stephen arnold douglas (1813 - 1861)
Abraham Lincoln was an American statesman and politician, the 16th President of the United States (March 4, 1861 - April 15, 1865).
The son of a frontiersman and a Kentucky farmer, Lincoln worked hard from an early age and struggled to learn. He was a militiaman in the Indian War, practiced law, and sat in the Illinois legislature for eight years. He was an opponent of slavery and gradually gained a national reputation that earned him victory in the 1860 presidential election.
After becoming the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln turned the Republican Party into a strong national organization. In addition, he drew most Northern Democrats to the Union side. On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared permanently free those slaves who were in Confederate territory. Lincoln considered secession illegal and was prepared to use force to defend federal law and the Union. Four more slave states joined the Confederacy, but four remained in the Union, and the Civil War of 1861-1865 began.
Lincoln personally directed the military action that led to victory over the Confederacy. Abraham Lincoln was reelected in 1864, and on April 14, 1865, he was fatally shot at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. by actor John Wilkes Booth.
Abraham Lincoln is a national hero of the American people, he is considered one of the best and most famous presidents of the United States until today.
