Abraham Lincoln

(1809 - 1865 )

Who was Abraham Lincoln ?

    "Honest Abe" Lincoln was born in Kentucky along the frontier. He worked on a farm, and in a store in Illinois. He was a captain in the Black Hawk War, served in the Illinois legislature, and was a circuit judge. In 1858 the Lincoln-Douglas debates gave him national fame, though he lost the election for Senator.

    Abraham Lincoln became President and said in firm words that the fate of the Union would rest in the hands of the South, and that he would obey his oath, "the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend" the Union. Lincoln detested war, but when it came, he accepted the inevitable as the only means of preserving the Union. Following the war, Lincoln viewed the ex-Confederate States as states who had tried to secede, but never left the Union. On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln is often considered the greatest President in U.S. history.