abraham lincoln hero's journey

Abraham Lincoln

President Abraham Lincoln preserved the Union during the American Civil War and issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing enslaved people.

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Abraham Lincoln was the 16 th president of the United States , serving from 1861 to 1865, and is regarded as one of America’s greatest heroes due to his roles in guiding the Union through the Civil War and working to emancipate enslaved people. His eloquent support of democracy and insistence that the Union was worth saving embody the ideals of self-government that all nations strive to achieve. In 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves across the Confederacy. Lincoln’s rise from humble beginnings to achieving the highest office in the land is a remarkable story, and his death is equally notably. He was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in 1865, at age 56, as the country was slowly beginning to reunify following the war. Lincoln’s distinctively humane personality and incredible impact on the nation have endowed him with an enduring legacy.

FULL NAME: Abraham Lincoln BORN: February 12, 1809 DIED: April 15, 1865 BIRTHPLACE: Hodgenville, Kentucky SPOUSE: Mary Todd Lincoln (m. 1842) CHILDREN: Robert Todd Lincoln , Edward Baker Lincoln, William Wallace Lincoln, and Thomas “Tad” Lincoln ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aquarius HEIGHT: 6 feet 4 inches

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, to parents Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln in rural Hodgenville, Kentucky.

Thomas was a strong and determined pioneer who found a moderate level of prosperity and was well respected in the community. The couple had two other children: Lincoln’s older sister, Sarah, and younger brother, Thomas, who died in infancy. His death wasn’t the only tragedy the family would endure.

In 1817, the Lincolns were forced to move from young Abraham’s Kentucky birthplace to Perry County, Indiana, due to a land dispute. In Indiana, the family “squatted” on public land to scrap out a living in a crude shelter, hunting game and farming a small plot. Lincoln’s father was eventually able to buy the land.

When Lincoln was 9 years old, his 34-year-old mother died of tremetol, more commonly known as milk sickness, on October 5, 1818. The event was devastating to the young boy, who grew more alienated from his father and quietly resented the hard work placed on him at an early age.

In December 1819, just over a year after his mother’s death, Lincoln’s father Thomas married Sarah Bush Johnston, a Kentucky widow with three children of her own. She was a strong and affectionate woman with whom Lincoln quickly bonded.

Although both his parents were most likely illiterate, Thomas’ new wife Sarah encouraged Lincoln to read. It was while growing into manhood that Lincoln received his formal education—an estimated total of 18 months—a few days or weeks at a time.

Reading material was in short supply in the Indiana wilderness. Neighbors recalled how Lincoln would walk for miles to borrow a book. He undoubtedly read the family Bible and probably other popular books at that time such as Robinson Crusoe, Pilgrim’s Progres s, and Aesop’s Fable s.

In March 1830, the family again migrated, this time to Macon County, Illinois. When his father moved the family again to Coles County, 22-year-old Lincoln struck out on his own, making a living in manual labor.

Lincoln was 6 feet 4 inches tall, rawboned and lanky yet muscular and physically strong. He spoke with a backwoods twang and walked with a long-striding gait. He was known for his skill in wielding an ax and early on made a living splitting wood for fire and rail fencing.

Young Lincoln eventually migrated to the small community of New Salem, Illinois, where over a period of years he worked as a shopkeeper, postmaster, and eventually general store owner. It was through working with the public that Lincoln acquired social skills and honed a storytelling talent that made him popular with the locals.

Not surprising given his imposing frame, Lincoln was an excellent wrestler and had only one recorded loss—to Hank Thompson in 1832—over a span of 12 years. A shopkeeper who employed Lincoln in New Salem, Illinois, reportedly arranged bouts for him as a way to promote the business. Lincoln notably beat a local champion named Jack Armstrong and became somewhat of a hero. (The National Wrestling Hall of Fame posthumously gave Lincoln its Outstanding American Award in 1992.)

When the Black Hawk War broke out in 1832 between the United States and Native Americans, the volunteers in the area elected Lincoln to be their captain. He saw no combat during this time, save for “a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes,” but was able to make several important political connections.

As he was starting his political career in the early 1830s, Lincoln decided to become a lawyer. He taught himself the law by reading William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England . After being admitted to the bar in 1837, he moved to Springfield, Illinois, and began to practice in the John T. Stuart law firm.

In 1844, Lincoln partnered with William Herndon in the practice of law. Although the two had different jurisprudent styles, they developed a close professional and personal relationship.

Lincoln made a good living in his early years as a lawyer but found that Springfield alone didn’t offer enough work. So to supplement his income, he followed the court as it made its rounds on the circuit to the various county seats in Illinois.

On November 4, 1842, Lincoln wed Mary Todd , a high-spirited, well-educated woman from a distinguished Kentucky family. Although they were married until Lincoln’s death, their relationship had a history of instability.

When the couple became engaged in 1840, many of their friends and family couldn’t understand Mary’s attraction; at times, Lincoln questioned it himself. In 1841, the engagement was suddenly broken off, most likely at Lincoln’s initiative. Mary and Lincoln met later at a social function and eventually did get married.

The couple had four sons— Robert Todd , Edward Baker, William Wallace, and Thomas “Tad”—of whom only Robert survived to adulthood.

Before marrying Todd, Lincoln was involved with other potential matches. Around 1837, he purportedly met and became romantically involved with Anne Rutledge. Before they had a chance to be engaged, a wave of typhoid fever came over New Salem, and Anne died at age 22.

Her death was said to have left Lincoln severely depressed. However, several historians disagree on the extent of Lincoln’s relationship with Rutledge, and his level of sorrow at her death might be more the makings of legend.

About a year after the death of Rutledge, Lincoln courted Mary Owens. The two saw each other for a few months, and marriage was considered. But in time, Lincoln called off the match.

In 1834, Lincoln began his political career and was elected to the Illinois state legislature as a member of the Whig Party . More than a decade later, from 1847 to 1849, he served a single term in the U.S. House of Representatives. His foray into national politics seemed to be as unremarkable as it was brief. He was the lone Whig from Illinois, showing party loyalty but finding few political allies.

As a congressman, Lincoln used his term in office to speak out against the Mexican-American War and supported Zachary Taylor for president in 1848. His criticism of the war made him unpopular back home, and he decided not to run for second term. Instead, he returned to Springfield to practice law.

By the 1850s, the railroad industry was moving west, and Illinois found itself becoming a major hub for various companies. Lincoln served as a lobbyist for the Illinois Central Railroad as its company attorney.

Success in several court cases brought other business clients as well, including banks, insurance companies, and manufacturing firms. Lincoln also worked in some criminal trials.

In one case, a witness claimed that he could identify Lincoln’s client who was accused of murder, because of the intense light from a full moon. Lincoln referred to an almanac and proved that the night in question had been too dark for the witness to see anything clearly. His client was acquitted.

As a member of the Illinois state legislature, Lincoln supported the Whig politics of government-sponsored infrastructure and protective tariffs. This political understanding led him to formulate his early views on slavery, not so much as a moral wrong, but as an impediment to economic development.

In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act , which repealed the Missouri Compromise , allowing individual states and territories to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery. The law provoked violent opposition in Kansas and Illinois, and it gave rise to today’s Republican Party .

This awakened Lincoln’s political zeal once again, and his views on slavery moved more toward moral indignation. Lincoln joined the Republican Party in 1856.

In 1857, the Supreme Court issued its controversial Dred Scott decision, declaring Black people were not citizens and had no inherent rights. Although Lincoln felt Black people weren’t equal to whites, he believed America’s founders intended that all men were created with certain inalienable rights.

Lincoln decided to challenge sitting U.S. Senator Stephen Douglas for his seat. In his nomination acceptance speech, he criticized Douglas, the Supreme Court , and President James Buchanan for promoting slavery then declared “a house divided cannot stand.”

During Lincoln’s 1858 U.S. Senate campaign against Douglas, he participated in seven debates held in different cities across Illinois. The two candidates didn’t disappoint, giving stirring debates on issues such as states’ rights and western expansion. But the central issue was slavery.

Newspapers intensely covered the debates, often times with partisan commentary. In the end, the state legislature elected Douglas, but the exposure vaulted Lincoln into national politics.

With his newly enhanced political profile, in 1860, political operatives in Illinois organized a campaign to support Lincoln for the presidency. On May 18, at the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Lincoln surpassed better-known candidates such as William Seward of New York and Salmon P. Chase of Ohio. Lincoln’s nomination was due, in part, to his moderate views on slavery, his support for improving the national infrastructure, and the protective tariff.

In the November 1860 general election, Lincoln faced his friend and rival Stephen Douglas, this time besting him in a four-way race that included John C. Breckinridge of the Northern Democrats and John Bell of the Constitution Party. Lincoln received not quite 40 percent of the popular vote but carried 180 of 303 Electoral College votes, thus winning the U.S. presidency. He grew his trademark beard after his election.

Lincoln’s Cabinet

Following his election to the presidency in 1860, Lincoln selected a strong cabinet composed of many of his political rivals, including William Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, and Edwin Stanton.

Formed out the adage “Hold your friends close and your enemies closer,” Lincoln’s cabinet became one of his strongest assets in his first term in office, and he would need them as the clouds of war gathered over the nation the following year.

Before Lincoln’s inauguration in March 1861, seven Southern states had seceded from the Union, and by April, the U.S. military installation Fort Sumter was under siege in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. In the early morning hours of April 12, 1861, the guns stationed to protect the harbor blazed toward the fort, signaling the start of the U.S. Civil War , America’s costliest and bloodiest war.

The newly President Lincoln responded to the crisis wielding powers as no other president before him: He distributed $2 million from the Treasury for war material without an appropriation from Congress; he called for 75,000 volunteers into military service without a declaration of war; and he suspended the writ of habeas corpus, allowing for the arrest and imprisonment of suspected Confederate States sympathizers without a warrant.

Crushing the rebellion would be difficult under any circumstances, but the Civil War, after decades of white-hot partisan politics, was especially onerous. From all directions, Lincoln faced disparagement and defiance. He was often at odds with his generals, his cabinet, his party, and a majority of the American people.

On January 1, 1863, Lincoln delivered his official Emancipation Proclamation , reshaping the cause of the Civil War from saving the Union to abolishing slavery.

The Union Army’s first year and a half of battlefield defeats made it difficult to keep morale high and support strong for a reunification of the nation. And the Union victory at Antietam on September 22, 1862, while by no means conclusive, was hopeful. It gave Lincoln the confidence to officially change the goals of the war. On that same day, he issued a preliminary proclamation that slaves in states rebelling against the Union would be free as of January 1.

The Emancipation Proclamation stated that all individuals who were held as enslaved people in rebellious states “henceforward shall be free.” The action was more symbolic than effective because the North didn’t control any states in rebellion, and the proclamation didn’t apply to border states, Tennessee, or some Louisiana parishes.

As a result, the Union army shared the Proclamation’s mandate only after it had taken control of Confederate territory. In the far reaches of western Texas, that day finally came on June 19, 1865—more than two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation took effect. For decades, many Black Americans have celebrated this anniversary, known as Juneteenth or Emancipation Day, and in 2021, President Joe Biden made Juneteenth a national holiday.

Still, the Emancipation Proclamation did have some immediate impact. It permitted Black Americans to serve in the Union Army for the first time, which contributed to the eventual Union victory. The historic declaration also paved the way for the passage of the 13 th Amendment that ended legal slavery in the United States.

On November 19, 1863, Lincoln delivered what would become his most famous speech and one of the most important speeches in American history: the Gettysburg Address .

Addressing a crowd of around 15,000 people, Lincoln delivered his 272-word speech at one of the bloodiest battlefields of the Civil War, the Gettysburg National Cemetery in Pennsylvania. The Civil War, Lincoln said, was the ultimate test of the preservation of the Union created in 1776, and the people who died at Gettysburg fought to uphold this cause.

Lincoln evoked the Declaration of Independence , saying it was up to the living to ensure that the “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,” and this Union was “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

A common interpretation was that the president was expanding the cause of the Civil War from simply reunifying the Union to also fighting for equality and abolishing slavery.

Following Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, the war effort gradually improved for the North, though more by attrition than by brilliant military victories.

But by 1864, the Confederate armies had eluded major defeat and Lincoln was convinced he’d be a one-term president. His nemesis George B. McClellan , the former commander of the Army of the Potomac, challenged him for the presidency, but the contest wasn’t even close. Lincoln received 55 percent of the popular vote and 212 of 243 electoral votes.

On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee , commander of the Army of Virginia, surrendered his forces to Union General Ulysses S. Grant . The Civil War was for all intents and purposes over.

Reconstruction had already began during the Civil War, as early as 1863 in areas firmly under Union military control, and Lincoln favored a policy of quick reunification with a minimum of retribution. He was confronted by a radical group of Republicans in Congress that wanted complete allegiance and repentance from former Confederates. Before a political debate had any chance to firmly develop, Lincoln was killed.

Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, by well-known actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre in Washington. Lincoln was taken to the Petersen House across the street and laid in a coma for nine hours before dying the next morning. He was 56. His death was mourned by millions of citizens in the North and South alike.

Lincoln’s body first lay in state at the U. S. Capitol. About 600 invited guests attended a funeral in the East Room of the White House on April 19, though an inconsolable Mary Todd Lincoln wasn’t present.

His body was transported to his final resting place in Springfield, Illinois, by a funeral train. Newspapers publicized the schedule of the train, which made stops along various cities that played roles in Lincoln’s path to Washington. In 10 cities, the casket was removed and placed in public for memorial services. Lincoln was finally placed in a tomb on May 4.

On the day of Lincoln’s death, Andrew Johnson was sworn in as the 17 th president at the Kirkwood House hotel in Washington.

Lincoln, already taller than most, is known for his distinctive top hats. Although it’s unclear when he began wearing them, historians believe he likely chose the style as a gimmick.

He wore a top hat to Ford’s Theatre on the night of his assassination. Following his death, the War Department preserved the hat until 1867 when, with Mary Todd Lincoln’s approval, it was transferred to the Patent Office and the Smithsonian Institution. Worried about the commotion it might cause, the Smithsonian stored the hat in a basement instead of putting it on display. It was finally exhibited in 1893, and it’s now one of the Institution’s most treasured items.

Lincoln is frequently cited by historians and average citizens alike as America’s greatest president. An aggressively activist commander-in-chief, Lincoln used every power at his disposal to assure victory in the Civil War and end slavery in the United States.

Some scholars doubt that the Union would have been preserved had another person of lesser character been in the White House. According to historian Michael Burlingame , “No president in American history ever faced a greater crisis and no president ever accomplished as much.”

