Abraham Lincoln and the the Civil War Essay Example

Abraham Lincoln and the the Civil War Essay Example Abraham Lincoln and the the Civil War Essay Abraham Lincoln and the the Civil War Essay Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president during the civil war. Most people said he was the best president. During the civil war 3 million people went to war and 600,000 died. He was born February 12, 1809, in Harden County, Kentucky. Both of his parents were born in Virginia. Lincoln made extraordinary efforts to study and become smart while he was working on a farm. He also split rails for fences, and worked in a store. He got very little formal education. He became captain in the Black Hawk War. He spent 8 years in the Illinois legislature. He also worked in the courts for many years. His law partner said of him â€Å"his ambition was a little engine that new no rest. † He then ran for Senator, but he lost the election, but he gained a national reputation that won him the Republican Nomination for president in 1860. He built the Republican National Organization. He’s also the one that issued the Emancipation Proclamation that declared to free the slaves that was on January 1, 1863. The Civil War was not entirely caused by Lincoln’s election, but the election was one of the primary reasons the war broke out the following year. Lincoln’s decision to fight rather than to let the southern states succeed was not based upon his feelings towards slavery. Rather, he felt it was his sacred duty to preserve the Union. His first Inaugural speech ended with a message that said â€Å"it shall be peace or the sword. † The southern navy turned away and surrendered after a 34 hour battle. The southern Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, encouraging the border states to outlaw slavery, and helping push through Congress the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which finally freed all the black slaves nationwide in December 1865. Lincoln was reelected in 1864. He figured he would not win, but he did. After he was reelected, a person named John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln. John Wilkes Booth didn’t want blacks to be free. The assassination was a part of a larger plot to eliminate the Northern Government. Lincoln died the following day, after he was shot, and with him the hope of restructuring the nation without bitterness. Lincoln served our country from Mach 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. The deaths of their sons had profound effects on both parents. Later in life, Mary struggled with the stresses of losing her husband and sons, and Robert Lincoln committed her temporarily to a mental health asylum in 1875. WORKS CITED PAGE: civilwar. org/education/history/biographies/abraham-lincoln. html http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln