Abraham Lincoln

Orator , Statesman , Reformer 

Born: February 12, 1809, Hodgenville 
Died: April 15, 1865, Petersen House   
Height: 1.93 m 
Spouse: Mary Todd Lincoln (m. 1842–1865)
Children: Robert Todd Lincoln, William Wallace Lincoln, Tad Lincoln, Edward Baker Lincoln 
Vice presidents: Andrew Johnson, Hannibal Hamlin

Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States (1861-65) was a great nation builder. He led his country through a great crisis, the American Civil War (1861), which ended slavery. His conviction in human freedom and his untiring efforts to unify his country wins him a place among great nation-builders.

Born in a poor family, Lincoln was mostly self-educated. He became a lawyer, a state legislator, and a member of the US House of Representatives. He opposed slavery in his election campaign. He failed twice in elections but as a Republican candidate he was elected president in 1860 and remained in office from March 4, 1861, to April 15, 1865. He waged war against break-away southern states (the Confederacy) in April 1861, reunified the country and put an end to slavery in his Emancipation Proclamation (1863).

He led the moderate faction of his party and came under attack even from some members of his own party who wanted harsher treatment of the south, whereas the secessionists despised him. Lincoln fought back by pitting his opponents against each other, and by appealing to the American people with his powers of oratory. His famous Gettysburg Address (1863) is the most quoted speech in America.

After the Civil War, he focused on reconstruction and reconciliation. Unfortu­nately, just six days after the surrender of Confederate army, Lincoln was shot dead by a Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth at a theatre in Wash­ington, DC. This was the first assassination of a US president. Lincoln is ranked as one of the greatest presidents of America, and his name will go in the annals of history as the man who gave his life to uphold human freedom.

“I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said desig­nated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the mili­tary and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.”

  The Emancipation Proclamation Januaiy 1, 1863.