Abraham LincIn , A great man and leader

                         Name - Abraham LincIn 

                      Full Name - Abraham LincIn

        Nick names - Honest Abe,The Great Emancipator

                Birth  Place- Hodgenville ,Kentucky 

                     Date of Birth -February 12 ,1809

                        Death Date- April 15, 1865

                    Place of Death- Washington,D.C.

          Occupation - Sixteenth President of United State

 Abraham Lincoln was born in Hardin County, Kentucky on February 12, 1809. He moved to Indiana in 1816 and lived there the rest of his youth. His mother died when he was nine but he was very close to his stepmother who urged him to read. Lincoln himself stated that he had about one year of formal education. However, he was taught by many different individuals. He loved to read and learn from any books he could get his hands on.Father: Thomas Lincoln - farmer and carpenter

Mother: Nancy Hanks - died when Lincoln was nine. His stepmother, Sarah Bush Johnston, was very close to him.
Siblings: Sarah Grigsby was the only sibling to live to maturity.
Wife: Mary Todd - grew up in relative wealth. Four of her siblings fought for the South. She was considered mentally unbalanced.
Children: Edward - died at age 3 in 1850; Robert Todd - lawyer and diplomat; William Wallace - the only president's child to die in the White House, and Thomas "Tad" - died at 18.

LincIn Told Himself-

("I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families--second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks.... My father ... removed from Kentucky to ... Indiana, in my eighth year.... It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up.... Of course when I came of age I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher ... but that was all.")




Abraham Lincoln is regarded as one of America's greatest heroes due to both his incredible impact on the nation and his unique appeal. His is a remarkable story of the rise from humble beginnings to achieve the highest office in the land; then, a sudden and tragic death at a time when his country needed him most to complete the great task remaining before the nation. Lincoln's distinctively human and humane personality and historical role as savior of the Union and emancipator of the slaves creates a legacy that endures. His eloquence of democracy and his insistence that the Union was worth saving embody the ideals of self-government that all nations strive to achieve.
Law Career
In March, 1830, the family again migrated, this time to Macon County, Illinois. When his father moved the family again to Coles County, 22-year-old Abraham Lincoln struck out on this own, making a living in manual labor.  At six feet four inches tall, Lincoln was rawboned and lanky, but muscular and physically strong. He spoke with a backwoods twang and walked with a long-striding gait. He was known for his skill in wielding an ax and early on made a living splitting wood for fire and rail fencing. Young Lincoln eventually migrated to the small community of New Salem, Illinois where over a period of years he worked as a shopkeeper, postmaster, and eventually general store owner. It was here that Lincoln, working with the public, acquired social skills and honed story-telling talent that made him popular with the locals. When the Black Hawk War broke out in 1832 between the United States and Native Americans, the volunteers in the area elected Lincoln to be their captain. He saw no combat during this time, save for "a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes," but was able to make several important political connections.
After the Black Hawk War, Abraham Lincoln began his political career and was elected to the Illinois state legislature in 1834 as a member of the Whig Party. He supported the Whig politics of government-sponsored infrastructure and protective tariffs. This political understanding led him to formulate his early views on slavery, not so much as a moral wrong, but as an impediment to economic development. It was around this time that he decided to become a lawyer, teaching himself the law by reading William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England. After being admitted to the bar in 1837, he moved to Springfield, Illinois and began to practice in the John T. Stuart law firm.
It was soon after this that he purportedly met and became romantically involved with Anne Rutledge. Before they had a chance to be engaged, a wave of typhoid fever came over New Salem and Anne died at age 22. Her death was said to have left Lincoln severely depressed. However, several historians disagree on the extent of Lincoln’s relationship with Rutledge and his level of sorrow at her death may be more the makings of legend.
In 1844, Abraham Lincoln partnered with William Herndon in the practice of law. Though the two had different jurisprudent styles, they developed a close professional and personal relationship. Lincoln made a good living in his early years as a lawyer, but found that Springfield alone didn't offer enough work, so to supplement his income, he followed the court as it made its rounds on the circuit to the various county seats in Illinois.

