Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War, defeating the Confederate States of America, playing a major role in the abolition of slavery, expanding the power of the federal government, and modernizing the U.S. economy.

Lincoln was born into poverty in a log cabin in Kentucky, and was raised on the frontier. He was self-educated and became a lawyer, Whig Party leader, Illinois state legislator, and U.S. representative. Angered by the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854, which opened the territories to slavery, he became a leader of the new Republican Party. He reached a national audience in the 1858 Senate campaign debates against Stephen A. Douglas. Lincoln ran for president in 1860, sweeping the North to gain victory. Pro-slavery elements in the South viewed his election as a threat to slavery, and Southern states began seceding from the nation. They formed the Confederate States of America, which began seizing federal military bases in the South. A little over one month after Lincoln assumed the presidency, Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter, a U.S. fort in South Carolina. Following the bombardment, Lincoln mobilized forces to suppress the rebellion and restore the union.

Lincoln, a moderate Republican, had to navigate a contentious array of factions with friends and opponents from both the Democratic and Republican parties. His allies, the War Democrats and the Radical Republicans, demanded harsh treatment of the Southern Confederates. He managed the factions by exploiting their mutual enmity, carefully distributing political patronage, and by appealing to the American people. Anti-war Democrats (called "Copperheads") despised Lincoln, and some irreconcilable pro-Confederate elements went so far as to plot his assassination. Lincoln unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the border states to agree to compensated emancipation. He suspended the writ of ''habeas corpus'' in April 1861, leading to Chief Justice Roger Taney's opinion in ''Ex parte Merryman'', and he averted war with Britain by defusing the ''Trent'' Affair. On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared the slaves in the states "in rebellion" to be free. It also directed the Army and Navy to "recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons" and to receive them "into the armed service of the United States." On November 19, 1863, he delivered the Gettysburg Address, which became one of the most famous speeches in American history. Lincoln closely supervised the strategy and tactics in the war effort, including the selection of generals, and implemented a naval blockade of Southern ports. He promoted the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which, in December 1865, abolished slavery, except as punishment for a crime. Lincoln managed his own successful 1864 re-election campaign. He sought to heal the war-torn nation through reconciliation, calling for "malice toward none; with charity for all" in his second inaugural address. On April 14, 1865, just five days after the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, he was attending a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., with his wife Mary, when he was fatally shot by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth.

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. He is often ranked in both popular and scholarly polls as the greatest president in American history. Provided by Wikipedia