Abraham Lincoln
16th President of the United States
Troubling Times
President Lincoln was president of the United States, when the country was at unrest. The tension between the south and the north was tremendous. The south supported slavery while the north did not. The north became the Union, and the south, the Confederate States. Read more to know how this wondrous man United the U.S.A.
Honest Abe
Back before Abraham Lincoln was president, he was a store clerk. One day a woman came in to the shop, and bought something. She had payed extra and Lincoln has accidentally gave her incorrect change! He'd realized this when the woman had already left the shop. He then ran around town searching for the woman he had given incorrect change, thus he had received the name Honest Abe.
Emancipation Proclamation
The main cause of the civil war was slavery. The south wanted slaves while the north wanted to free them. Lincoln was against slavery. The war had begun in 1861, but the Emancipation Proclamation was not spoken until 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation was a speech in 1863 which ended slavery.
Gettysburg Address
"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth." - President Abraham Lincoln
The Gettysburg address was a speech that was recited in 1863. This speech spoke of all the men that had died for the Union, and it was motivation for northerners to end slavery.
The Gettysburg address was a speech that was recited in 1863. This speech spoke of all the men that had died for the Union, and it was motivation for northerners to end slavery.
Homestead act
Signed into law in 1862, the Homestead Act allowed a United States Citizen who is at the head of a family or 21 years or older, to receive up to 160 acres of public lands. This land was two dollars and 50 cents or less per acre
The Death of a Legend
The Civil war had finally ended in 1865 to the victory of the north (which ended slavery). Sadly Lincoln was shot shortly after the war. He was watching a film at Fords Theater, when a man named John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln on the 14th of April in 1865. Lincoln was buried in the Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield Illinois.
His Story
Abraham was born in the year 1809, in Kentucky. He married Mary Todd in 1842, and had four boys named Robert, Edward, William, and Thomas. He received the nickname "Honest Abe" when he was a store clerk, and gave a woman incorrect change. He then ran around town looking for the woman, so he could give her the change. He left politics in 1854 but decided to return after the Nebraska Act. He then became President of the United States in 1856 (this was right before the civil war of 1861). In 1863 he put in place the Emancipation Proclamation which ended slavery. The Gettysburg address was also spoken in 1863. The purpose of the Gettysburg address was to remember all the people that died in the union at this point of the Civil war. Although President Lincoln did many great things, he was shot at Fords Theater on April, 14, 1865 by a man named John Wilkes Booth. He was buried at the Oak Ridge Cemetery.
Bibliography
- Potter, Lee Ann and Wynell Schamel. "The Homestead Act of 1862." Social Education 61, 6 (October 1997): 359-364.
- McNamara, Robert. "The Five Best Inaugural Addresses of the 19th Century." About.com 19th Century History. About, n.d. Web. 04 Mar. 2013.
- Abraham Lincoln Head on Shoulders Photo Portrait. Digital image. Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Mar. 2013.
Abraham Lincoln. Digital image. Abraham Lincoln. Berwickacademy, Mar. 1997. Web. 04 Mar. 2013.