"President Abraham Lincoln" our sixteenth President was born in Hardin County, Kentucky, the son of a carpenter. In 1830 the family moved to Illinois, where President Abraham Lincoln worked  rail-splitting for a while before he left home to open a store in New Salem, Illinois.

In 1834, President Abraham Lincoln was trying to decide whether to study law or become a blacksmith when he won a seat in the "Illinois Legislature". During his eight years as a legislator, President Abraham Lincoln completed his law studies, joined a law firm and moved to "Springfield, Illinois" the State Capital, where he married "Mary Ann Todd".  President Abraham Lincoln and Mary Ann Todd Lincoln had four sons.

President Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1847. Once there ie opposed the "Mexican War" during his single term. For the next few years, President Abraham Lincoln led a prosperous life in Springfield, Illinois but when the "Kansas - Nebraska Act", sponsored by "Senator Stephen Douglas", was passed and made the northwest territories open for slavery, President Abraham Lincoln again turned to politics in an attempt to run for the Senate.

In the campaign, "Lincoln vs. Douglas" held debates all over Illinois. President Abraham Lincoln hammering at his opponent's support of slavery. President Abraham Lincoln lost the election, but the debates won him a national reputation great enough to get him the "Republican Presidential" nomination two years later.

President Abraham Lincoln won the election, and almost immediately South Carolina seceded from the Union, followed by ten other southern states. President Abraham Lincoln tried to calm Southern feelings, but when the federal stronghold, "Fort Sumter" in "Charleston Harbor", was fired upon by Southern guns, it was the beginning of four years of bloody war.

The North had no really able commander, and President Abraham Lincoln had little military knowledge, so the Union suffered many defeats in the first half of the "Civil War". Northerners, who had thought the "Civil War" would be over quickly, became weary of the drawn-out conflict with its heavy casualties, so to bolster support.

President Abraham Lincoln issued the "Emancipation Proclamation" which freed all slaves in territory then in rebellion as of January 1, 1863. In November, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln read his "Gettysburg Address" in the town of "Gettysburg, Pennsylvania", expressing his desire not only to preserve the Union, but to preserve government "By The People".

In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln brought "General Ulysses S. Grant" from the West to take over the "Union Army of the Potomac" and the North began to gain ground. President Abraham Lincoln believed that he would not be re-elected in 1864, but by then victory was in sight, and President Abraham Lincoln won easily.

In President Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address he pleaded for patience in reconstructing the South. "General Robert E. (Edward) Lee", commander of "The Army of Northern Virginia",  nephew of "Arthur Lee", representative commissioned by "President George Washington" to gain assistance from France, surrendered on "April 9, 1865" and five days later President Abraham Lincoln was shot by a crazed southern actor, "John Wilkes Booth", at "Ford's Theater, while watching "Our American Cousin" in Washington, D.C. President Abraham Lincoln died of his gun shot wound the following day making him the final casualty of  the "Civil War".

The "Civil War" or "War Between The States" became, in the annals of history, the second turning-point of this fine country, the "American Revolution" being the first. President Abraham Lincoln who was the first Republican President, as the "Federalist Whig Party "was dismantling, was revered by all, and was the first liberal minded president to bastardize the "United States Constitution"  in time of war.

Written by:
Karen Palumbo
Photography "NOT" by:
Robert Palumbo
2/22/2010 (c)