Abraham Lincoln Biography

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional and political crisis. In doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy.

Reared in a poor family on the western frontier, Lincoln was a self-educated lawyer in Illinois, a Whig Party leader, state legislator during the 1830s, and a one-term member of the Congress during the 1840s. He promoted rapid modernization of the economy through banks, canals, railroads and tariffs to encourage the building of factories; he opposed the war with Mexico in 1846. After a series of highly publicized debates in 1858, during which Lincoln spoke out against the expansion of slavery, he lost the U.S. Senate race to his archrival, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas.

In 1860 Lincoln secured the Republican Party presidential nomination as a moderate from a swing state. With very little support in the slave states, Lincoln swept the North and was elected president in 1860. Source: Wikipedia

Abraham Lincoln Timeline

• 1849-03-10
  Abraham Lincoln applies for a patent (the US president to do so) for a device to lift a boat over shoals and obstructions
• 1849-05-22
  Abraham Lincoln patents a buoying device
• 1854-10-04
  Abraham Lincoln made his 1st political speech at Illinois State Fair
• 1858-06-16
  Abraham Lincoln says "A house divided against itself cannot stand" accepting Illinois Republican Party's nomination for the Senate
• 1858-09-08
  Abraham Lincoln supposedly says in a speech "You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can't fool all of the people all the time"
• 1860-02-27
  Abraham Lincoln makes a speech at Cooper Union in the city of New York that is largely responsible for his election to the Presidency.
• 1860-05-16
  -18] Chicago: Republican convention selects Abraham Lincoln as candidate
• 1860-05-18
  Republican Party nominates Abraham Lincoln for president
• 1860-11-06
  Abraham Lincoln (Rep-R-Ill) elected 16th American President
• 1861-01-01
  President-elect of the United States Abraham Lincoln declares slavery in Confederate states unlawful (US Civil War)
• 1861-02-13
  Abraham Lincoln declared president in Washington DC
• 1861-03-04
  Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as 16th US President
• 1862-02-25
  Paper currency (greenbacks) introduced in US by Pres Abraham Lincoln
• 1862-08-14
  Abraham Lincoln receives the 1st group of African Americans to confer with a US president
• 1863-03-03
  Abraham Lincoln approves charter for National Academy of Sciences
• 1863-12-08
  Abraham Lincoln's Amnesty Proclamation and plan for Reconstruction of South
• 1864-06-07
  Abraham Lincoln renominated for US President by Republican Party
• 1864-11-08
  Abraham Lincoln (R) elected to his 2nd term as American President
• 1865-03-03
  US Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, & Abandoned Lands established by Abraham Lincoln to help destitute free blacks
• 1865-04-11
  Abraham Lincoln urges a spirit of generous conciliation during reconstruction
• 1865-04-14
  President Abraham Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater
• 1865-04-21
  Abraham Lincoln's funeral train leaves Washington
• 1887-04-10
  President Abraham Lincoln's re-buried with his wife in Springfield, Ilinois

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