Telana lynum biography of abraham lincoln

In March , the family again migrated, this time to Macon County, Illinois. When his father moved the family again to Coles County, year-old Lincoln struck out on his own, making a living in manual labor. Lincoln was 6 feet 4 inches tall, rawboned and lanky yet muscular and physically strong. He spoke with a backwoods twang and walked with a long-striding gait.

Telana lynum biography of abraham lincoln

He was known for his skill in wielding an ax and early on made a living splitting wood for fire and rail fencing. Young Lincoln eventually migrated to the small community of New Salem, Illinois, where over a period of years he worked as a shopkeeper, postmaster, and eventually general store owner. It was through working with the public that Lincoln acquired social skills and honed a storytelling talent that made him popular with the locals.

Not surprising given his imposing frame, Lincoln was an excellent wrestler and had only one recorded loss—to Hank Thompson in —over a span of 12 years. A shopkeeper who employed Lincoln in New Salem, Illinois, reportedly arranged bouts for him as a way to promote the business. Lincoln notably beat a local champion named Jack Armstrong and became somewhat of a hero.

When the Black Hawk War broke out in between the United States and Native Americans, the volunteers in the area elected Lincoln to be their captain. As he was starting his political career in the early s, Lincoln decided to become a lawyer. After being admitted to the bar in , he moved to Springfield, Illinois, and began to practice in the John T.

Stuart law firm. In , Lincoln partnered with William Herndon in the practice of law. Although the two had different jurisprudent styles, they developed a close professional and personal relationship. So to supplement his income, he followed the court as it made its rounds on the circuit to the various county seats in Illinois. On November 4, , Lincoln wed Mary Todd , a high-spirited, well-educated woman from a distinguished Kentucky family.

Mary and Lincoln met later at a social function and eventually did get married. Before marrying Todd, Lincoln was involved with other potential matches. Around , he purportedly met and became romantically involved with Anne Rutledge. Before they had a chance to be engaged, a wave of typhoid fever came over New Salem, and Anne died at age Her death was said to have left Lincoln severely depressed.

About a year after the death of Rutledge, Lincoln courted Mary Owens. The two saw each other for a few months, and marriage was considered. But in time, Lincoln called off the match. In , Lincoln began his political career and was elected to the Illinois state legislature as a member of the Whig Party. More than a decade later, from to , he served a single term in the U.

House of Representatives. His foray into national politics seemed to be as unremarkable as it was brief. He was the lone Whig from Illinois, showing party loyalty but finding few political allies. As a congressman, Lincoln used his term in office to speak out against the Mexican-American War and supported Zachary Taylor for president in Abraham Lincoln was born on 12 February near Hodgenville, Kentucky.

He was brought up in Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. His parents were poor pioneers and Lincoln was largely self-educated. In , he qualified as a lawyer and went to work in a law practice in Springfield, Illinois. He sat in the state legislature from to and in was elected to Congress, representing the Whig Party for a term. In , he joined the new Republican Party and in he was asked to run as their presidential candidate.

In the presidential campaign, Lincoln made his opposition to slavery very clear. His victory provoked a crisis, with many southerners fearing that he would attempt to abolish slavery in the South. Lincoln abhorred slavery and from a political perspective wished to prevent slavery being extended and ultimately be phased out. He gave influential speeches, which drew on the Declaration of Independence to prove the Founding Fathers had intended to stop the spread of slavery.

In particular, Lincoln used a novel argument that although society was a long way from equality, America should aspire towards the lofty statement in the Declaration of Independence. Lincoln had a strong capacity for empathy. He used this concept of empathy to speak against slavery. When I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.

In , Lincoln was nominated as Republican candidate for the Senate. He undertook a series of high-profile debates with the Democratic incumbent Stephen Douglass. Douglass was in favour of allowing the extension of slavery — if citizens voted for it. Lincoln opposed the extension of slavery. During this campaign, he gave one of his best-remembered speeches, which reflected on the divisive nature of America.

I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. In this House Divided speech, Lincoln gave a prophetic utterance to the potential for slavery to divide the nation.

Although he lost this Senate election, his debating skills and oratory caused him to become well known within the Republican party. On February 27, Lincoln was also invited to give a notable address at Cooper Union in New York. The following year, he moved to the newly named state capital of Springfield. For the next few years, he worked there as a lawyer and served clients ranging from individual residents of small towns to national railroad lines.

Lincoln won election to the U. House of Representatives in and began serving his term the following year. As a congressman, Lincoln was unpopular with many Illinois voters for his strong stance against the Mexican-American War. Promising not to seek reelection, he returned to Springfield in Events conspired to push him back into national politics, however: Douglas, a leading Democrat in Congress, had pushed through the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act , which declared that the voters of each territory, rather than the federal government, had the right to decide whether the territory should be slave or free.

On October 16, , Lincoln went before a large crowd in Peoria to debate the merits of the Kansas-Nebraska Act with Douglas, denouncing slavery and its extension and calling the institution a violation of the most basic tenets of the Declaration of Independence. Rugged conditions. Heavy labor. Minimal schooling. And a mother gone too soon.

The 16th U.