Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

Abraham Lincoln served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led the country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union, ending slavery, and rededicating the nation to nationalism, equal rights, liberty, and democracy. Reared in a poor family on the western frontier, he was mostly self-educated and became a country lawyer, an Illinois state legislator, and a one-term member of the United States House of Representatives, but failed in two attempts at a seat in the United States Senate. He was an affectionate, though often absent, husband, and father of four children.

As an outspoken opponent of the expansion of slavery in the United States, Lincoln won the first Republican nomination and was elected president in 1860. His Gettysburg Address of 1863, although short, became one of the most quoted speeches in history. It became an iconic statement of America's dedication to the principles of nationalism, equal rights, liberty, and democracy. He issued his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, and promoted the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, abolishing slavery.

At the close of the war, Lincoln held a moderate view of Reconstruction, seeking to speedily reunite the nation through a policy of generous reconciliation. Six days after the surrender of the main Confederate forces, Lincoln was assassinated, the first President to suffer such a fate. Lincoln has consistently been ranked by scholars as one of the greatest U.S. Presidents.

If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?

He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I ever met.

If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.

When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it is best to let him run.

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.

Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.

I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of power, I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside me.