On February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin in backwoods Hardin County in the state of Kentucky. Lincoln grew up on newly broken pioneer farms of the frontier. His father was a migratory carpenter and farmer and was nearly always poverty-stricken. Abraham had almost no formal schooling, but he taught himself by reading and rereading a small stock of books. Lincoln’s formal school attendance in Kentucky and Indiana amounted to less than a year. According to historical accounts, Abraham Lincoln is considered one of the best presidents the United States has ever known he preserved the Union during the U.S. Civil War and brought the emancipation of the slaves (Abraham Lincoln 1). Not far from Springfield, Lincoln settled in the …show more content…
McClellan Lincoln is reelected by a great majority. His second inaugural address was a plea for the new country that would arise from the ashes of the south; it was delivered when the war was drawing to its close. His own view was one of forgiveness, as shown in his memorable phrase “With malice toward none; with charity for all” (Abraham Lincoln 3). Lincoln lived to see the end of the war, but he was to have no chance to implement his plans for Reconstruction. While attending a performance at Ford’s Theater on the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln was shot by the actor John Wilkes Booth; the next morning Lincoln died. His death was an occasion for grief even among those who had been his opponents, and many considered him a martyr (Abraham Lincoln …show more content…
Yet, even if his faults and mistakes are acknowledged, he stands out as a political leader of noble vision, great humanity, and remarkable political skill. It is not surprising that the Illinois “rail-splitter” is regarded as a foremost symbol of American democracy. Paintings, sculptures, and architectural works memorializing Lincoln are legion; the most famous shrines are his home and tomb in Springfield, Illinois and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. (Abraham Lincoln 4). Abraham Lincoln fought clinical depression all his life. If he were alive today, his condition would be treated as a “character issue inside”; it gave him the tools to save the nation. At the age of fifty-one Lincoln was at the peak of his political career, with momentum that would soon sweep him to the nomination of the national party and then to the White House. Yet to the convention audience Lincoln did not seem euphoric, triumphant, or even pleased. A man from the convention floor stated, “I then thought him one of the most diffident and worst plagued men I ever saw” (Shenk