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instrument”.
In his entire life, Abe was only able to go to school for a total of one year. This lack of
education only made him hungry for more knowledge. His mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln,
influenced him in his quest for learning. Although she was completely uneducated and
could not read or write, she encouraged her children to study by themselves. His beloved
mother died when he was nine years old. The family was greatly saddened, and for a while
lived almost in squalor. Two years later, however, Thomas Lincoln remarried. Abe’s
stepmother was also instrumental in encouraging him to read. He even traveled to
neighboring farms and counties to borrow books. He was often found reading next to a pile
of logs that he should have been splitting.
When he was older, Abe noticed that people loved to listen to stories. He began telling
tall tales in the general store where he worked. Customers came and stayed when they knew
he was there, just to hear him talk.
The family moved once again, this time to Illinois. He began working in a store in the
new capital of Springfield. His powers of speech soon helped him enter a new arena, that of
politics and law. In 1834 he was elected into the House of Representatives and began
studying to become a lawyer.
In 1839, he met his future wife Mary Todd. Coincidentally, she had been born in
Kentucky, and her family had recently moved to Illinois. They had a long and unstable
courtship, because Abe was indecisive about marrying. They finally exchanged their vows
in Mary’s home in November 1842.
Abharam Lincoln began a long road to become the sixteenth president of the United
States. He practiced law all across the state for the next few years, traveling far on
horseback to different countries. In 1847 he was elected into Congress, but his opinions did
not ensure him a long stay there. He was vehemently against slavery and took stands on
other controversial issues. He was not elected for a second term, so he returned to his law
practice.
A few years later, slavery became a stronger issue, and more people were willing to
abolish it. Lincoln joined the Republicans, a new political party that was opposed to slavery.
The Republicans nominated him for the U.S.Senate in 1858, and in his acceptance speech,
he stated:
“A house divided against itself cannot stand... This government cannot endure,
permanently half-slave and half-free... I do not expect the Union to be dissolved. I do not
expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be divided”.
Abraham Lincoln’s oratorical powers brought him to the attention of the nation. He
challenged the Democratic nominee to the Senate to a series of debates. Using the simple
language that he used to communicate with people all his life, he defeated Douglas in the
debates but lost to him in the election.
Nominated by the Republican Party in 1860 as its candidate for the Presidency of the
United States, Lincoln won by a small margin. But with his election, the country began the
process of “dividing against itself”. South Carolina had seceded from the Union before he
was even inaugurated. Other states followed to form the Confederate States of America. The
North and South were divided, and the Civil War began. The war was not only over the
abolition of slavery, but also the rights of individual states to make their own choices on
other issues.
The bloody Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania was the largest battle ever fought on
American soil. On November 19, 1863, at a ceremony to establish Gettysburg as a national
monument, Lincoln delivered what was to become one of the finest orations in American
history, the Gettysburg Address. Yet just after he delivered it, there was polite applause, and

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