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Abraham Lincoln was an American politician from Kentucky. He was the second presidential candidate of the then-new Republican Party, following John Charles Frémont (1813 - 1890). He served as President of the United States from 1861 to 1865, during the American Civil War. He was assassinated in April 1865, the first of four American presidents to be assassinated during their term in office.
In February 1809, Lincoln was born in a one-room log cabin, located on the Sinking Spring Farm . The Farm itself was located near the modern city of Hodgenville, Kentucky, which was incorporated in 1836. Lincoln was the second child born to the illiterate farmer Thomas Lincoln (1778-1851) and his first wife Nancy Hanks (1784-1818). Both of his parents were born in Virginia.
Lincoln was a namesake grandson of Captain Abraham Lincoln (1744 - 1786), a military veteran of the American Revolutionary War. The senior Abraham was born in Pennsylvania, and settled in the areas of modern Kentucky in 1781. He was shot by an unnamed Native American in May 1786, while working in his field. The Lincoln family were descendants of Samuel Lincoln (1622 - 1690), an English weaver who had settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637.
Lincoln's father Thomas bought or leased various farms in Kentucky, but lost most of his land in court disputes over property titles. In 1816, the Lincoln family settled in Indiana, which at the time had a more reliable and surveying system. Indiana was a "free-state", having abolished slave-holding in 1816. This suited Thomas' religious beliefs. He had joined the Separate Baptists, a religious group which forbade its members to own slaves.
In October 1818, Lincoln's mother Nancy died due to milk sickness. She had ingested milk cow containing the poison tremetol. She was 34-years-old at the time of her death. Lincoln was only 9-years-old at the time. The boy's primary caregiver for a while was his older sister Sarah Lincoln (1807 - 1828), who took over most household duties.
In December 1819, Lincoln's father married his second wife Sarah Bush (1788 - 1869). She was a widow, with three children of her own from a previous marriage. Lincoln grew close to his stepmother, and started calling her mother. By that time, Lincoln was old enough to start working in the farm. He reportedly never liked the physical labor, and his family regarded him as particularly lazy.
Lincoln received little formal schooling, relying on brief tutoring by itinerant teachers. He learned to read at the age of 7, but was not trained to write for several years. However, he became a bibliophile and spend most of his free time "reading, scribbling, writing, ciphering, writing Poetry, etc" He was largely self-educated, reading on a variety of topics.
As a teenager, Lincoln was "tall, strong, and athletic". He was trained in the "catch-as-catch-can" style of wrestling, a grappling style, and had a career as an amateur wrestler. He earned his reputation in the sport by defeating the leader of "the Clary's Grove Boys", a local gang of troublemakers.
In 1830, the Lincoln family moved to Macon County, Illinois. By that time, Lincoln was 21-years-old, legally entering adulthood. His relationship with his father Thomas became difficult, as young Lincoln craved for financial independence. In 1831, Thomas and most of his family settled in a new homestead, located in Coles County, Illinois. Lincoln decided not to follow them, and started living on his own. He settled for a few years in New Salem, Illinois.
In 1831, Lincoln and his partner Denton Offutt purchased a general store in New Salem. Lincoln gained a reputation of honesty, when he realized that he had accidentally overcharged a customer and voluntarily returned the money to him. By 1832, the general store had failed. The partnership was dissolved.
Also In 1832, Lincoln stood as a candidate for the Illinois General Assembly. He was an unlikely candidate, as he was rather poor and lacked political connections. He received 277 votes, nearly every vote in the village of New Salem. He lost the election as he was unknown outside this village.
In the early 1830s, Lincoln worked as New Salem's postmaster, and then as county surveyor. He aspired to become a lawyer, and read law on his own. He extensively studied legal texts in order to qualify. He later claimed that he was entirely self-taught. In 1834, Lincoln sought election to the Illinois General Assembly again. This time, he stood as a candidate for the powerful Whig Party and won the election. He served four terms in the General Assembly.
Lincoln's first known romantic relationship involved Ann Rutledge (1813 - 1835), a local woman who was reputedly engaged to another man. Rutledge died in August 1835, during a typhoid epidemic. She was only 22-years-old at the time of her death. Lincoln became severely depressed following her death. Biographers think that he wrote the poem "The Suicide's Soliloquy"(1838), to record his own suicidal thoughts during this period.
