Brief biography of abraham lincoln

Grant Rutherford B. Hayes James A. Garfield Chester A. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Bush Bill Clinton George W. Upcoming Events Past Events Donate. Help inform the discussion Support the Miller Center.

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University of Virginia Miller Center. Abraham Lincoln: Life in Brief. Breadcrumb U. Fighting for Unity and Freedom In the campaign for President, Lincoln firmly expressed his opposition to slavery and his determination to limit the expansion of slavery westward into the new territories acquired from Mexico in Grant Rutherford B. Hayes James Garfield Chester A.

Roosevelt Harry S. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson Richard M. Nixon Gerald R. Bush William J. Clinton George W. Two years later, trying to avoid health and finance troubles, Lincoln's father moved the family moved to Illinois. After moving away from home, Lincoln co-owned a general store for several years before selling his stake and enlisting as a militia captain defending Illinois in the Black Hawk War of Black Hawk, a Sauk chief, believed he had been swindled by a recent land deal and sought to resettle his old holdings.

Lincoln did not see direct combat during the short conflict, but the sight of corpse-strewn battlefields at Stillman's Run and Kellogg's Grove deeply affected him. As a captain, he developed a reputation for pragmatism and integrity. Once, faced with a rail fence during practice maneuvers and forgetting the parade-ground instructions to direct his men over it, he simply ordered them to fall out and reassemble on the other side a minute later.

Another time, he stopped his men before they executed a wandering Native American as a spy.

Hiro mashima biography of abraham lincoln

Stepping in front of their raised muskets, Lincoln is said to have challenged his men to combat for the terrified native's life. His men stood down. After the war, he studied law and campaigned for a seat on the Illinois State Legislature. Although not elected in his first attempt, Lincoln persevered and won the position in , serving as a Whig.

Only one lived to adulthood. The deep melancholy that pervaded the Lincoln family, with occasional detours into outright madness, is in some ways sourced in their close relationship with death. Lincoln, a self-described "prairie lawyer," focused on his all-embracing law practice in the early s after one term in Congress from to His family moved to southern Indiana in In , his family moved to Macon County in southern Illinois , and Lincoln got a job working on a river flatboat hauling freight down the Mississippi River to New Orleans.

After settling in the town of New Salem, Illinois, where he worked as a shopkeeper and a postmaster, Lincoln became involved in local politics as a supporter of the Whig Party , winning election to the Illinois state legislature in Like his Whig heroes Henry Clay and Daniel Webster , Lincoln opposed the spread of slavery to the territories, and had a grand vision of the expanding United States, with a focus on commerce and cities rather than agriculture.

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Did you know? The war years were difficult for Abraham Lincoln and his family. After his young son Willie died of typhoid fever in , the emotionally fragile Mary Lincoln, widely unpopular for her frivolity and spendthrift ways, held seances in the White House in the hopes of communicating with him, earning her even more derision. Lincoln taught himself law, passing the bar examination in The following year, he moved to the newly named state capital of Springfield.

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For the next few years, he worked there as a lawyer and served clients ranging from individual residents of small towns to national railroad lines. Lincoln won election to the U. House of Representatives in and began serving his term the following year. As a congressman, Lincoln was unpopular with many Illinois voters for his strong stance against the Mexican-American War.