Abraham Lincoln: An extraordinary life

I have already given you a glimpse at Lincoln's life in the time that he was president. To honor his memory on his birthday, I will give you the rest of Lincoln's story.

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. -Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln, who was given no middle name, was born to Thomas and Nancy Lincoln in a one room log cabin in Harding County, Kentucky. Lincoln had a somewhat happy childhood at first, living in a religious household (though Lincoln in the future never joined a church), and the family enjoyed Thomas' well known status in the community. This all changed when they lost all their property and had to move to Perry County, Indiana to start anew. Then Nancy Lincoln died from the dreaded milk sickness, a deadly sickness that happens when a person drinks milk from a cow that fed on White Snakeroot, which is poisonous to humans but not to cows. Not long after, Lincoln also lost his older sister Sarah, who died while giving birth. His father married Sarah Johnston and Lincoln and her became very close. The same did not happen between Lincoln and his father however, as he was embarrassed by his father's lack of education and the amount of farm labor that he had to do under him. Though he loathed it, he still worked hard on his family land and gave all the money he earned from working outside of their land to his father, as was customary until a man was twenty-one years old.

The family moved, fearing a milk sickness outbreak, to several different places in Illinois, ending in Coles County, Illinois. This is where Lincoln, at the age of twenty-two, decided to strike out on his own. He worked on a shipping boat on the Mississippi, taking goods down to New Orleans, but only for one trip. He got to New Orleans, saw slavery firsthand, and walked back home. Lincoln's formal education only lasted eighteen months, and the rest came from self-education. He was known as a rough and tumble wrestler as a young man, but was considered lazy by his family and their friends.

Lincoln's love life was an interesting thing. It started out great, then went downhill, never to come back again. His first love was Ann Rutledge. People who lived in the area claimed that Lincoln and Rutledge were incredibly happy together and it was assumed that they were to be married soon. All Rutledge had to do was get acceptance from a past love. Their marriage was not to be though, as Rutledge died of what was most likely typhoid fever. He next met Mary Owens, but it was a long distance relationship, and they grew apart. Then, the worst thing that could of ever happened to Lincoln reared it's ugly head; he met Mary Todd. Mary was from a wealthy slave-holding family in Kentucky and was used to the rich lifestyle. Lincoln was not and the two didn't seem to be the greatest match. Lincoln courted Mary however, and they were all set to be married. Then Lincoln got cold feet and called it off. They met up months later and decided to give it another go, with this marriage date sticking.

At twenty-three, Lincoln opened a small general store with the help of a partner. Though the economy was booming in the area, the store struggled and Lincoln and the partner had to close it, amounting in a large debt for Lincoln. He then tried his hand at politics, which thankfully stuck, though it would take a long time. He campaigned for the Illinois General Assembly but finished eighth out of thirteen candidates. Shortly before the election, Lincoln served in the militia during the Black Hawk War, though he never saw any combat. Lincoln had some success early on in politics as he served as part of the state legislature for a time, then becoming a lawyer. After being admitted to the bar in 1837, he moved to Springfield, Illinois to practice under Mary Todd's cousin. During this time he also served on the Illinois House of Representatives for four consecutive terms. It was at this time that he started to form his opinion on slavery, feeling that slavery should not be expanded, but not taken away. He supported Henry Clay however, in his cause to make the abolition of slavery practical by helping slaves go back to Africa.

Lincoln was a Whig during his early years in politics and served as one in the U.S. House of Representatives for one two-year term. In that time he opposed James K. Polk and his decision to go to war with Mexico, and decided that when Henry Clay couldn't get nominated, supported war hero Zachery Taylor. Going back home, he became a well known lawyer. After the wedding between Mary Todd and Lincoln, they moved into a house near Lincoln's law practice and quickly started a family. Robert Todd Lincoln was born in 1843, and their second son, Edward Baker Lincoln, was born in 1846. Edward did not live long however, as he succumbed to tuberculosis in 1850, though his death was largely assuaged by the birth of William "Willy" Lincoln. Willy however died during Lincoln's first term in 1862 of a fever, which further plunged both parents into what is now considered clinical depression. Lincoln was especially close with Willy and his death struck a hard blow on him. Tad Lincoln, their last son, was born in 1853.

