Abraham Lincoln was born in what is now known as Hodgenville, Kentucky in 1809, at that time there was no town just a rural county.  He was named after his grandfather who was killed by indians in 1786 while clearing a field.  He lived in Kentucky until his father was forced off his land by a legal dispute.  They moved to Spencer County, Indiana in 1816 partly due to slavery and their legal issues in Kentucky.  In 1818 at age 9, his mother (Nancy Hanks Lincoln) died of “Milk Sickness” at age 34.  Milk Sickness was common and those who ate meat, milk or other dairy products from a cow that fed on “White Snakeroot,” which contains tremetol, a poison.  His father soon married Sarah Bush Johnston who raised the Lincoln children as her own.  In comparing Lincoln to her own son, she said, “Both were good boys, but I must say — both now being dead that Abe was the best boy I ever saw or ever expect to see.”  His sister died in 1828 during childbirth.  Abe loved and respected her calling her his Angel Mother.

His formal education lasted only a year and a half.  He was self-educated, studying every book he could find.  He often walked many miles just to borrow a book.  The Bible, Shakespere, anything of history or poetry was quickly mastered.  Many thought him to be a loafer because he did not like to hunt, or fish, and dreaded farming.  But he was a skilled axeman and an excellent wrestler.  Standing 6’4″ he was a giant in his day and was proud of his stature.  His friends said of him “He read so much – was so studious – took so little physical exercise – was so laborious in his studies, and that he became so thin and were afraid that he would craze himself.” – Henry McHenry

In 1830 after more land title battles in Indiana, his father moved the family to Macon County, Illinois (just west of Decatur) and after a brutal winter that almost claimed their lives they moved south to Coles County, Illinois (my birthplace).  In 1831 and ready to strike out on his own Lincoln and two life long friends met in Springfield to take a load of goods down to New Orleans starting on the Sangamon River.  While in New Orleans Lincoln saw his first slave auction that left a life long impression on him to his final day.

Continue reading The Early Life of Abraham Lincoln→

If you wished, you could devote the rest of your life writing about Abraham Lincoln.  His election was the most significant of all time.  Many believed that his election would plunge the country into an inevitable civil war, yet they voted for him anyway.  The furor on both side was enormous and the chances of compromise was gone.  In 1860 the dominant party of the time was the Democratic Party, they met in Charleston, South Carolina to select a presidential candidate. The Southern delegates insisted that the party endorse a platform that guaranteed the rights of slaveholders in the territories. When the convention rejected the proposal, delegates from the deep South walked out. The remaining delegates reassembled six weeks later and selected Stephen Douglas as their candidate. Southern Democrats formed their own party and proceeded to choose John C. Breckinridge as their presidential nominee.

In May of 1860, the Constitutional Union Party, which consisted of conservative former Whigs, Know Nothings, and pro-Union Democrats nominated John Bell of Tennessee for President. This party platform denounced sectionalism and attempted to rally support for the Constitution and the Union. Meanwhile, the new Republican Party met in Chicago that May and recognized that the Democrat’s turmoil actually gave them a chance to take the election. They needed to select a candidate who could carry the North and win a majority of the Electoral College. To do that, the Republicans needed someone who could carry New Jersey, Illinois, Indiana and Pennsylvania — four important states that remained uncertain. There were plenty of potential candidates, but in the end Abraham Lincoln had emerged as the best choice. Lincoln had become the symbol of the frontier, hard work, the self-made man. His debates with Douglas had made him a national figure and the publication of those debates in early 1860 made him even better known. After the third ballot, he had the nomination for President.

Continue reading The Election of 1860→