Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in Hardin County Kentucky.  Abe was the second child of Thomas and Nancy Lincoln, and they had Abe in their log cabin. When Abe was 23 he bought a general store in Illinois, and that failed, so Abe decided to sell what he owned of the store. Abe decided to join the Illinois militia and ended up being the captain during the Black Hawk War. Once he returned he ran for the Illinois General Assembly. Abe failed to win the election, and finished 8th in the running.

In 1842, Lincoln married Mary Todd, and they proceeded to have four children, but only one of his children ended up living to be an adult. In 1846 Lincoln won the election for the House of Representatives, and after an unpopular run with that he took a break from politics. Once his break was over Abe ran for senate and despite multiple great debates he lost to Stephen Douglas, but he did gain some major levels of attention which helped in the long run. In May 1860 Lincoln became the republican candidate, and that is largely credited due to his debates against Stephen Douglas who happened to be who he faced in the General election. In the end Honest Abe won the White House to become the 16th President of the United States. Abraham Lincoln went before a large crowd to debate the merits of Kansas-Nebraska Act. As many know Lincoln didn’t really care for slavery, and many of the southerners didn’t like his views on it for most of them were pro slavery. When he was elected seven states had seceded and formed the confederate states of America.

The confederates started the Civil War. Lincoln knew that this would be no short nor easy victory, so he called for 500,000 troops after their hopes were destroyed at the Battle of Bull Run. Lincoln shocked everyone when he proved to be able to handle the country in war as he picked the best commanders and adapted quickly to the strategy. Abe knew what to do in certain situations when he suspended Habeas Corpus even though a majority of people hated this idea, but he believed that if he didn’t then they would have no shot at winning the war. After the Battle of Antietam on January 1, 1863, Lincoln delivered the Emancipation  Proclamation, reshaping the cause of the civil war to save slaves. Lincoln’s Proclamation stated that all individuals who were slaves in rebel states shall be free.

After the Proclamation, Lincoln delivered his most famous speech, The Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863. With a crowd of around 15,000 people he states in his speech about one of the deadliest battles in the world. The Gettysburg address states; “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that the nation might live.

It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this”. This explains how things were at the time during his Presidency. After serving 4 years as President while watching a play Abe was shot in the head by a confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth and he died the next day on April 15th 1865.