Lincoln’s philosophy was perhaps best summed up in his Second Inaugural Address , when he stated, “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

The Lincoln Memorial

Since its dedication in 1922, the Lincoln Memorial in Washington has honored the president’s legacy. Inspired by the Greek Parthenon, the monument features a 19-foot high statue of Lincoln and engravings of the Gettysburg Address and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. Former President William Howard Taft served as chair of the Lincoln Memorial Commission, which oversaw its design and construction.

The monument is the most visited in the city, attracting around 8 million people per year. Civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on the memorial’s steps in 1963.

Lincoln has been the subject of numerous films about his life and presidency, rooted in both realism and absurdity.

Among the earlier films featuring the former president is Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), which stars Henry Fonda and focuses on Lincoln’s early life and law career. A year later, Abe Lincoln in Illinois gave a dramatized account of Lincoln’s life after leaving Kentucky.

The most notable modern film is Lincoln , the 2012 biographical drama directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln and Sally Field as his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln . Day-Lewis won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, and the film was nominated for Best Picture.

A more fantastical depiction of Lincoln came in the 1989 comedy film Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure , in which the titular characters played by Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter travel back in time for the president’s help in completing their high school history report. Lincoln gives the memorable instruction to “be excellent to each other and... party on, dudes!”

Another example is the 2012 action film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter , based on a 2010 novel by Seth Grahame-Smith. Benjamin Walker plays Lincoln, who leads a secret double life hunting the immortal creatures and even fighting them during the Civil War.

Lincoln’s role during the Civil War is heavily explored in the 1990 Ken Burns documentary The Civil War , which won two Emmy Awards and two Grammys. In 2022, the History Channel aired a three-part docuseries about his life simply titled Abraham Lincoln .

• Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.
• I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me.
• No man is good enough to govern another man, without that other ’ s consent.
• I have learned the value of old friends by making many new ones.
• Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
• Whenever I hear anyone arguing over slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
• To give the victory to the right, not bloody bullets, but peaceful ballots only, are necessary.
• Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.
• Don ’ t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.
• Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.
• With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation ’ s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.
• I walk slowly, but I never walk backward.
• Nearly all men can handle adversity, if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
• I ’ m the big buck of this lick. If any of you want to try it, come on and whet your horns.
• We can complain because rose bushes have thorns.
• Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?
• It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.

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World History Edu

• Abraham Lincoln / Presidents of the United States

9 Great Achievements of Abraham Lincoln

by World History Edu · July 14, 2019

Achievements of Abraham Lincoln

For close to one and half centuries now, Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) has continuously appeared in surveys and in books as one of the three greatest US Presidents of all time (if not the best of all time). In order to find out why Abraham Lincoln was so great, popular and revered by virtually all Americans, as well as the world in general, it is absolutely crucial that we explore who he was and what he stood for.

Facts about Abraham Lincoln

Born –  Abraham Lincoln

Date and Place of Birth –  February 12, 1809; Hodgenville, Kentucky, United States

Date and Place of Death –  April 15, 1865; Washington, D.C., United State

Cause of death : Assassination

Burial place : Lincoln Tomb, Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, Illinois

Most Famous For – Keeping preserving the Union; issuing the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863

Nickname – “Honest Abe”

Parents –  Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks

Wife –  Mary Todd (1842-1865)

Children –  Robert, Edward, Willie, and Tad

Military and political career:

Military Office – Illinois Militia

Rank – Captain

Battles fought in – American Indian Wars (also known as the American Frontier Wars)

Legislature –  Member of the Illinois House of Representatives from Sangamon County (1834-1842); Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois’s  7th district (1847-1849)

Political Party – Whig (before 1854), Republican (1854-1864), National Union (1864-1865)

President of the United States –  16th U.S. President (1861 – 1865)

Preceded by – James Buchanan

Succeeded by – Andrew Johnson

Major Accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln

The following are nine examples of his greatest achievements of Abraham Lincoln:

Became the 16th President of the United States

Coming from the humblest of beginnings, the Kentucky-born Abraham Lincoln (also known as Abe Lincoln) grew up with very little to go around. He fought all odds to gain a decent education. As a matter of fact, Lincoln was a self-educated man. The family barely had anything to make ends meet. But Abraham Lincoln, a man who lost his mother at the age of 8, was determined to leave his mark on the earth.

He independently tutored himself to read and write better. He had no law school training or apprenticeship, but he was still able to gain admission into Illinois bar in 1836. His first taste with public office came after he voted into Illinois legislature in 1834. Gradually and steadily, Abraham Lincoln strolled his way into the hearts of America by giving great speeches and working extremely hard for the downtrodden in the society.

After a lengthy career as a legislator and practicing lawyer, Lincoln contested and won the 1860 presidential election. He defeated Stephen A. Douglas by around 500,000 votes. Abraham Lincoln was sworn into office on March 1, 1861 as the 16th president of the United States of America. As a result of his out-of-this-world heroics in the heat of the American Civil War , Lincoln won a second term in 1864.

The Lincoln-Johnson pairing sent a strong message to the South. Image: Poster for the Lincoln and Johnson ticket by Currier and Ives

Issued the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863

What could be more divine than abolishing the trade, subjugation and mistreatment of another race? Absolutely nothing! On January 1, 1863, Abraham took a bold decision to end the barbaric practice of slavery. By so doing, he set free all slaves in the United States. This act of his was captured in the Emancipation Proclamation he famously issued in 1863 . This was no mere feat of accomplishment, and it will always rank up there with the Declaration of Independence the Founding Fathers of America issued in 1776.

What the Proclamation did was to enable African American fighters join the profound objective of securing freedom and liberty for every single American, regardless of demographic factors. The Emancipation Proclamation resonates with the very ideals that the Founding Fathers of America believed in.

About a couple of years after Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth Amendment of the U.S. constitution was ratified by the needed number of states on 6 December 1865. Prior to its ratification, the Amendment had successfully been passed by the Senate (on April 8, 1864) and the House (on January 31, 1865).

One of Abraham Lincoln’s first public sayings about slavery

Achievements in the Agricultural Sector

The U.S. Department of Agriculture owes its birth to Abraham Lincoln. The exact date of the department’s establishment is May 15, 1862. President Lincoln picked a Commissioner to head the department- a department that he patriotically termed as the ‘people’s department’. Such was the importance of agriculture to American economy during the mid-19 th century. The department’s mandate was to steer the federal government’s effort in promoting economically sustainable agricultural activities all throughout the country- a mandate that the department still patriotically carries out to this day.

Secured Victory for the Union

Abraham Lincoln’s brave handling of the American Civil War definitely came at the expense of his life, as well as the lives of 600,000 Americans. However, had it not been for him, the situation would have been much worse. Perhaps the America that we know of today would not have existed in its current shape or form. Perhaps, had Abraham Lincoln not been around to keep the nation together, the entire American continent might have regressed economically, socially and technologically.

Excerpt from Lincoln’s Second term speech in 1865

Abe Lincoln’s actions and leadership were nothing short of absolute brilliance during the Civil War. And the ideals that he fought for, even at the expense of his life, were divine. Ultimately, his sacrifices culminated in General Robert E. Lee ’s (the commander of the Confederate forces) surrender on April 9, 1865. By defeating the Confederate States, Abraham helped preserve a Union that would go on to be a beacon of democracy across the world.

Union leaders and generals met on March 28, 1865 to discuss the terms of surrender and reconstruction efforts (1863 – 1877) that would take place in the South after the war. Image (left to right): General Sherman, General Grant, Abraham Lincoln, and Admiral Porter,

Rolled Out Plans for Reconstruction

The American Civil War of four years undoubtedly took a massive toll on every facet of the American society. Families were separated; lives were lost; the economy took a nosedive; technological progress was halted; and above all, the people were in a state of despondency. Abraham Lincoln was fully aware of all these—the inevitable ills of wars. Hence, he started making provisions and arrangements for the reconstruction of America. He instituted some of these plans even while the war was raging on. Plans were made on how to bring the Southerners into the federal government. He feared that imposing harsh punishments on the vanquished Southerners could alienate them even further. His ultimate goal was to reunite the country. He sought to ensure that wounds and broken spirits from the war were healed as quickly as possible.

Contrary to what some radical Republicans wanted, Lincoln stuck to the path of rebuilding and reintegrating former foes back into the federal government. He knew that the nation had to forgive first and foremost before any reconstruction can be made. Therefore, in 1863, President Lincoln issued another magnificent proclamation- the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction.

It was in this spirit of reconciliation and forgiveness that the two fighting sides finally came together and reunited to form a bolder and better United States of America.

Lincoln’s response to his Republican Party after the Civil War ended

Helped Poor Americans Get Access to Lands

Lincoln signed the Homestead Acts of 1862 that enabled the extremely poor in American society obtain lands. All they had to do was dwell on the parcel of federal-granted lands for five or more years. The applicants to the program had to be 21 years or older. Historians believe that this kind social welfare gesture was instituted because of Abe Lincoln’s personal experiences with being have-not himself. Sometime in his childhood, Lincoln personally witnessed his family lose several acres of their land due to legal disputes. His family was then forced to relocate from Kentucky to Indiana in order to secure better land rights (or property rights). Indiana was by then one of the “free” states in America that had relatively more liberal laws.

Therefore, it is likely that while Abe Lincoln signed the Homestead Act of 1862, his vision was to make sure that families in America never suffered the kind of experiences he had as a child.

Signed the Revenue Act of 1862

Most Americans have a mixed sort of feelings about taxes today. The debate always bothers on whether a tax is progressive or not. Should more taxes be levied on the rich in order to redistribute it to the have-nots in the society? Or should the rich in the society be given tax breaks so that they can reinvest those gains back into the society?

One thing is for sure, a nation can never do away with taxes. Guess what? Abraham Lincoln’s tax policy was so progressive for his era that tax experts to this day continue to be dazzled by it. What Lincoln did was that he got the Revenue Act of 1862 passed. Armed with this act, Abe Lincoln was able to create a tax office called the Office of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue. This is the same office that we now call the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Then, he tasked this office to coordinate tax collection across the nation. Within a very short period of time Americans were then sorted out into different categories depending on their incomes. This allowed for greater equity as opposed to the tax schemes that existed before Lincoln came into office.

Reformed the Banking Sector

Another very crucial act that came to life during Abe Lincoln’s presidency was the National Banking Act of 1863. Federal officials and the government in general had always known how important banks were to the American economy. However, very few presidents, since the birth of the nation, ever embarked on instituting reforms in the banking system. That was not the case with President Abraham Lincoln.

Amidst all the chaos during the American Civil War, Lincoln was determined to establish strong pillars within the nation’s financial sector. Out of this initiative also came a national currency.

Furthermore, with adequate reforms in the banking sector, the banks were more able and willing to give out credit facilities to fund infrastructural projects across the country.

Signed the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act

The numerous universities and colleges littered across present-day America certainly owe Abraham Lincoln a lot of gratitude. It all had to do with the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act that Abraham Lincoln signed on July 2, 1862. The Act was to encourage existing and new colleges to go into three main areas- engineering, agriculture and military education. Had it not been for the stimulus package that came with the Morrill Land-Grant Act, many of America’s fine institutions of higher learning would not have been around.

Frequently Asked Questions about Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from 1861 to 1865. He is best known for leading the country during the American Civil War and for his efforts to end slavery in the U.S. Image: Statue of Abraham Lincoln

When was Abraham Lincoln born and when did he die?

Abe Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky, and was assassinated on April 14, 1865. He died the following day, April 15, 1865.

Who assassinated Abraham Lincoln?

Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer, while attending a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.

Incensed by the defeat of the South in the American Civil War, Booth joined a clandestine group of radical Americans that sought to kill Lincoln and top-ranking members of president’s cabinet, including Secretary of State William H. Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson.

What were the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address?

The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by Lincoln on January 1, 1863, declared the freedom of all slaves in Confederate-held territory. The Gettysburg Address, delivered on November 19, 1863, was a brief speech by Lincoln during the Civil War at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Did Lincoln ever own slaves?

No, Abraham Lincoln never owned slaves. He is known for his opposition to slavery and his efforts to abolish it.

Abraham Lincoln’s response to pro-slavers, as well as the 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford decision

How did Lincoln come into politics?

Lincoln began his political career in the Illinois State Legislature as a member of the Whig Party in 1834. He later served a single term in the U.S. House of Representatives and was eventually elected as the U.S. President as a Republican in 1860.

Was Lincoln re-elected?

Yes, Abraham Lincoln was re-elected for a second term as President in 1864.

What were Lincoln’s views on slavery?

Lincoln believed that slavery was morally wrong and worked towards its abolition. However, he initially focused on preventing its expansion into new U.S. territories before championing its complete abolition with the Emancipation Proclamation.

What is the significance of the Lincoln-Douglas debates?

The Lincoln-Douglas debates were a series of seven debates in 1858 between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas during their campaign for a U.S. Senate seat from Illinois. The debates primarily focused on the issue of slavery and its expansion into the territories. Though Lincoln lost the Senate race, the debates helped him gain national recognition.

Where is Abraham Lincoln buried?

Abraham Lincoln is buried in the Lincoln Tomb at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois.

What impact did Lincoln have on the United States?

Abraham Lincoln preserved the Union during its greatest internal crisis, the Civil War. He also signed the Emancipation Proclamation, leading to the abolition of slavery in the U.S. His leadership qualities, speeches, and decisions have left a lasting impact on the nation, shaping its core values and principles.

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Abraham Lincoln: Impact and Legacy

In 1982, forty-nine historians and political scientists were asked by the Chicago Tribune to rate all the Presidents through Jimmy Carter in five categories: leadership qualities, accomplishments/crisis management, political skills, appointments, and character/integrity. At the top of the list stood Abraham Lincoln. He was followed by Franklin Roosevelt, George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, and Harry Truman. None of these other Presidents exceeded Lincoln in any category according to the rate scale. Roosevelt fell into second place because he did not measure up to Lincoln in character. Washington, close behind, ranked third because of his lesser political skills. It is the general opinion of pollsters, moreover, that the average American would probably put Lincoln at the top as well. In other words, the judgment of historians and the public tells us that Abraham Lincoln was the nation's greatest President by every measure applied.

Interestingly, had the average Union citizen been asked the same question in the spring of 1863, there can be no doubt but that Lincoln would have fared poorly. Not much more could have been said for him even a year later, when Lincoln thought that he would lose his bid for reelection. It would take Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse and his own death a week later to propel Lincoln into the pantheon of presidential greatness.

And Lincoln's canonization began almost immediately. Within days of his death, his life was being compared to Jesus Christ. Lincoln was portrayed to a worshipping public as a self-made man, the liberator of the slaves, and the savior of the Union who had given his life so that others could be free. President Lincoln became Father Abraham, a near mythological hero, "lawgiver" to African Americans, and a "Masterpiece of God" sent to save the Union. His humor was presented as an example of his humanity; his numerous pardons demonstrated his "great soul"; and his sorrowful demeanor reflected the burdens of his lonely journey as the leader of a "blundering and sinful" people.

Historians, mindful of Lincoln's mythic place in American popular culture, accord him similar praise for what he accomplished and for how he did it. Because he was committed to preserving the Union and thus vindicating democracy no matter what the consequences to himself, the Union was indeed saved. Because he understood that ending slavery required patience, careful timing, shrewd calculations, and an iron resolve, slavery was indeed killed. Lincoln managed in the process of saving the Union and killing slavery to define the creation of a more perfect Union in terms of liberty and economic equality that rallied the citizenry behind him. Because he understood that victory in both great causes depended upon purposeful and visionary presidential leadership as well as the exercise of politically acceptable means, he left as his legacy a United States that was both whole and free.

As the most activist President in history, Lincoln transformed the President's role as commander in chief and as chief executive into a powerful new position, making the President supreme over both Congress and the courts. His activism began almost immediately with Fort Sumter when he called out state militias, expanded the army and navy, spent $2 million without congressional appropriation, blockaded Southern ports, closed post offices to treasonable correspondences, suspended the writ of habeas corpus in several locations, ordered the arrest and military detention of suspected traitors, and issued the Emancipation Proclamation on New Year's Day 1863.

To do all of these things, Lincoln broke an assortment of laws and ignored one constitutional provision after another. He made war without a declaration of war, and indeed even before summoning Congress into special session. He countered Supreme Court opposition by affirming his own version of judicial review that placed the President as the final interpreter of the Constitution. For Lincoln, it made no sense "to lose the nation and yet preserve the Constitution." Following a strategy of "unilateral action," Lincoln justified his powers as an emergency authority granted to him by the people. He had been elected, he told his critics, to decide when an emergency existed and to take all measures required to deal with it. In doing so, Lincoln maintained that the President was one of three "coordinate" departments of government, not in any way subordinate to Congress or the courts. Moreover, he demonstrated that the President had a special duty that went beyond the duty of Congress and the courts, a duty that required constant executive action in times of crisis. While the other branches of government are required to support the Constitution, Lincoln's actions pointed to the notion that the President alone is sworn to preserve, protect, and defend it. In times of war, this power makes the President literally responsible for the well-being and survival of the nation.

Lincoln's legacy of executive authority did not last beyond his death, and over the next forty years both Congress and the courts overshadowed the White House in power and influence. Still, the most lasting accomplishments attributed to Lincoln are the preservation of the Union, the vindication of democracy, and the death of slavery, all accomplished by the ways in which he handled the crisis that most certainly would have ended differently with a lesser man in office. His great achievement, historians tell us, was his ability to energize and mobilize the nation by appealing to its best ideals while acting "with malice towards none" in the pursuit of a more perfect, more just, and more enduring Union. No President in American history ever faced a greater crisis and no President ever accomplished as much.

Michael Burlingame

Professor Emeritus of History Connecticut College

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The Motivational Journey of Abraham Lincoln

The motivational journey of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, is a fascinating tale of determination, resilience, and unwavering belief in his ideals. From his humble beginnings in a log cabin to becoming a legendary leader who guided a divided nation through the Civil War, Lincoln’s motivations were deeply rooted in his unwavering commitment to preserving the Union and championing the rights of all citizens. This journey of motivation and personal growth provides invaluable lessons for individuals aspiring to overcome challenges and make a lasting impact on the world.

Table of Contents

Early Life and Hardships

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, is widely regarded as one of the greatest leaders in American history. However, his journey towards success was not easy. Born on February 12, 1809, in a log cabin in Kentucky, Lincoln experienced numerous hardships and setbacks throughout his life that would ultimately shape his character and fuel his motivation.

Humble Beginnings

Growing up in a modest family, Lincoln faced poverty and limited access to education. His father, Thomas Lincoln, was a farmer, and his mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, passed away when he was just nine years old. Despite these challenging circumstances, Lincoln’s thirst for knowledge remained insatiable.

Self-Education and Perseverance

With limited formal education, Lincoln took it upon himself to learn and grow intellectually. He voraciously read books, borrowed from neighbors and friends, to expand his horizons and gain knowledge about various subjects. This self-education played a significant role in shaping his worldview and sharpening his critical thinking abilities.

Political Ambitions and Failures

Lincoln’s interest in politics began to take shape during his early adulthood. He started his political career in Illinois, serving in the state legislature and later running for Congress. However, his initial attempts at political success were met with failure, experiencing a series of defeats in various elections.

Political Setbacks and Determination

Despite these setbacks, Lincoln refused to let failure define him. He remained resilient and determined, constantly honing his skills as a public speaker, lawyer, and debater. He recognized that setbacks were an inevitable part of any journey and used them as stepping stones towards personal growth and improvement.

The Impact of the Civil War

The turning point in Lincoln’s political career came with the outbreak of the American Civil War. As the nation became divided, Lincoln found himself at the helm of a deeply divided country, facing the immense challenge of preserving the Union and abolishing slavery.

Leadership During Turbulent Times

Lincoln’s leadership during the Civil War demonstrated his unwavering commitment to his principles and his ability to navigate through challenging times. His motivational journey can be seen through the lens of his leadership style and the decisions he made during this tumultuous period.

Abraham Lincoln’s motivational journey serves as a testament to the power of resilience, determination, and empathy. From his humble beginnings to his leadership during the Civil War, Lincoln’s story inspires individuals facing challenges. Embracing adversity, staying true to principles, and embodying empathy are key lessons to learn from his journey.

Embracing Adversity

Lincoln’s leadership was characterized by his ability to embrace adversity and turn it into an opportunity for growth. Instead of shying away from the challenges presented by the Civil War, he confronted them head-on, displaying courage and determination.

The Gettysburg Address

One of the most iconic moments in Lincoln’s motivational journey was the delivery of the Gettysburg Address. In this powerful speech, Lincoln eloquently expressed his commitment to the ideals of liberty, equality, and democracy. Despite the devastating toll of the war, he emphasized the importance of preserving the Union and ensuring that the sacrifices made would not be in vain.

Embodying Resilience and Empathy

Throughout his life, Lincoln exhibited remarkable resilience and empathy, traits that further fueled his motivation and endeared him to the American people.

Empathy in Leadership

Lincoln’s ability to empathize with others, even in the face of adversity, set him apart as a leader. He understood the struggles and sacrifices of the soldiers on the battlefield and the anguish of the families torn apart by the war. This empathy allowed him to connect with the people and inspire them to persevere.

The Emancipation Proclamation

One of Lincoln’s most significant contributions to American history was the Emancipation Proclamation. By issuing this executive order, he declared that all slaves in Confederate territory were to be set free. This act demonstrated his commitment to justice and equality and further solidified his place in history as a champion of human rights.

Legacy and Inspiration

Abraham Lincoln’s motivational journey continues to inspire individuals around the world. His ability to overcome adversity, his unwavering commitment to justice, and his profound empathy serve as a testament to the power of resilience and determination.

Lessons from Lincoln

There are several valuable lessons that can be learned from Lincoln’s motivational journey. These include:

• Embrace adversity as an opportunity for growth.
• Persevere in the face of failure and setbacks.
• Cultivate empathy and compassion for others.
• Stay true to your principles and values, even in challenging times.
• Never underestimate the power of education and self-improvement.

Inspirational Quotes by Abraham Lincoln

• “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
• “I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.”
• “Character is like a tree and reputation its shadow. The shadow is what we think it is, and the tree is the real thing.”

In conclusion, Abraham Lincoln’s motivational journey is a testament to the power of resilience, determination, and empathy. From his humble beginnings to his leadership during the Civil War, Lincoln’s story serves as an inspiration for individuals facing their own challenges. By embracing adversity, staying true to his principles, and embodying empathy, Lincoln left an indelible mark on American history and continues to motivate and inspire people to this day.

What were some key challenges Abraham Lincoln faced during his life?

Abraham Lincoln’s life was filled with numerous challenges. He was born into poverty and experienced the loss of his mother at a young age. Lincoln faced limited access to education and had to teach himself many subjects. Throughout his career, he encountered multiple business failures and financial hardships. Additionally, he experienced personal tragedies, including the deaths of his siblings, children, and eventually his own assassination. Despite these adversities, Lincoln was able to persevere and rise above the challenges he faced.

How did Abraham Lincoln develop a strong work ethic?

Abraham Lincoln’s work ethic was shaped by his early years. Growing up in a farming family, he was accustomed to hard physical labor. Lincoln inherited his father’s strong work ethic, which instilled the values of persistence and dedication in him. His determination to overcome poverty and educate himself drove him to work tirelessly. Lincoln’s commitment to his work and never-give-up attitude played a significant role in his motivational journey.

What were some of Abraham Lincoln’s biggest accomplishments?

One of Abraham Lincoln’s greatest accomplishments was his role in preserving the Union during the American Civil War. As the 16th President of the United States, he successfully navigated the country through the conflict, signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and eventually paved the way for the abolition of slavery. Lincoln is also known for delivering powerful speeches, including the Gettysburg Address, which has become one of the most important speeches in American history.

How did Abraham Lincoln maintain his motivation during difficult times?

Abraham Lincoln drew motivation from various sources during challenging periods. His steadfast belief in the principles of equality and justice fueled his determination to end slavery and preserve the Union. Lincoln sought solace in reading and educating himself, as he found inspiration in the works of great thinkers and writers. He also surrounded himself with a strong support system, relying on friends and advisors who provided encouragement and guidance. Through his faith in the American people and his vision for a better future, Lincoln kept his motivation alive even during the darkest times.

Was Abraham Lincoln always motivated, or did he ever face periods of doubt?

Like any human being, Abraham Lincoln had his share of doubts and moments of uncertainty. He faced personal tragedies, political setbacks, and the immense pressure of leading a divided nation during a time of war. However, Lincoln’s strong sense of purpose and his unwavering belief in the causes he championed helped him overcome these periods of doubt. He often turned to writing and reflection to find clarity and renewed motivation. Ultimately, despite the challenges he faced, Lincoln’s determination and resilience propelled him forward on his motivational journey.

How Can You Find Motivation to Apply for a Job?

How can you find motivation for a project, how can you build intrinsic motivation, how can you find motivation for art, the relationship between motivation and discipline: a deeper under, does hypnosis work for motivation.

Jump to: Lincoln becomes President - Emancipation Proclamation - Battle of Gettysburg - Kansas-Nebraska Act - Dred Scott Decision 1637 - Samuel Lincoln from Hingham, England, settles in Hingham, Massachusetts. 1778 - Thomas Lincoln (Abraham's father), descendant of Samuel, is born in Virginia. ADVERTISEMENT 1782 - Thomas and family move to Kentucky. 1786 - Thomas' father is killed by Native Americans. 1806 - Thomas marries Nancy Hanks. A daughter, Sarah, is born eight months later. 1808 - Thomas buys a farm called "Sinking Spring" near Hodgenville, Kentucky. February 12, 1809 - Abraham Lincoln is born in a one-room log cabin on Nolin Creek in Kentucky. 1811 - In spring, the Lincoln family moves to a 230-acre farm on Knob Creek ten miles from Sinking Spring. 1812 - A brother, Thomas, is born but dies in infancy. 1815 - Young Abraham attends a log school house. 1816 - Abraham briefly attends school. In December, the Lincoln family crosses the Ohio River and settles in the backwoods of Indiana. 1817 - In February, Abraham, age 7, shoots a wild turkey but suffers great remorse and never hunts game again. 1818 - Young Abraham is kicked in the head by a horse and for a brief time is thought to be dead. On October 5th, Nancy Hanks Lincoln (his mother) dies of "milk sickness." 1819 - On December 2nd, Abraham's father, Thomas, marries a widow, Sarah Bush Johnston, and becomes stepfather to her three children. Abraham develops much affection for his stepmother. 1820 - Abraham, now 11, briefly attends school. 1822 - Abraham attends school for a few months. 1824 - Abraham, now 15, and called 'Abe' by his friends, does plowing and planting and work-for-hire for neighbors. He attends school in the fall and winter, also borrows books and reads whenever possible. 1828 - On January 20th, his married sister, Sarah, dies while giving birth. In April, Abe, now 19, and Allen Gentry take a flatboat containing a cargo of farm produce to New Orleans. During the trip they fight off a robbery attack by seven black men. At New Orleans, Abe observes a slave auction. 1830 - In March, Abe and his family begin a 200-mile journey to Illinois where they settle on uncleared land along the Sangamon River, near Decatur. Abe makes his first-ever political speech in favor of improving navigation on the Sangamon River. 1831 - Abe makes a second flatboat trip to New Orleans. His father moves again, but Abe doesn't go and instead settles in New Salem, Illinois, where he works as a clerk in the village store and sleeps in the back. During this year, he wrestles a man named Jack Armstrong to a draw. He learns basic math, reads Shakespeare and Robert Burns and also participates in a local debating society. 1832 - In March, Abraham Lincoln becomes a candidate for the Illinois General Assembly. The Black Hawk War breaks out. In April, Abe enlists and is elected captain of his rifle company. He re-enlists as a private after his company is disbanded. He serves a total of three months but does not fight in a battle. On August 6th, he loses the election for General Assembly. The village store he worked in goes out of business. Lincoln and partner, William Berry, purchase another village store in New Salem. 1833 - The new store fails, leaving Abe badly in debt. Lincoln is then appointed Postmaster of New Salem. In autumn, Lincoln is appointed Deputy County Surveyor. 1834 - On August 4th, Abraham Lincoln, age 24, is elected to the Illinois General Assembly as a member of the Whig Party. He begins to study law. In December, he first meets Stephen A. Douglas, 21, a Democrat. 1835 - In January, former store partner William Berry dies, increasing Lincoln's debt to $1,000. On August 25th, Ann Rutledge, Lincoln's love interest, dies from fever at age 22. 1836 - On August 1st, Lincoln is re-elected to the Illinois General Assembly and by now is a leader of the Whig Party. September 9th, Lincoln receives his license to practice Law. He begins a courtship of Mary Owens, 28. He suffers an episode of severe depression in December. 1837 - Lincoln helps to get the Illinois state capital moved from Vandalia to Springfield. On April 15th, he leaves New Salem and settles in Springfield, then becomes a law partner of John T. Stuart. In the summer, Abe proposes marriage to Mary Owens, but is turned down and the courtship ends. 1838 - Lincoln helps to successfully defend Henry Truett in a famous murder case. On August 6th, he is re-elected to the Illinois General Assembly, becoming Whig Floor Leader. 1839 - Abe travels through nine counties in central and eastern Illinois as a lawyer on the 8th Judicial Circuit. On December 3rd, he is admitted to practice in the United States Circuit Court. He meets Mary Todd, 21, at a dance. 1840 - In June, Lincoln argues his first case before the Illinois Supreme Court. On August 3rd, he is re-elected to the Illinois General Assembly. In autumn, he becomes engaged to Mary Todd. 1841 - January 1st, Abe breaks off the engagement with Mary Todd. He has another episode of depression. On March 1st, he forms a new law partnership with Stephen T. Logan. In August, Abe makes a trip by steamboat to Kentucky and observes twelve slaves chained together. 1842 - Lincoln does not seek re-election to the legislature. In the summer, he resumes his courtship with Mary Todd. In September, Abe accepts a challenge to a duel by Democratic state auditor James Shields over published letters making fun of Shields. On September 22nd, the duel with swords is averted by an explanation of letters. On November 4th, Abraham Lincoln marries Mary Todd in Springfield. 1843 - Lincoln is unsuccessful in his try for the Whig nomination for U.S. Congress. On August 1st, his first child, Robert Todd Lincoln, is born. 1844 - In May, the Lincoln family moves into a house in Springfield, Illinois, bought for $1,500. Abe campaigns for Henry Clay in the presidential election. In December, he dissolves his law partnership with Logan, then sets up his own practice. 1846 - March 10th, a son, Edward Baker Lincoln is born. On May 1st, Abe is nominated to be the Whig candidate for U.S. Congress. On August 3rd, Abraham Lincoln is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. First known photograph of Lincoln, about 1846 1847 - U.S. Representative Lincoln moves into a boarding house in Washington, D.C., with his wife and two sons. On December 6th, he takes his seat when the Thirtieth Congress convenes. December 22nd, Rep. Lincoln presents resolutions questioning President Polk about U.S. hostilities with Mexico. 1848 - On January 22nd, Rep. Lincoln gives a speech on floor of the House against President Polk's war policy regarding Mexico. In June, he attends the national Whig convention, supporting General Zachary Taylor as the nominee for president. He campaigns for Taylor in Maryland and in Boston, Massachusetts, then in Illinois. 1849 - March 7th and 8th, Lincoln makes an appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the Illinois statute of limitations, but is unsuccessful. On March 31st, he returns to Springfield and leaves politics to practice law. On May 22nd, Abraham Lincoln is granted U.S. Patent No. 6,469 (the only President ever granted a patent). 1850 - February 1st, his three-year-old son Edward dies after a two-month illness. Lincoln resumes his travels in the 8th Judicial Circuit covering over 400 miles in 14 counties in Illinois. "Honest Abe," as he is called, earns a reputation as an outstanding lawyer. On December 21st, another son, William Wallace Lincoln (Willie) is born. 1851 - January 17th, Lincoln's father dies. 1853 - On April 4th, his fourth son, Thomas (Tad) Lincoln is born. 1854 - Lincoln re-enters politics, opposing the Kansas-Nebraska Act . He is elected to the Illinois legislature but declines the seat, hoping instead to become a U.S. Senator (appointed by the legislature). 1855 - Lincoln does not get chosen by the Illinois legislature to be U.S. Senator. 1856 - May 29th, Lincoln helps organize the new Republican Party of Illinois. At the first Republican convention, Lincoln gets 110 votes for the vice-presidential nomination, thereby gaining national attention. He campaigns in Illinois for the Republican presidential candidate, John C. Frémont. 1857 - On June 26th, in Springfield, Lincoln speaks against the Dred Scott Decision. 1858 - In May, Lincoln wins acquittal in a murder trial by using an almanac regarding the height of the moon to discredit a key witness. On June 16th, he is nominated to be the Republican Senator from Illinois, opposing Democrat Stephen A. Douglas . He gives his "House Divided" speech at the state convention in Springfield. He also engages Douglas in seven separate debates, attracting big audiences at each one. 1859 - The Illinois legislature chooses Douglas for the U.S. Senate over Lincoln by a vote of 54 to 46. In autumn, Lincoln makes his last trip through the 8th Judicial Circuit. On December 20th, writes a short autobiography. 1860 - March 6th, Lincoln delivers an impassioned speech on slavery in New Haven, Connecticut. Also in March, the "Lincoln-Douglas Debates" are published. Nominee for president - 1860 May 18, 1860 - Abraham Lincoln is nominated to be the Republican candidate for President of the United States. He opposes Northern Democrat, Stephen A. Douglas, and Southern Democrat, John C. Breckinridge. In June, he writes a longer autobiography. The first portrait by Mathew Brady - February, 1860 November 6, 1860 - Abraham Lincoln is elected as 16 th President of the United States, and is the first Republican. He receives 180 of 303 possible electoral votes and 40 percent of the popular vote. December 20, 1860 - South Carolina secedes from the Union – followed within two months by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. February 11, 1861 - President-elect Lincoln gives a brief farewell to friends and supporters at Springfield and leaves by train for Washington, D.C. During the train trip, he is warned about a possible assassination attempt. President-elect Lincoln - February 23, 1861 March 4, 1861 - Inauguration ceremonies are held in Washington, D.C. President Lincoln delivers his First Inaugural Address. April 12, 1861 - At 4:30 a.m., Confederate artillery opens fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. The Civil War begins. See also: The History Place - A Nation Divided: U.S. Civil War Timeline and Photos April 15, 1861 - President Lincoln issues a Proclamation Calling Militia and Convening Congress. April 17, 1861 - Virginia secedes from the Union – followed within five weeks by North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas, thus forming an eleven-state Confederacy. April 19, 1861 - The President issues a Proclamation of Blockade against Southern ports. ADVERTISEMENT April 27, 1861 - The President authorizes the suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus. June 3, 1861 - Political rival Stephen A. Douglas dies unexpectedly of acute rheumatism. July 21, 1861 - The Union suffers a defeat at Bull Run in northern Virginia. Union troops fall back to Washington. The President now realizes the war will be long. July 27, 1861 - Lincoln appoints George B. McClellan as Commander of the Department of the Potomac. August 6, 1861 - Signs a law freeing slaves being used by the Confederates in their war effort. August 12, 1861 - The President issues a Proclamation of a National Day of Fasting. September 11, 1861 - Revokes General John C. Frémont's unauthorized military proclamation of emancipation in Missouri. October 24, 1861 - Relieves General Frémont of his command and replaces him with General David Hunter. November 1, 1861 - Appoints General McClellan as Commander of the Union Army after the resignation of Winfield Scott . January 27, 1862 - Issues General War Order No. 1 calling for a Union advance to begin February 22nd. February 3, 1862 - Writes a message to McClellan on a difference of opinion regarding military plans. February 20, 1862 - The President's son Willie dies at age 11. The President's wife is emotionally devastated and never fully recovers. March 11, 1862 - President Lincoln relieves McClellan as General-in-Chief and takes direct command of the Union armies. April 6, 1862 - A Confederate surprise attack on General Ulysses S. Grant 's troops at Shiloh on the Tennessee River results in a bitter struggle with 13,000 Union men killed and wounded and 10,000 Confederates. The President is then pressured to relieve Grant but resists. April 9, 1862 - Writes a message to McClellan urging him to attack. April 16, 1862 - Signs an Act abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia. May 20, 1862 - Approves the Federal Homestead Law giving 160 acres of publicly owned land to anyone who will claim and then work the property for 5 years. Thousands then cross the Mississippi to tame the 'Wild West.' June 19, 1862 - Approves a Law prohibiting slavery in the Territories. August 29/30, 1862 - The Union suffers a defeat at the second Battle of Bull Run in northern Virginia. The Union Army retreats to Washington, D.C. The President then relieves Union Commander, General John Pope. September 17, 1862 - General Robert E. Lee and the Confederate armies are stopped at Antietam in Maryland by McClellan and his numerically superior Union forces. By nightfall, 26,000 men are dead, wounded or missing - the bloodiest day in U.S. military history. September 22, 1862 - The President issues a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves. Visiting General George McClellan, Antietam, Maryland - 1862 In General McClellan's tent - October 3, 1862 With Allan Pinkerton and Major General McClernand - October 1862 November 5, 1862 - The President names Ambrose E. Burnside as Commander of the Army of the Potomac, replacing McClellan. December 13, 1862 - The Army of the Potomac suffers a costly defeat at Fredericksburg in Virginia with a loss of 12,653 men. Confederate losses are 5,309. December 22, 1862 - The President writes a brief message to the Army of the Potomac. December 31, 1862 - The President signs a bill admitting West Virginia to the Union. January 1, 1863 - President Lincoln issues the final Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves in territories held by Confederates. January 25, 1863 - The President appoints Joseph (Fighting Joe) Hooker as Commander of the Army of the Potomac, replacing Burnside. January 26, 1863 - Writes a message to Hooker. January 29, 1863 - General Ulysses S. Grant is placed in command of the Army of the West, with orders to capture Vicksburg. February 25, 1863 - Signs a Bill creating a National banking system. March 3, 1863 - Signs an Act introducing military conscription. May 1-4, 1863 - The Union suffers a defeat in the Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia. Famed Confederate General Stonewall Jackson is mortally wounded. Hooker retreats. Union losses are 17,000 killed, wounded and missing. Confederate losses are 13,000. June 28, 1863 - The President appoints George G. Meade as Commander of the Army of the Potomac, replacing Hooker. July 3, 1863 - Confederate defeat in the Battle of Gettysburg marks the turning point of the war. See photographs taken just after the Battle July 4, 1863 - Vicksburg, the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi, is captured by the General Grant and the Army of the West. July 13, 1863 - The President writes a message to Grant. July 14, 1863 - Writes an undelivered letter to Meade complaining about his failure to capture Lee. July 30, 1863 - Issues an Order of Retaliation. 1863 portrait by Brady August 8, 1863 - Writes a letter to his wife regarding their son Tad's lost goat. August 10, 1863 - The President meets with abolitionist Frederick Douglass who pushes for full equality for Union 'Negro troops.' September 19/20, 1863 - A Union defeat at Chickamauga in Georgia leaves Chattanooga in Tennessee under Confederate siege. The President appoints General Grant to command all operations in the Western Theater. October 3, 1863 - Issues a Proclamation of Thanksgiving. November 19, 1863 - President Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address at a ceremony dedicating the Battlefield as a National Cemetery. Lincoln among the crowd at Gettysburg - November 19, 1863 Page one of the Gettysburg Address in Lincoln's Handwriting Page two of the Gettysburg Address in Lincoln's Handwriting December 8, 1863 - The President issues a Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction for restoration of the Union.  A Brady portrait - January 1864  February, 1864 - Portrait later used as the basis for the Five Dollar Bill  The President and son Thomas (Tad) - February 1864 March 12, 1864 - President Lincoln appoints Grant as General-in-Chief of all the Federal armies. William T. Sherman succeeds Grant as Commander in the West. June 3, 1864 - A costly mistake by Grant results in 7,000 Union casualties in twenty minutes during an offensive against entrenched Confederates at Cold Harbor, Virginia. June 8, 1864 - Abraham Lincoln is nominated for a second term as president by a coalition of Republicans and War Democrats. July 18, 1864 - The President issues a call for 500,000 volunteers for military service. August 31, 1864 - Makes a speech to the 148th Ohio Regiment. September 2, 1864 - Atlanta is captured by Sherman 's army. Later, the President on advice from Grant, approves Sherman's 'March to the Sea.' October 19, 1864 - A decisive Union victory by General Philip H. Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley. November 8, 1864 - Abraham Lincoln is re-elected as President, defeating Democrat George B. McClellan. Lincoln gets 212 of 233 electoral votes and 55 percent of the popular vote. December 20, 1864 - Sherman reaches Savannah in Georgia leaving behind a path of destruction 60 miles wide all the way from Atlanta. March 4, 1865 - Inauguration ceremonies in Washington, D.C. with President Lincoln delivering his Second Inaugural Address. Lincoln speaking at his Second Inauguration - March 4, 1865 March 17, 1865 - A kidnap plot by John Wilkes Booth fails when Lincoln doesn't arrive for a visit to the Soldiers' Home. April 9, 1865 - The Civil War concludes as General Robert E. Lee surrenders his Confederate Army to General Ulysses S. Grant at the village of Appomattox Court House in Virginia. Federal soldiers pose outside the court house - April 9, 1865 April 10, 1865 - Celebrations break out in Washington. The President's son Tad poses - April 10, 1865 Taken by Gardner - The last portrait - April 10, 1865 April 11, 1865 - President Lincoln makes his last public speech which focuses on the problems of reconstruction. The United States flag 'Stars and Stripes' is raised over Fort Sumter. April 14, 1865 - Lincoln and his wife Mary see the play "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater. About 10:13 p.m., during the third act of the play, John Wilkes Booth shoots the President in the head. Doctors attend to the President in the theater then move him to a house across the street. He never regains consciousness. April 15, 1865 - President Abraham Lincoln dies at 7:22 in the morning. The house in which President Lincoln died Ford's Theater draped in black with guards posted - 1865 The President's box at Ford's Theater - 1865 Funeral procession on Pennsylvania Avenue - April 19, 1865 April 26, 1865 - John Wilkes Booth is shot and killed in a tobacco barn in Virginia. May 4, 1865 - Abraham Lincoln is laid to rest in Oak Ridge Cemetery, outside Springfield, Illinois. A victory parade is held in Washington along Pennsylvania Ave. to help boost the Nation's morale - May 23-24, 1865. December 6, 1865 - The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, is finally ratified. Slavery is abolished. Copyright © 1996 The History Place™ All Rights Reserved

See also: The History Place - U.S. Civil War Timeline

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Abraham Lincoln’s Frontier Childhood Was Filled With Hardship

By: John Banks

Updated: September 25, 2023 | Original: January 24, 2022

Abraham Lincoln summed up his early years on the frontier in Kentucky and Indiana as "the short and simple annals of the poor." But the hardships he endured there as a youth weren’t unique. Life was harsh for most frontier families in the early 1800s.

“Life on the frontier was little better than the life of an ox,” says Lincoln historian Michael Burlingame. But the Lincolns, he says, were especially poor.

Lincoln’s earliest recollections were of the Kentucky farm where he moved in 1811 with his parents, Thomas and Nancy, and sister, Sarah. She was 4. Abraham was 2. His parents had been married five years.

Young Lincoln Worked the Farm, Had Little Schooling

At Knob Creek, the Lincolns lived in a one-room cabin with a dirt floor, much like the one where Abraham was born roughly nine miles away near Hodgenville. Steep, heavily wooded hills rose on each side of the home. On the leased, 30-acre farm, Lincoln’s father planted corn and pumpkins on wide fields with rich soil.

In front of the Lincolns’ door, on the road from Louisville to Nashville, the world passed: pioneers with heavily laden wagons, peddlers, local politicians, slaves, missionaries and soldiers returning from the War of 1812 .

Stern and often domineering, Thomas Lincoln put his son to work before he turned 7. Abraham filled the wood box, brought water from the creek, weeded the garden, gathered grapes for wine and jelly, picked persimmons for beer making and planted pumpkin seeds.

