Abraham Lincoln: Leadership, Legacy, and the Struggle for Unity

Introduction

The sixteenth President of the United States from Hodgenville, Hardin County, Kentucky, was Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln was in office from 1861-1865. President Lincoln accomplished many great things; he was one of the best presidents of the United States and led the Union through the Civil War. One of the other great accomplishments was that Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery. Without Lincoln, slavery may have never been abolished. President Abraham Lincoln died on April 14, 1865. He was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.

Lincoln’s Leadership During Crisis

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in Hardin (now Larue) County, Kentucky. Growing up, Abraham Lincoln had struggles like he’s father losing everything when Abraham Lincoln was young, and they had to move to Perry County, Indiana, where they struggled to get by. As a young man, he worked a variety of jobs, including shopkeeper, surveyor, and postmaster, for a time. Lincoln did not attempt college, but he read a lot at home.

Lincoln won the 1860 election and was inaugurated as President in March of 1861. The southern states did not want Lincoln to be President. They did not agree with his policies. Before he was officially in office, they began to leave the country. The Civil War began on April 12, 1861, at Fort Sumter in South Carolina, just a month after Lincoln took office. Lincoln was determined to maintain the ‘Union’ of the states. He called for an army from the northern states to defeat the south. What followed was a bloody war that lasted four years and cost the lives of 600,000 Americans.

Conclusion

President Abraham Lincoln was shot on April 13, 1865, by John Wilkes Booth while attending a play at the Ford Theater in Washington, D.C. With the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson became the 17th President of the United States 1865-1869, an old-fashioned southern Jacksonian Democrat of pronounced states’ rights views. The Lincoln Memorial National honors the 16th and perhaps greatest President of the United States and symbolizes his belief in the freedom and dignity of all people.

References

1. “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” by Doris Kearns Goodwin