Happy Birthday Abe!

Taken in 1998 at the Ford's Theater.

Two hundred and two years ago, Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin in Kentucky. He was elected the 16th President of the United States.

How did he become the President of the U.S.? It all started when he was a poor boy and witness the injustice of slavery--things he experienced living on the Sangamon River. He started as a postmaster and county surveyor before being elected as a state legislator for Illinois. Lincoln was then elected in 1846 to the U.S. Congress.

After a brief hiatus, Lincoln began his campaign to unseat Illinois U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas in 1858. The infamous Lincoln-Douglas debates took place where Lincoln argued the need to end slavery, while Douglas, a states-rights advocate, defended his Freeport Doctrine of popular sovereignty--allowing territories to decide whether or not to have slavery. Abraham Lincoln did not win that election; however, two years later, Lincoln won the presidency beating Douglas.

Soon after the election, the southern states seceeded and the Civil War began. During the war, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves. He was also re-elected in 1864.

A few months later, General Ulysses S. Grant defeated Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, Virginia, which eventually ended the war.

On April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at the Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC.

The picture that you see was taken 12 years ago when I visited the Ford's Theater. 

Source: Wikipedia
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