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Abraham Lincoln

by Kellen Bailey from Leawood

Hero Essay By Kellen Bailey

Abraham Lincoln. Great hero. But I mean, pretty cliche, right? Yes, he freed the slaves, and won the Civil War, but did he do anything else important? The answer is, "how could you not know?" So basically, we all know how Honest Abe started out, in a log cabin, in the middle of nowhere. But few people know the tragedy behind it. Sadly, Abe's mother died while he was at a young age from a milk sickness. And that isn't all! He also got forced out of his own home! While suffering through this, Abe learned to read by teaching himself from the very few books found in a log school house. With this lust for learning, he also became a hard worker, working long hours farming, and chopping wood for the house. This is a good example of courage and perseverance. He kept working hard at what he needed to do, even though tragedies and hardships made it difficult

When Abe finished growing up, he finished his education, and decided to set up a store. Sadly, his store didn't do that well, and had to close up shop in 1831. He decided to run for state legislature and lost. He also lost his job around this time and failed to get into Law School. He tried going into business again, borrowing money from a friend. By the end of the year he was bankrupt and spent the next several years paying off his debt. Even with all of this failure going on, he tried running for state legislature again. And won. Finally success has greeted Old Abe on his doorstep. But sadly, it could not stay. Engaged to be married to his sweetheart, she sadly died in 1836. Even with all of this trouble in his life, he ran for speaker of the state legislature, and was defeated again. He then sought to become an elector, and was defeated yet again. He then ran for Congress, and lost. But he tried again, this time, he won, and got a job in Washington, and did it very well. His continuous trying to get the job he wanted, doing a good job, and just never giving up is a PERFECT example of perseverance. After several more failed attempts at running for offices, he finally got elected as the 16th President of the United States of America. This leads us to what we all know about Abe.

During the Civil War, Abe did many great things. He freed the slaves, won The Battle of Gettysburg, developed railroads, nationalized the telegraph, and won the war. To do these things, it was necessary that the South was not a part of the government. They felt that it industrialized things too much, and that it was unfair to the farmers, or the poor man. With them gone, Congress could industrialize and boost the economy, production of goods, weapons, bullets. If we wanted to advance farther and faster, the South had to be absent. Abe knew this, and used it to the fullest extent possible. This shows integrity, and bit of patience. He knew that if the South seceded that he could help industrialize the North. However he also didn't mean that he WANTED it to happen, he just knew that if it did, he had a good backup plan.

Abe suffered many tragic deaths, lots of failure in government and business, but still worked hard, was vigilant, and did many things that shaped American history. He won historic wars, regained control over the country, created relations with other countries, and used our industry to the fullest extent. He did things that changed America forever, and this is why Abraham Lincoln is my hero.

Citations
http://www.biography.com/people/abraham-lincoln-9382540
http://myhero.com/go/hero.asp?hero=A_Lincoln_dnhs_US_2010
http://www.snopes.com/glurge/lincoln.asp

Page created on 9/2/2012 12:00:00 AM

Last edited 9/2/2012 12:00:00 AM

The beliefs, viewpoints and opinions expressed in this hero submission on the website are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs, viewpoints and opinions of The MY HERO Project and its staff.

Related Links

Abraham Lincoln - Biography
MY HERO story on Abraham Lincoln - by Ha Ram from San Diego
Abraham Lincoln - Snopes.com