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| Portrait of Abraham Lincoln |
Abraham, is known as a great past president of the United States; but he went through a lot to get into that position. He lived from Feb. 12, 1809 to April 14, 1865 as a son of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. He was assassinated at Ford's Theatre in Washington by a Confederate. John Wilkes Booth, who thought he was somehow helping the other Confederate states; however, it didn't.
Being the son of a frontiersman, he needed to strive for education. Living on a farm is difficult and hard work. He plowed at the earths crust for many years and somehow, he left with the ability to read, write, and understand English. "He loved to read instead of working in the fields. This resulted in a difficult relationship with his father, who liked to do the opposite." Abraham constantly asked to borrow books from the neighbors. He left for the war in Illinois. He was the captain in the Black Hawk War, spending eight years in the Illinois legislature, and rode the circuit of courts for many years. He married Mary Todd, and they had four boys, only one of the four of them lived to the age of maturity. In 1858 Lincoln ran against Stephen A. Douglas for the position of Senator. He lost the election, but in his national debates with Douglas he gained a national reputation that won him the nomination for President in 1860.
Abraham is my hero because he was a strong believer in non-racism. With the Emancipation Proclamation that was made on September 22, 1862 to take effect January 1, 1863, it would free all slaves. All the slave owners in the south were devastated. This meant that they had nobody for labor. A lot of the slave owners just accepted the fact. However, there were still some that continued to force their slaves to work. There were copies of this Proclamation all over the nation, but since almost all slaves couldn't read, they knew nothing about it and kept word of it secret in case of a rebellion.
With that, Lincoln got assassinated with unfinished work and left behind grief in everybody's heart, especially his wife's. I remember him always as a great leader that also helped end the Civil War. His words were always powerful and meaningful and helped free slaves. Featured today on your penny as well as your 5 dollar bill and the National Monument of Mt. Rushmore, Lincoln will always be remembered throughout history.
Page created on 12/19/2006 6:55:16 PM
Last edited 12/19/2006 6:55:16 PM
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address"
