Research Project on Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was an exceptional man. He was not just a president, but also a man with a companionate heart who felt the importance of individual freedom. He believed slavery was evil and wanted to do away with it. During his presidency the North and South were fighting over the issue of slavery. Lincoln knew if the North and South split up into two separate Countries his great vision of the U.S. to be a governing body in Union would be diminished.

The future president of the USA was born on a farm. He had a sister named Sarah who was already one year old. Abraham and Sarah attended a log schoolhouse where they learned reading, writing and arithmetic. Nancy Lincoln then gave birth to her third child, Thomas, but it died in infancy. At a very young age Abraham was taught by his father Thomas Lincoln, slavery was wrong. Lincoln’s father had a big influence on his life.

Many people believe Lincoln grew up in poverty because he grew up in a log cabin. This is not true, for many people back then lived in log cabins. The Lincoln’s were as comfortable as most of their neighbors, and Abraham and Sarah were fed and well clothed for the times.

Around the house Abraham would make himself useful by chopping wood. Although he was only eight, he was large for his age and could work up enough strength to swing an ax. For as long as he lived in Indiana, he was seldom without his ax. He later called it “that most useful instrument.”

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The Lincoln family became dull and cheerless on October 1818, when Nancy Lincoln died of what pioneers called “milk sickness”. Sarah, at the age of 12, tried her best to take care of the house. After a year Thomas Lincoln married Sarah Johnson in 1819. The new marriage ended the long months of loneliness.

At the age of 20 Abraham was so strong he had no trouble finding work. He started out splitting logs for fence rails, plowing fields, cutting and husking corn and threshing wheat with a flail. The first money he earned was for rowing passengers to a steamboat in midstream on the Ohio River.

In 1831, a trader named Denton Offutt hired Abraham, along with two other young men, to be a clerk in his store. There he lived in a room at the rear of the store. While Lincoln lived there his family moved once again to Coles County where they lived for the rest of their lives.

From 1831 to 1837 Abe Lincoln lived in New Salem. This is where he started his own life away from his family. The towns’ people were very friendly to him. Women would mend his clothing and give him meals. By 1882 Offutt’s business failed and Lincoln would have been out of a job if it weren’t for the Black Hawk War.

Lincoln volunteered for service in the militia. While serving the men elected him captain. This happened just nine months after he moved into the village. This gave Lincoln much pleasure. He truly had a gift of leadership. His friends admired his friendliness, honesty, skill at storytelling, and the strength and sportsmanship he showed in wrestling matches and other contests.

In March of 1832 Lincoln announced his candidacy for the state legislature. He was encouraged by many of his friends to become a candidate. Unfortunately the Black Hawk war prevented him from making much of a campaign. He returned from the war just two weeks from the election, and lost. The people in his own village gave him 277 out of their 300 votes.

Lincoln soon faced the problems of making a living. He first thought about studding law but decided he couldn’t succeed without a better education. Then he had a chance to buy a New Salem store on credit, with a guy named William F. Berry, and he did. The store soon failed after a few months. He later, in 1833, became a postmaster of New Salem, but in 1835 Berry died leaving Lincoln liable for the debts from the store, which totaled about $1,100 (different money value in 1833). It took him several years to pay off but he finally did it earning him the nick name “Honest Abe.”

Here is a little insight into Lincoln’s love life. A girl Lincoln knew named Ann Rutledge died in 1835, he grieved deeply leading people to believe that he and Ann had planned to be married. Historians have closely studied this and made this belief out to be nothing but a myth. Historians supported this by the fact that Lincoln proposed marriage to a Kentucky girl, Mary Owens, less than 18 months later. He met her while she was visiting her sister in New Salem. The affair didn’t have much affection in it so the relationship ended. Lincoln then started focusing on what he was doing in life.

In 1834, Lincoln ran for the legislature again and won the election as part of the Whig Party. While in legislature, Lincoln made his first public statement on slavery. Lincoln and another legislator, Dan Stone, filed a protest against the legislature passing resolutions condemning abolition societies. They also declared “the institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy.”

When he moved to Springfield he met Mary Todd, a woman from Kentucky. They had a tough relationship and at one time broke the engagements. They were married on November 4, 1842 when he was 33 and she was 23.

