Abe Lincoln ( that Bearded Guy ) Essay, Research Paper

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States. Born in a log cabin in the back countries, Lincoln was about wholly self-educated. In 1831 he settled in New Salem, Ill. , and worked as a shopkeeper, surveyor, and postmaster while analyzing jurisprudence. The narrative of his brief love matter at that place with Anne Rutledge is now discredited. In 1834 he was elected to the province legislative assembly, and in 1836 he became a attorney. He served one term ( 1847? 49 ) in Congress as a Whig ; in 1855 he sought to go a senator but failed. In 1856 he joined the new Republican Party. He ran once more in 1858 for the Senate against Stephen A. Douglas, and in a spirited run he and Douglas engaged in seven arguments. Lincoln was non an emancipationist, but he regarded bondage as an immorality and opposed its extension. Although he lost the election, he had by now made a name for himself, and in 1860 he was nominated by the Republicans for president. He ran against a divided Democratic party and was elected with a minority of the popular ballot. To the South, Lincoln & # 8217 ; s election was a signal for sezession. By Inauguration Day seven provinces had seceded, and four more seceded af

ter he issued a summons to the militia. It is generally agreed that Lincoln handled the vast problems of the Civil War with skill and vigor. Besides conducting the war, he faced opposition in the North from radical abolitionists, who considered him too mild, and from conservatives, who were gloomy over the prospects of success in the war. His cabinet was rent by internal hatred, and the progress of the war went against the North at first. In 1863 he moved to free the slaves by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, but preserving the Union remained his main war aim. His thoughts on the war were beautifully expressed in the Gettysburg Address (1863). In 1864 Lincoln ran for reelection against George B. McClellan and won, partly because of the favorable turn of military affairs after his appointment of General Ulysses Grant as commander-in-chief. Lincoln saw the end of the war but did not live to implement his plan for Reconstruction. On Apr. 14, 1865, while attending a play at Ford’s Theater, in Washington, D.C., he was shot by the actor John Wilkes Booth. He died the next morning. As time passed a full-blown “Lincoln legend” grew, and he became the object of adulation and a symbol of democracy.