Abraham Lincoln is born
On this day in 1809 Abraham Lincoln is born in Hodgenville Kentucky.Lincoln one of Americas most admired presidents grew up a member of a poor family in Kentucky and Indiana.He attended school for only one year but thereafter read on his own in a continual effort to improve his mind.As an adult he lived in Illinois and performed a variety of jobs including stints as a postmaster surveyor and shopkeeper before entering politics.
He served in the Illinois legislature from 1834 to 1836 and then became an attorney.In 1842 Lincoln married Mary Todd together the pair raised four sons.Lincoln returned to politics during the 1850s a time when the nations long-standing division over slavery was flaring up particularly in new territories being added to the Union.As leader of the new Republican Party Lincoln was considered politically moderate even on the issue of slavery.
He advocated the restriction of slavery to the states in which it already existed and described the practice in a letter as a minor issue as late as 1854.In an 1858 senatorial race as secessionist sentiment brewed among the southern states he warned a house divided against itself cannot stand.He did not win the Senate seat but earned national recognition as a strong political force.
Lincolns inspiring oratory soothed a populace anxious about southern states secessionist threats and boosted his popularity.As a presidential candidate in the election of 1860 Lincoln tried to reassure slaveholding interests that although he favored abolition he had no intention of ending the practice in states where it already existed and prioritized saving the Union over freeing slaves.When he won the presidency by approximately 400000 popular votes and carried the Electoral College he was in effect handed a ticking time bomb.His concessions to slaveholders failed to prevent South Carolina from leading other states in an exodus from the Union that began shortly after his election.
By February 1 1861 Mississippi Florida Alabama Georgia Louisiana and Texas had also seceded.Soon after the Civil War began.As the war progressed Lincoln moved closer to committing himself and the nation to the abolitionist movement and in 1863 finally signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
The document freed slaves in the Confederate states but did not address the legality of slavery in Missouri Kansas Nebraska or Arkansas.Lincoln was the tallest president at 6 4.As a young man he impressed others with his sheer physical strengthhe was a legendary wrestler in Illinoisand entertained friends and strangers alike with his dry folksy wit which was still in evidence years later.Exasperated by one Civil War military defeat after another Lincoln wrote to a lethargic general if you are not using the army I should like to borrow it for awhile.
An animal lover Lincoln once declared I care not for a mans religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.Fittingly a variety of pets took up residence at the Lincoln White House including a pet turkey named Jack and a goat called Nanko.Lincolns son Tad frequently hitched Nanko to a small wagon and drove around the White House grounds.Lincolns sense of humor may have helped him to hide recurring bouts of depression.
He admitted to friends and colleagues that he suffered from intense melancholia and hypochondria most of his adult life.Perhaps in order to cope with it Lincoln engaged in self-effacing humor even chiding himself about his famously homely looks.When an opponent in an 1858 Senate race debate called him two-faced he replied If I had another face do you think I would wear this oneLincoln is remembered as The Great Emancipator.
Although he waffled on the subject of slavery in the early years of his presidency his greatest legacy was his work to preserve the Union and his signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.To Confederate sympathizers however Lincolns signing of the Emancipation Proclamation reinforced his image as a hated despot and ultimately led John Wilkes Booth to assassinate him on April 14 1865.His favorite horse Old Bob pulled his funeral hearse.
