PRESIDENTS DAY
Born: February 12, 1809, at Hodgenville, Hardin County, Kentucky.
Education: Self taught; studied law on his own.
Occupation: Lawyer, public official. As a young man was a farmer, store clerk, and a pilot for river flatboats.
Religion: No formal affiliation.
Family life: Married Mary Todd in 1842; they had four sons. Mary was hot tempered and highly emotional. She passed away in 1882 at her sister's home in Springfield, the same house from which she had walked as the bride of Abraham Lincoln, 40 years before.
Political career: Elected to Illinois state legislature as a Whig, 1834, while still studying law; know as an excellent debater he was named floor leader. United States representative from Illinois, 1847-49. In 1858 Lincoln ran against Stephen A. Douglas for Senator. He lost the election, but in debating with Douglas he gained a national reputation that won him the Republican nomination for President in 1860; reelected 1864 because of Union successes in Civil War, but assassinated early in 1865.
Highlights of his presidency: Opposed secession, prosecuted war to save Union. Issued Emancipation Proclamation. Was assassinated five days after Lee surrendered.
Appearance: Very tall, 6 feet 4 inches, rawboned, with black hair and beard.
Died: On Good Friday, April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre in Washington by John Wilkes Booth, an actor, who somehow thought he was helping the South. The opposite was the result, for with Lincoln's death, the possibility of peace with magnanimity died. Abraham Lincoln died April 15 at twenty-two minutes after seven o'clock.
Buried: Lincoln's Tomb State Monument in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois. Along with Mary and three of their four sons, Eddie, Willie and Tad.
