208 Facts About Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865.

Abraham Lincoln was born into poverty in a log cabin in Kentucky and was raised on the frontier, primarily in Indiana.

Abraham Lincoln was self-educated and became a lawyer, Whig Party leader, Illinois state legislator, and US Congressman from Illinois.

Abraham Lincoln soon became a leader of the new Republican Party.

Abraham Lincoln reached a national audience in the 1858 Senate campaign debates against Stephen A Douglas.

Abraham Lincoln ran for president in 1860, sweeping the North to gain victory.

Just over one month after Abraham Lincoln assumed the presidency, the Confederate States attacked Fort Sumter, a US fort in South Carolina.

Abraham Lincoln managed the factions by exploiting their mutual enmity, carefully distributing political patronage, and by appealing to the American people.

Abraham Lincoln closely supervised the strategy and tactics in the war effort, including the selection of generals, and implemented a naval blockade of the South's trade.

Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus in Maryland and elsewhere, and averted British intervention by defusing the Trent Affair.

Abraham Lincoln sought to heal the war-torn nation through reconciliation.

Abraham Lincoln is remembered as a martyr and a national hero for his wartime leadership and for his efforts to preserve the Union and abolish slavery.

Abraham Lincoln is often ranked in both popular and scholarly polls as the greatest president in American history.

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12,1809, the second child of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, in a log cabin on Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky.

Abraham Lincoln was a descendant of Samuel Lincoln, an Englishman who migrated from Hingham, Norfolk, to its namesake, Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1638.

Abraham Lincoln's children, including eight-year-old Thomas, Abraham's father, witnessed the attack.

Thomas Abraham Lincoln bought or leased farms in Kentucky before losing all but 200 acres of his land in court disputes over property titles.

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln noted that the family's move to Indiana was "partly on account of slavery", but mainly due to land title difficulties.

On October 5,1818, Nancy Lincoln died from milk sickness, leaving 11-year-old Sarah in charge of a household including her father, 9-year-old Abraham, and Nancy's 19-year-old orphan cousin, Dennis Hanks.

Abraham Lincoln became close to his stepmother and called her "Mother".

Abraham Lincoln's stepmother acknowledged he did not enjoy "physical labor", but loved to read.

Abraham Lincoln persisted as an avid reader and retained a lifelong interest in learning.

Abraham Lincoln was tall, strong, and athletic, and became adept at using an ax.

Abraham Lincoln was an active wrestler during his youth and trained in the rough catch-as-catch-can style.

Abraham Lincoln became county wrestling champion at the age of 21.

Abraham Lincoln gained a reputation for strength and audacity after winning a wrestling match with the renowned leader of ruffians known as "the Clary's Grove Boys".

In March 1830, fearing another milk sickness outbreak, several members of the extended Lincoln family, including Abraham, moved west to Illinois, a free state, and settled in Macon County.

Abraham Lincoln then became increasingly distant from Thomas, in part due to his father's lack of education.

In 1831, as Thomas and other family prepared to move to a new homestead in Coles County, Illinois, Abraham Lincoln struck out on his own.

Abraham Lincoln made his home in New Salem, Illinois, for six years.

Rutledge died on August 25,1835, most likely of typhoid fever; saying that he could not bear the idea of rain falling on Ann's grave, Abraham Lincoln sunk into a serious episode of depression, and this gave rise to speculation that he had been in love with her.

Late in 1836, Abraham Lincoln agreed to a match with Owens if she returned to New Salem.

In 1839, Abraham Lincoln met Mary Todd in Springfield, Illinois, and the following year they became engaged.

Abraham Lincoln was the daughter of Robert Smith Todd, a wealthy lawyer and businessman in Lexington, Kentucky.

Abraham Lincoln was an affectionate husband and father of four sons, though his work regularly kept him away from home.

The oldest, Robert Todd Abraham Lincoln, was born in 1843 and was the only child to live to maturity.

Edward Baker Abraham Lincoln, born in 1846, died February 1,1850, probably of tuberculosis.

