Abraham Lincoln - the Sixteenth President of the United States

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

The Sixteenth President of the United States

I chose Abraham Lincoln as a subject matter because he is the only American President I like. Of course, the rest of the world loves him very much as he is one of those big men who profoundly influenced their eras. He is not only an American President but also the president of common people. That is why his photograph was put on ''a penny''. In my paper there is a chronological order of important events from Abraham Lincoln's life. My paper starts with his family's settlement to Hingham, Massachusetts, continues with the birth of Abraham Lincoln and with simple events from his early childhood. After a brief explanation about Abraham's childhood and his struggle for education against his father and miserable life conditions he lived in, comes his introduction to law affairs. Following these, some information is given about his unstable career in law and politics. Then, after a successful take

off in politics, comes his accomplishments as the 16th President of the United States. His efforts to abolish slavery are highlighted. His Emancipation Proclamation and Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction for restoration of the Union are mentioned. Finally, his

assassination on the 14th of April, 1865 and his death on the 15th of April, 1865 are enlightened. I tried to underline the accomplishments of a very impressive man coming from a miserable background. Abraham Lincoln was born into very miserable conditions; he grew up in great poverty and didn't even get the chance to go to school regularly. Despite all these hardships he was in, he invented the power he needed to change this world and rejected to live in a world which was served to him. I tried to show what an important value-freedom- the slaves all around the world owe him. I did not mention his emotional affairs, inner world and daily life because I wanted to draw attention to his genius leadership and most importantly to his penny's implying message to the poor in despair.

Settlement to England

Samuel Lincoln from Hingham, England settled in Hingham, Massachusetts in 1637.Abraham's father Thomas Lincoln, descendant of Samuel, was born in Virginia in 1778.Thomas and his family moved to Kentucky in 1782.Abraham Lincoln was born in a one room log cabin on Nolin Creek in Kentucky. He was born on Sunday, February 12, 1809.He was the son of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln and he was named for his paternal grandfather. Thomas Lincoln was a carpenter and farmer. Both of his parents were members of a Baptist congregation which had separated from another church due to opposition to slavery.

-Five months before receiving his party's nomination for president, Lincoln sketched his life: `` I was born February 12, 1809 in Harding County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families -second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks...Indiana in my eighth year ...It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up...Of course when I came of age I didn't know much. Still somehow I could read, write and chipper...but that was all. Ò'Ò' (www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/al16.html)

Young Abraham attended a school house in 1815.Unfortunately he didn't have the chance to go to school steadily. He briefly attended school in1816 and the same year in December, his family crossed the Ohio River and settled in the backwoods of Indiana. Abraham was seven years old when they moved to Southern Indiana. He had gone to school briefly in Kentucky and did so again in Indiana. Young Abraham was kicked in the head by a horse in 1818 and his family thought for a while that he was dead. Then, within the same year his mother Nancy Hanks Lincoln died of milk sickness on the 5th of October. It is a disease obtained from drinking the milk of cows which had grazed on poisonous white snakeroot. Abraham's father, Thomas, remarried the next year, and Abraham loved his new stepmother, Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln. He briefly attended school in 1820.Then he gave a break of two years. He attended school for a few months in 1822.As he had to work on the farm he attended school in the fall and winter. As Abraham grew up, he loved to read and preferred learning to working in the fields. This led to a difficult relationship with his father who was just the opposite. As he could not afford to buy books for himself, he borrowed books from neighbours and read whenever possible. He made great efforts to attain knowledge while working on the farm. His married sister died while giving birth on January 20, 1828.He became a candidate for Illinois General Assembly in March, 1832. The Black Hawk War broke out the same year. He was a captain in the Black Hawk War. Consequently, he spent eight years in the Illinois legislature and rode the circuit of the courts for many years. In those years, his law partner said of him: ''His ambition was a little engine that knew no rest''. At the age of 24, Abraham was elected to the Illinois General Assembly as a member of the Whig Party on the 4th of August, 1834.Then he began to study law. He was re-elected to the Illinois General Assembly on the 1st of August, 1836.Then he became the leader of the Whig Party. He received his law license on the 9th of September. He traveled through nine countries in central and eastern Illinois as a lawyer on the 8th Judicial Circuit. In December, the same year, he admitted to practice in United States Circuit Court. He argued his first case before Illinois Supreme Court in June, 1840.He was re-elected to the Illinois General Assembly in August. Within the same year, in fall, he became engaged to Mary Todd. He married Mary Todd on the fifth of November in Springfield in 1842. (Whitlock, Brand, 1930)

Abraham Lincoln was granted U.S.Patent No: 6.469 on May 22, 1849.He was the only president ever granted a patent. Abraham re-entered politics opposing the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854.He was elected to Illinois legislature, but declined the seat in order to try to become U.S Senator. He didn't get chosen by the Illinois legislature to be U.S Senator, in 1855.He helped organize the new Republican Party of Illinois on the 29th May, 1856.At the first Republican convention he got 110 votes for the vice-presidential nomination. This brought him national attention. Illinois legislature chose Douglas for the U.S Senate over Lincoln