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Authors Politician Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

President of the United States · 1809–1865

Sixteenth US president who preserved the Union and advanced the abolition of slavery.

Lifetime
Feb 12, 1809 – Apr 15, 1865 (age 56)
Primary field
Politician
Tags
President of the United StatesAmerican Civil WarEmancipation ProclamationGettysburg AddressRepublican Party

Abraham Lincoln was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his death in 1865. Born in Kentucky and largely self-educated, he worked in Illinois before entering politics. He served in the state legislature and the US House of Representatives, gaining national prominence through debates with Stephen A. Douglas over the expansion of slavery.

Lincoln became president as the United States divided over slavery and secession. He led the Union during the American Civil War and issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared enslaved people in Confederate-held territory to be free. His Gettysburg Address presented the war as a struggle for national unity and equality. Lincoln supported the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery throughout the country. He was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth shortly after the Confederate surrender and died on 15 April 1865.

Quotations

“When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true maxim, that a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.”

Abraham Lincoln · Temperance Address, 1842 · Primary source

“With malice toward none; with charity for all.”

Abraham Lincoln · Second Inaugural Address, 1865 · Primary source

“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 government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Abraham Lincoln · The Gettysburg Address, 1863 · Primary source

“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.”

Abraham Lincoln · The Gettysburg Address, 1863 · Primary source

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

Abraham Lincoln · House Divided Speech, 1858 · Primary source

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

Abraham Lincoln · The Gettysburg Address, 1863 · Primary source

“I therefore consider that in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken; and to the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States.”

Abraham Lincoln · First Inaugural Address, 1861 · Primary source

“The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776.”

Abraham Lincoln · First Inaugural Address, 1861 · Primary source

“I hold, that in contemplation of universal law, and of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments.”

Abraham Lincoln · First Inaugural Address, 1861 · Primary source

“And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.”

Abraham Lincoln · Emancipation Proclamation, 1863 · Primary source

“I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Abraham Lincoln · First Inaugural Address, 1861 · Primary source

“Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him, who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty.”

Abraham Lincoln · First Inaugural Address, 1861 · Primary source

“One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to be extended.”

Abraham Lincoln · First Inaugural Address, 1861 · Primary source

“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”

Abraham Lincoln · The Gettysburg Address, 1863 · Primary source

“And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God.”

Abraham Lincoln · Emancipation Proclamation, 1863 · Primary source

“Plainly, the central idea of secession, is the essence of anarchy.”

Abraham Lincoln · First Inaugural Address, 1861 · Primary source

“Of our political revolution of ’76, we all are justly proud. It has given us a degree of political freedom, far exceeding that of any other nation of the earth. In it the world has found a solution of the long mooted problem, as to the capability of man to govern himself. In it was the germ which has vegetated, and still is to grow and expand into the universal liberty of mankind.”

Abraham Lincoln · Temperance Address, 1842 · Primary source

Selected works

Speech · 1842
Temperance Address

An appeal for temperance reform through sympathy, personal example and persuasion rather than condemnation of people affected by alcohol.

Speech · 1858
House Divided Speech

Lincoln’s argument that the United States could not remain permanently divided over slavery and would eventually become wholly free or wholly slave.

Inaugural address · 1861
First Inaugural Address

Lincoln’s argument that secession is unlawful, the Union must be preserved, and civil conflict should be avoided through restraint and reconciliation.

Presidential proclamation · 1863
Emancipation Proclamation

Lincoln’s declaration that enslaved people in Confederate areas still in rebellion were free, justified as a wartime measure.

Dedication speech · 1863 FEATURED WORK
The Gettysburg Address

Lincoln’s tribute to the dead at Gettysburg and his call to preserve democratic government through a renewed commitment to freedom.

Inaugural address · 1865
Second Inaugural Address

Lincoln’s reflection on slavery as the war’s cause and his appeal for humility, reconciliation and a just peace.

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