In the mid-1850's, Lincoln's loyalties began to falter. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, which had repealed the Missouri Compromise, had basically split the Whigs over the issue of slavery. The split led to the creation of the Republican Party, which included people from the Know-Nothing party(the anti-immigrant party), the Whigs, and the Free-Soil Party (a party that supported the abolition of slavery). Lincoln decided to go along with the Republicans, and then set his sights on a Senate seat for Illinois. His opponent was Stephen A. Douglas, the "Little Giant." Douglas was the incumbent and preached the notion of popular sovereignty to decide what new states were free or slave. Lincoln opposed him by making his speeches about the stop of the expansion of slavery. The debates between them became the famous "Lincoln-Douglas debates." Though Lincoln put up a good fight, Douglas kept his seat. This flung Lincoln into the limelight, and he soon was in talks to try a hand at being president. Lincoln gained support, but many didn't feel that he would even get close to a nomination for president. Lincoln however received the nomination for his moderate view on slavery and support of internal improvements. Lincoln, though was considered a moderate to Republicans, was an extremist to the United States. His view against the expansion of slavery still didn't jive with southerners, though he never claimed he wanted to get rid of slavery outright. Even though Lincoln's name was not on almost any ballot in the south, he still won the election.

To learn more about his presidency and assassination, I would recommend my other article on Lincoln. To finish this one, I will go about giving additional information on his home life and his funeral. Mary Todd didn't make things easy for Lincoln. They really didn't get along on many levels and she was constantly buying clothes, and I mean hundreds of dollars a day of clothing. Mary went further into her weird shopping habits and bipolar behavior after Willy died. The stress of dealing with an insane wife, losing two sons, and a bloody war had aged Lincoln terribly in his time as president. Lincoln, like I had mentioned in my other post, had many strange dreams. He would always have the same dream that would trumpet big happenings. The strangest dream he had, though this is only a rumor, as it came from a second hand source, showed Lincoln that he would die soon. In the dream, he is walking around the White House and sees a group of people grieving over a casket. He cannot see who it is and no one in the rooms seems to notice him. Finally, Lincoln begs a soldier present to tell him who that poor soul is that has died. The soldier looks at him with a frightful face and declares that the president has been assassinated. This supposedly took place only a few days before Lincoln's assassination.

Mary Todd's behavior did one good thing for history however. Her bipolar-ness was not very attractive to others and Mary did not have many close friends. One person that could not stand her was Ulysses S. Grant's wife, Julia. When the Grant's were asked to accompany the Lincoln's to see a play at Ford's Theater, she refused because she didn't want to be around Mary. This refusal may have saved Grant's life, as he would have been a target of assassination had he been there with Lincoln that night.

Though Lincoln and Mary had a very strained relationship, there is no record of Lincoln ever cheating on her, making him one of the few presidents not to cheat on his wife or take up a mistress. One of the last things they did together, besides see the play at the Ford's Theater, was take a carriage ride together, as it was one of Mary's favorite things to do. Lincoln probably regretted marrying Mary Todd, but he did love her no matter how crazy she was.

