In celebration of Presidents
Day I decided to do a research paper on Abraham Lincoln for this
weeks Who's Who.... and wow. I didn't know it before but Lincoln had
a REALLY sucky life, other than the fact that he got to be president
of course.
Abraham Lincoln was the
sixteenth president of the United States from March 1861 until his
assassination in April 1865. Although he is one of the most
remembered presidents in all of US history he probably didn't seem
like the person who would be running his country when he was younger.
Lincoln was born in Hardin,
Kentucky on February 12, 1809. He was the second child, the first
being his sister Sarah, of Thomas and Nancy Lincoln. They lived in a
small town and were not wealthy at all but weren't particularly poor either.
Lincoln had the normal schooling of a child in that village, which
was one years worth of classes from several different teachers. Other
than that schooling he mostly self-educated and was said to be a very
avid reader getting his hands on any book in the village that he
could.
Lincoln's mother died of
milk sickness in 1818, when he was 9. His sister then began to take
care of him until their father remarried to his step-mother a year
later, who he became very close with as he grew up. As a teenager
Lincoln had the job of an axeman. Sarah, his sister, died in her
early 20's when she gave birth to a stillborn son.
A few years later a very
ambitious 22 year old Lincoln went out on his own. Lincoln canoed
down the Sangamon River to New Salem in Sangamon County, where he was
hired to take goods by flatboat from New Salem to New Orleans. One
day when Lincoln was making his delivery he witnessed slavery
firsthand, felt that he had it much easier than they did, and decided to walk back home.
When Lincoln was living in
New Salem he met two women, one right after the other, that he got
engaged to but changed his mind both times. He then met Mary
Todd who he eventually married after a lot of second guessing.
Together they had four children, and this is where Lincoln didn't have
much luck... They had Edward Baker Lincoln, born in 1846, who died on
February 1, 1850 of tuberculosis. Willie Lincoln was born in 1850
then died on February 20, 1862 and Thomas “Tad” Lincoln, who died
of heart failure when he was 18 on July 16 1871. Lastly they had
Robert Todd Lincoln, born in 1843, and was the only child to live to adulthood and have children. Whew, that is just... woah.
Onto the actual reason that
Abraham Lincoln is famous... Lincoln was elected the 16th
president of the United States on November 6, 1860 making him the
first president from the republican party. Lincoln had a lot of
accomplishments during his presidency, some more heard of then others! Some of his more known accomplishments was that he was a strong commander and chief of the Civil
War, where his foreign policy kept other countries from interfering
in America's Civil war and he made a very big impact in getting rid of slavery.
Slavery is probably the
main reason that Lincoln is so remembered. Lincoln very much
disagreed with slavery and he supported the thirteenth amendment that formally ended slavery. He also issued the Emancipation Proclamation which freed all
slaves in the states that were in rebellion.
Lincoln was assassinated on
Good Friday, April 14, 1865 by a well- known stage actor John Wilkes
Booth. Aside from being an actor John was a spy for the Confederates,
who had a plan to kidnap the president and use him in exchange for
the release of captured confederates. But when John heard Lincolns
speech, which John very much disagreed with, about wanting to extend
voting to African Americans John decided to kill Lincoln himself.
To this day Lincoln is
remembered in many ways, one being Presidents Day. Even though
Presidents Day was originally in memory of George Washington, after
Lincoln became president and reshaped our country, it was decided
that he to should have a special day in his honor. That has to mean
that he's pretty important doesn't it?
