Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in Kentucky. When he was 7 years old, his family moved to Indiana. There, he attended school briefly for he had to help his family with work. In 1830, his family moved to southern Illinois and settled in New Salem; where he worked as a shopkeeper and a postmaster. Lincoln became involved in local politics as a supporter of the Whig Party and as his heroes Henry Clayand Daniel Webster, he opposed the spread of slavery and had a vision of the expanding of the US focusing on commerce and cities rather than on agriculture.
Lincoln taught himself law, passing the bar examination in 1836. On 1837 he moved to Springfield, working as a lawyer and earning his reputation as “Honest Abe”. He met Mary Todd and married on 1942.
Lincoln won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1846 and began to work in 1847. He returned to Springfield on 1849 and promised not to seek reelection. Stephen Douglas, a Democrat in Congress, pushed through the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. On October 16, 1854 in Peoria, Lincoln went to debate against Douglas the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and he denounced slavery and its extension and called the institution a violation of the most basic points of the Declaration of Independence.
Abraham joined the new Republican Party in 1858 and ran for the Senate again that year. In June, Lincoln delivered his “house divided” speech, He then had several debates against Douglas, but lost the election against him. But, his performance made his reputation spread nationally. He became even more famous in 1860, when he delivered a speech at Cooper Union in New York. In May, 1960, Republicans chose Lincoln as their candidate and faced again his rival Douglas (Northern Democrats)meanwhile the Southern Democrats nominated John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky. Lincoln won most of the North and carried the Electoral College. After his election, seven southern states had seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. After Lincoln ordered a fleet of Union ships to supply South Carolina’s Fort Sumter in April, the Confederates fired towards the fort and Union fleet, and that began the Civil War
In January 1st, Lincoln created the Emancipation Proclamation and freed all of the slaves in the rebellious states.
Lincoln had a vision to reconstruct the country, however, he was killed before he could carry it out. On the night of April 14, John Wilkes Booth shot him in the back of the head. He died in the morning of April 15.
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