Abraham Lincoln Research Paper

Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809. His parents were Thomas and Nancy Lincoln. He was raised on a farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky. Abraham was in the period of slavery, but the Lincoln family did not own any slaves. Later in 1816 the family had to move to Indiana. Soon in 1818 Abraham’s mother, Nancy Lincoln, died of milk sickness. The life in Indiana wasn’t as expected and the family had to move to Macon County, Illinois (Abraham Lincoln/Biography.com Editors- Childhood).

At the age of 23, and later he began his political career and became a member of the Whig party, and a candidate for the Illinois House of Representatives. In 1832, after being fired from his job at a store, he decided to join the Illinois militia to help fight in

the Black Hack war,he was chosen captain.(Abraham Lincoln/Biography.com Editors- law career). He served for 3 months, it changed his life forever. In 1834 Lincoln ran for state legislature, in a few years he learned everything to become a lawyer and took an oath to the Illinois state bar. Then in 1839 when he was at a cotillion in Springfield, he met the love of his life Mary Todd. She was from Kentucky with an upper class background, and they married on November 4, 1842. The next year Mary was pregnant with their son Robert, he was born August 1, 1843. The Lincoln family owned a house where they could have their own space, and a few years later, they had their second child named Edward on March 10, 1846. He wanted his children to have a great future, and thus encouraged education.
Through his work, Lincoln was elected the U.S. House of Representatives in August of the same year. The most drastic news was yet to come when the second son Edward died on February 1, 1850 from a lung illness. They had two more children, William and Thomas. Lincoln decided that he had to do something in order to stop the spread of slavery(Abraham Lincoln/Biography.com Editors-Politics).
Senator Douglas wanted to give the right to the people to vote if the state would become free.

Lincoln believed that having slavery was a bad choice, and so he returned to politics where he had a series of speeches where Lincoln he spoke against the Kansas-Nebraska Act and also against Douglas(Abraham Lincoln/Biography.com Editors-Politics). In 1954, Lincoln was elected state legislature. He wanted to run for senator against Douglas. Abraham decided to join the Republican Party. Then, Lincoln was ready, he ran against Douglas for the senate seat in 1858. Lincoln gave a speech in which he said “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved- I do not expect the house to fall- but I do expect it will cease to be divided.” Lincoln believed that with a debate over slavery, there was a possibility that people would vote for him by knowing him better. They had encounters of debates on this subject, and it was called the Lincoln- Douglas debate. All the effort that Lincoln put into the debates was not enough, because Douglas won the Senate seat. After the events that had happened to him in the past did not stop him, he continued to study law and politics (Abraham Lincoln/Biography.com

Editors-Politics).
In 1859, his Republican party believed that Lincoln was ready to become vice president or even possibly President of the United States. Soon his life was going to change when he was elected as the Republican presidential candidate. Other candidates running for the presidency were Stephen A. Douglas, John C. Breckinridge,and John Bell. Lincoln won all the Northern states, and it was enough to get Electoral College points, and win the election. Lincoln arrived in Washington D.C. on March 4, 1961 he took the oath of office of the President of the United States. He wanted to “preserve, protect, and defend” the Constitution and the nation.
Seven southern states seceded from the Union, and formed a new government and they called themselves the Confederate states of America.

The Confederates took over the forts in the South, and there was a battle for fort Sumter. As soon as the supplies arrived, on April 9, 1861, the Confederates fired at Fort Sumter, it was a sign that the American Civil war was about to begin. He gathered 75, 000 troop volunteers, and fought the Union(Abraham Lincoln/Biography.com Editors-Politics). Virginia was the first state to secede from the Union, but soon enough, the rest of the states followed such as Tennessee, Arkansas, and North Carolina. Lincoln had a plan to end this war once and for all. He first negotiated with Maryland and Kentucky to try to keep them in the Union and his great strategy worked. The first official battle was on July 21, 1861 when both the Confederates and the Union met at Manassas, Virginia calling it the Battle of Bull Run. The Confederates only won the battle because the Union decided to

retreat.
Matters were going more badly, his Major General George B. McClellan became ill, and a year later on February 20, 1862 Lincoln’s son Willie died from an illness that lasted over three weeks. President Lincoln wanted to end the war, and on July 22, 1862 he read a draft of an emancipation proclamation to his Cabinet members. The proclamation would end slavery in the United States, later on its way when McClellan’s army trapped Robert E. Lee’s Confederate army at the Battle of Antietam in Maryland on September 17, 1862,then Lincoln had a chance to show everyone the proclamation and on September 22, 1862 he did and it changed the war.
President Lincoln is worth admiring because he is one of the most famous presidents and he conquered to end slavery. He deserves much attention as he fought for this country and saved the United States from numerous crisis’s as I talked about above especially the civil war. Many people could be like Honest Abe because he helped this country tremendously and if young people like me and my classmates, we could help him what he did in the past. for example, keeping everyone equal no matter if you are black or white, gay, handicapped or any other disability.

“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves” - Abraham Lincoln

I would like to explain this quote and what it means to me. To me this quote is saying that when the people who were against slavery, they should not have the freedom like the slaves did. They should be treated how the slaves were and see how they viewed it for themselves. I am proud of Abe because he stood up in what he believed in and was not afraid to make a change in this country. Even those that weren't the same race as himself.