Aminu maigari biography of abraham lincoln

We see Lincoln as a boy: not the dutiful son studying by firelight, but the stubborn rebel determined to make something of himself. We see him as a young man: not the ascendant statesman, but the canny local politician who was renowned for his talents in wrestling and storytelling as well as for his extensive store of off-color jokes. Written by a native of England and originally published inthe biography is a rare blend of beautiful prose and profound historical insight.

Lincoln forged a hard path toward mental health from the time he was a young man. Shenk draws from historical records, interviews with Lincoln scholars, and contemporary research on depression to understand the nature of his unhappiness. This favorite among books on Abraham Lincoln explores his most influential and widely reported pre-presidential address — an extraordinary appeal by the western politician to the eastern elite that propelled him toward the Republican nomination for president.

Douglas on the question of slavery. Though Abraham Lincoln had hundreds of acquaintances and dozens of admirers, he had almost no intimate friends. Behind his mask of affability and endless stream of humorous anecdotes, he maintained an inviolate reserve that only a few were ever able to penetrate. Although the private lives of political couples have in our era become front-page news, the true story of this extraordinary and tragic first family has never been fully told.

The Lincolns eclipses earlier accounts with riveting new information that makes husband and wife, president and first lady, come alive in all their proud accomplishments and earthy humanity. He developed a plain, backwoods style of speaking, which he practiced during his youth by telling stories and sermons to his family, schoolmates and members of the local community.

By the time he was twenty-one, Lincoln had become "an able and eloquent orator"; [ ] however, some historians have argued his speaking style, figures of speech, and vocabulary remained unrefined, even as he entered national politics. Inwhen Lincoln was twenty-one years of age, thirteen members of the extended Lincoln family moved to Illinois. Johnston, went as one family.

Dennis Hanks and his wife Elizabeth, who was also Abraham's stepsister, and their four children joined the party. Hanks's half-brother, Squire Hall, along with his wife, Matilda Johnston, another of Lincoln's stepsisters, and their son formed the third family group. Historians disagree on who initiated the move, but it may have been Dennis Hanks rather than Thomas Lincoln.

He owned land and was a respected member of his community, but Hanks had not fared as well. Dennis later remarked that Sally refused to part with her daughter, Elizabeth, so Sally may have persuaded Thomas to move to Illinois. It is generally agreed they crossed the Wabash River at Vincennes, Indiana, into Illinois, and the family settled on a site selected in Macon County, Illinois[ ] 10 miles 16 km west of Decatur.

Lincoln, who was twenty-one years old at the time, helped his father build a log cabin and fences, clear 10 acres 40, m 2 of land and put in a crop of corn. That autumn the entire family fell ill with a feverbut all survived. The early winter of was especially brutal, with many locals calling it the worst they had ever experienced. In Illinois it was known as the "Winter of Deep Snow".

In the spring, as the Lincoln family prepared to move to a homestead in Coles County, IllinoisLincoln was ready to strike out on his own. Although Sally Lincoln and his cousin, Dennis Hanks, maintained that Thomas loved and supported his son, the father-son relationship became strained after the family moved to Illinois. Historian Rodney O.

Davis has argued that the reason for the strain in their relationship was due to Lincoln's success as a lawyer and his marriage to Mary Todd Lincoln, who came from a wealthy, aristocratic family, and the two men no longer related to each other's circumstances in life. Departing from Springfield in late April or early May along the Sangamon Rivertheir aminu maigari biography of abraham lincoln had difficulty getting past a mill dam 20 miles 32 km northwest of Springfield, near the village of New Salem.

Offutt, who was impressed by New Salem's location and believed that steamboats could navigate the river to the village, made arrangements to rent the mill and open a general store. Offutt hired Lincoln as his clerk and the two men returned to New Salem after they discharged their cargo in New Orleans. When Lincoln returned to New Salem in late Julyhe found a promising community, but it probably never had a population that exceeded a hundred residents.

New Salem was a small commercial settlement that served several local communities. The village had a sawmill, grist mill, blacksmith shop, cooper's shop, wool carding shop, a hat maker, general store, and a tavern spread out over more than a dozen buildings. Offutt did not open his store until September, so Lincoln found temporary work in the interim and was quickly accepted by the townspeople as a hardworking and cooperative young man.