In 1836, Lincoln was admitted to the Illinois bar, and moved to Springfield Illinois to practice law. He started his career as a lawyer by practicing law under experienced lawyer John Todd Stuart (1807 - 1885), who happened to be a long-time friend of Lincoln. Lincoln gained a reputation as a formidable trial lawyer in cases involving cross-examinations.
In his political career in the 1830s, Lincoln championed the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, which connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. He later served as a Canal Commissioner. He voted to expand suffrage to all white males, not only white landowners. He adopted a "free soil" policy, vocally opposing both slavery and abolitionism. He favored the plan of the Whig party leader Henry Clay (1777 - 1852) to use freedmen in the colonization of Liberia.
In 1839, Lincoln became romantically interested in Mary Todd (1818 - 1882), a daughter of the wealthy businessman Robert Smith Todd (1791-1849). They were engaged in 1840, and were married in 1842. They had four sons. Mary had a higher social standing than Lincoln, being part of the gentry in Springfield, Illinois. She had reputedly rejected several suitors. Her most notable suitor before Lincoln was the successful lawyer Stephen Arnold Douglas (1813 -1861).
In 1842, Lincoln's last term in the Illinois General Assembly ended. In 1843, he sought the Whig nomination for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He lost the nomination to John Jay Hardin (1810 - 1847), but convinced party officials to not renominate Hardin in the next election. Lincoln won the Whig nomination in 1846, and went on to win the election. He served as a congressman from 1847 to 1849. During this time, Lincoln was the only Whig in the Illinois delegation.
During his term in congress, Lincoln proposed a bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and to compensate slave owners for the loss of property. The bill failed to gain sufficient support, even from his own party. Lincoln spoke out against the country's involvement in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), warning that the price of glory would be "showers of blood".
Lincoln did not seek renomination to Congress in the 1848 election, honoring a 1846 pledge to serve a single term. He supported Zachary Taylor's campaign to win the Whig nomination for the presidency. When Taylor won the presidential election, Lincoln expected political favors from the new president. Taylor offered to Lincoln an appointment as secretary or governor of the Oregon Territory, which was at that time a stronghold of the Democratic Party. Lincoln declined the offer, as it would require him to abandon his legal career in Illinois. He resumed life as a lawyer.
During the 1850s, Lincoln was one of Illinois' leading lawyers. He appeared before the Illinois Supreme Court in 175 cases, and was the sole counsel in 51 of these cases. He solidified his reputation as a defense lawyer in two murder trials. In the trial of Duff Armstrong (1833-1899), Lincoln was able to prove that a key eyewitness was actually lying about what he had seen. Lincoln found that the witness stood at too great a distance in nighttime conditions to have seen anything. In the trial of Simeon Quinn "Peachy" Harrison (a cousin of Lincoln), Lincoln was able to convince a judge that the dying declaration of the murder victim should not be excluded as hearsay, That declaration was that the victim had actively provoked Harrison into attacking, helping the defense's case.
In 1854, Lincoln resumed his active participation in political life by speaking out against the controversial Kansas-Nebraska Act, a law that repealing the Missouri Compromise (1820), and would allow for the expansion of slavery to the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska. The Whig Party split in two due to its factions' different reactions to the new law. The Party's anti-slavery faction helped establish the new Republican Party, which also attracted anti-slavery politicians from the Free Soil Party, the Liberty Party, and the Democratic Party.
In 1854, Lincoln stood as a Whig candidate to the United States Senate. He was not able to secure the election, but managed to convince his supporters to vote for Lyman Trumbull (1813 - 1896), an anti-slavery Democrat with similar views to their own. Trumbull won the election. In 1856, Lincoln formally joined the Republican Party. At the June 1856 Republican National Convention, Lincoln was one of the candidates for the party's nomination for Vice President of the United States. Lincoln received 110 votes, finishing second among the candidates. The vice-presidential nomination was instead won by William Lewis Dayton (1807 - 1864).
In 1858, Lincoln stood as a Republican candidate for the United States Senate. His opponent was Stephen Arnold Douglas, a leading Democrat politician. The Senate campaign featured seven debates between Lincoln and Douglas, which attracted nationwide attention. The candidates argued extensively over the legal and moral status of slavery in the United States. In this elections, the Republican Party won the popular vote, but the Democratic Party won more seats. The legislature re-appointed Douglas to the Senate. But Lincoln had become nationally famous, and he was often mentioned by the press as a likely presidential candidate.
