President Abraham Lincoln

President Abraham Lincoln
Alexander Gardner · Public domain · source
Name	Abraham Lincoln
Caption	Portrait by Mathew Brady photographer Napoleon Sarony, c. 1860
Birth date	February 12, 1809
Birth place	Hodgenville, Kentucky
Death date	April 15, 1865
Death place	Washington, D.C.
Office	16th President of the United States
Party	Republican Party
Vice president	Hannibal Hamlin (1861–1865); Andrew Johnson (1865)
Term start	March 4, 1861
Term end	April 15, 1865

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President Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln served as the 16th President of the United States and led the nation through the American Civil War. He is renowned for issuing the Emancipation Proclamation and promoting the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Lincoln's leadership reshaped the Republican Party, influenced figures like Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman, and left a lasting impact on American political development.

Early life and education

Born near Hodgenville, Kentucky, Lincoln grew up on the frontier in Perry County, Indiana and Coles County, Illinois. He was the son of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, worked as a rail-splitter and store clerk, and served briefly in the Black Hawk War. Largely self-educated, Lincoln read works by William Shakespeare, John Locke, Blackstone, and Thomas Paine, studied law under mentors including John T. Stuart, and was admitted to the bar in Illinois.

Lincoln served in the Illinois General Assembly and represented Illinois in the United States House of Representatives (1847–1849), where he opposed the Mexican–American War and critiqued the Wilmot Proviso debates. Returning to Illinois, he practiced law with partners like William Herndon and engaged in high-profile cases against figures such as Stephen A. Douglas. Lincoln reemerged nationally during the Lincoln–Douglas debates of 1858 while contesting the United States Senate seat, refining positions on the Kansas–Nebraska Act and slavery that elevated him within the fledgling Republican Party.

Elected in 1860 after splitting the Democratic Party vote, Lincoln's victory precipitated the secession of states including South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, and Alabama, which formed the Confederate States of America under Jefferson Davis. Lincoln navigated crises at Forts Sumter and Pickens and appointed cabinet members like William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edwin Stanton, and Gideon Welles. His administration enacted measures such as the Homestead Act, the creation of the United States Department of Agriculture, the passage of the Pacific Railway Acts, and the establishment of the National Banking Acts to finance the war.

Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation following the Battle of Antietam and declared freedom for enslaved people in rebellious states effective January 1, 1863, while exempting border states like Kentucky and Maryland. He supported the passage of what became the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and debated civil rights measures with figures such as Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, and Fredrick Douglass. Lincoln also promoted policies like compensated colonization discussions involving Freedmen's villages and engaged with abolitionists including William Lloyd Garrison and Sojourner Truth.

Lincoln served as commander-in-chief, supervising generals from Irvin McDowell to George B. McClellan, Ambrose Burnside, Joseph Hooker, George G. Meade, and ultimately Ulysses S. Grant, while liaising with naval leaders like David Farragut. He balanced political pressures from Congress, Northern governors, and party factions while coordinating campaigns such as the Peninsula Campaign, the Vicksburg Campaign, the Gettysburg Campaign, and Sherman's March to the Sea. Lincoln authorized blockades via the Anaconda Plan proponents, expanded the United States Army and United States Navy, and used wartime powers including suspension of habeas corpus in crises like the Baltimore riots and controversies involving Ex parte Merryman.

On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre by actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth and died on April 15 at Petersen House. His assassination reverberated through legislatures such as the United States Congress and prompted national mourning, influencing the course of Reconstruction overseen by Andrew Johnson and contested by Radical Republicans like Benjamin Wade. Lincoln's legacy endures in memorials including the Lincoln Memorial, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, and institutions such as the Library of Congress; his speeches, notably the Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address, remain central texts for scholars of American political thought and leaders worldwide.