Lincoln's humor, storytelling abilities, and physical strength fit the young, raucous element that included the so-called Clary's Grove boys, and his place among them was cemented after a wrestling match with a local champion, Jack Armstrong. Although Lincoln lost the fight with Armstrong, he earned the respect of the locals. His performance in the club, along with his efficiency in managing the store, sawmill, and gristmill, in addition to his other efforts at self-improvement soon gained the attention of the town's leaders, such as Dr.

In March Lincoln announced his aminu maigari biography of abraham lincoln in a written article that appeared in the Sangamo Journalwhich was published in Springfield. While Lincoln admired Henry Clay and his American Systemthe national political climate was undergoing a change and local Illinois issues were the primary political concerns of the election.

Lincoln opposed the development of a local railroad project, but supported improvements in the Sangamon River that would increase its navigability. Although the two-party political system that pitted Democrats against Whigs had not yet formed, Lincoln would become one of the leading Whigs in the state legislature within the next few years.

By the spring ofOffutt's business had failed and Lincoln was out of work. Around this time, the Black Hawk War erupted and Lincoln joined a group of volunteers from New Salem to repel Black Hawkwho was aminu maigari biography of abraham lincoln a group of warriors along with 1, women and children to reclaim traditional tribal lands in Illinois.

Lincoln was elected as captain of his unit, but he and his men never saw combat. Lincoln later commented in the late s that the selection by his peers was "a success which gave me more pleasure than any I have had since. When the votes were tallied, Lincoln finished eighth out of thirteen candidates. Only the top four candidates were elected, but Lincoln managed to secure out of the votes cast in the New Salem precinct.

Without a job, Lincoln and William F. The two men signed personal notes to purchase the business and a later acquisition of another store's inventory, but their enterprise failed. By New Salem was no longer a growing community; the Sangamon River proved to be inadequate for commercial transportation and no roads or railroads allowed easy access to other markets.

In January, Berry applied for a liquor license, but the added revenue was not enough to save the business. However, in Maywith the assistance of friends interested in keeping him in New Salem, Lincoln secured an appointment from President Andrew Jackson as the postmaster of New Salem, a position he kept for three years. Another friend helped Lincoln obtain an appointment as an assistant to county surveyor John Calhoun, a Democratic political appointee.

Lincoln had no experience at surveying, but he relied on borrowed copies of two works and was able to teach himself the practical application of surveying techniques as well as the trigonometric basis of the process. His income proved sufficient to meet his day-to-day expenses, but the notes from his partnership with Berry were coming due. In Lincoln's decision to run for the state legislature for a second time was strongly influenced by his need to satisfy his debts, what he jokingly referred to as his "national debt", and the additional income that would come from a legislative salary.

By this time Lincoln was a member of the Whig party. His campaign strategy excluded a discussion of the national issues and concentrated on traveling throughout the district and greeting voters. Local Democrats, who feared Stuart more than Lincoln, offered to withdraw two of their candidates from the field of thirteen, where only the top four vote-getters would be elected, to support Lincoln.

Stuart, who was confident of his own victory, told Lincoln to go ahead and accept the Democrats' endorsement. On August 4 Lincoln polled 1, votes, the second highest number of votes in the race, and won one of the four seats in the election, as did Stuart. Stuart, a cousin of Lincoln's future wife, Mary Todd, was impressed with Lincoln and encouraged him to study law.

While the family was still in Kentucky, his father was frequently involved with filing land deeds, serving on juries, and attending sheriff's sales, and later, Lincoln may have been aware of his father's legal issues. When the family moved to Indiana, Lincoln lived within 15 miles 24 km of three county courthouses. Attracted by the opportunity of hearing a good oral presentation, Lincoln, as did many others on the frontier, attended court sessions as a spectator.

The practice continued when he moved to New Salem. New Salem residents recalled Lincoln reading law books in or Lincoln biographer Douglas L. Wilson considers this reading to have been "exploratory". Lincoln wrote that he began studying law "in earnest" after the election of Using books borrowed from the law firm of Stuart and Judge Thomas DrummondLincoln began to study law in earnest during the first half of Although he was never a formal apprentice, Lincoln may have been mentored by Stuart in his law studies.

New Salem resident William Greene stated that Stuart gave Lincoln "many explanations and elucidations" of law. After passing an oral examination by a panel of practicing attorneys, Lincoln received his law license on September 9, In April he was enrolled to practice before the Supreme Court of Illinois, and moved to Springfield, where he went into partnership with Stuart.