Abraham Lincoln's third son, "Willie" Abraham Lincoln was born on December 21,1850, and died of a fever at the White House on February 20,1862.

The youngest, Thomas "Tad" Abraham Lincoln, was born on April 4,1853, and survived his father but died of heart failure at age 18 on July 16,1871.

Lincoln's law partner William H Herndon would grow irritated when Lincoln brought his children to the law office.

Abraham Lincoln did not note what his children were doing or had done.

Abraham Lincoln suffered from "melancholy", a condition now thought to be clinical depression.

Abraham Lincoln could draw crowds as a raconteur, but lacked the requisite formal education, powerful friends, and money, and lost the election.

Abraham Lincoln finished eighth out of 13 candidates, though he received 277 of the 300 votes cast in the New Salem precinct.

Abraham Lincoln served as New Salem's postmaster and later as county surveyor, but continued his voracious reading and decided to become a lawyer.

Rather than studying in the office of an established attorney, as was the custom, Abraham Lincoln borrowed legal texts from attorneys John Todd Stuart and Thomas Drummond, purchased books including Blackstone's Commentaries and Chitty's Pleadings, and read law on his own.

Abraham Lincoln's second state house campaign in 1834, this time as a Whig, was a success over a powerful Whig opponent.

Abraham Lincoln championed construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and later was a Canal Commissioner.

Abraham Lincoln voted to expand suffrage beyond white landowners to all white males, but adopted a "free soil" stance opposing both slavery and abolition.

Abraham Lincoln was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1836, and moved to Springfield and began to practice law under John T Stuart, Mary Todd's cousin.

Abraham Lincoln emerged as a formidable trial combatant during cross-examinations and closing arguments.

Abraham Lincoln partnered several years with Stephen T Logan, and in 1844 began his practice with William Herndon, "a studious young man".

True to his record, Abraham Lincoln professed to friends in 1861 to be "an old line Whig, a disciple of Henry Clay".

In 1843, Lincoln sought the Whig nomination for Illinois' 7th district seat in the US House of Representatives; he was defeated by John J Hardin though he prevailed with the party in limiting Hardin to one term.

Abraham Lincoln was the only Whig in the Illinois delegation, but as dutiful as any participated in almost all votes and made speeches that toed the party line.

Abraham Lincoln was assigned to the Committee on Post Office and Post Roads and the Committee on Expenditures in the War Department.

Abraham Lincoln dropped the bill when it eluded Whig support.

Abraham Lincoln supported the Wilmot Proviso, a failed proposal to ban slavery in any US territory won from Mexico.

Abraham Lincoln emphasized his opposition to Polk by drafting and introducing his Spot Resolutions.

Abraham Lincoln later regretted some of his statements, especially his attack on presidential war-making powers.

Abraham Lincoln had pledged in 1846 to serve only one term in the House.

Taylor won and Abraham Lincoln hoped in vain to be appointed Commissioner of the General Land Office.

Abraham Lincoln handled transportation cases in the midst of the nation's western expansion, particularly river barge conflicts under the many new railroad bridges.

Abraham Lincoln later represented a bridge company against a riverboat company in Hurd v Rock Island Bridge Company, a landmark case involving a canal boat that sank after hitting a bridge.

Abraham Lincoln appeared before the Illinois Supreme Court in 175 cases; he was sole counsel in 51 cases, of which 31 were decided in his favor.

Abraham Lincoln argued in an 1858 criminal trial, defending William "Duff" Armstrong, who was on trial for the murder of James Preston Metzker.

Abraham Lincoln angrily protested the judge's initial decision to exclude Cartwright's testimony about the confession as inadmissible hearsay.

Abraham Lincoln argued that the testimony involved a dying declaration and was not subject to the hearsay rule.

Abraham Lincoln did not comment on the act until months later in his "Peoria Speech" of October 1854.

Abraham Lincoln then declared his opposition to slavery, which he repeated en route to the presidency.

Abraham Lincoln held out hope for rejuvenating the Whigs, though he lamented his party's growing closeness with the nativist Know Nothing movement.

