Nostalgia USA September 2016 Civil War Edition Civil War Annual Editon 2016 | Page 22

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 ? April 15, 1865) was the 16th
President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his
assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its
Civil War? its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional, and
political crisis. In doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery,
strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy.
Born in Hodgenville, Kentucky, Lincoln grew up on the western frontier
in Kentucky and Indiana. Largely self-educated, he became a lawyer in
Illinois, a Whig Party leader, and a member of the Illinois House of
Representatives, where he served from 1834 to 1846. Elected to the
United States House of Representatives in 1846, Lincoln promoted
rapid modernization of the economy through banks, tariffs, and
railroads. Because he had originally agreed not to run for a second term
in Congress, and because his opposition to the Mexican?American War
was unpopular among Illinois voters, Lincoln returned to Springfield
and resumed his successful law practice. Reentering politics in 1854, he
became a leader in building the new Republican Party, which had a
statewide majority in Illinois. In 1858, while taking part in a series of
highly publicized debates with his opponent and rival, Democrat
Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln spoke out against the expansion of slavery,
but lost the U.S. Senate race to Douglas.
In 1860, Lincoln secured the Republican Party presidential nomination
as a moderate from a swing state. With very little support in the
slaveholding states of the South, he swept the North and was elected
president in 1860. His victory prompted seven southern slave states to
form the Confederate States of America before he moved into the
White House - no compromise or reconciliation was found regarding
slavery and secession. Subsequently, on April 12, 1861, a Confederate
attack on Fort Sumter inspired the North to enthusiastically rally behind
the Union in a declaration of war.