At the creek, where he often played with his sister, Lincoln may have nearly drowned.

While walking across a log that spanned the rain-swollen tributary, Abraham fell in, the story goes. A playmate said he used a sycamore limb to pull Lincoln from the deep, raging waters. Whether the account—widely publicized in the late 19 th century—is accurate remains unknown. What’s certain is that another child’s death would have crushed the Lincolns, whose infant son Thomas died on the farm in 1812.

Eager to learn, Abraham found few opportunities for schooling in rural Kentucky; instead, he and his sister sporadically attended ABC schools—so-called “blab" schools in which students repeated their teacher’s oral lessons aloud. Usually barefoot, Lincoln walked to the one-room schoolhouse, “a little log room about 15 feet square, with a fireplace at one side.”

Abraham Lincoln’s Family: Meet the Key Members

The 16th president had a stern father, a supportive stepmother and a beleaguered wife.

The Two Mothers Who Molded Lincoln

Both his biological mother and his stepmother helped set Abraham Lincoln on the pathway to the presidency.

Abraham Lincoln Excelled in Wrestling—What Other Sports Did He Play?

The 16th president was even recognized by the National Wresting Hall of Fame.

Lincoln’s Family Moved to Indiana in 1816

In the winter of 1816, when Abraham was 7, the Lincolns moved to a settlement at Little Pigeon Creek in southern Indiana. Because winter harvest was complete, the family lived off wild game, corn and pork bartered from settlers. “It was a wild region,” Lincoln recalled, “with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods.”

Two years later, Nancy Lincoln died in the remote wilderness—the first of Lincoln’s many family tragedies. An introspective, generous-hearted woman, Nancy apparently consumed milk tainted when cows ate poisonous white snakeroot. (Some believed the cause of death was tuberculosis.) She was 34.

After Nancy’s death, domestic duties at the family’s one-room cabin fell to 11-year-old Sarah. “[L]ittle Abe and his sister Sarah began a dreary life—indeed, one more cheerless and less inviting seldom falls to the lot of any child,” wrote William Herndon, Lincoln’s later law partner and biographer.

Through a dismal winter, the motherless children and their 19-year-old orphan cousin lived in a log cabin without a floor, largely unprotected from severe weather. In a little more than a year, however, their family circumstances changed dramatically.

Lincoln’s Stepmother Offered Love and Support

Eager to re-marry, Thomas Lincoln traveled to Elizabethtown, Kentucky, where he proposed to widow Sarah Bush Johnston , whom he had known since childhood. She accepted, provided Lincoln paid off her debts. 

On Dec. 2, 1819, Thomas and Sarah married and later returned to Little Pigeon Creek, accompanied by her three children: Elizabeth, 13; Matilda, 10; and John, 9. Thomas’s new wife brought along furniture (including a walnut bureau valued at $50), cooking utensils and comfortable bedding—astonishing luxuries for her new stepchildren. She also brought several books, including the Bible and Aesop’s Fables , which she gifted to Abe.

At his wife’s insistence, Thomas Lincoln installed a cabin floor and plastered cracks between logs. Instead of cornhusks, Abraham and his sister slept on a feather bed. Somehow, the blended family endured in cramped conditions.

To make him look “more human,” Lincoln’s stepmother dressed up the poorly clad Abraham.

On the farm, Lincoln became skillful with an ax. But when his father tried to teach him carpentry, Abraham balked, fueling tension between the two, according to Herndon. Sometimes the illiterate Thomas reprimanded Abraham for reading instead of doing farm chores.

But Sarah Bush Lincoln persuaded her husband to allow their son to read and study. “At first he was not easily reconciled to it,” she recalled, “but finally he too seemed willing to encourage him to a certain extent.”

Thus, stepmother bonded with stepson.

“Abe,” Sarah Bush Lincoln recalled years later, “was the best boy I ever saw.”

Lincoln Rocked by His Sister Sarah's Death

Whenever Abraham attended school, he usually was accompanied by his quick-minded, good-humored sister. “Like her brother, she could greet you kindly and put you at ease,” a classmate remembered.

Sarah and Abraham became close, a result of hardships and other shared experiences since childhood.

In 1826, Sarah married a local man named Aaron Grigsby. At the wedding, the Lincolns belted out a song composed by Abraham himself—“a tiresome doggerel full of painful rhymes.”

Less than two years later, however, she died in childbirth, only 20 years old. When Abraham received the news, wrote biographer Herndon, he sobbed. 

In 1830, 21-year-old Abraham was on the move again, west to Illinois. There he would take a flatboat down the Mississippi, run a general store, and run for public office at the tender age of 23. His hardscrabble life on the American frontier soon became a distant memory.

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The leadership journey of Abraham Lincoln

Many years ago, I made a short film for the Harvard Business School about the lessons that Abraham Lincoln’s life offered for modern leaders. I interviewed a range of CEOs, asking them what they’d learned from the 16th president. Their responses were wide-ranging and profound; many continue to influence my work on leadership.

I was particularly struck by what A. G. Lafley, CEO of Procter & Gamble at the time, said about how leaders are made. He pointed to three main ingredients. The first is an individual’s strengths and weaknesses and the cumulative experience a person acquires walking his or her path. The second is that an individual recognizes a moment has arrived that demands his or her leadership. The third is that the individual has to consciously decide “to embrace the cause and get in the game.”

Making oneself into a courageous leader, in the way Lafley describes, is perilous, compelling, and exhausting work. It also is some of the most satisfying one can do, and it could not be more important today. Like the turbulent Civil War that Lincoln found himself at the center of, the early 21st century cries out for effective, decent leaders. People of purpose and commitment who want to make a positive difference and who choose to rise: first within themselves, by claiming their better selves, and then on the larger stage, by staking out the higher ground.

Abraham Lincoln has something to offer each of us right now as we try to craft lives of purpose, dignity, and impact. Are you ready to hear the call to action contained in his story?

Discernment

Lincoln had humble roots and no formal education. By age 25, he also had a growing interest in politics, and needed a career to feed that interest while helping him improve his lot. Lincoln began borrowing the law books of a mentor from the Illinois state militia who was an accomplished attorney and state legislator. He studied by himself. A neighbor remembered Lincoln “was so absorbed that people said he was crazy. Sometimes [while he was studying he] did not notice people when he met them.”

We do not know exactly how Lincoln sustained his determination to succeed. What we do know is that from an early age he practiced great discipline in relation to the things that mattered. Some of the discipline was focused on practical ends: toward preparing himself to be a lawyer or bettering himself intellectually. Some of it was directed at managing his emotions. As his prospects expanded, he worked to comport himself with greater dignity and forbearance.

He earned a reputation as an attorney who was skilled before a jury. Not because he mastered the laws of evidence or finer points of precedents; he did neither. Instead, this reputation rested on his ability to concentrate a jury’s attention on the few essential points of a case while conceding the less important issues to his opponent.

Lincoln’s ability to relate to juries provides a useful lesson about discernment . Leaders trying to accomplish a worthy mission have to cultivate the ability to identify the one, two, or three essential issues facing them at a given moment. It is never five or ten. It is always one or two—maybe three—issues that really matter. Having identified these, leaders must let the remaining concerns go, either by giving themselves permission to turn their attention away from all that is not central to their purpose or by handing peripheral issues to others, including an adversary. Being able to do this—to concentrate on the most important issues while relinquishing the rest—depends on a leader’s willingness to recognize two things: first, he or she cannot do it all, and second, by saying no to that which is not mission critical, one is actually saying yes to that which is.

Disappointment

Lincoln, like many other leaders, didn’t blaze onto the larger stage at a young age. And even when he began to build a legal and political career, his path was marked by as many failures as successes. The making of courageous leaders is rarely swift and smooth. Indeed, the setbacks and the times that Lincoln spent not being able to gratify his ambitions were important ingredients in the wisdom, resilience, and empathy that he nurtured and then used so successfully.

In 1846, for example, Lincoln was elected to the US House of Representatives by a large majority. During his first year in Washington, he devoted most of his attention to attacking Democratic president James Polk’s prosecution of the Mexican-American War. When his term in office ended in March 1849, Lincoln returned to Illinois. There, he discovered that his political stock was lower than when he had left. His party had failed to elect its candidate to the congressional seat that Lincoln was vacating, and many of his supporters blamed him and his unpopular position on the Mexican-American War for the defeat. Lincoln fell into a depression.

Although he returned to the practice of law, Lincoln found the allure of politics irresistible and set about helping to organize the young Republican Party in the state of Illinois. The central element of the Republican platform was opposition to slavery’s extension. Within Illinois, Lincoln became a leading spokesman for this position (while accepting its legality where it already existed). In contrast, many Democrats, such as the US senator from Illinois, Stephen Douglas, supported slavery’s expansion.

In 1858, Lincoln challenged Douglas for his US Senate seat. The race attracted national interest, partly because Illinois was regarded as a battleground state—not only in skirmishes between Democrats and Republicans, but also between supporters and opponents of slavery. Lincoln lost, and was deeply disappointed.

Triumph and tragedy

Late in 1859, newspapers began mentioning Lincoln as a potential presidential candidate in the 1860 election. At the Republican Convention in Chicago, no candidate won a majority of the votes on the first ballot. Support for Lincoln grew as the convention progressed, and on the third ballot, cast on May 18, he won 364 of 466 possible votes, becoming the Republican nominee for president. A month later, the Democrats met to select a nominee. Party delegates split, with Northern members backing Stephen Douglas and Southern delegates supporting John Breckinridge. This splintering of the Democratic party greatly increased the odds of a Republican victory in the general election on November 6.

At about two in the morning on November 7, Lincoln learned that he’d been elected president. As he walked back home in the wee hours, Lincoln did not exult. Recalling the moment two years later, he said he slept little before dawn. “I then felt, as I never had before, the responsibility that was upon me.”

Lincoln’s election precipitated a national crisis. Convinced that the president-elect would try to abolish slavery, many Southern leaders believed the only way to protect the institution—and the way of life that rested on it—was to leave the United States and establish their own country. In early February 1861, representatives of South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas met in Montgomery, Alabama, to form a new nation, the Confederate States of America, and adopt a constitution.

On March 4, 1861, before a crowd of 50,000, Lincoln delivered his inaugural address on the steps of the US Capitol. He knew the fate of the upper Southern states of Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina, which had not yet seceded, might depend on what he said, and he took pains to reassure Southerners that he would leave slavery alone in the states where it already existed.

In spite of Lincoln’s efforts, tensions between North and South escalated. These came to a head with the president’s decision on Fort Sumter, a federal garrison in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. Government soldiers inside the fort were running out of food. But sending provisions into what was now hostile territory risked Confederate attack. For weeks, Lincoln agonized over what to do. He did not want his administration to appear weak by not resupplying the fort and thus effectively surrendering it. But he also did not want to initiate open warfare.

After many sleepless nights and conversations with his cabinet, Lincoln ordered government forces to sail for Charleston Harbor with food, but no arms. On April 12, 1861, with the federal fleet nearby, Confederates bombarded the garrison with shells and gunfire. Within 36 hours, the commanding officer of the fort surrendered to Southern forces. The Civil War had begun.

From the start, the Civil War defied Americans’ expectations. Following Fort Sumter, for example, many Northerners and Southerners believed that victory was imminent for their respective side, and that few lives would be lost. But after the Battle of Bull Run near Manassas, Virginia, in July 1861, in which almost 5,000 Union (northern) and Confederate troops were killed or wounded, it became clear that the war would be longer and bloodier than most had anticipated. The day after the battle, Lincoln called for 500,000 volunteers; within days, Congress authorized an additional half million troops.

By late 1861, the Union’s general in chief, George McClellan, had reorganized troops around Washington, but then refused to move them south to attack Confederate forces. His Army of the Potomac—some 120,000-men strong—remained in and near the capital without seeing any kind of battle.

Worried about the general’s inaction, Lincoln began visiting McClellan at home during the evenings. On November 13, the president and one of his secretaries, John Hay, called at the general’s house. McClellan was not in, and the two decided to wait. When the general arrived an hour later, he hurried upstairs, ignoring his visitors. The president and his secretary remained where they were for 30 minutes before Lincoln sent word up that he was still downstairs. McClellan sent his own message back, saying he had gone to bed. Hay was appalled at the general’s insolence, voicing this to the president as they walked back to the White House. “It was better at this time,” Lincoln responded, “not to be making points of etiquette & personal dignity.” As he came to understand, not all issues—including personal slights and insults—that came before him were of equal importance. Lincoln realized he had to keep his eye (not to mention his emotional energy) on what was central to his mission and not become distracted by what we would today label “sweating the small stuff.”

The president began to teach himself military strategy, borrowing textbooks from the Library of Congress, poring over field reports, and conferring with military officers. As he did this, it became clear to him that a Union victory depended on the North’s ability to exploit its greater resources—human and economic—in a series of interrelated attacks on the Confederacy. But how could he make his generals execute this strategy? McClellan effectively ignored Lincoln’s orders. Other commanders, often acting without top-level coordination, followed their own plans or simply waited.

It was a lonely time. Some of Lincoln’s loneliness flowed from the authority and responsibility he carried. The president knew that saving the Union rested critically on his shoulders—on ability to simultaneously lead on many fronts against many obstacles. This heavy realization isolated Lincoln from family, friends, and colleagues. Not only could these people not fully grasp what he was dealing with; not only did he have to be careful about entrusting his thoughts and feelings to others; but Lincoln also likely understood that no one else could travel the internal path he was taking as a leader. None could see the things he was discovering about himself and his impact, see the ways he was changing as the war stretched on, or, finally, experience his doubts and fears. These were essential aspects of his leadership, and they were his alone.

Virtually every leader will know real loneliness. This is intrinsic to the work; it can rarely be avoided or wiped away by specific action. Instead, effective leaders learn to accept such moments of isolation, using them in service to their larger mission by keeping their own counsel, reflecting carefully on a particular issue, or grappling with their thoughts and feelings.

In early July 1863, the Army of the Potomac, now under the leadership of General George Meade, won a decisive battle in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, repulsing Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia as it attempted to invade the North. It was a critical victory that came at a fearsome cost. At the opening of the confrontation, a total of 160,000 troops from both sides had poured into the Pennsylvania hamlet. When the smoke cleared three days later, 51,000 Americans were dead, wounded, or missing; 23,000 of these men were federal soldiers, 28,000 were Confederates.