In 1860, Lincoln received early endorsements as a presidential candidate. In the 1860 Republican National Convention, he secured the party's nomination. His most significant rival for the nomination was William Henry Seward (1801-1872), who finished second among the various candidates. Only Lincoln and Seward received over 50 votes from delegates. The party's nomination for vice president was secured by Hannibal Hamlin (1809 - 1891), a former Democrat who had opposed slavery for most of his career.
In the 1860 United States presidential election, the Democratic Party was split into two rival factions, which nominated different candidates. In the election, Lincoln received 1,866,452 votes, or 39.8% of the popular vote. In the electoral college, he received 180 votes, winning the election. Lincoln every one of the free Northern states, plus California and Oregon in the recently annexed Western United States. He received no votes at all in 10 of the 15 slave states.
Lincoln started his presidency in March 1861. By that time, 7 states had already seceded from the Union in reaction to his victory (in chronological order: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas). The American Civil War started in April 1861 with the Battle of Fort Sumter, a bombardment of a Union fort located near Charleston, South Carolina. On April 15, Lincoln called on the states to send a total of 75,000 volunteer troops to recapture forts, protect Washington, and "preserve the Union". In Baltimore rioting crowds started attacking Union forces. Lincoln suspended the right of habeas corpus in select areas, allowing the government forces to confine people without formal trials. Thousands of suspected Confederate sympathizers were confined.
Lincoln soon established his executive control over the Union's war effort, and helped shape its military strategy, He expanded his war powers, and exercising "unprecedented authority" over the country. He had the full support of the Republican-controlled Congress, as well as popular support in states loyal to the Union. His political opposition consisted of two different factions, the Copperheads and the Radical Republicans. The Copperheads were a faction of the Democratic Party which demanded a compromise on the matter of slavery, and a peace settlement with the Confederates. The Radical Republicans were a faction of the Republican Party which demanded the "permanent eradication of slavery", and rejected any ideas concerning compromises with slave-owners.
In September 1862, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared the emancipation of slaves in 10 Confederate states. The Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863. By the spring of 1863, Lincoln had started recruiting "black troops" in massive numbers. By the end of the year, 20 regiments of African Americans from the Mississippi Valley had been recruited by the Union.
Lincoln ran for re-election in the 1864 United States presidential election. He united the main factions of the Republican Party and the War Democrats (a pro-Union faction of the Democratic Party) into a coalition known as Union Party. The remaining factions of the Democratic Party made the mistake of nominating retired general George Brinton McClellan (1826 - 1885) as their presidential candidate. McClellan held a grudge against Lincoln, but rejected any ideas concerning peace with the Confederates. Meaning that the Copperheads could see little difference between him and Lincoln.
Lincoln won the presidential election with 2,218,388 votes, representing 55.0% of the popular vote. 78% of Union soldiers. voted fort him, as they did not want a compromise to end the War. Lincoln won 212 electoral votes, and had the support of 22 out of the Union's 25 states. His new vice-president was Andrew Johnson (1808 - 1875), a prominent War Democrat.
In 1865, the Union seemed to be winning the American Civil War. On April 14, 1865, Lincoln and his wife attended Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C. They wanted to see a performance of the then-popular British play "Our American Cousin" (1858) by Tom Taylor (1817 - 1880). During the performance, Lincoln was assassinated by the well-known actor John Wilkes Booth (1838 - 1865). Booth was a Confederate sympathizer, and hoped to turn the tide of the War. Lincoln was 56-years-old at the time of his death.
Lincoln's corpse was returned for burial to Springfield, Illinois, where he had lived for decades. On May 4, 1865, Lincoln was interred at the Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield. The Lincoln Tomb later became a state historic site. His wife and three of their four sons were later buried there as well.
Historians tend to rank Lincoln among the top Presidents of the United States. Due to his violent death, he came to be regarded as "a national martyr". Several political factions trace their origins to Lincoln's ideas and policies. He has been described as "a classical liberal" of the 19th-century, and is well-regarded for his policies favoring trade and business.- John Wilkes Booth was an American theatrical actor from Maryland. He was a member of the prominent Booth theatrical family. Booth assassinated president Abraham Lincoln, and was killed shortly after. He was the first of four presidential assassins in United States history.