In 1854, Abraham Lincoln was elected to the Illinois legislature but declined to take his seat.

Abraham Lincoln gave the final speech of the convention supporting the party platform and called for the preservation of the Union.

At the June 1856 Republican National Convention, though Lincoln received support to run as vice president, John C Fremont and William Dayton comprised the ticket, which Lincoln supported throughout Illinois.

Buchanan prevailed, while Republican William Henry Bissell won election as Governor of Illinois, and Abraham Lincoln became a leading Republican in Illinois.

Abraham Lincoln's petition was denied in Dred Scott v Sandford.

Abraham Lincoln denounced it as the product of a conspiracy of Democrats to support the Slave Power.

Abraham Lincoln argued the decision was at variance with the Declaration of Independence; he said that while the founding fathers did not believe all men equal in every respect, they believed all men were equal "in certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness".

In 1858, Douglas was up for re-election in the US Senate, and Abraham Lincoln hoped to defeat him.

Many in the party felt that a former Whig should be nominated in 1858, and Abraham Lincoln's 1856 campaigning and support of Trumbull had earned him a favor.

Abraham Lincoln warned that Douglas' "Slave Power" was threatening the values of republicanism, and accused Douglas of distorting the Founding Fathers' premise that all men are created equal.

Douglas emphasized his Freeport Doctrine, in which he said local settlers were free to choose whether to allow slavery within their territory, and accused Abraham Lincoln of having joined the abolitionists.

Abraham Lincoln's argument assumed a moral tone, as he claimed Douglas represented a conspiracy to promote slavery.

Douglas's argument was more legal in nature, claiming that Abraham Lincoln was defying the authority of the US Supreme Court as exercised in the Dred Scott decision.

In May 1859, Abraham Lincoln purchased the Illinois Staats-Anzeiger, a German-language newspaper that was consistently supportive; most of the state's 130,000 German Americans voted for Democrats, but the German-language paper mobilized Republican support.

In January 1860, Abraham Lincoln told a group of political allies that he would accept the presidential nomination if offered and, in the following months, several local papers endorsed his candidacy.

Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, at that time wrote up an unflattering account of Abraham Lincoln's compromising position on slavery and his reluctance to challenge the court's Dred-Scott ruling, which was promptly used against him by his political rivals.

On February 27,1860, powerful New York Republicans invited Abraham Lincoln to give a speech at Cooper Union, in which he argued that the Founding Fathers of the United States had little use for popular sovereignty and had repeatedly sought to restrict slavery.

Abraham Lincoln insisted that morality required opposition to slavery, and rejected any "groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong".

Abraham Lincoln's followers organized a campaign team led by David Davis, Norman Judd, Leonard Swett, and Jesse DuBois, and Abraham Lincoln received his first endorsement.

Abraham Lincoln's success depended on his campaign team, his reputation as a moderate on the slavery issue, and his strong support for internal improvements and the tariff.

Abraham Lincoln's managers had focused on this delegation while honoring Abraham Lincoln's dictate to "Make no contracts that will bind me".

People of the Northern states knew the Southern states would vote against Abraham Lincoln and rallied supporters for Abraham Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln hired John George Nicolay as his personal secretary, who would remain in that role during the presidency.

On November 6,1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th president.

Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president and his victory was entirely due to his support in the North and West.

President Buchanan and President-elect Abraham Lincoln refused to recognize the Confederacy, declaring secession illegal.

Abraham Lincoln tacitly supported the Corwin Amendment to the Constitution, which passed Congress and was awaiting ratification by the states when Abraham Lincoln took office.

On February 11,1861, Abraham Lincoln gave a particularly emotional farewell address upon leaving Springfield; he would never again return to Springfield alive.

En route to his inauguration, Abraham Lincoln addressed crowds and legislatures across the North.

Abraham Lincoln directed his inaugural address to the South, proclaiming that he had no inclination to abolish slavery in the Southern states:.

