Abraham Lincoln
Best known as: 16th president of the USA
Occupation: Politician, lawyer
Nicknames: Abe, Honest Abe, the Railsplitter
Nationality: American
Religion: Christian, but didn't belong to a specific church
Political party: Republican
Born: February 12, 1809 in Elizabethtown, Kentucky
Died: April 15, 1865 at Ford's Theater, Wasington D.C. (assassinated by John Wilkes Booth)
Education: Mostly self-educated
Military service: Captain in the Black Hawk War
Other offices held: Member of House of Representatives from Illinois (1847-1849)
Short biography:
Abe Lincoln rose from humble beginnings to lead America through its greatest crisis: the Civil War. Lincoln gained national fame when he made powerful politician Stephen Douglas look foolish during a debate for an Illinois senate seat. Although Lincoln lost that election, the newly formed Republican Party took note of his intelligence and nominated him for the presidency as a compromise candidate. Lincoln was widely unpopular as president. He believed in the supremacy of the federal government over the states and firmly opposed secession. He expanded the powers of his office and the national government by attacking Ft. Sumpter, which started the Civil War, suspending the writ of habeas corpus, and freeing the slaves in the Confederacy through the Emancipation Proclamation.
Wife: Mary Todd Lincoln
Friends: Ulysses Grant
Vice president: Hannibal Hamlin (1860-1864) and Andrew Johnson (1865)
Parents: Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks
Enemies: Jefferson Davis, the Confederate States of America in general, George B. McClellan (a Union general who had no respect for him)
Fun facts:
- Lincoln had no middle name.
- He is the tallest president.
- Lincoln invented a device that used a series of inflatable chambers to lift steamships over damgerous shoals.
- Lincoln's assassination by John Wilkes Booth was just the last in a series of such plots. Lincoln received so many death threats that he filled a drawer of his desk with them and labeled it "Assassinations."
More about Lincoln:
