Lincoln, Abraham
sixteenth president of the United States, was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin (now Larne) county, Ky. In 1816 his father and family removed to what is now Spencer county, Ind. Here he attended school about one year, which was all the schooling he ever had. In 1830 the family removed to Macon county, Ill.
When the Black Hawk war broke out, in 1832, Abraham Lincoln joined a volunteer company, and was at once chosen captain. At the close of the war they were disbanded at Whitewater, Wis., and he made his way home on foot and on a raft down the Illinois river. In the fall of 1832 he became a candidate for the state legislature, and was beaten. He was postmaster at New Salem from 1833 to 1836. In 1834 he was elected to the legislature as a whig, and re-elected in 1836-38-40. He was one of the five whig presidential electors for Illinois in 1840. He was admitted to the bar in 1836, and commenced the practice of law at Springfield in 1837.
Up to this time he had never seen the inside of a college or academy. He married Miss Mary Todd, Nov. 4, 1842. He was elected a representative to congress in 1846, and declined to be a candidate for re-election in 1848. May 16, 1860, the republican national convention met at Chicago to nominate candidates for president and vice-president of the United States.
May 18 the balloting commenced. On the first ballot William Henry Seward ceived 173 votes; Abraham Lincoln, 102; Simon Cameron, 50; Salmon Portland Chase, 49; Edward Bates, 48; William L. re- Dayton, 14; John McLean, 12; scattering, 16. On the second ballot Seward received 184 votes; Lincoln, 181; Chase, 42; Bates, 35; Dayton, 10; McLean, 8; scattering, 4. The third ballot was as follows: Lincoln, 231; Seward, 180; Chase, 24; Bates, 22; scattering, 7. Before the result was announced four Ohio delegates changed their votes, giving him a majority. It was then made unanimous. Hannibal Hamlin was nominated for vicepresident. Being duly elected, they were inaugurated March 4, 1861. Prior to this time several of the southern states had passed ordinances of secession. The various calls made by Lincoln for troops to suppress the rebellion were: The call of April, 1861, for 75,000; the call of May, 1861, for 82,748; the call of July, 1861, for 500,000; the call of July, 1862, for 300,000; the call of August, 1862, for 300,000; the call of June, 1863, for 100,000; the call of October, 1863, for 300,000; the call of February, 1864, for 200,000; the call of March, 1864, for 200,000; the call of April, 1864, for 85,000; the call of July, 1864, for 500,- 000; the call of December, 1864, for 300,- 000. The total number of troops called for was 2,942,748. The total number obtained was 2,690,401. In 1864-65 the expenditures of the government amounted to over $3,500,000 per day. The national debt at the close of the war was over $2,- 749,000,000.
The best speech that ever fell from human lips was delivered by Abraham Lincoln on the battlefield of Gettysburg, Nov. 19, 1863. We give it in full, as follows: "Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met. on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave up their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." the June 8, 1864, the national republican convention met at Baltimore, and renominated President Lincoln, with Andrew Johnson for vice-president. They were inaugurated March 4, 1865. He was assassinated in Ford's theater, at Washington, by John Wilkes Booth, on fourteenth of April, and died on the fifteenth. The whole nation, like one great family, mourned his loss. Lincoln held office fourteen years. He left about $75,- 000. His complete works are contained in two volumes, edited by Nicolay and Hay.