Lincoln's first session in the Illinois legislature ran from December 1,to February 13, As the second youngest legislator in this term, and one of thirty-six first-time attendees, Lincoln was primarily an observer, but his colleagues soon recognized his mastery of "the technical language of the law" and asked him to draft bills for them.

When Lincoln announced his bid for reelection in Junehe addressed the controversial issue of expanded suffrage. Democrats advocated universal suffrage for white males residing in the state for at least six months. They hoped to bring Irish immigrants, who were attracted to the state because of its canal projects, onto the voting rolls as Democrats.

Lincoln supported the traditional Whig position that voting should be limited to property owners. This delegation of two senators and seven representatives was nicknamed the "Long Nine" because all of them were above average height. Despite being the second youngest of the group, Lincoln was viewed as the group's leader and the floor leader of the Whig minority.

The Long Nine's primary agenda was the relocation of the state capital from Vandalia to Springfield and a vigorous program of internal improvements for the state. By the — legislative session, Lincoln served on at least fourteen committees and worked behind the scenes to manage the program of the Whig minority. Lincoln had published an inflammatory letter in the Sangamon Journala Springfield newspaper, that poked fun at Shields.

Lincoln's future wife, Mary Todd, and her close friend, continued writing letters about Shields without Lincoln's knowledge. Shields took offense to the articles and demanded "satisfaction". The incident escalated to the two parties meeting on Missouri 's Sunflower Island, near Alton, Illinoisto participate in a duel, which was illegal in Illinois.

Lincoln took responsibility for the articles and accepted. Lincoln chose cavalry broadswords as the duel's weapons because Shields was known as an excellent marksman. Just prior to engaging in combat, Lincoln demonstrated his physical advantage his long arm reach by easily cutting a branch above Shields's head. Their seconds intervened and convinced the men to cease hostilities on the grounds that Lincoln had not written the letters.

The Illinois governor called for a special legislative session during the winter of — in order to finance what became known as the Illinois and Michigan Canalwhich connected the Illinois and Chicago rivers and linked Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River. Lincoln voted in favor of the commitment, which passed 28— Lincoln had always supported Henry Clay's vision of the American System, which saw a prosperous America supported by a well-developed network of roads, canals, and, later, railroads.

Lincoln favored raising the funds for these projects through the federal government's sale of public lands to eliminate interest expenses; otherwise, private capital should bear the cost alone. Fearing that Illinois would fall behind other states in economic development, Lincoln shifted his position to allow the state to provide the necessary support for private developers.

In the next session a newly elected legislator, Stephen A. However, the Panic of effectively destroyed the possibility of more internal improvements in Illinois. The state became "littered with unfinished roads and partially dug canals"; the value of state bonds fell; and interest on the state's debts was eight times its total revenue. The state government took forty years to pay off this debt.

Lincoln had a couple of ideas to salvage the internal improvements program. First, he proposed that the state buy public lands at a discount from the federal government and then sell them to new settlers at a profit, but the federal government rejected the idea. Next, he proposed a graduated land tax that would have passed more of the tax burden to the owners of the most valuable land, but the majority of the legislators were unwilling to commit any further state funds to internal improvement projects.

The state's financial depression continued through In the s Illinois welcomed more immigrants, many from New York and New England, who tended to move into the northern and central parts of the state. Vandalia, which was located in the more stagnant southern section, seemed unsuitable as the state's seat of government. On the other hand, Springfield, in Sangamon County, was "strategically located in central Illinois" and was already growing "in population and refinement".

Those who opposed the relocation of the state government to Springfield first attempted to weaken the Sangamon County delegation's influence by dividing the county into two new counties, but Lincoln was instrumental in first amending and then killing this proposal in his own committee. Throughout the lengthy debate "Lincoln's political skills were repeatedly tested".

The final action was tabled twice, but Lincoln resurrected it by finding acceptable amendments to draw additional support, including one that would have allowed reconsideration in the next session. As other locations were voted down, Springfield was selected by a 46 to 37 vote margin on February 28, Under Lincoln's leadership reconsideration efforts were defeated in the — sessions.

Lincoln, like Henry Clay, favored federal control over the nation's banking system, but President Jackson had effectively killed the Bank of the United States by That same year Lincoln crossed party lines to vote with pro-bank Democrats in chartering the Illinois State Bank. As he did in the internal improvements debates, Lincoln searched for the best available alternative.

