Abraham Lincoln - The sixteenth President of the United States

Abraham Lincoln became the 16th President of the United States in 1861. During his presidency, he led the nation through its greatest internal conflict—the Civil War—and in 1863, issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared all slaves in Confederate-held territory to be forever free.

In his First Inaugural Address, Lincoln directly addressed the Southern states, emphasizing his commitment to preserving the Union:

‍"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war... You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it."

Lincoln viewed secession as unconstitutional and was prepared to use military force to uphold federal law and keep the Union intact. After Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter, he called on the states for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the rebellion. The war officially began, and while four additional slave states joined the Confederacy, four others remained loyal to the Union.

Born on February 12, 1809, in a log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky, Lincoln came from humble beginnings. In a brief autobiographical note written months before his presidential nomination, he recalled:

‍"I was born… of undistinguished families… It was a wild region… There I grew up… Somehow, I could read, write, and cipher—but that was all."

Lincoln worked tirelessly to educate himself while doing manual labor, including splitting rails and clerking in a general store. He served as a captain in the Black Hawk War, spent eight years in the Illinois legislature, and traveled as a circuit-riding lawyer. His law partner once said, “His ambition was a little engine that knew no rest.”

Lincoln married Mary Todd, and together they had four sons, only one of whom survived into adulthood. In 1858, he ran for the U.S. Senate against Stephen A. Douglas. Though he lost, the debates earned him national attention and led to his Republican nomination for president in 1860.

As president, Lincoln strengthened the Republican Party and successfully united most Northern Democrats behind the Union cause. His Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 reframed the Civil War as not only a battle to save the Union, but a moral struggle over slavery.

He reinforced this vision in his famed Gettysburg Address, stating:

"…that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Re-elected in 1864 amid military victories, Lincoln began planning for a peaceful and swift reunification of the nation. His approach was defined by compassion and clarity, as expressed in his Second Inaugural Address:

‍"With malice toward none; with charity for all… let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds."

Tragically, Lincoln was assassinated by actor John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865—just days after the war's end. His death not only shocked the nation but also dimmed the prospects of a lenient and healing Reconstruction. Lincoln's legacy as a unifier and emancipator continues to define the American presidency.