Honest Abe

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By Akindman,

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) 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 – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and promoting economic and financial modernization. Reared in a poor family on the western frontier, Lincoln was mostly self-educated. He became a country lawyer, an Illinois state legislator, and a one-term member of the United States House of Representatives, but failed in two attempts to be elected to the United States Senate. (From Wikipedia)

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After opposing the expansion of slavery in the United States in his campaign debates and speeches, Lincoln secured the Republican nomination and was elected president in 1860. Before Lincoln took office in March, seven southern slave states declared their secession and formed the Confederacy. When war began with the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, Lincoln concentrated on both the military and political dimensions of the war effort, seeking to reunify the nation. He vigorously exercised unprecedented war powers, including the arrest and detention without trial of thousands of suspected secessionists. He prevented British recognition of the Confederacy by skillfully handling the Trent affair late in 1861. He issued his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and promoted the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, abolishing slavery. (From Wikipedia)

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Politically, Lincoln fought back with patronage, by pitting his opponents against each other, and by appealing to the American people with his powers of oratory. His Gettysburg Address of 1863 became the most quoted speech in American history. It was an iconic statement of America's dedication to the principles of nationalism, equal rights, liberty, and democracy. At the close of the war, Lincoln held a moderate view of Reconstruction, seeking to speedily reunite the nation through a policy of generous reconciliation in the face of lingering and bitter divisiveness. But six days after the surrender of Confederate commanding general Robert E. Lee, Lincoln was assassinated by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre. His death was the first assassination of a U.S. president and sent the northern parts of the country into mourning. Lincoln has been consistently ranked by scholars and the public as one of the three greatest U.S. presidents. (From Wikipedia)

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Here are some quick and interesting facts about Abraham Lincoln:

• He was born on February 12th 1809, and died April 15th 1865 at the age of fifty six.
• His home state is Illinois.
• His party was Republican and he was president for four years from 1861-1865, when he was assassinated.
• His vice presidents where Hannibal Hamlin and Andrew Johnson.
• He was preceded by James Buchanan and succeeded by Andrew Johnson.
• His wife was called Mary Todd Lincoln, who was brought up into a very wealthy family.
• Mary’s parents disagreed with her marrying Abraham because he had a poor background.
• Abraham had four children, Robert Todd Lincoln, Edward Lincoln, Willie Lincoln, Tad Lincoln. Only Robert Todd Lincoln survived into adulthood.
• Abraham was an unaffiliated Christian as he never officially acquired church membership.
• He created a national banking system with the National Banking Act in 1863, resulting in a standardized currency.
• He was the first president to be assassinated.
• He had deep depression, even though he would frequently tell stories and jokes to friends and family.
• He was the tallest U.S president at 6ft 4 inches.
• He patented a system to alter buoyancy of steamboats in 1849.
• His birth mother died from milk sickness.
• His father remarried a widow, and Abraham was very close to his step mother.
• He ran a store in New Salem.
• Even though he was strong, a talented wrestler, and proficient with an axe, Lincoln disliked killing and harming animals, even for food.
• Lincoln proposed to Mary just one year after meeting her in Springfield 1839.
• He was the first president to have a beard.
• Lincoln, one week before his death, had a dream of someone crying in the White House, when he found the room; he looked in and asked who had passed away. The man in the room said the President. When he looked in the coffin it was his own face he saw.
• Lincoln was fond of pets, and owned horses, cats, dogs and a turkey.

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I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises. The great point is to bring them the real facts. ~ Abraham Lincoln