After Lincoln died, there was a question of how to pull off the funeral. They couldn't allow millions of people to crowd into Washington D.C., for it would cause pandemonium. It was decided that instead, they would bring Lincoln to the masses. They would have a funeral train that went through all the big cities of the north. The last stop would be Springfield, Illinois. This was risky, as methods of keeping Lincoln from looking like a gross corpse were in their infant stages. They pumped him with as much embalming fluid as they could to have him keep through the journey and the funeral train set out. Many of the cities decorated their areas in mourning colors and made a huge celebration out of the funeral, most notably New York City. There were public viewings allowed but people had to wait in line for hours just to see Lincoln for a few seconds. As the train went further on it's journey, many began to see Lincoln's body become less life-like due to the heat. Makeup was put on him so as not to scare people when they saw him. The funeral train did not go off without a hitch though, as there were many southern sympathizers who were in northern cities. Random people would shout pro-south slogans as the train passed, or would say something against Lincoln, and were promptly beaten, many to death. Such was the fervor and air of anger and sorrow that gripped the nation after the Civil War. Lincoln's final resting place is at Oak Ridge Cemetery, in Springfield, Illinois.

What became of Lincoln's family? Well, Tad ended up dying in 1871 at the age of eighteen, which basically left Mary completely insane with grief, having lost three sons and a husband. Her last remaining son, Robert had her committed to an insane asylum in 1875. Robert went on to become a lawyer and Secretary of War under Presidents Garfield and Arthur. The Lincoln lineage is sadly no longer around since Robert's grandson, "Bud" Beckwith died in 1985.

Lincoln's life was extraordinary in the sense that he had more weight on his shoulders than probably most men in history. One thing I remember in history classes growing up was seeing the poster with all of Lincoln's failures, and then the last one being him becoming president. The poster, of course was showing kids that you should never give up, no matter how many times you fail. This, of course is a very good lesson, and served Lincoln well during his life. He had many disappointments, but he worked hard and kept at it when others would of probably quit. Lincoln also had more tragedies in his life than most. He lost two sons in his lifetime, had an insane wife, and was trying to fight one of the bloodiest wars in history. There is a certain time when perseverance is directly attached to a person, and that undoubtedly is Lincoln.

Many will forget Lincoln's birthday, as it is often overshadowed by Washington's birthday, which is now called President's day. We sort of associate both presidents with the day, but on that day we choose to go out and save on mattresses and dinette sets then remember anything that Lincoln or Washington did for us. So, to celebrate, learn more about Lincoln. Read other articles. Read his speeches, especially the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln is far bigger than anything I could write about him.

