HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABE!

Two days from now I’ll be celebrating my birthday along with my birthday brother Abraham Lincoln and oh what a night it’ll be!

Abraham Lincoln entered into politics during the 1830’s with his first campaign for the Illinois General Assembly.  Spectators to the elections claimed he was “strong enough to intimidate any rival.” Keeping with this reputation he halted his speech to aid a supporter who was being attacked by a supporter of an opponent.  Lincoln grabbed the assailant by his neck and trousers and like a rag doll threw him out to the amazement of the crowd. But lacking the education and funding needed to run a campaign, he placed eighth out of thirteen candidates.

Lincoln returned to politics during the 1850’s, a time where the division between pro and anti-slavery started threatening the stability of the Union. As a leading figure in the new Republican Party, Lincoln was viewed as politically moderate, even on the issues of slavery. Lincoln encouraged the restriction of slavery to the states in which it already existed and disapproved the practice spreading to newly formed states. During the 1858 senatorial race, as southern secession sentiment was brewing, Lincoln warned, a house divided against itself cannot stand. He lost the senatorial race but won national recognition as a strong political force.

As a presidential candidate in the election of 1860, Lincoln attempted to ease tension and reassure slaveholding interest that although he favored abolition, he had no intention in ending the practice in slave states and prioritized keeping the union together with new states.  His victory was only short lived as he was handed a ticking time bomb. His compromises with the slave holding south failed to stop South Carolina from separating from the Union thus prompting Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas to follow with the ordinance of secession. Soon after the Civil war began.

As the Union fell into the abyss of civil war, Lincoln shifted closer to siding with the abolitionist movement. He has stated “ If I could save the union without freeing any slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union” two years later he would sign the Emancipation Proclamation.  The document freed slaves in all the Confederate States, but did not make abolition illegal.

April 14 1865, at approximately 1865, Abraham Lincoln, while attending a play in Ford’s Theater, would be assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.  The Nation was casted in sorrow. For three weeks his funeral train brought his body throughout the Union.  His memorial was proclaimed to be “The greatest funeral in the history of the United States.” Abraham Lincoln is remembered as the Great Emancipator and the president who preserved the Union.  So a salute to you sir and a very happy birthday.

To learn more about President Lincoln’s contributions to the United States, check out Black History For Beginners and our upcoming US Constitution For Beginners.