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Abraham Lincoln Essay

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Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in a log cabin in Hardin Kentucky. His father Thomas Lincoln was a carpenter and farmer who was always very poor. Both of his parents were members of a Baptist congregation which had split from another church because of its views against slavery. This is where Abe first developed his own opposition to slavery. When Abe was nine the family moved to Spencer, Indiana, and his mother Nancy died from milk sickness. Milk sickness was a disease acquired by drinking the milk of cows which had grazed on poisonous white snakeroot. Soon after, Thomas married Sarah Bush Johnston who treated Abe like her own son. Abe had no formal schooling as a child so he ended up teaching …show more content…

In 1847 he ran for the House of Representatives and won. While in Congress he became known for his opposition to the Mexican War and slavery. He worked hard for the 1848 Whig candidate Zachary Taylor. Lincoln hoped that this hard work would help him get the position of Commissioner of the General Land Office, but it never happened. So Lincoln decided to drop politics and return to practicing law. In 1854, Lincoln got caught back up in politics in the debates of slavery. He opposed the views of Stephan A. Douglas, and in particular, the Kansas-Nebraska act. In a speech in Springfield, he attacked the compromises about slavery and the democratic views contained in the Declaration of Independence. He tried and failed to become a Senator in 1855, but he received some support for the Republican Vice-Presidential nomination in 1856. He soon found himself moving away from the Whig party, and moving towards the newly formed Republican Party. In 1856, he finally became a Republican. He quickly came to the front of this party as an opponent of slavery who could win both the abolitionists and the conservative free-staters. In 1856 at the Republican national convention, he became a possible vice president candidate. He opposed the Dred Scott in 1857 and gave his famous "House Divided" Speech in 1858. Also in 1858 he was nominated by the Republican Party to run against Douglas in the Illinois senatorial

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