Historian Allan Nevins argued that the newly inaugurated Abraham Lincoln made three miscalculations: underestimating the gravity of the crisis, exaggerating the strength of Unionist sentiment in the South, and overlooking Southern Unionist opposition to an invasion.

Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus where needed for the security of troops trying to reach Washington.

Abraham Lincoln took executive control of the war and shaped the Union military strategy.

Abraham Lincoln responded to the unprecedented political and military crisis as commander-in-chief by exercising unprecedented authority.

Abraham Lincoln expanded his war powers, imposed a blockade on Confederate ports, disbursed funds before appropriation by Congress, suspended habeas corpus, and arrested and imprisoned thousands of suspected Confederate sympathizers.

Abraham Lincoln gained the support of Congress and the northern public for these actions.

Abraham Lincoln had to reinforce Union sympathies in the border slave states and keep the war from becoming an international conflict.

Abraham Lincoln canceled the illegal proclamation as politically motivated and lacking military necessity.

Internationally, Abraham Lincoln wanted to forestall foreign military aid to the Confederacy.

Abraham Lincoln relied on his combative Secretary of State William Seward while working closely with Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Charles Sumner.

Abraham Lincoln painstakingly monitored the telegraph reports coming into the War Department.

Abraham Lincoln tracked all phases of the effort, consulting with governors, and selecting generals based on their success, their state, and their party.

In January 1862, after complaints of inefficiency and profiteering in the War Department, Abraham Lincoln replaced War Secretary Simon Cameron with Edwin Stanton.

Abraham Lincoln worked more often and more closely with Lincoln than any other senior official.

Twice a week, Abraham Lincoln met with his cabinet in the afternoon.

Abraham Lincoln began to appreciate the critical need to control strategic points, such as the Mississippi River.

Abraham Lincoln saw the importance of Vicksburg and understood the necessity of defeating the enemy's army, rather than merely capturing territory.

In directing the Union's war strategy, Abraham Lincoln valued the advice of Gen.

McClellan's slow progress frustrated Abraham Lincoln, as did his position that no troops were needed to defend Washington.

In 1862, Abraham Lincoln removed McClellan for the general's continued inaction.

Abraham Lincoln replaced Buell with William Rosecrans; and after the 1862 midterm elections he replaced McClellan with Ambrose Burnside.

Desertions during 1863 came in the thousands and only increased after Fredericksburg, so Abraham Lincoln replaced Burnside with Joseph Hooker.

Abraham Lincoln believed that slavery would be rendered obsolete if its expansion into new territories were prevented, because these territories would be admitted to the Union as free states, and free states would come to outnumber slave states.

Abraham Lincoln sought to persuade the states to agree to compensation for emancipating their slaves.

In July, the Confiscation Act of 1862 was enacted, providing court procedures to free the slaves of those convicted of aiding the rebellion; Abraham Lincoln approved the bill despite his belief that it was unconstitutional.

Abraham Lincoln felt such action could be taken only within the war powers of the commander-in-chief, which he planned to exercise.

On July 22,1862, Abraham Lincoln reviewed a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation with his cabinet.

On September 22,1862, Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which announced that, in states still in rebellion on January 1,1863, the slaves would be freed.

But, on January 1,1863, keeping his word, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves in 10 states not then under Union control, with exemptions specified for areas under such control.

In 272 words, and three minutes, Abraham Lincoln asserted that the nation was born not in 1789, but in 1776, "conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal".

Abraham Lincoln defined the war as dedicated to the principles of liberty and equality for all.

Abraham Lincoln declared that the deaths of so many brave soldiers would not be in vain, that slavery would end, and the future of democracy would be assured, that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth".

Abraham Lincoln was concerned that Grant might be considering a presidential candidacy in 1864.

Abraham Lincoln arranged for an intermediary to inquire into Grant's political intentions, and once assured that he had none, Lincoln promoted Grant to the newly revived rank of Lieutenant General, a rank which had been unoccupied since George Washington.

Authorization for such a promotion "with the advice and consent of the Senate" was provided by a new bill which Abraham Lincoln signed the same day he submitted Grant's name to the Senate.