Nonetheless, peace did not come. The war raged on—with seemingly no end in sight. Why, the president asked himself, could he not bring the conflict to a close? Why was it proving so violent? In early November, when he received an invitation to deliver “a few appropriate remarks” at the dedication of a new national cemetery at Gettysburg, Lincoln saw an opportunity to give voice to the larger issues he’d been wrestling with. His remarks totaled only 272 words. It took him less than three minutes to deliver them:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. 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 speech is a first-rate example of a leader framing the stakes of the change. In hindsight, we can see that he used the dedication ceremony to connect the continuing turbulence—the Civil War—with the history and mission of the enterprise—the American polity and its central proposition. He then led his audience to the present moment, relating their action to “the unfinished work” in which they and all other Americans were involved. He laid down the gauntlet for every citizen who supported the Union: “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.”

In saying this, Lincoln presented the trade-offs of committing to the mission: a great civil war, a testing struggle, and thousands of deaths. He concluded by stating that as formidable as these costs were, they were the price of a mighty end, one with lasting significance: “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.”

Every modern leader navigating through a crisis can learn from the Gettysburg Address. We are unlikely to approach the eloquence and power of Lincoln’s language. But we can take from his leadership the critical importance of framing the stakes of a particular moment. This means connecting current change efforts to the history and future of the enterprise, locating these efforts in the arc of ongoing events, explaining each stakeholder’s role in the process, identifying the specific trade-offs of making the change, and understanding these costs in relation to the ultimate goal. The more turbulent the world becomes in the early 21st century, the more vital it is for leaders to interpret and frame this volatility in relation to a worthy purpose.

Transformational change

Lincoln had no silver bullets to save the Union. This was difficult to accept. But as the war stretched on, he began to understand that the complexity of the conflict and the magnitude of its stakes made a single, clear-cut way to end it virtually impossible.

This is an insight for today’s leaders. We are under pressure to move fast, leap tall buildings in a single bound, and make a big impact. But the reality of trying to accomplish something real and good gives lie to the seductive notion that there is one simple solution. Almost anything along our life journeys that is worth investing in, worth fighting for, and worth summoning our best selves for has no silver bullet. The bigger the issue, the less likely it is that a leader can resolve it in one or two swift strokes. Understanding this means abandoning the quest for the single definitive answer. Letting go of this quest frees leaders—emotionally and practically—to focus on the many possible approaches and actions needed to make a meaningful difference.

In the aftermath of the battle at Gettysburg, appalled by the human carnage, many Northerners thought the government should stop fighting and seek a settlement with the rebel states, one that recognized the legality of slavery. Against this backdrop, in mid-1863, Lincoln accepted an invitation from his old friend James Conkling to address a large meeting of Union supporters in Springfield, Illinois. As the speech grew closer, pressing responsibilities prevented the president from leaving Washington. So instead of returning to his hometown, he wrote a letter for Conkling to present at the gathering.

The letter, which was published in newspapers across the country, laid out the principal arguments of the peace faction and Lincoln’s careful response to these. Looking back, we can see that Lincoln was doing more than making the case for his policies. As any serious leader engaged in large-scale change must, he was also trying to keep the relevant lines of communication open. He understood that widespread transformation always unleashes waves of collective fear, discontent, and doubt—emotions that often translate into vocal, and potentially more destructive, opposition. He also knew that if left unacknowledged, adversaries have the power to derail even the worthiest attempts at reform, and thus it is a leader’s responsibility to identify and, when necessary, neutralize his or her most powerful critics.

But how is the person at the center of the change to do this without appearing weak, creating additional enemies, or potentially legitimating the very attacks he or she is trying to mitigate? These are complicated issues, so it is not surprising that leaders often avoid head-on engagement with their challengers, hoping instead that the rallying cry of the mission and the enthusiasm of supporters will overwhelm naysayers.

This is a risky strategy, especially when the stakes are high. It was to Lincoln’s credit that he understood the power of Northern elites, who did not want to fight a war to end slavery. The president also realized that to defuse this “fire in the rear,” he had to speak directly to the American public, and he had to do this by addressing the specific arguments his opponents were making against him. Finally, he had to explain his actions in terms of his larger purpose. Lincoln did all of this in the speech for James Conkling. Seen from the perspective of a change leader effectively communicating with relevant stakeholders and trying to alleviate serious threats to the broader transformation, the president’s letter was a tour de force.

As the summer of 1864 wore on, without a Union military victory in sight, Northern morale collapsed. Politicians and journalists called for an immediate end to the war, with many predicting that Lincoln would lose the upcoming presidential election. “The people are wild for Peace,” said New York politician Thurlow Weed. They won’t support the president, he added, because they are told he “will only listen to terms of peace on condition [that] slavery be abandoned.”

The commander in chief began to waver. Perhaps, he told himself as he paced the White House hallway late at night, he should enter into peace talks with Southern leaders. On August 19, he drafted a potentially momentous letter to a Democratic politician and newspaper editor, ending the communication with this proposition: “If Jefferson Davis wishes . . . to know what I would do if he were to offer peace and re-union, saying nothing about slavery, let him try me.”

Having written these words, Lincoln paused. He did not send the letter; instead, he stored it in his desk while he thought about what to do. Two days later, when the escaped slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass visited Lincoln at the White House to discuss helping slaves reach Union military lines, the president read the letter aloud to him. The black activist strongly urged the chief executive to keep it to himself. If he sent it, Douglass said, the missive would be interpreted “as a complete surrender of your anti-slavery policy, and do you serious damage.”

Lincoln returned the letter to his files. With renewed confidence, the president decided emancipation would remain an essential condition of any negotiations with the Confederacy. For a few days during the long, hot summer of 1864, Lincoln had considered backing away from his mission. But in the end—at the moment it really mattered—he did not. He held the line.

Historians and biographers have pointed to a number of Lincoln’s strengths and their role in his leadership. But one of the most significant of these strengths is not often mentioned, and this is that Lincoln simply kept going. Once he made a crucial decision, he saw it through, even when virtually everything around him seemed stacked against such a commitment. This adherence was not the result of stubbornness or self-righteousness. Rather, it came from the care that Lincoln exercised in making choices, including the slowness with which he acted when the stakes were high; from his growing depth as a moral actor; and from his sheer will to get up each morning and do what he could in service of his mission.

The Civil War ended more than 150 years ago. But we, it seems, are not finished with the man who led the country through it. Not by a long shot. Lincoln’s journey was one of learning by doing, ongoing commitment to bettering himself, keen intelligence harnessed to equally acute emotional awareness, and the moral seriousness into which he grew as he attained immense power. It was also an all-too-human path marked by setbacks, derailments, and disappointments.

Abraham Lincoln was made into an effective leader —first from the inside out and then from the outside in—as he developed and changed throughout his life. That, as president, he refused to ignore the larger consequences of his actions on men and women who had little or no agency, that he saw beyond the immediate moment and owned the responsibility of affecting a vast future, and that he rejected an ethical callousness about the choices he made are demonstrations of leadership that we yearn for today. May all who aspire to lead with worth and dignity learn from the life and leadership of Abraham Lincoln.

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Nancy Koehn is the James E. Robison Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. This article is adapted from her book Forged in Crisis: The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times . Copyright © 2017 by Nancy Koehn. Reprinted by permission of Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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30 Poems About Abraham Lincoln

Written by Dan

Last updated March 8, 2024

Abraham Lincoln is one of the most iconic figures in American history. His extraordinary life, from his humble beginnings in a log cabin to his tragic assassination, has long captivated poets and writers.

This article collects several original poems about Abraham Lincoln, written to inspire students to explore Lincoln’s remarkable story through poetry.

Students can learn how to bring historical figures to life through vivid imagery, emotional language, and sensory details by reading and analyzing these poems.

The poems also demonstrate how to convey the themes of Lincoln’s life, from loss and struggle to hope and resilience. Teachers can use these poems as models for students to emulate as they craft their poems honouring Lincoln’s enduring legacy.

Related : For more, check out our article on  Poems About Alexander Hamilton  here.

Table of Contents

Abraham Lincoln: Five Free Verse Poems

The rail-splitter.

His axe bites the wood,

Splitting logs under the hot Illinois sun.

Each crack echoes the frontier’s call

To a gangly youth who would be

Savior and reunifier.

Words flow from his lips,

A river of reason sculpting the crowd.

With cadences born in the forest and field,

He elevates countrymen to common purpose,

Liberty and Union bound as one.

The Emancipator

With a stroke of the pen,

Millions unshackled, a people freed.

Justice writ large on the blood-stained page,

While victory’s end still obscured in the fog,

Courage lights the way.

The Fallen Leader

A crack of thunder on Good Friday eve,

The shepherd slain, his work now passed

To frail mortal hands. Grief’s black shroud

Envelops a nation saved but mourning

The gift now gone.

Everlasting

The marble gleams, timeless and austere.

Yet within, the vibrant heart

Of sacrifice and hope still beats.

His weathered face and haunted eyes

Gaze forever to horizons of promise.

Related : For more, check out our article on  Poems About Barack Obama  here.

Abraham Lincoln: Five Haiku Poems

The frontiersman.

Log cabin born

Axe in hand, words on his lips

Destiny awaits

The Statesman

Union unravels

Holding fast to liberty

Fate of nation weighed

Shackles broken

Justice writ for millions bound

Freedom’s trumpet call

Grief’s Heavy Burden

A crack of thunder

The shepherd slain, a nation mourns

Black crepe on white hope

Everlasting Flame

Marble and memory

Honest Abe still lights the way

From history’s heart

Related : For more, check out our article on  Poems About Donald Trump  here.

Abraham Lincoln: Five Limericks

There once was a man from kentucky.

Who as President was quite lucky

He saved the Union

And freed each plantation

This man we call Honest Abe, plucky!

In Springfield a lawyer did dwell

Who had a great tale to tell

He rose to high office

Fulfilled his life’s purpose

This statesman who served his land well

The South was seceding with haste

The Union was coming unchased

But Lincoln stayed steady

And in actions already

The nation’s sad conflict outfaced

At Ford’s Theater a shot rang out

And grief then did spread throughout

The land Lincoln saved

In death now was laid

Lamenting the loss of its stout

Though gone for a century and half

In memory Lincoln still laughs

And leads by example

His virtues a temple

To freedom and unity’s staff

Five Tanka Poems About Abraham Lincoln

The great emancipator.

Honor to Lincoln

Five score years since Gettysburg

Freedom’s hope held fast

Abe, the tall and true, who saved

The Union, and set men free

The Railsplitter

Splitting logs by hand

Honing a heart, a mind keen

For justice, moving

To mend a nation’s divide

Born in a humble cabin

The Wordsmith

Careful with his words

They were his tools, tempered steel

To keep a nation

Whole and strong, to end all wars

With malice toward none, with grace

The Lost Son

The gnawing pain of loss

Set deeper in a sapling’s soul

Early hollowed out

Bereft of his mother, sister

He grew wise and bent on justice

The President

Tall and thin with grace

Abe, the farmer president

Led with a steady hand

Through a civil war’s fierce flames

And joined the ranks of martyrs

Five Villanelle Poems About Abraham Lincoln

Honest Abe, so tall and true

With patient wit and steady hand

Faced down a rebel horde and slew

He split the rails, and put them through

His honest mind and heart so grand

His words rang out like morning dew

On battlefields across the land

He held the Union fast in lieu

Of short-term gain, of quick demand

The Emancipator, who knew

That freedom must be won, not planned

So let us sing his praise anew

Our hero, martyr, saintly man

The Marble Man

The Marble Man in solemn grace

Looks out upon the Mall below

And guards the sacred burial space

He bears no hint of scorn or face

Of anger, rage, or afterglow

He bears the scars of war’s dark trace

And holds the Union fast, you know

His words echo within this place

Of liberty and justice, so

We honor him with pride, and trace

His patient trail, his steady flow

And guard the sacred burial space

Let us remember him with grace

And pledge anew to live and grow

Abe, the Emancipator true

Who split the chains of slavery

And made a bold new way for you

His patient, steady march pursued

A lofty goal, a bright decree

Through death and war, he bore us through

With wit and wisdom, grand and free

He spoke of freedom, and imbued

His words with grace and clarity

He honored all God’s children who

Had long been held in slavery

So let us sing his praises due

Our hero, martyr, bold and free

And make a bold new way for you

Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago

Our Fathers’ bequeathed to us a home

Their land, our birthright to bestow

And here, so far from sun and glow

We gather now, no more to roam

In hallowed ground, we stand aglow

Midst fallen heroes’ sacred dome

Whose land, our birthright to bestow

Their blood and sacrifice bestow

A vision of a land to own

We honor them, with hearts a-throw

To renew the land where they have flown

So let us pledge, to keep the flow

Of liberty and justice known

The Assassination

The shot rang out upon the land

And echoed through the ages there

Abe, the Great, had fallen, unmanned

We could not understand the bland

Assassin or his motive clear

The man who labored, planned, and scanned

The white-hot furnace of despair

His words rang true, and we had fanned

Our hope in him so grand and rare

No more would he walk, talk, or stand

His mortal frame was now laid bare

So let us hold to his command

To keep the Union, brave and fair

Abe, the Great, had fallen, unmanned.

Five Sonnet Poems About Abraham Lincoln

The land of liberty, a nation bright,

Held tight in slavery’s odious grip.

True freedom was but a far-off sight,

The flag of justice was beginning to dip.

But into the fray stepped a man of action,

A figure tall, with a heart so grand.

He fought the South with a great passion,

And gave slaves the rights to take a stand.

He rose above the rabble and hate,

And vowed to be the champion of the poor.

He fought until it was no longer late,

And ended the reign of slavery for sure.

He shall always be remembered and praised,

For being a hero of the highest grade.

The Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago,

Our fathers brought forth a nation so new.

A land of liberty they hoped to sow,

And a place where freedom would always be true.

But war had come and left its mark,

A great divide within the land.

It was time for those who could make a start,

To make the people come back hand in hand.

It was here at Gettysburg where he stood,

And with his words, he showed the way.

He talked of freedom, and brotherhood,

Of how we shall never forget the price we pay.

We honor his words, till the end of our days,

And remember the man who saved our ways.

The Martyr President

The sea of people gathered so dense,

Each face was full of tears and remorse.

The nation had lost its greatest prince,

And its hopes and dreams had taken a course.

He had fought for freedom for all,

And of the Union he was the defender.

But fate had called him to take the fall,

And his life was ended with a shot so tender.

The country mourned, the world stood still,

For he was more than just a man.

He was the leader who fought with will,

And made us understand the true values of human.

With heavy hearts, we lay him to rest,

And pray that his ideals will continue to bless.

The Commander-in-Chief

The dark clouds of war threatened the land,

And the only way was to stand and fight.

The enemy was strong and very planned,

But he led us through with his might.

He marshaled the men and the artillery too,

With a smile and a handshake, he won their hearts.

The battles were won, he always knew,

How to make his country play her part.

He was the commander, but also our friend,

For he cared for the soldiers with all his might.

And when the war finally came to its end,

The nation knew who had fought the good fight.

He was our Lincoln, so kind and true,

And the history of this nation is his glory too.