Learn Best Information technology tutorials 

Bid for the Presidency - 1860:
Lincoln was nominated for the presidency by the Republican Party with Hannibal Hamlin as his running mate. He ran on a platform denouncing disunion and calling for an end to slavery in the territories. The Democrats were divided with Stephen Douglas representing the Democrats and John Breckinridge the National (Southern) Democrats. John Bell ran for the Constitutional Union Party which basically took votes from Douglas. In the end, Lincoln won 40% of the popular vote and 180 of the 303 electors. 
Reelection in 1864:

The Republicans, now the National Union Party, had some concern that Lincoln wouldn't win but still renominated him with Andrew Johnson as his Vice President. Their platform demanded unconditional surrender and the official end to slavery. His opponent, George McClellan, had been relieved as the head of the Union armies by Lincoln. His platform was that the war was a failure, and Lincoln had taken away too many civil liberties. Lincoln won because the war turned in the North's favor during the campaign.

Civil War

Abraham Lincoln responded to the crisis wielding powers as no other president before him. He distributed $2 million from the Treasury for war material without an appropriation from Congress; he called for 75,000 volunteers into military service without a declaration of war; and he suspended the writ of habeas corpus, arresting and imprisoning suspected Confederate sympathizers without a warrant. Crushing the rebellion would be difficult under any circumstances, but the Civil War, with its preceding decades of white-hot partisan politics, was especially onerous. From all directions, Lincoln faced disparagement and defiance. He was often at odds with his generals, his Cabinet, his party and a majority of the American people.
The Union Army's first year and a half of battlefield defeats made it especially difficult to keep morale up and support strong for a reunification the nation. With the hopeful, but by no means conclusive Union victory at Antietam on September 22, 1862, Abraham felt confident enough to reshape the cause of the war from "union" to abolishing slavery. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, which stated that all individuals who were held as slaves "henceforward shall be free."
Gradually, the war effort improved for the North, though more by attrition than by brilliant military victories. But by 1864, the Confederacy had hunkered down to a guerilla war and Lincoln was convinced he'd be a one-term president. His nemesis, George B. McClellan, the former commander of the Army of the Potomac, challenged him for the presidency, but the contest wasn't even close. Lincoln received 55 percent of the popular vote and 212 of 243 Electoral votes. On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Virginia, surrendered his forces to Union General Ulysses S. Grant and the war for all intents and purposes was over.
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln:

On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated while attending a play at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. Actor John Wilkes Booth shot him in the back of the head before jumping onto the stage and escaping to Maryland. Lincoln died on April 15th.
On April 26th, Booth was found hiding in a barn which was set on fire. He was then shot and killed. Eight conspirators were punished for their roles. Learn about the details and the  conspiracies surrounding Lincoln's assassination.
Events and Accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln's Presidency:

The main event of Lincoln's presidency was the Civil War that lasted from 1861-65. Eleven states seceded from the Union, and Lincoln firmly believed in the importance of not only defeating the Confederation but eventually reuniting North and South.
In September 1862, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This freed the slaves in all Southern states. In 1864, Lincoln promoted Ulysses S. Grant to be Commander of all Union forces. Sherman's raid on Atlanta helped clench Lincoln's reelection in 1864. In April, 1865, Richmond fell and Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse. During the Civil War, Lincoln curbed civil liberties including suspending the writ of habeas corpus. However, at the end of the Civil War, the Confederate officers were allowed to return home with dignity. In the end, the war was the most costly in American history. Slavery was forever ended with the passage of the 13th amendment.
Due to opposition to Virginia's secession from the Union, West Virginia broke off from the state in 1863 and was admitted to the Union. Also, Nevada was made a state in 1864.
Other than the Civil War, during Lincoln's administration the Homestead Act was passed which allowed squatters to take title to 160 acres of land after having lived in it for five years which helped populate the Great Plains.

Learn Best Information technology tutorials 

Quotes from Abraham Lincoln



"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

"If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong."
"Among free men there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and those who take such appeal are sure to lose their cause and pay the costs."
"As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it, "All men are created equal, except Negroes." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read, "All men are created equal except Negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics." When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some other country where they make no pretense of loving liberty - to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, without the base alloy of hypocrisy."
"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men."
"Truth is generally the best vindication against slander."
"What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried?"
"Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all."
"'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other."
"It is true that you may fool all of 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."

Learn Best Information technology tutorials 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

William Shakespeare as a poet

Biography of Henrik Ibsen