Abraham Lincoln's nomination was confirmed by the Senate on March 2,1864.

Abraham Lincoln traveled to Grant's headquarters at City Point, Virginia, to confer with Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman.

Abraham Lincoln reacted to Union losses by mobilizing support throughout the North.

Abraham Lincoln emphasized defeat of the Confederate armies over destruction for its own sake.

Abraham Lincoln's engagement became distinctly personal on one occasion in 1864 when Confederate general Jubal Early raided Washington, DC Legend has it that while Abraham Lincoln watched from an exposed position, Union Captain Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Abraham Lincoln refused to negotiate with the Confederacy as a coequal; his objective to end the fighting was not realized.

The Confederate government evacuated Richmond and Abraham Lincoln visited the conquered capital.

Abraham Lincoln confidentially pledged in writing that if he should lose the election, he would still defeat the Confederacy before turning over the White House; Abraham Lincoln did not show the pledge to his cabinet, but asked them to sign the sealed envelope.

Meanwhile, Abraham Lincoln emboldened Grant with more troops and Republican party support.

On March 4,1865, Abraham Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address.

Abraham Lincoln led the moderates in Reconstruction policy and was opposed by the Radicals, under Rep.

In Tennessee and Arkansas, Abraham Lincoln respectively appointed Johnson and Frederick Steele as military governors.

In Louisiana, Lincoln ordered General Nathaniel P Banks to promote a plan that would reestablish statehood when 10 percent of the voters agreed, and only if the reconstructed states abolished slavery.

Democratic opponents accused Abraham Lincoln of using the military to ensure his and the Republicans' political aspirations.

Abraham Lincoln's appointments were designed to harness both moderates and Radicals.

Abraham Lincoln declared that such an amendment would "clinch the whole matter" and by December 1863 an amendment was brought to Congress.

Abraham Lincoln believed the federal government had limited responsibility to the millions of freedmen.

Abraham Lincoln signed Senator Charles Sumner's Freedmen's Bureau bill that set up a temporary federal agency designed to meet the immediate needs of former slaves.

Abraham Lincoln announced a Reconstruction plan that involved short-term military control, pending readmission under the control of southern Unionists.

Unlike Sumner and other Radicals, Abraham Lincoln did not see Reconstruction as an opportunity for a sweeping political and social revolution beyond emancipation.

Abraham Lincoln had long made clear his opposition to the confiscation and redistribution of land.

Abraham Lincoln believed, as most Republicans did in April 1865, that the voting requirements should be determined by the states.

Abraham Lincoln assumed that political control in the South would pass to white Unionists, reluctant secessionists, and forward-looking former Confederates.

Abraham Lincoln used appointments to the Indian Bureau as a reward to supporters from Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Abraham Lincoln ordered thousands of Confederate prisoners of war sent by railroad to put down the uprising.

Abraham Lincoln sent General John Pope to Minnesota as commander of the new Department of the Northwest a couple of weeks into the hostilities.

Abraham Lincoln did not accept the Chippewa offer, as he had no means to control the outcome and women and children were considered legitimate casualties in native American warfare.

The day the Mdewakanton force surrendered at Camp Release, a Chippewa war council met at Minnesota's capitol with another Chippewa offer to Abraham Lincoln, to fight the Sioux.

Abraham Lincoln ordered Gen Pope send all of the trial transcripts to Washington where he and two of his staff pored over the trials.

Abraham Lincoln slowly realized that the trials could be divided into two groups: combat between combatants and combat against civilians.

Abraham Lincoln placed 263 cases into the first group and commuted their sentences for the largest mass commutation in history.

Less than four months after the executions, Abraham Lincoln issued General Order 100 that relates more to the Minnesota War than the Civil War.

Abraham Lincoln adhered to the Whig theory of a presidency focused on executing laws while deferring to Congress' responsibility for legislating.

Abraham Lincoln vetoed only four bills, including the Wade-Davis Bill with its harsh Reconstruction program.