The Great Man of Hope

In times of trouble and despair,

We looked to him, our beacon of light.

With words so encouraging and full of care,

He gave us hope during the nation’s darkest nights.

His heart was pure and his will so brave,

He never gave up and never gave in.

The country he saved from a terrible grave,

And made us dream of the future so new and bright.

He shall forever be our great man of hope,

For he showed us what we could be.

With his courage and his endless scope,

He changed the course of history.

We shall never forget, our hero so grand,

Our Abraham Lincoln, with his loving hand.

Abraham Lincoln’s story continues to captivate and inspire generations. Through poetry, we are able to bring to life his remarkable journey and legacy. The poems in this article are just a small collection of works that honour the life and accomplishments of Lincoln.

By studying them, students can learn how to craft their pieces and convey emotions, themes, and imagery through poetry. Lincoln’s story belongs to us all, and through poetry, we can keep his memory alive.

Poetry and Abraham Lincoln FAQ

Did abraham lincoln write any poetry.

There is no record of Abraham Lincoln writing poetry. However, he was known to be a lover of poetry and enjoyed reciting poems to friends and family, such as “The Last Leaf” by Oliver Wendell Holmes.

What themes are typically explored in poems about Abraham Lincoln?

Poems about Abraham Lincoln often explore themes of freedom, justice, resilience, hope, and perseverance. They may also explore his legacy and his impact on the nation.

What are some famous poems about Abraham Lincoln?

Some famous poems about Abraham Lincoln include “O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman, “Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight” by Vachel Lindsay, and “Lincoln” by John Gould Fletcher.

How can poetry be used to teach about Abraham Lincoln?

Poetry can be an effective teaching tool for exploring Abraham Lincoln’s life and legacy. Students can explore themes and emotions related to Lincoln and his impact through poetry. Teachers can encourage students to write their poems or analyze and interpret existing works of poetry to deepen their understanding of Lincoln’s life and legacy.

What poetic devices are commonly used in poems about Abraham Lincoln?

Poems about Abraham Lincoln often use poetic devices such as imagery, metaphor, and allusion to convey emotions and themes associated with his life and legacy. Depending on the poem’s tone, they may also use rhythm and rhyme to create a sense of harmony or discordance.

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About The Author

I'm Dan Higgins, one of the faces behind The Teaching Couple. With 15 years in the education sector and a decade as a teacher, I've witnessed the highs and lows of school life. Over the years, my passion for supporting fellow teachers and making school more bearable has grown. The Teaching Couple is my platform to share strategies, tips, and insights from my journey. Together, we can shape a better school experience for all.

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Baseball cards aren't just for kids anymore, nor are the subjects related only to baseball. Topps, Upper Deck, and many other sport card manufacturers have created presidential cards. Here are some cards that honor Abraham Lincoln from Topps.

Look 'N' See (1952) Scoop (1954) US Presidents (1956) Civil War News (1962) Who Am I? (1967) US Presidents (1972) American Pie (2002) - Mt. Rushmore American Treasures (2003) Presidential Pastime (2004) World Champions (2006) Campaign (2008) First Couples (2008) Heritage (2009) Heritage: Hero's Journey (2009) Heritage: Hero's Journey Stamp Collection (2009) Abe Lincoln Variants (2010) Magic Historical Coins (2012)  

Topps Heritage (2009)

A variety of the Topps Heritage series cards relate to Lincoln--most notably AP16, Abraham Lincoln.

These cards in the Heritage series relate to Abraham Lincoln:

Topps Heritage: American Heroes/Hero's Journey (2009)

The Topps Heritage American Heroes collection includes several short print cards and the big prize: an 1/1 Abraham Lincoln cut signature (AHSR-AL), featuring a full signature rather than the more common "A. Lincoln." It includes a relic of Lincoln's law office floor.

The card has been seen with a short signature variation with "law office wood" rather than the law office floor indicated in the other card:

The card has been listed on eBay many times. The price slowly declines but no buyer has yet emerged. The seller is emoncards and the Buy It Now price was $8,999 in August, 2011.

There is also an auto cut card with Abraham Lincoln's shorter autograph, AHS-AL. It is 1/1. Like the variation above, the signature appears to be only his last name (not the more common "A. Lincoln").

The AHS-AL Abraham Lincoln signature card was listed on eBay on August 10, 2011, buy eBay seller lanfeii. It is listed at $4,999 or best offer. As of September 1, 2011, the seller has received 5 offers.

There are several other relic cards in the series:

AJR-AL1 is a relic card that contains wood from Lincoln's home. It was inserted at a ratio of 1:12,100 packs. The card design is the standard Hero's Journey card, but embedded in the card is a small chip of wood from Abraham Lincoln's home.

• The one above (number 2 of 10) was sold on September 8, 2009 by seller card-junky in a 3-day eBay auction for $1034.99. The auction ran over Labor Day weekend and attracted 6 bidders with a total of 29 bids. Number 2 of 10 was listed for a Buy It Now price of $720 or best offer by eBay seller diver1823 on August 13, 2011.
• Number 3 of 10 was sold by cav50 on December 5, 2008. This card doesn't appear that often, so the selling price of $210.27 was surprising. Perhaps this is because it was harder to find with this misspelling in the title: "Heroe's Journey." The listing got 55 page views and drew 6 bidders for a total of 8 bids.
• Number 6 of 10 was sold by mishahgahs on December 15, 2009. It was listed as an auction with a start price of $188.88 and got a single bid.

AJR-AL2 is a relic card that contains wood from Lincoln's law office. It was inserted at a ratio of 1:12,100 packs.

• Number 12 of 20 sold on September 8, 2009, by eBay seller ddavisaz for $796. (No other cards from this /20 relic issue were on eBay while this was listed.)
• Number 7 of 20 sold on September 13, 2009, by eBay seller mgresham8aip for $306.11 (This auction ran just days after the Number 12 sold, making it seem like the /20 card wasn't as rare as it is. To make matters worse, the Number 4/20 card was listed while this auction was still running.)
• Number 4 of 20 sold on September 18, 2009, by eBay seller gregdimo for $292.
• Number 18 of 20 sold on September 20, 2009, by eBay seller thechoice77 for $250.
• Number 7 of 20 sold on was listed on August 13, 2011, by eBay seller diver1823. The Buy It Now price was $540 or best offer.

AJR-AL3 is a relic card that contains a swatch of a flag used on Abraham Lincoln's funeral train.

AJR-AL4 is a relic card that contains a piece of an election envelope of the kind popular during the 1860 and 1864 elections.

• Number of 1 of 30 (yes, the first of 30) sold on September 20, 2009, by eBay seller jpar9271 for $227.50.
• Number 21 of 30 sold on September 30, 2009, by eBay seller dgeman for $104.49. The seller said it came with a blemish out of the package (see directly under the star).
• Number 20 of 30 shown below apparently had the same blemish problem. It was listed by eBay seller diver1823 for $330, on August 13, 2011.
• Number 12 of 30 sold on November 1, 2009, by eBay seller dcardsr1 for $109.50.
• On November 30, 2009, it was listed as an auction with a start price of $79.99, but ended without a bid.
• On December 8, it was started at $84.99, but ended without a bid.
• Trying the climbing start-price strategy, it was listed on December 15, with a start price of $89.99. A note in the item listing said, "I have a desire to keep it forever if no other collector of history wants it. So 7 days out of forever is all you have to make a bid!!" But it ended again without a bid.
• All right, seven more days out of forever. On December 23, the start price dropped to $84.99 with the same note. No success.
• On December 30, the seller listed it as a Buy It Now (instead of an auction), with a price of $95.99. Yep, same "7 days out of forever" note.
• Number 26 of 30 was listed on November 12, 2009, by a seller with 100% positive feedback: bigvalboskee. Big Val is selling it for the Buy It Now price of $119.95.

AJR-AL5 is a relic card that contains a swatch of some curtains from Lincoln's parlor.

Abraham Lincoln Base Cards

The Topps Heritage Hero's Journey base set includes 15 Lincoln cards. There are five designs used for the front of the cards, repeated in a sequence three times. The back of the cards WRONGLY state that Abraham Lincoln died on April 16, 1865. In fact, Lincoln was shot on April 14 and died the morning of April 15, 1854.

Topps Heritage: Hero's Journey Stamp Collection (2009)

Twenty cards appear in the Topps Heritage Hero's Journey Stamp Collection series. Each has a Lincoln-related U.S. postage stamp in a window in the card that makes both the front and the back of the stamp visible. Each stamp has a different cancelation. The stamp quality varies, ranging from those that are rather sloppy to those that are well-centered with nice cancelations.

The Hero's Journey Stamp cards were inserted into packs at a ratio of 1:468.

Lech L'cha 5781 - Abraham's Hero Journey

The story of Odysseus is the template for the hero's journey. Professor Joseph Campbell studied over a thousand mythological stories and found the pattern that he identified as the hero's journey. While reading this coming week's parsha I wondered about how Abraham's journey from Ur in Mesopotamia to Canaan would fit into the archetypal hero's journey. (considering my lack of secular education growing up, and thus not being that familiar with much of ancient mythology, this will be a work in progress)

Call to Action

While in some stories the "call to action" is an event or vision. In Abram's case it is prophesy with the directive Lech L'cha- Go forth, for you.

There is no refusal of the call , and the meeting of the mentor , in this case God, happened at the same time as the call to action.

(א) וַיֹּ֤אמֶר ה' אֶל־אַבְרָ֔ם לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵאַרְצְךָ֥ וּמִמּֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖ וּמִבֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יךָ אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶֽךָּ׃ (ב) וְאֶֽעֶשְׂךָ֙ לְג֣וֹי גָּד֔וֹל וַאֲבָ֣רֶכְךָ֔ וַאֲגַדְּלָ֖ה שְׁמֶ֑ךָ וֶהְיֵ֖ה בְּרָכָֽה׃ (ג) וַאֲבָֽרֲכָה֙ מְבָ֣רְכֶ֔יךָ וּמְקַלֶּלְךָ֖ אָאֹ֑ר וְנִבְרְכ֣וּ בְךָ֔ כֹּ֖ל מִשְׁפְּחֹ֥ת הָאֲדָמָֽה׃

(1) The L-RD said to Avram, “ Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. (2) I will make of you a great nation, And I will bless you; I will make your name great, And you shall be a blessing. (3) I will bless those who bless you And curse him that curses you; And all the families of the earth Shall bless themselves by you.”

"With God’s opening words to Abraham The Torah reminds us That the journey forward And the journey inward Are simultaneous and inseparable. This is the deep grammar of Lech Lecha".

Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, from her installation as President at Hebrew College

https://hebrewcollege.edu/hebrew-college-presidential-installation-words-of-reflection-and-hope/

(https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/153287?lang=bi)

(א) וַיֹּאמֶר ה' אֶל אַבְרָם לֶךְ לְךָ מֵאַרְצְךָ וגו' (בראשית יב, א) , רַבִּי יִצְחָק פָּתַח (תהלים מה, יא) : שִׁמְעִי בַת וּרְאִי וְהַטִּי אָזְנֵךְ וְשִׁכְחִי עַמֵּךְ וּבֵית אָבִיךְ, אָמַר רַבִּי יִצְחָק מָשָׁל לְאֶחָד שֶׁהָיָה עוֹבֵר מִמָּקוֹם לְמָקוֹם, וְרָאָה בִּירָה אַחַת דּוֹלֶקֶת, אָמַר תֹּאמַר שֶׁהַבִּירָה הַזּוֹ בְּלֹא מַנְהִיג, הֵצִיץ עָלָיו בַּעַל הַבִּירָה, אָמַר לוֹ אֲנִי הוּא בַּעַל הַבִּירָה. כָּךְ לְפִי שֶׁהָיָה אָבִינוּ אַבְרָהָם אוֹמֵר תֹּאמַר שֶׁהָעוֹלָם הַזֶּה בְּלֹא מַנְהִיג, הֵצִיץ עָלָיו הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא וְאָמַר לוֹ אֲנִי הוּא בַּעַל הָעוֹלָם. (תהלים מה, יב) : וְיִתְאָו הַמֶּלֶךְ יָפְיֵךְ כִּי הוּא אֲדֹנַיִךְ. וְיִתְאָו הַמֶּלֶךְ יָפְיֵךְ, לְיַפּוֹתֵךְ בָּעוֹלָם, (תהלים מה, יב) : וְהִשְׁתַּחֲוִי לוֹ, הֱוֵי וַיֹּאמֶר ה' אֶל אַבְרָם.

(1) (1) YHVH said to Abram, "Go you forth from your land…" … Rabbi Yitzchak said: this may be compared to a man who was traveling from place to place when he saw a bira doleket/castle aglow/lit up (full of light or in flames). He said, "Is it possible that this castle lacks a person to look after it? The owner of the building looked out and said, “I am the owner of the castle.” Similarly, because Abraham our father said, “Is it possible that this castle has no guide, no one to look after it?," the Holy Blessed One looked out and said to him, “I am the Master of the Universe.” … Hence, God said to Avraham, Lech Lecha.

Crossing the Threshold (when the hero leaves their ordinary world)

While the following story from Bereishit Rabbah does not speak of Abram leaving his physical home yet, it shows a departure from the ordinary world of idol worship.

