Biography of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was born Febraury 12, 1809. President Lincoln successfully led the United States through the Civil War, only to be assassinated less than one month after the war's end. Lincoln was an outspoke opponent of the expansion of slavery in the United States. He won the Republican Party nomination in 1860 and was elected president later that year. During his term he helped preserve the United States by defeating the secessionist Confederate Proclamation in 1863 and promoting the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1865.

Lincoln closely supervised the north during the Civil War by the selection of top generals, including Ulysses S. Grant. Historians conclude that he handled the many factions of the Republican Party well, bringing members of each faction into his cabinet. Lincoln also successfully diffused a war scare with the United Kingdom in 1861. In 1864, Lincoln managed his own presidential election.

Opponents of the war, Copperheads, criticized Lincoln for refusing to compromise on slavery. The Radical Republicans, an abolitionist faction of the Republican Party, criticized him for moving too slowly in the abolishment of slavery. Even throughout the criticism, Lincoln received positive public opinion through his rhetoric and speeches; the Gettysburg Address is one example. At the end of the war, Lincoln held a moderate view of Reconstruction, seeking to reunite the nation through generous reconciliation.

Abraham Lincoln's assassination in 1865 by John Wilkes Booth was the first presidential assassination in United States history and made him a martyr for the ideal of national unity.

• Abe was a fantastic poet.
• Abraham was 6 feet 3¾ inches tall.
• Abe's physical characteristics include a long, askew nose, a tall lean figure, heavy eyebrows, deep eye-caverns, high cheekbones, thick lips, a mole on his right cheek near his mouth, flapping ears, thick and unruly hair, along with leathery, wrinkled, and dry skin.
• He was the first President born in, what is considered, the west.
• Abe Lincoln was not given a middle name.