Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was one of the most influential and bravest presidents of all time. Lincoln was born into a poor family, but with his eager ability to learn and his honesty, he eventually became president and started the civil war even with so many death threats sent to him. He led the Union forces to victory, abolished slavery and took all the slave states back. He was killed in a theater after the war but he is still remembered in many ways. Memorials and museums were built after him and he is still being taught by schools across the world.  

In Abraham Lincoln’s early life, Abraham Lincoln was a very eager learner. He was born in a log cabin on the frontier with two siblings. He started going to school at a log school house when he was 6. At his log school house he would learn writing,reading and arithmetic. He enjoyed writing the most and he would write everywhere he went. His family was poor so he had to help his father, Thomas Lincoln build houses and split wood. Abraham Lincoln built a half faced camp and a log cabin made of poles and bark. Abe was also very honest with everyone. When someone paid a few cents extra, Abe would walk miles to pay them back the change. That earned him the nickname Honest Abe. One day in 1818, Abe’s mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln died from milk sickness and Abe’s family got poorer and poorer because now Abe had to do all the chores so Abe’s father married another person. Abe’s step mom was very kind and she brought feather mattresses which Abe greatly valued.  “All that I am, I owe to my angel mother.” Abe enjoyed writing a lot but his father told him to stop writing and focus more on wood chopping. His mother however, would encourage Lincoln to follow his dreams on becoming a better writer. As Abe grew older, he saw more and more things about slavery. He hated slavery and didn’t want slavery to be used in the future."I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not think, and feel”.(Abraham Lincoln)

After Abe reached 21, he started to live on his own in New Salem, Illinois and in 1832, the Black Hawk war started so Lincoln enlisted as a volunteer. When his term ended as a volunteer, he re-enlisted as a private and served for three months. Abe learned a lot in his time serving from how difficult war was to how bad the mosquito and bug bites were. After the war, Lincoln started a store with a man called William Berry. They weren't very interested in business however and after only three months, Berry died leaving Lincoln in debt of over 1000 dollars. After many years of working, Lincoln paid back every cent and he also started working as a postmaster only earning 50 dollars per year. In 1833, Lincoln started working as a deputy county surveyor where he explored and mapped the west part of the US. Encouraged by his friends, Abe became a lawyer and got more into politics. Soon after, he started earning 1200-1500 dollars per year which was a lot at the time when we compare it to the mayors at the time who mad only 1200 dollars per year. In Kentucky, Abe met a person named Mary Owens. Abe was fond of Mary and in 1837, Abe proposed to Mary who turned him down. Abe then started working as a lawyer in Springfield where he met someone named Mary Todd and soon, Abe found himself spending more and more time with her and got married on November 4, 1842 and gave birth to four 4 sons. In 1847, Lincoln went to Washington, D.C., as a representative for Illinois. The Mexican war was going on and Abe opposed it. Many of his supporters didn’t like his opinions and he knew he wouldn’t get re-elected. For the next 5 years, he stopped being in politics and instead, continued as a lawyer. In Lincoln’s most famous case, Lincoln used the moon to prove that the person who was accused wasn’t guilty. In 1854 however, The kansas-Nebraska Act enabled people of each state to vote for the state to be a free state or a slave state. Lincoln responded to the act by giving a series of speeches protesting the act and in 1856, Lincoln helped to organize the Illinois branch of the new Republican Party and became the leading candidate for Republican in Illinois. And November 6,1860, Lincoln was elected president as the 16th president of the United States of America. The southern states however, did not like Lincoln as president and panic started to rise. Lincoln made speeches saying that he wouldn’t take their slaves but it didn’t work. Lincoln received many death threats but even still, Lincoln wasn’t scared and became president. Just 6 weeks later, the civil war started when the Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor and it was Lincoln’s job to lead them to victory even with Lincoln’s attempts to say he wouldn’t take away they’re slaves. Early into the war, Abe had trouble finding generals to lead the Union forces. Many of them had problems and Abe had to change the generals a lot. Abe decided that he had to take action so he spent everyday studying military science and using his past experiences at the black hawk war, he made many strategies for the military and the navy. Later, Abe was looking for a top general and he found Ulysses Grant and gave him power over the federal army. The war was harsh and Abe had to find solutions for life sentences almost daily.“I’ve had more cases of life and death to settle in four years than all the other men who sat in this chair put together. No man knows the distress of my mind.”(Lincoln). In the middle of the war, Abe’s son died and Lincoln's mental life took a turn. He was devastated but even still, he managed to continue the war . After years of fighting, on 1865, april 9. Lincoln was overjoyed and to celebrate, Abe took Mary and two other guests to Ford’s Theater. In the third act, John Wilkes Booth, an actor in the theater, snuck in and shot Abe in the head and on April 15, 1865, Abe died. Soldiers carried Lincoln to try to save him but it was too late. Many people visited his last moments and his last words were”She won’t think anything about it” in response to Mary asking”What will Miss Harris think of hanging on to you so?”

Abe’s efforts were not forgotten however. Lincoln led the union forces to war while taking the slave states back and abolishing slavery. On April 21, a funeral train carried Lincoln’s dead body from Washington to his hometown, Springfield. The train stopped at 10 different cities where people paid their respects to him. After reaching Springfield, Abe was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery. The United States also highly respects Lincoln for his actions and his bravery by building the Lincoln Memorial in 1922 in Washington. Many people still pay respects to Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial and Schools all around the world still teach about Lincoln. His grave is also a tourist attraction with many people visiting and paying their respects to him. His house and other important buildings are also a tourist attraction with many museums also built after him.

Abraham Lincoln freed and changed the United States history for centuries to come.Even though his life was rocky, he was able to become president and change history. He abolished slavery and freed millions of slaves as well as taking back the slave states making America a whole country once again. He changed the US and the world for centuries and he will be remembered for centuries as the person that saved the world.