Abraham Lincoln Research Paper

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809. Lincoln was born in Hodgenville, Kentucky. Lincoln and his sister Sarah were born to Nancy Hanks and Tom Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln started working with an axe at the age of 8. At the age of 9, Lincoln’s mother died and a year later his father remarried. Lincoln’s father was uneducated but a really successful Kentucky farmer, but as many more people made their way into the state, Lincoln found that the laws did not protect him and his family from people who were out to take his land. Abe became angry and full of frustration and soon moved his struggling family to Perry County, Indiana. The area where Lincoln and his family settled was terribly unsettled and the land was extremely overgrown and

Abe Lincoln later described life in this area, known as Little Pigeon Creek, as a fight “with trees, logs, and grubs.” While the family worked hard at farming, Tom had to depend on hunting many days in order to feed his family. Lincoln’s father eventually built a one-room cabin for the small family but there was no flooring and very little furniture. The family had slept on corn husk beds that frequently were covered by bugs and rodents. Lincoln’s mother, Nancy, was very religious and taught the two children about the Bible, and she believed in the importance of education. However, schools were very uncommon in these under populated areas. When Abraham was about seven, a school opened nine miles away, and their mother insisted to their father that the children would be allowed to attend. When Abe was nine, Nancy became very ill with “milk sickness.” Today scientists know that if cows eat a plant known as the white snakeroot, it goes through to their milk, and some people drink the milk or use it and become sick and die from

Lincoln ran for his second term in the year 1864. In Lincoln’s first term for presidency his running mate was Hannibal Hamlin. In Lincoln’s second term it was Andrew Johnson. Abe was apart of the National Union Party. Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican to win presidency. Lincoln received only 40 percent of the popular vote but handily defeated the three other candidates; The Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Constitutional Union candidate John Bell, and Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas, U.S. senator for Illinois. Lincoln, a Kentucky born lawyer and former Whig representative to Congress first gained national fame during his campaign against Stephen Douglas of Illinois for a U.S. Senate seat in 1858. The senatorial campaign included an extraordinary series of public encounters on the slavery issue, known as the Lincoln-Douglas debates, in which Lincoln argued against the spreading of slavery, while Douglas maintained that each territory should have the right to decide whether it would become a free or slave state. Lincoln lost the Senate race, but his campaign brought national attention to the young Republican Party. In 1860, Lincoln won the party’s presidential nomination. In the November 1860 election, Lincoln faced Douglas again, who represented the Northern faction of a extremely divided Democratic Party, as well as Breckinridge and Bell. The announcement of Lincoln’s win signaled the secession of