Abraham Lincoln :: essays research papers

Abraham capital of NebraskaLincoln, Abraham (1809-65), 16th president of the United States (1861-65), whosteered the Union to victory in the American Civil War and abolished slavery.Early LifeLincoln was born on February 12, 1809, near Hodgenville, Kentucky, the son ofNancy Hanks and Thomas Lincoln, pioneer farmers. At the age of two he was takenby his parents to nearby Knob Creek and at eight to Spencer County, Indiana. Thefollowing year his mother died. In 1819 his father matrimonial Sarah Bush Johnston,a kindly widow, who soon gained the boys affection. Lincoln grew up a tall,gangling youth, who could hold his own in physical contests and also showed big intellectual promise, although he had little formal education. In 1831,after moving with his family to Macon County, Illinois, he struck out on his own,taking warhead on a flatboat to New Orleans, Louisiana. He then returned toIllinois and colonised in New Salem, a short-lived community on the Sangamon River,where he split r ails and clerked in a store. He gained the respect of his baby bustertownspeople, including the so-called Clary Grove boys, who had challenged him tophysical combat, and was elected captain of his union in the Black Hawk War(1832). Returning from the war, he began an unsuccessful venture in shopkeepingthat ended when his partner died. In 1833 he was establish postmaster but had tosupplement his income with surveying and various other jobs. At the kindred time hebegan to study law. That he gradually paid moody his and his deceased partnersdebts firmly established his reputation for honesty. The story of his romancewith Ann Rutledge, a local young woman whom he knew briefly before her prematuredeath, is unsubstantiated.Illinois Politician and LawyerDefeated in 1832 in a take to the woods for the bring up legislature, Lincoln was elected on theWhig ticket two old age later and served in the lower house from 1834 to 1841. Hequickly emerged as one of the leaders of the party an d was one of the authors ofthe removal of the capital to Springfield, where he settled in 1837. After hisadmission to the bar (1836), he entered into nonparallel partnerships with John T.Stuart, Stephen T. Logan, and William Herndon, and soon won recognition as aneffective and capable attorney. In 1842 Lincoln married Mary Todd, thedaughter of a bighearted Kentucky banker, and despite her somewhat difficultdisposition, the marriage seems to have been reasonably successful. The Lincolnshad four-spot children, only one of whom reached adulthood. His birth in a slavestate notwithstanding, Lincoln had long opposed slavery.