In 1861, Abraham Lincoln signed the second and third Morrill Tariffs, following the first enacted by Buchanan.

The Abraham Lincoln Administration presided over the expansion of the federal government's economic influence in other areas.

Abraham Lincoln attacked the media for such behavior, and ordered a military seizure of the two papers which lasted for two days.

In 1863, Abraham Lincoln declared the final Thursday in November of that year to be a day of Thanksgiving.

In June 1864, Abraham Lincoln approved the Yosemite Grant enacted by Congress, which provided unprecedented federal protection for the area now known as Yosemite National Park.

Samuel Freeman Miller supported Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 election and was an avowed abolitionist.

Abraham Lincoln believed Chase was an able jurist, would support Reconstruction legislation, and that his appointment united the Republican Party.

However Abraham Lincoln did select some of the top diplomats as part of his patronage policy.

Abraham Lincoln closely watched the handling of the Trent Affair in late 1861 to make sure there was no escalation into a war with Britain.

Abraham Lincoln was successful after indicating to Britain and France that the Union would declare war on them if they supported the South.

Historians emphasized the widespread shock and sorrow, but noted that some Abraham Lincoln haters celebrated his death.

Abraham Lincoln's body was buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield and now lies within the Abraham Lincoln Tomb.

Abraham Lincoln was deeply familiar with the Bible, quoting and praising it.

Abraham Lincoln was private about his position on organized religion and respected the beliefs of others.

Abraham Lincoln never made a clear profession of Christian beliefs.

Abraham Lincoln never joined a church, although he frequently attended First Presbyterian Church with his wife beginning in 1852.

Abraham Lincoln did believe in an all-powerful God that shaped events and by 1865 was expressing that belief in major speeches.

Abraham Lincoln explains therein that the cause, purpose, and result of the war was God's will.

Abraham Lincoln is believed to have had depression, smallpox, and malaria.

Abraham Lincoln took blue mass pills, which contained mercury, to treat constipation.

Several claims have been made that Abraham Lincoln's health was declining before the assassination.

Abraham Lincoln did this at a time when the Constitution, which "tolerated slavery", was the focus of most political discourse.

Diggins notes, "Abraham Lincoln presented Americans a theory of history that offers a profound contribution to the theory and destiny of republicanism itself" in the 1860 Cooper Union speech.

Abraham Lincoln shared the sympathies that the Jacksonians professed for the common man, but he disagreed with the Jacksonian view that the government should be divorced from economic enterprise.

Nevertheless, Abraham Lincoln admired Andrew Jackson's steeliness as well as his patriotism.

Abraham Lincoln denounced secession as anarchy, and explained that majority rule had to be balanced by constitutional restraints.

Abraham Lincoln was viewed by abolitionists as a champion of human liberty.

Abraham Lincoln had long been known as the Great Emancipator, but, by the late 1960s, some African American intellectuals, led by Lerone Bennett Jr.

Abraham Lincoln noted that Lincoln used ethnic slurs and told jokes that ridiculed blacks.

Bennett argued that Abraham Lincoln opposed social equality and proposed that freed slaves voluntarily move to another country.

Defenders of Abraham Lincoln, such as authors Dirck and Cashin, retorted that he was not as bad as most politicians of his day and that he was a "moral visionary" who deftly advanced the abolitionist cause, as fast as politically possible.

Abraham Lincoln became a favorite of liberal intellectuals across the world.

Barry Schwartz wrote in 2009 that Abraham Lincoln's image suffered "erosion, fading prestige, benign ridicule" in the late 20th century.

Abraham Lincoln has often been portrayed by Hollywood, almost always in a flattering light.

Abraham Lincoln's portrait appears on two denominations of United States currency, the penny and the $5 bill.

Abraham Lincoln was the first of five presidents to do so.

Abraham Lincoln has been memorialized in many town, city, and county names, including the capital of Nebraska.

The Abraham Lincoln Memorial is one of the most visited monuments in the nation's capital and is one of the top five most visited National Park Service sites in the country.