His presidency was dominated by the American Civil War.
Abraham Lincoln was born on 12 February 1809 near Hodgenville,
Kentucky. He was brought up in Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. His parents were
poor pioneers and Lincoln was largely self-educated. In 1836, he qualified as a
lawyer and went to work in a law practice in Springfield, Illinois. He sat in
the state legislature from 1834 to 1842 and in 1846 was elected to Congress,
representing the Whig Party for a term. In 1856, he joined the new Republican
Party and in 1860 he was asked to run as their presidential candidate.
In the presidential campaign, Lincoln made his opposition to
slavery very clear. His victory provoked a crisis, with many southerners
fearing that he would attempt to abolish slavery in the South. Seven southern
states left the Union to form the Confederate States of America, also known as
the Confederacy. Four more joined later. Lincoln vowed to preserve the Union
even if it meant war. Fighting broke out in April 1861. Lincoln always defined
the Civil War as a struggle to save the Union, but in January 1863 he
nonetheless issued the
Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in areas
still under Confederate control. This was an
important symbolic gesture that identified the Union's
struggle as a war to end slavery.
On 19 November 1863, Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg
Address at the dedication of a cemetery at the site of the Battle of
Gettysburg, a decisive Union victory that had taken place earlier in the year.
On 9 April 1865, the Confederate general Robert E Lee
surrendered, effectively ending the war. It had lasted for more than four years
and 600,000 Americans had died. Less than a week later, Lincoln was shot while
attending a performance at Ford's Theatre in Washington DC and died the next
morning, 15 April 1865. His assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was a strong supporter
of the Confederacy.
5:15 PM
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