Abraham Lincoln

Term:1861-1865

Party: Republican

Nickname: Honest Abe

Bio:
Lincoln had the harrowing task of tackling the seceding states. The southern states started to fall like dominoes, joining the confederacy. The men who were stationed at Fort Sumter, a fort off the coast of North Carolina, were starting to run out of supplies and realized they were no longer on friendly ground. North Carolina told the men to surrender and abandon the fort, but the men couldn't just give up a government fort to the rebels. Lincoln decided to send rations and ammunition to the men, which to the south was a declaration of war on them. The rebels soon attacked the fort and watched the men later surrender with no one injured. Thus started the U.S. Civil War. Lincoln surrounded himself with his republican nominee adversaries. Most of the men couldn't stand Lincoln, but took the cabinet jobs anyhow. Lincoln, like most of the public hoped the war would be short. Only one man foresaw that the war would be a long a bloody war. The man, General Sherman, was considered crazy for his views and was scoffed at by the higher ups. He would later help win the war for the North.
Lincoln was not considered very popular during his first term until the very end of it. The south saw him as a despotic tyrant, and his own peers considered him backwoods and too afraid to attack the slavery issue head on. Lincoln was nominated for the Republicans for his moderate views on slavery. He wanted to stop the expansion of slavery, but not get rid of it altogether. He had to keep the south happy somehow. When it came to the election, he was considered an extremist compared to Stephen A. Douglas and John Bell, who were both moderates, wanting to compromise and use more popular sovereignty. The other extremist on the ticket was John Breckinridge, who was the southern democratic candidate. Lincoln even said when he was elected that he was not going to get rid of slavery in the south. This would be a lie, but he probably didn't know it at the time.
Even though the North had more men, technology, and food, the south had more experienced generals, most of whom had served in the Mexican-American War. The only experienced general the north had was Winfield Scott, who at over 300 lbs was too fat to get onto his horse. The south, literally in some cases, ran circles around the union troops for the first two years of the war. It wasn't until Grant captured the many forts on the Mississippi and Vicksburg and Union victories at Antietam and Gettysburg that Lincoln decided it was time to give another blow to the south. He would free all the slaves that lived in the southern states. Called the Emancipation Proclamation, it didn't free slaves in the border states. The move, while noble, was most likely for political reasons. If Lincoln showed England and France that this was a war about slavery, then they would surely not support the south. It worked and the foreign countries stayed out of the war.
Public opinion towards Lincoln in the north increased greatly at that point. The turning points of the war helped Lincoln win a second term in 1864. After dealing with inept generals like McClellan, Burnside, and Hooker, Lincoln found the right men in Generals Meade, Grant, and Sherman. Meade and Grant chased Lee all the way back to Richmond and beyond (slowly), while Sherman stormed through Georgia, resorting to Total War. Total War is where you burn down houses, ruin train tracks and make sure that no one can get any resources from where you were just at. Confederate General Lee, though a brilliant strategist, had to surrender to General Grant when he realized they would not be able to continue the fight much longer. The south basically ran out of men and supplies. The north won key battles and wore the Confederacy out.
The war had taken a heavy toll on the Lincoln's though. Lincoln had aged terribly in the little over four years he was president. The stress of the job made him look much older than he did before he started. His wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, was certified crazy. She had lost a son, Edward, at the age of four and lost another son, Willie, while Lincoln was in office. This drove her over the edge in grief and routinely shut herself off from others. This probably also helped the aging process for Lincoln.
It was only five days after Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia that Lincoln was assassinated. John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor and southern sympathizer, decided that he had to do something to keep the war going. At first, he and his friends were going to kidnap the president, but when the war suddenly came to a screeching halt, he decided to do something more drastic.
He decided to kill the president, along with Secretary of State William Seward, and the Vice President Andrew Johnson. On the night that Lincoln and Mary attended the British comedy, "My American Cousin", at Ford's Theater, Booth made his move. Booth was able to move around without suspicion due to his reputation at the theater. Booth snuck past the lone security person before the Lincoln's box and locked himself in with a wooden board he had left in the room. After sealing the door, he crept into the back of the box and slowly took out his derringer, which was a one shot pistol. He only had one chance, and if he missed, he would have to finish the job with a camping knife. I'm not talking a puny swiss army knife, this was a huge knife. Lincoln had been looking at someone in the crowd at the point in the show and was leaning over a little bit. Being in almost darkness, Booth aimed the gun for Lincoln's head and fired. If Lincoln had his head down just an inch, the bullet would have just missed him. However, the bullet went through his brain and lodged in the back of one of his eyes. The president slumped over in his seat, appearing as though he was bored with the play. The shot had been fired exactly when a thunder of applause had happened and nobody had heard the shot. But the three others in the box heard and saw a tall slender man standing over the slumped over president. Having used his one bullet, Booth took out his knife and swung wildly at Major Rathbone, who, along with Clara Harris, went to the show with the Lincoln's since the Grant's had declined (Mrs. Grant didn't like Mrs. Lincoln). After a short struggle, Rathbone was stabbed and Booth made for his escape. He jumped out of the box, catching his foot on the flag that was draped below the box and fell awkwardly on to the stage. He knew something was wrong as soon as he landed, but stood up as straight as he could and yelled "Sic Semper Tyrannus", which is Latin for "Thus Always to Tyrants", which happened to be the Virginia state motto. Booth then ran passed the bewildered actors and was able to escape to the horse that was waiting for him. Booth shortly realized that he had badly injured his leg and wouldn't be able to travel as far as he would like to.