In 1838, Booth was born in Bel Air, Harford County, Maryland. It was a small town with less than 200 residents. Booth's father was Junius Brutus Booth (1796 -1852), a British Shakespearean actor who had migrated to the United States in 1821. Booth's mother was Mary Ann Holmes, Junius' long-term mistress. His parents could not be legally married, as Junius had left his wife back in England when he migrated.
Booth was named after the British radical politician John Wilkes (1725 -1797), a member of the Hellfire Club (an exclusive club for high-society rakes). Wilkes happened to be a cousin of Booth's father, though they never met. Junius chose to emphasize their relation.
In 1851, Junius Booth finally secured a divorce from his first wife, following 30 years of separation. On May 10, 1851 Junius married Holmes. This allowed him to legitimize his children by her. Also in 1851, Junius started building Tudor Hall as a new summer home for his family. It would serve as John Booth's main residence from December 1852 to 1856.
In 1852, Junius Booth died during a steamboat trip from New Orleans to Cincinnati. He is thought to have been accidentally poisoned through drinking impure river water. John Booth became an orphan at age 14, and was forced to drop out of school. He had previously attended the "Milton Boarding School for Boys" and the military academy "St. Timothy's Hall". Booth was reportedly an indifferent student. A former teacher thought that Booth was intelligent, but not particularly interested in his studies.
As a teenager, Booth aspired to become an actor. His older brothers Junius Brutus Booth Jr. (1821-1883) and Edwin Booth (1833 - 1893) had already started their own acting careers. In preparation for an acting career, Booth practiced elocution daily and studied the works of William Shakespeare.
In August 1855, Booth made his stage debut at the "Charles Street Theatre" of Baltimore. He was playing the Earl of Richmond in Shakespeare's "Richard III". He missed some of his lines, and the audience jeered at him. At about that time, Booth started performing regularly at the " Holliday Street Theater" of Baltimore. This theater had previously hosted performances by other members of the Booth family.
In 1857, Booth joined the stock company of the "Arch Street Theatre" in Philadelphia. He used the alias "J.B. Wilkes" to avoid comparison with his father and brothers. He gained a reputation as a scene stealer, and the audience reacted positively to his enthusiasm. In February, 1858, Booth played the role of Petruchio Pandolfo in the opera "Lucrezia Borgia" by Gaetano Donizetti. He developed stage fright, and accidentally turned his opening lines into a comedic monologue. The audience reacted with roaring laughter.
Later within 1858, Booth started performing in Virginia. He joined the stock company of the "Richmond Theatre" in Virginia. He became popular due to his energetic performances, and the audience singled him out for praise. By the end of 1858, Booth had appeared in 83 plays in a single year. His favorite role was playing Marcus Junius Brutus, because he was "the slayer of a tyrant".
By the end of the 1850s, Booth had a yearly income of 20,000 dollars. Critics described him as "the handsomest man in America" and a "natural genius", and female audience members idolized him. His performances were often acrobatic in nature, with him leaping upon the stage. He was passionately gesturing as he spoke his lines. He regularly practiced swordsmanship to use its movements in his performances. He reportedly "cut himself with his own sword" on several occasions.
In 1860, Booth started his first national tour as a leading actor. He performed in major cities, such as New York City, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, St. Louis, Columbus, Georgia, Montgomery, Alabama, and New Orleans. Critics praised his lively performances, though they noted that Booth was less cultured and graceful than his brother Edwin. Walt Whitman commented that Booth had flashes of real genius as he performed.
In 1861, the American Civil War started. Booth publicly expressed his admiration for the Southern United States secession. Several people wanted him to be banned from the stage for his supposedly treasonous statements, but no official action was taken against Booth. In 1862, Booth regularly performed in the Union states of the war, despite his Confederate sympathies. He also performed in the border states, the small group of slave states who refused to secede from the Union (Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri).
By 1863, Booth won more acclaim for portraying villains on stage. He frequently performed as Richard III, King of England (1452 - 1485, reigned 1483-1485) in Shakespeare's tragedy "Richard III". He also played the villainous Duke Pescara in "The Apostate". By the autumn of 1863, Booth was regularly performing in Boston, Providence, Rhode Island, and Hartford, Connecticut.
