a disciple of Henry Clay".
Their party favored economic modernization in banking, tariffs to fund internal improvements including railroads, and urbanization.
In , Lincoln sought the Whig nomination for Illinois's 7th district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives; he was defeated by John J. Hardin, though he prevailed with the party in limiting Hardin to one term.
Lincoln not only pulled off his strategy of gaining the nomination in , but also won the election. He was the only Whig in the Illinois delegation, but as dutiful as any participated in almost all votes and made speeches that toed the party line. He was assigned to the Committee on Post Office and Post Roads and the Committee on Expenditures in the War Department.[86] Lincoln teamed with Joshua R.
Giddings on a bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia with compensation for the owners, enforcement to capture fugitive slaves, and a popular vote on the matter. He dropped the bill when it eluded Whig support.