Abraham LincolnRise to Election

Early Life“It is great folly to attempt to make anything

out of my early life. It can all be condensed into a simple sentence…’the short and simple annals of the poor.’ That’s my life, and that’s all you can make of it.”

- Abe Lincoln

Nancy Hanks Lincoln- mother

Sarah Bush Lincoln- stepmother

Early LifeBorn in Kentucky

Moved with his family to Indiana and then Illinois

Went to school for about one year

Learned to read and write

Loved to read

Educated himself

Unlucky in love

Abraham Lincoln bids farewell to Ann Rutledge

Mary Owens

Mary Todd

MarriageAbe and Mary were married in 1842 after a

long courtship

Early career1832 enlisted in the Illinois state militia to help

fight the Black Hawk War.

Trained and drilled as a Captain

Never saw any action

In 1834 at age 25 was elected to the Illinois state legislature.

While in the legislature Lincoln studied to become a lawyer.

Family Grows

Family Shrinks

Illinois Politics

In 1846 Lincoln served as a member of the House of Representatives as a member of the Whig Party

Republican PartyKansas-Nebraska Act benefitted the South

It split Northerners

Northerners who hated it formed the Republican Party

The Republican Party was based on one main goal: Keeping slavery out of new territories.

The Spirit of seventy-six and the spirit of Nebraska, are utter antagonisms…little by little … we have been giving up the old for the new faith. Near eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men are created equal; but now from that beginning we have run down to the other declaration, that for some men to enslave others is a “sacred right of self-government.” These principles cannot stand together…Our republican robe is soiled, and trailed in the dust. Let us repurify it… let us re-adopt it…let us re-adopt the Declaration of Independence, and with it, the practices, and policy, which harmonize with it… If we do this, we shall not only save the Union; but we shall have so saved it, as to make, and to keep it, forever worthy of saving.

Abraham Lincoln October 16, 1854, Peoria, Illinois

Quoted in Battle Cry of Freedom page 129

Lincoln-Douglas Debate

•1858: Abe Lincoln ran for one of Illinois’ Senate seats•He ran against Stephen Douglas

Lincoln-Douglas Debate

Stephen Douglas was a Democrat who wanted to compromise with the South

Lincoln-Douglas Debate

Lincoln opposed the expansion of slavery in any way.

Douglas favored letting people decide using Popular Sovereignty

Lincoln-Douglas DebateResults……. Douglas won the election and

became Illinois’ Senator

Douglas’ arguments made him unpopular in the South.

Lincoln was already unpopular in the South

Lincoln is thrust in the national spotlight

Presidential Election of 1860Democrats were divided

Southern Democrats wanted to protect slavery in the new territories

Northern Democrats (including Douglas) wanted to stick to Popular Sovereignty

Presidential Election of 1860Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln

Constitutional Union party nominated John Bell

Northern Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas

Southern Democrats nominated John Breckinridge

Southern Reaction to Lincoln’s ElectionSoutherners feared Northern aggression

Feared Northern majority in congress (18 free states to 15 slave states)

Feared that Abraham Lincoln would free all the slaves.

Southern states secede from the union

Secessionthe action of withdrawing formally from

membership of a federation or body, esp. a political state

Secession South Carolina seceded first (even before

Lincoln took office)

Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas follow.

Secession

Fort Sumter

Fort SumterOnce South Carolina secedes from the Union,

Fort Sumter is now a United States fort in the Confederate States of America (enemy territory)

Confederate leaders tell the US Army to surrender Fort Sumter

US Army refuses

Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter—April 12, 1861