Abraham Lincoln Research Paper

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in a log cabin in Kentucky to Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks . The family was always poverty stricken with Thomas being a migratory carpenter and farmer. Abraham's mother instilled honesty and compassion and implemented the seeds of intellectual curiosity. Nancy taught Abe and his sister Sarah, also known as Sally, about religion and believed education was very important. Since they lived a rural part of Kentucky, a school was not close by. The only school was built when Abe was nine and was located nine miles away, the walk would have taken three hours each way. Lincoln's mother died in 1818 from milk sickness and Abraham's father had and remarried to Sarah Bush Johnston who had three children

After serving one term he was promoted to Captain, but after ninety days of enlistment Abe went back to prepare for the Illinois General Assembly. Abe was running as a Whig in a district filled with Democrats. Abe had only ten days to campaign and spoke about the navigability of the Sangamon River not national politics while at the podium. Lincoln lost the election overall but won in New Salem votes with 277 to 3 in favor of him(Fitzgerald). Even though Lincoln lost in 1832 he came back in 1834 and campaigned in many villages and won the election. Being an important figure of the Whig party,Lincoln was reelected for the Illinois legislature in 1836, 1838 and 1840. During 1837, Lincoln first spoke to the legislature about slavery. Illinois was a free state but it had many people that supported slavery in the southern part of the state. Illinois had passed a set of resolutions against the abolitionist movement, Lincoln opposed the resolutions and spoke about his beliefs on the evils of slavery. In 1836 Abe was admitted into the state bar and acquired his license to practice law. Lincoln began making a name for himself after being assigned to the eighth judicial circuit. In the circuit Lincoln traveled to courts to explain to people the meanings of the laws that were being applied to local cases. Abes stories, speeches and explanations became legendary. (Abraham Lincoln Middle Years). Abraham met Mary Todd in 1839, Mary came from a rich, slave owning family. By 1840 the two became engaged and by 1841 the engagement was broken and put Abraham into a deep depression. But in 1842 Mary and Abe rekindled their relationship and had been married by the end of the year. The couple bought a home in Springfield and had four children together, two of which died during childhood. Abe became a congressman in 1846 and served two terms in Washington being the only whig representative in the Democrat dominated