Abraham Lincoln: (1809-1865) 16^th President of America

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky.

Abraham was elected to the lower house of the Illinois legislature in 1834 until 1841.  He became a lawyer in 1836, and in 1837 he moved to Springfield and built up a successful practice. He married Mary Todd on Nov. 4, 1842.

Lincoln was inaugurated as 16^th President of the United States in March 1861.  By then seven states had seceded from the Union.  On April 12, 1861 South Carolina fired on Fort Sumter, the Civil War had began.

Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 declaring the slaves within the Confederacy to be free forever.   On April 14, 1865, just five days after Lee's surrender at Appomattox, President Lincoln attended a performance at Fords Theater in Washington, were John Wilkes Booth fatally shot the President.  He died the next morning.

Photographs:

Lincoln Bust   

Further Reading:

Library of Congress, Abraham Lincoln Papers

Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

Northern Illinois University, Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project

PBS, The Time of the Lincolns, 1809-1882

The White House, Presidential Biographies, Abraham Lincoln