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Abraham Lincoln was the 16th (1861-1865) President of the United States, and the first President from the Republican Party.

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Public domain picture from Handbook of Early Advertising Art. full size

Born on February 12, 1809, in Kentucky, he moved at a young age to the area near Springfield, Illinois. He served as a captain in the U.S. Army during the Black Hawk War. He later tried his hand at several business and political ventures which all proved unsuccessful. It is widely believed that Lincoln suffered from bouts of severe depression, a theory supported by Lincoln's own statements and reports of the young lawyer spending days alone in bed. It is also suggested that Lincoln may have suffered from Marfin's Syndrome, a disease which results in an elongated figure and bone structure.

Lincoln eventually married and raised a family with Mary Todd Lincoln. Mary is reported to have had some psycological difficulties of her own, and required almost constant attention from her husband. Mrs. Lincoln generaly disliked politics and her tenure as first lady was marked with some scandal as she spent lavishly to redocorate the White House and reportedly purchased an inordinate amount of hats, gloves, and other fasionable items of clothing.

First elected to the Senate, Lincoln spent most of his time in Washington alone and made less than a spectacular impression on his fellow politicians. During his presidential election, it was Lincoln's well known gift of oratry that brought public support to an otherwise unseemly presidential canidate. Lincon debated his opponent in a series of events that are well documented and which represented a national discussion on the issues that were about to split the nation in two. The Lincon/Douglas debates marked Lincoln's coming of age as a public figure and catipulted him into the White House in the most dire of times.

Shortly after his election the South made it clear that succession was inevitible and war was all but impossible to avoid. The tension was so great that Lincoln was convinced to arrive in Washington with little fanfare, in effect sneaking into the city. The South ridiculed Lincoln for this seemingly cowardly act, but the efforts at security may well have been prudent. After all, the Union's soon to be enemy was headquartered just across the Potomic.

Lincoln's election as president triggered the secessions that led to the American Civil War; as president, he was commander-in-chief during that war. He wrote and delivered the Gettysburg Address, commemorating the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.

At Lincoln's Inauguration on March 4, 1861, the Turners formed Lincoln's bodyguard.

He is credited with freeing the slaves with the Emancipation Proclamation, though this only freed the slaves in areas of the Confederacy not yet controlled by the Union. During the Civil War Lincoln held powers no previous president had weilded. He effectively suspended the writ of habeus corpus and frequenly imprision Southern spies and sympathizers without trial.

After repeated frustrations with General George McCleen's lack of effort in applying the Army of the Potomac to the war, Lincoln made a fateful decision to install a radical and somewhat scandalous army commander to McCleen's post. General U.S. Grant would apply his military knowledge and his personal charisma with the troops in an effort that would finnaly bring about the close of the Civil War.

Lincoln meet with Grant as the war ended. The two men planned matters of reconstruction in the White House, and it was evident to all that both men held eachother in high regard. During their last meeting, on April 26, 1865, Lincon invited General Grant to a social engagement for that evening. Grant declined (his wife was not eagar to spend time with Mary Todd Lincoln.)

The first couple left that evening to attend a play at Ford's theater. The play was "Our American Cousin's" a musical comedy. As Lincoln sat in the balcony, John Wilkes Booth, an actor and southern sympathizer, aimed a single shot, round slug pistol at the President's head a fired. He shouted "Sic temper tyrannis! (death to tyranny)," and jumped from the balcony to the stage below- breaking his leg in the process.

Booth managed to limp to his horse and escape and the mortaly wounded president was taken to a house across the street where he later died.

One of the most respected and beloved presidents, Lincoln has been memorialized in many city names, notably the capital of Nebraska, with the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and on the penny. In polls among historians, Lincoln is often rated as the greatest president in American.

Related articles

• Previous President: James Buchanan
• Next President: Andrew Johnson
• Vice Presidents: Hannibal Hamlin; Andrew Johnson

• U.S. presidential election, 1860
• U.S. presidential election, 1864