(יג) וַיָּמָת הָרָן עַל פְּנֵי תֶּרַח אָבִיו (בראשית יא, כח) , רַבִּי חִיָּא בַּר בְּרֵיהּ דְּרַב אַדָא דְּיָפוֹ, תֶּרַח עוֹבֵד צְלָמִים הָיָה, חַד זְמַן נְפֵיק לַאֲתַר, הוֹשִׁיב לְאַבְרָהָם מוֹכֵר תַּחְתָּיו. הֲוָה אָתֵי בַּר אֵינַשׁ בָּעֵי דְּיִזְבַּן, וַהֲוָה אֲמַר לֵהּ בַּר כַּמָּה שְׁנִין אַתְּ, וַהֲוָה אֲמַר לֵיהּ בַּר חַמְשִׁין אוֹ שִׁתִּין, וַהֲוָה אֲמַר לֵיהּ וַי לֵיהּ לְהַהוּא גַבְרָא דַּהֲוָה בַּר שִׁתִּין וּבָעֵי לְמִסְגַּד לְבַר יוֹמֵי, וַהֲוָה מִתְבַּיֵּשׁ וְהוֹלֵךְ לוֹ. חַד זְמַן אֲתָא חַד אִתְּתָא טְעִינָא בִּידָהּ חָדָא פִּינָךְ דְּסֹלֶת, אֲמָרָהּ לֵיהּ הֵא לָךְ קָרֵב קֳדָמֵיהוֹן, קָם נְסֵיב בּוּקְלָסָא בִּידֵיהּ, וְתַבְרִינוּן לְכָלְהוֹן פְּסִילַיָא, וִיהַב בּוּקְלָסָא בִּידָא דְּרַבָּה דַּהֲוָה בֵּינֵיהוֹן. כֵּיוָן דַּאֲתָא אֲבוּהָ אֲמַר לֵיהּ מַאן עָבֵיד לְהוֹן כְּדֵין, אֲמַר לֵיהּ מַה נִּכְפּוּר מִינָךְ אֲתַת חָדָא אִתְּתָא טְעִינָא לָהּ חָדָא פִּינָךְ דְּסֹוֹלֶת, וַאֲמַרַת לִי הֵא לָךְ קָרֵיב קֳדָמֵיהון, קָרֵיבְתְּ לָקֳדָמֵיהוֹן הֲוָה דֵּין אֲמַר אֲנָא אֵיכוֹל קַדְמָאי, וְדֵין אֲמַר אֲנָא אֵיכוֹל קַדְמָאי, קָם הָדֵין רַבָּה דַּהֲוָה בֵּינֵיהוֹן נְסַב בּוּקְלָסָא וְתַבַּרִינוֹן. אֲמַר לֵיהּ מָה אַתָּה מַפְלֶה בִּי, וְיָדְעִין אִינוּן. אֲמַר לֵיהּ וְלֹא יִשְׁמְעוּ אָזְנֶיךָ מַה שֶּׁפִּיךָ אוֹמֵר. נַסְבֵיהּ וּמְסָרֵיהּ לְנִמְרוֹד. אֲמַר לֵיהּ נִסְגוֹד לְנוּרָא, אֲמַר לֵיהּ אַבְרָהָם וְנִסְגּוֹד לְמַיָא דְּמַטְפִין נוּרָא. אֲמַר לֵיהּ נִמְרוֹד נִסְגּוֹד לְמַיָא, אֲמַר לֵיהּ אִם כֵּן נִסְגּוֹד לַעֲנָנָא דְּטָעִין מַיָא. אֲמַר לֵיהּ נִסְגּוֹד לַעֲנָנָא. אָמַר לֵיהּ אִם כֵּן נִסְגּוֹד לְרוּחָא דִּמְבַדַּר עֲנָנָא. אֲמַר לֵיהּ נִסְגּוֹד לְרוּחָא. אֲמַר לֵיהּ וְנִסְגּוֹד לְבַר אֵינָשָׁא דְּסָבֵיל רוּחָא. אֲמַר לֵיהּ מִלִּין אַתְּ מִשְׁתָּעֵי, אֲנִי אֵינִי מִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה אֶלָּא לָאוּר, הֲרֵי אֲנִי מַשְׁלִיכֲךָ בְּתוֹכוֹ, וְיָבוֹא אֱלוֹקַּ שֶׁאַתָּה מִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה לוֹ וְיַצִּילְךָ הֵימֶנּוּ. הֲוָה תַּמָן הָרָן קָאֵים פְּלוּג, אָמַר מַה נַּפְשָׁךְ אִם נָצַח אַבְרָהָם אֲנָא אָמַר מִן דְּאַבְרָהָם אֲנָא וְאִם נָצַח נִמְרוֹד אֲנָא אֲמַר דְּנִמְרוֹד אֲנָא. כֵּיוָן שֶׁיָּרַד אַבְרָהָם לְכִבְשַׁן הָאֵשׁ וְנִצֹּל, אָמְרִין לֵיהּ דְּמַאן אַתְּ, אֲמַר לְהוֹן מִן אַבְרָהָם אֲנָא, נְטָלוּהוּ וְהִשְּׁלִיכוּהוּ לָאוּר וְנֶחְמְרוּ בְּנֵי מֵעָיו, וְיָצָא וּמֵת עַל פְּנֵי תֶּרַח אָבִיו, הֲדָא הוּא דִכְתִיב: וַיָּמָת הָרָן עַל פְּנֵי תֶּרַח וגו'.

(13) "And Haran died in the presence of his father Terah" (Gen. 11:28). Rabbi Hiyya the grandson of Rabbi Adda of Yaffo [said]: Terah was a worshipper of idols. One time he had to travel to a place, and he left Abraham in charge of his store. When a man would come in to buy [idols], Abraham would ask: How old are you? They would reply: fifty or sixty. Abraham would then respond: Woe to him who is sixty years old and worships something made today - the customer would be embarrassed, and would leave. A woman entered carrying a dish full of flour. She said to him: this is for you, offer it before them. Abraham took a club in his hands and broke all of the idols, and placed the club in the hands of the biggest idol. When his father returned, he asked: who did all of this? Abraham replied: I can't hide it from you - a woman came carrying a dish of flour and told me to offer it before them. I did, and one of them said 'I will eat it first,' and another said 'I will eat it first.' The biggest one rose, took a club, and smashed the rest of them. Terah said: what, do you think you can trick me? They don't have cognition! Abraham said: Do your ears hear what your mouth is saying? Terah took Abraham and passed him off to [King] Nimrod. They said [to the king]: let us worship the fire. Abraham said to them: [rather] let us worship water, for it extinguishes fire. Nimrod agreed: let us worship water. Abraham continued: if so, let us worship the clouds, which provide water. Nimrod agreed: let us worship the clouds. Abraham continued: if so, let us worship the winds that scatter the clouds. Nimrod agreed: let us worship the winds. Abraham continued: if so, let us worship humans who are filled with wind [air]. Nimrod replied: You're just speaking words - I only worship fire. I will throw you into it, and the God you worship can save you from it. Haran was hidden and was of two minds, saying [to himself]: if Abraham is victorious, I will say I am with Abraham, and if Nimrod is victorious, I will say I am with Nimrod. When Abraham was through into the fiery furnace and saved, they asked him [Haran]: who are you with? He replied: I am with Abraham. They took him and threw him into the fire, and his insides burned up and he died before his father Terah, as it says: "And Haran died in the [lit.] on the face of his father Terah" (Gen. 11:28).

(א) וַיְהִ֗י אַחַר֙ הַדְּבָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֔לֶּה וְהָ֣אֱלֹהִ֔ים נִסָּ֖ה אֶת־אַבְרָהָ֑ם וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֵלָ֔יו אַבְרָהָ֖ם וַיֹּ֥אמֶר הִנֵּֽנִי׃

(1) Some time afterward, God put Abraham to the test. He said to him, “Abraham,” and he answered, “Here I am.”

Tests , Allies, and Enemies :

Jewish tradition teaches that Abram was put through 10 tests. Following are several lists of what the tests might have been.

Enemies include: Nimrod who threw Abram into fire.

Allies: Terach? Lot?

(ג) עֲשָׂרָה נִסְיוֹנוֹת נִתְנַסָּה אַבְרָהָם אָבִינוּ עָלָיו הַשָּׁלוֹם וְעָמַד בְּכֻלָּם, לְהוֹדִיעַ כַּמָּה חִבָּתוֹ שֶׁל אַבְרָהָם אָבִינוּ עָלָיו הַשָּׁלוֹם:

(3) With ten tests Abraham, our father, was tested - and he withstood them all; in order to show how great was the love of Abraham, our father - peace be upon him.

(א) הי' נסיונות שנתנסה אברהם אבינו כולם דבר הכתוב. הא' הגרות באמרו יתברך לך לך מארצך וגו'. הב' הרעב אשר נמצא בארץ כנען בבואו שם והוא יעדו ואעשך לגוי גדול וזה נסיון גדול והוא אמר ויהי רעב בארץ. והג' חמס המצרים עליו בהלקח שרה לפרעה. הד' הלחמו בד' מלכים. הה' לקחו הגר לאשה אחר שנואש מהוליד משרה. הו' הוא המילה אשר צוה בה בימי הזקנה. הז' חמס מלך גרר עליו בלקחו שרה גם כן. הח' גרש הגר אחרי הבנותו ממנה. הט' הרחקת בנו ישמעאל והוא אמרו יתברך אל ירע בעיניך על הנער וגו' וכבר העיד הכתוב איך היה קשה בעיניו הדבר הזה באמרו וירע הדבר מאד בעיני אברהם אלא ששמר מצות הש"י וגרשם. העשירי עקדת יצחק:

(1) The ten tests with which Abraham, our father, was tested are all [in] the words of Scripture. The first is his emigration by His statement, may He be blessed - "Go forth from your land, etc." (Genesis 12:1). And the second one is the famine that was found in the Land of Canaan when he came there and it was [the land of] his destiny - "and I will make you into a great nation" (Genesis 12:2). And this was a great test, and it is its saying, "And there was a famine in the land" (Genesis 12:10). And the third was the injustice of the Egyptians towards him in the taking of Sarah to Pharaoh. The fourth is his fighting against the four kings. The fifth is his taking of Hagar as a wife after he despaired of giving birth through Sarah. The sixth is the circumcision that he was commanded about in the days of his old age. The seventh is the injustice of the king of Gerar towards him in his also taking Sarah. The eighth is the expulsion of Hagar after his being built (having a child) from her. The ninth is the distancing of his son, Yishmael, and that is His, may He be blessed, saying, "Let not it be bad in your eyes about the youth, etc." (Genesis 21:12). And Scripture already testified how this thing was difficult in his eyes, in its stating, "And the thing was very bad in the eyes of Abraham" (Genesis 21:11). Yet he observed the commandment of God, may He be blessed, and expelled him. And the tenth is the binding of Yitzchak.

(ב) עשר נסיונות נתנסה אברהם אבינו לפני הקב״ה ובכולן נמצא שלם אלו הן שנים בלך לך ב׳ בשתי בניו ב׳ בשתי נשיו אחד עם המלכים ואחד בין הבתרים אחד באור כשדים ואחד בברית מילה (בין הבתרים). וכל כך למה כדי שכשיבא אברהם אבינו ליטול שכרו שיהיו המלאכים אומרים יותר מכולנו יותר מכל שוה אברהם אבינו ליטול שכרו שנא׳ (קהלת ט) לך אכול בשמחה לחמך ושתה בלב טוב יינך.

With ten trials was Abraham our father tried before the Holy One, Blessed be He, and in all of them he was found steadfast, to wit:

Twice, when ordered to move on;

Twice, in connection with his two sons;

Twice, in connection with his two wives;

Once, on the occasion of his war with the kings;

Once, at the (covenant) between the pieces;

Once, in Ur of the Chaldess;

And once, at the covenant of circumcision.

Now, what was the reason for all this? So that when Abraham our father comes to take his reward, the peoples of the world shall say, “More than all of us, more than everyone, is Abraham worthy of getting his reward!” And it is of him that Scriptures says, Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart, for God has already accepted thy works (Eccl. 9:7)

(כה) דבר אחר האל תמים דרכו. זה אברהם שנאמר (בראשית יז א) התהלך לפני והיה תמים. אמרת ה' צרופה. שצרפו הקב"ה בעשר נסיונות. ואלו הן - כשירד לתוך כבשן האש שנאמר (שם טו ז) אני ה' אשר הוצאתיך מאור כשדים. שנים כשאמר לו לך לך. ושנים בשרה. בהגר (שם טז ב) בא נא אל שפחתי. ובישמעאל (שם כא י) גרש האמה הזאת. ובמלכים (שם יד יד) וירק את חניכיו. ובמילה שאמר לו הקב"ה (שם יז א) התהלך לפני והיה תמים. ובין הבתרים כשראה המלכיות משעבדות לבניו. וביצחק (שם כב ב) קח נא את בנך את יחידך. הוי אמרת ה' צרופה מגן הוא. אומות העכו"ם אומרים למה הקב"ה מחבב לאברהם הצילו מכבשן האש ומן תשעה מלכים ואוכלוסין ומכל הצרות שעברו עליו. אמר להן הקב"ה הריני אומר לו שיקריב את בנו והוא שומע לי וחוסה בי לפיכך אני מגינו. הוי מגן הוא לכל החוסים בו. ולמחר מברכין בניו בתפלה ברוך מגן אברהם. מגני וקרן ישעי משגבי. אמר דוד לפני הקב"ה מפני מה אומרים מגן אברהם ולא מגן דוד. אמר לו בחנתיו בעשרה נסיונות. אמר לפניו (תהלים כו ב) בחנני ה' ונסני. כיון שנסה אותו בבת שבע ולא עמד בו מיד התפלל דוד שיאמרו מגן דוד בברכת ההפטרה. כי בשם קדשך נשבעת לו שלא יכבה נרו לעולם ועד ברוך אתה ה' מגן דוד. הדא הוא דכתיב ותתן לי מגן ישעך:

Another comment: The verse beginning As for God, His way is perfect , alludes to our father Abraham. For the Holy One, blessed be He, upon seeing that Abraham followed Him, chose Abraham and said to him, I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be thou perfect (Gen 17;1). The word of the Lord is tried (Ps 18:31b) thus refers to Abraham, whom the Lord proved in ten trials as follows:

once, in a furnace of fire, of which God said: I am the Lord that brought thee out of the fire of the Chaldees (Gen 15:7);

once again, when God said: Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred (Gen 12:1);

twice, when Sarah was taken away from him by Pharaoh, and then by Abimelech— there you have four trials;

again, when Sarah said to Hagar the Egyptian: Go in, I pray thee, unto my handmaid (Gen 16:2)—there you have five;

again, when Sarah said of Ishmael: Cast out this bondwoman and her son (Gen 21:10)—there you have six;

again, when Abraham led forth his trained men (Gen 14:14) against the invading kings—there you have seven;

again, when God said of circumcision: Every male among you shall be circumcised (Gen 17:10)—there you have eight;

again, when God showed to Abraham, between the halves of a heifer, the four kingdoms enslaving his children—there you have nine;

and finally, in the binding of Isaac, when God said: Take now thy son, thine only one...and offer him…for a burnt-offering (Gen 22:2)—there you have ten. Abraham accepted these trials with reverence and with love and stood up to them like a man of might. And what was his reward? He is a shield unto all them that take refuge in him (Ps 18:31c); for God said to Abraham: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward (Gen 15:1b).

The nations of the earth asked: “Why does the Holy One, blessed be He, love Abraham and deliver him from the fiery furnace, from the nine kings, from armed hosts, and from all the troubles which came upon him?” The Holy One, blessed be He, replied: I shall bring you close and show you that even if I tell Abraham to take his son and offer him up as a burnt-offering for My name’s sake, he will obey Me. Therefore I am his shield, even as his is a shield to all them that take refuge in him; and in days to come, Abraham’s children will begin their Eighteen Benedictions with “Blessed art Thou, O Lord, the Shield of Abraham.”

Approach and Ordeal

I think the Akeda fits well as both the approach and ordeal.

"Judaism begins in not wonder that the world is, but in protest that the world is not as it ought to be. It is in that cry, that sacred discontent, that Abraham's journey begins." - Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Radical Then, Radical Now p. 55