The 16th president of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional and political crisis.[1][2] In doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy.

Reared in a poor family on the western frontier, Lincoln was a self-educated lawyer in Illinois, a Whig Party leader, state legislator during the 1830s. Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846, where he promoted rapid modernization of the economy through banks, tariffs, and railroads. He had originally agreed not to run for a second term and his opposition to the Mexican–American War was unpopular among the voters. He returned to Springfield and concentrated on his successful law practice throughout central Illinois. He returned to politics in 1854, and was a leader in building up the new Republican Party, which had a statewide majority. After a series of highly publicized debates in 1858, during which Lincoln spoke out against the expansion of slavery, he lost the U.S. Senate race to his archrival, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas.

In 1860 Lincoln secured the Republican Party presidential nomination as a moderate from a swing state. With very little support in the slave states, Lincoln swept the North and was elected president in 1860. His election prompted seven southern slave states to form the Confederacy before he took the office. No compromise or reconciliation was found regarding slavery and secession.

Contents

'Abe' Lincoln's Anecdotes and Stories by Abraham Lincoln (1908)

Lincoln's Yarns and Stories by Alexander K. McClure

Abraham Lincoln, Volume 1 (of 2) By William H. Herndon And Jesse W. Weik (1888)

Abraham Lincoln, Volume 2 (of 2) By William H. Herndon And Jesse W. Weik (1896)

The Life Of Abraham Lincoln, From His Birth To His Inauguration As President By Ward H. Lamon (1872)

Lincoln Letters

The Every-day Life of Abraham Lincoln by Francis F. Browne (1913)

The Story of Young Abraham Lincoln by Wayne Whipple