Abraham Lincoln
Overview
 
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and promoting economic and financial modernization.
Timeline

1809    Abraham Lincoln is born in a one-room cabin in Kentucky

1832    Lincoln becomes a candidate in a failed bid for the Illinois General Assembly

1858    Abraham Lincoln delivers his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois.

1858    First of the Lincoln-Douglas debates in which Lincoln debates Stephen Douglas during a campaign for the U.S. Senate.

1860    Abraham Lincoln makes a speech at Cooper Union in the city of New York that is largely responsible for his election to the Presidency.

1860    Abraham Lincoln wins the Republican Party presidential nomination over William H. Seward, who later becomes the United States Secretary of State.

1861    President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, D.C., after the thwarting of an alleged assassination plot in Baltimore, Maryland.

1861    President of the United States Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of ''habeas corpus''.

1861    American Civil War: at the order of President Abraham Lincoln, Union troops begin a 25 mile march into Virginia for what will become The First Battle of Bull Run, the first major land battle of the war.

1861    U.S. President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of ''habeas corpus'' in Washington, D.C., for all military-related cases.

Quotations

I have now come to the conclusion never again to think of marrying, and for this reason; I can never be satisfied with anyone who would be blockhead enough to have me.

Letter to Mrs. Orville H. Browning (1 April 1838)

I believe it is an established maxim in morals that he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false, is guilty of falsehood; and the accidental truth of the assertion, does not justify or excuse him.

Letter to Allen N. Ford (11 August 1846), reported in Roy Prentice Basler, ed., Abraham Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings (1990 [1946]).

The true rule, in determining to embrace, or reject any thing, is not whether it have any evil in it; but whether it have more of evil, than of good. There are few things wholly evil, or wholly good. Almost every thing, especially of governmental policy, is an inseparable compound of the two; so that our best judgment of the preponderance between them is continually demanded.

Speech in the House of Representatives (20 June 1848)

Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.

Speech in the House of Representatives (20 June 1848)

The way for a young man to rise, is to improve himself every way he can, never suspecting that any body wishes to hinder him.

Letter to William H Herndon (10 July 1848)

The better part of one's life consists of his friendships.

Letter to Joseph Gillespie (13 July 1849)

The Autocrat of all the Russias will resign his crown, and proclaim his subjects free republicans sooner than will our American masters voluntarily give up their slaves.

Letter to George Robertson (15 August 1855)

 
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