In November 1863, Booth first performed on "Ford's Theatre" in Washington, D.C. The theatre building was new, debuting in August 1863. It was owned by John Thompson Ford (1829-1894), an old friend of the Booth family. Booth was among the first leading men to appear in the theatre. Among the audience in Booth's original performance was Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln and his family noted that Booth frequently glared at the president throughout the performance. Booth declined an invitation to meet Lincoln in person. Booth gained a new fan in Tad Lincoln (1853 -1871), Lincoln's youngest son, who was thrilled with Booth's performances. Booth delivered a rose to Tad as a gift, in appreciation of the boy's vocal admiration for him.
Booth continued regularly performing in 1864 and early 1865, making his final theatrical performance on on March 18, 1865. In 1864, Booth helped raise funds for the erection of a statue of William Shakespeare for Central Park. Also in 1864, Booth invested part of his income in Fuller Farm Oil, a Pennsylvania-based oil drilling company. Their oil well reportedly yielded 25 barrels (4 kl) of crude oil daily. Booth withdrew his financial support of the company by the end of the year, possibly in reaction to an industrial accident involving explosives.
In February 1865, Booth was engaged to the famed socialite Lucy Lambert Hale (1841-1915), daughter of the Republican senator John Parker Hale. Booth's mother approved their relationship, though Holmes warned her son that his romantic infatuations tended to be short-lived. Booth reportedly had never explained his hatred of Lincoln to his fiancee.
By late 1864, Booth had formed a small network of Confederate sympathizers. They plotted to kidnap Abraham Lincoln. But in April 1865, Booth heard the news that Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox Court House. He decided that the kidnapping plot was no longer feasible, and started plotting to assassinate Lincoln instead.
By April 14, Booth had finalized his plan to personally assassinate Lincoln while the President attended a performance at Ford's Theatre. Booth's fellow conspirators were supposed to also assassinate vice-president Andrew Johnson and secretary of state William H. Seward, the two men at the top of the presidential succession order. Their plan was to throw the Union into a state of panic and confusion, in hopes of prolonging the civil war.
On the night of April 14, Booth shot Lincoln in the back of the head with with a .41 caliber Deringer pistol. Major Henry Rathbone (1837-1911) then attempted to apprehend Booth, but Booth stabbed him with a knife. Booth then jumped on the state, loudly proclaiming "sic semper tyrannis". (Latin for "Thus always to tyrants"). He was quoting a phrase attributed to Marcus Junius Brutus, in reference to Julius Caesar's assassination. His fellow conspirators failed in their own assassination tasks. Johnson was left unharmed, while Seward received non-fatal wounds in the attack targeting him.
After leaving Washington, D.C on horseback, Booth fled into southern Maryland. By that time, Booth had injured his leg in uncertain circumstances. His leg was briefly treated by Dr. Samuel Mudd (1833 - 1883). Booth spend days hiding in the Maryland woods, waiting for an opportunity to cross the Potomac River into Virginia. By April 26, Booth was located by Union troops while hiding in Richard H. Garrett tobacco barn in Virginia. When Booth refused to surrender, the soldiers set the barn on fire. Booth was shot by sergeant Boston Corbett (1832-c. 1894), who was acting against orders.
Booth was fatally wounded in the neck, with the bullet partially severing his spinal cord. He was left paralyzed, and had to be transported to Garrett's farmhouse. He died there three hours later, at the age of 26. His last request was for the soldiers to tell his mother that he died for his country. His final words were "useless, useless", in reference to his paralyzed hands.
Booth's corpse was transported by ship to the Washington Navy Yard for identification and an autopsy. The body was then buried in a storage room at the Old Penitentiary. In 1867, Booth's remains were moved to a warehouse at the Washington Arsenal. In 1869, his remains were released to the Booth family, and buried in the family plot at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore.
Booth's legacy has remained controversial in the 150 years that followed his death. Confederate veterans and their families praised him for years as a martyr to their cause, while Northerners cursed him as the madman who killed the "savior of the Union" (Lincoln). By the early 20th century, Booth was popularly blamed for supposedly causing all the mutual hostility and violence associated with the Reconstruction era (1865-1877). But he remains one of the most famous figures associated with the American Civil War. His tomb annually attracts visitors. - James Barry was born in 1789 in County Cork, Ireland. He was a writer, known for A Skirt Through History (1994). He died on 25 July 1865 in London, England, UK.