Lincoln’s first son Robert was born soon after the wedding. His second son was named Edward but died four years later. Then William was born in 1850 but died at the age of 11. Lincoln grieved Williams death deeply and Mrs. Lincoln was extremely depressed and could not be helped. Lincolns last son Thomas died in 1871 at the age of 18 from an illness. None of Lincoln’s children lived past the age of 18. He deeply loved his children.

Lincoln was always against slavery but he never became an abolitionist. He wanted people to realize that slavery was evil, and should be done away with. He became apart of the U.S. Senate in 1858, making remarks about slavery. He said the U.S. could not become powerful and the government would not be able to function if half of the U.S. was slave and the other half free. He knew the U.S. would become one or the other. When Lincoln ran for senate against Douglas, Douglas ignored the moral question of slavery but Lincoln regarded slavery “as a moral, social, and political evil.”

On March 4, 1861 Lincoln’s big day came when he took the oath of office and became the 16th president of the United States. In his first speech as president, Lincoln denied that he had any intention of interfering with slavery in States where the Constitution protected it. He may have said this to prevent other people in the government to think negative things about him. Not many politics supported getting rid of slavery.

Lincoln felt the breakup of the American nation would be a tragedy. He thought everyone would suffer. He strongly believed the United States stood for a place where people could govern themselves. If the U.S. failed to do this he thought monarchs, dictators, and their supporters would say they weren’t capable of ruling themselves and someone must rule them.

In 1862, Lincoln felt the policy on slavery should be changed. He wrote up a proclamation but waited till the North had won a victory in the battle of Antietam September 17, 1862, to read it. The Proclamation was a statement saying all slaves in states that were still fighting as of January 1, 1863 would be free. On this day he gave his final proclamation. The proclamation did not actually free the slaves because federal officers could not enforce it. Lincoln repeatedly urged those states to free their slaves, and to pay the owners for their loss. The failure if the states to follow his advice were one of his great disappointments. This proclamation gave way for the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment, adopted in December 1865, ended slavery in all parts of the United States.

Many writers believe Lincoln scribbled his speech while traveling on the train to Gettysburg. This is not true. He prepared the speech carefully, well in advance of the ceremonies, although he completed it in Gettysburg. Lincolns famous line from the Gettysburg address “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth” ____________ laid out what democracy was forever.

Lincoln served as president for the second time on March 4, 1865. At this time the war was coming to an end with the Southern armies wasting away. Lincoln took this as an opportunity to bring the nation back together. In his first speech as being president for the second time he said the Civil War must be used to fight slavery. He said it was God’s will for the North and South to pay the price of slavery together and to maintain their faith in God’s goodness and justice even if the war continued.

Pictures of this day were taken and they reflected four years of war. His face was deeply lined. He didn’t get much sleep worrying about the fighting and he developed black circles under his eyes. Lincoln ate irregular meals and had almost no relaxation time. Yet out of all this he still found time to see widows and soldiers who called the White House.

On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. Under authority from Lincoln, Grant extended generous terms to Lee and his army. The North was very pleased when the war was over.

On the evening of April 14, 1865, Lincoln attended a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater in Washington. A well-known actor by the name of John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln in the head. Lincoln was carried unconscious to a neighboring house where family and government officials surrounded him. Lincoln died at 7:22 a.m. on April 15.

While being president Lincoln was criticized. After his death even his enemies appreciated his kind spirit and selflessness. Millions of people had called him “Father Abraham.” They grieved as they would have grieved at the loss of a father. A train carried Lincoln’s body from west of Washington and moved across the country as people stood by the tracks to say goodbye. On May 4, Lincoln was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois. Lincoln’s death didn’t make him more famous. It made people reflect on his life and realize all the things he has done for not only themselves but for their country.

The U.S. has never been introduced to a man so exceptional as Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln compared to the Earth is just a drop of water, but when a drop falls into a body of water it makes ripples that effects the entire body. This is how Lincoln lived, as he kept adding ripples to his life. He fought against slavery, not only because he thought it was wrong but also he knew if the fighting between the North and South over slavery went too far it would lead to a break up in the American nation. Without Abraham Lincoln the U.S. may not be a strong of country as it is now and the North and South could be separate countries, one with slaves and the other without, or the people of the U.S. may not be governing themselves. Every ripple in Lincoln’s life helped shape what America stands for today; a free country and the most powerful nation in the world.

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