Lewis Powell had the job of assassinating Secretary of State, William Seward. Booth knew that Seward would just continue what Lincoln started and had to be eliminated. Seward had just been in a carriage accident and was in bed with a neck brace on. Powell pretended to be a delivery boy that was delivering medicine from Seward's doctor. He was able to get all the way to the stairs before Seward's son stopped him and told him that he would give the medicine to his father. Powell protested, saying that he had to give Seward the medicine personally. This went back and forth for awhile, until Powell, who was a beast by the way, pushed the son aside and stormed upstairs to the room. Not knowing what was going on outside the door, Seward's daughter, who was in the room with him, opened the door up and told her brother that Seward was awake now. This gave away where Seward was. Powell made for the door, but was stopped by Fredrick, Seward's son. Powell pulled out his revolver, aimed it at Fredrick's forehead, and watched as the gun misfired. Instead of trying to fire it again, he proceeded to beat Fredrick over the head with the gun repeatedly until the gun was useless. Powell pushed his way into the room and pulled out his knife. Seeing her brother on the floor, Fanny let out a terrible scream that woke up her other brother Augustus. Sergeant Robinson was with Fanny in the room and for the moment was confused on what was transpiring. In the dim lit room, Powell couldn't quite see where Seward was on the bed and began to throw down huge thrust of his knife. His first and second strike missed Seward. Finally on his third try, he cut open Seward's cheek. Seward was saved by his brace it turns out. If he didn't have it on, the knife would of went through his jugular. Powell proceeded to wrestle Augustus and Robinson for a few minutes until he was able to escape into the city streets.
David Atzerodt was the final assassin, or should I say would be assassin. Atzerodt went drinking to get the courage to kill Johnson, but the more he drank the worse he felt, and finally decided to leave without killing the Vice President.

Booth was eventually caught while in a barn. After troops surrounded the barn, they set it on fire and waited for Booth to come out. One soldier, seeing inside the barn that Booth was raising a gun, feared that he was about to shoot another soldier and tried to shoot him in the arm or hand. Instead he shot him near the same spot that Lincoln was shot. How's that for ironic? Booth died a little while later, his last words being "Useless...useless..." while looking at his hands. Booth, by reading newspapers from various sources found that instead of causing a revolution or an uprising in the south again, had made a martyr of Lincoln and Booth was denounced in newspapers even in the South. Southerners had realized that Lincoln was going to be lenient on them and his way of Reconstruction was going to be the best route for the U.S. Atzerodt and Powell were caught inside the city of Washington D.C. and were hung a short time later. Lincoln stayed alive for under a day eventually died of his wounds at a house across from the theater. Seward was badly wounded, but lived due to his neck brace. He served in the same position under President Johnson and acquired Alaska from Russia. People thought it was dumb at the time and labeled it Seward's Folly.

Lincoln's death rocked the United States like nothing before. Just when things were starting to get better, the president was gone. The odd thing was Lincoln knew his death was coming. He had vivid dreams throughout his presidency that told of victories, and one a couple days before his assassination of his own death. Mary Todd Lincoln was so engulfed with grief that she didn't go to his funeral.

Grade: A+
Lincoln is by far the best president we have ever had in our existence as a country. Was he perfect? No, of course not. But, with the help of his best generals won the Civil War and started the U.S. on the road to Reconstruction before his tragic death. Did he free the slaves? Sort of. He freed some slaves. He didn't live long enough to see the 13th amendment passed, but was a chief constructor of it. Lincoln's perception of the slave issue changed during the war, and some think that the Emancipation Proclamation was not just a political move. Lincoln has given one of the most well known and short and sweet speeches of all time, The Gettysburg Address. If it weren't for a man like Lincoln, we wouldn't of come out of the war like we did. We could of ended up with another Pierce or Buchanan.

-I realize I went a lot into the assassination of Lincoln. I just finished reading "Manhunt" and really enjoyed the book. I would urge any that are interested to pick up the book, or the audio book like I did and learn a little about the assassination and the attempted getaway.