A well-regulated bank would provide a sound, elastic currency, protecting the public against the extreme prescriptions of the hard-money men on one side and the paper inflationists on the other; it would be a safe depository for public funds and provide the credit mechanisms needed to sustain state improvements; it would bring an end to extortionate money-lending.

Opponents of the state bank initiated an investigation designed to close the bank in the — legislative session. On January 11,Lincoln made his first major legislative speech supporting the bank and attacking its opponents. He condemned "that lawless and mobocratic spirit I make the assertion boldly, and without fear of contradiction, that no man, who does not hold an office, or does not aspire to one, has ever found any fault of the Bank.

It has doubled the prices of the products of their farms, and filled their pockets with a sound circulating medium, and they are all well pleased with its operations. Westerners in the Jacksonian Era were generally skeptical of all banks, and this was aggravated after the Panic ofwhen the Illinois Bank suspended specie payments. Lincoln still defended the bank, but it was too strongly linked to a failing credit system that lead to devalued currency and loan foreclosures to generate much political support.

In Democrats led another investigation of the state bank, with Lincoln as a Whig representative on the investigating committee. Lincoln was instrumental in the committee's conclusion that the suspension of specie payment was related to uncontrollable economic conditions rather than "any organic defects of the institutions themselves.

Aminu maigari biography of abraham lincoln

In an attempt to avoid a quorum on adjournment, Lincoln and several others jumped out of a first story window, but the Speaker counted them as present and "the bank was killed. He concluded, "If there was to be this continual warfare against the Institutions of the State In the s the slaveholding states began to take notice of the growth of antislavery rhetoric in the North.

In particular, they were "outraged by the American Antislavery Society's pamphlets depicting slaveowners as cruel brutes". In Januarythe Illinois legislature passed a resolution declaring that they "highly disapprove of the formation of abolition societies", that "the right of property in slaves is sacred to the slave-holding States by the Federal Government, and that they cannot be deprived of that right without their consent", and that "the General Government cannot abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, against the will of the citizens of said District.

Because relocation of the state capital was still the number one issue on the two men's agendas, they made no comment on their votes until the relocation was approved. On March 3, with his other legislative priorities behind him, Lincoln filed a formal written protest with the legislature that stated "the institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy.

Infrom the start of the law partnership with Stuart, Lincoln handled most of the firms clients, while Stuart was primarily concerned with politics and election to the United States House of Representatives. The law practice had as many clients as it could handle. Most fees were five dollars, with the common fee ranging between two and a half dollars and ten dollars.

Lincoln quickly realized that he was equal in ability and effectiveness to most other attorneys, whether they were self-taught like Lincoln or had studied with a more experienced lawyer. Following Stuart's elected to Congress in NovemberLincoln ran the practice on his own. Lincoln, like Stuart, considered his legal career as simply a catalyst for his political ambitions.

However, when Stuart was reelected to Congress, Lincoln was no longer content to carry the entire load. In April he entered into a new partnership with Stephen T. Logan was nine years older than Lincoln, the leading attorney in Sangamon County, and a former attorney in Kentucky before he moved to Illinois. Inhe joined the new Republican Party and in he was asked to run as their presidential aminu maigari biography of abraham lincoln.

In the presidential campaign, Lincoln made his opposition to slavery very clear. His victory provoked a crisis, with many southerners fearing that he would attempt to abolish slavery in the South. Seven southern states left the Union to form the Confederate States of America, also known as the Confederacy. Four more joined later.

Lincoln vowed to preserve the Union even if it meant war. Fighting broke out in April Lincoln always defined the Civil War as a struggle to save the Union, but in January he nonetheless issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in areas still under Confederate control. Senator Stephen Douglas for his seat. Senate campaign against Douglas, he participated in seven debates held in different cities across Illinois.

But the central issue was slavery. Newspapers intensely covered the debates, often times with partisan commentary. In the end, the state legislature elected Douglas, but the exposure vaulted Lincoln into national politics. With his newly enhanced political profile, inpolitical operatives in Illinois organized a campaign to support Lincoln for the presidency.

Chase of Ohio. In the November general election, Lincoln faced his friend and rival Stephen Douglas, this time besting him in a four-way race that included John C. Lincoln received not quite 40 percent of the popular vote but carried of Electoral College votes, thus winning the U. He grew his trademark beard after his election. Following his election to the presidency inLincoln selected a strong cabinet composed of many of his political rivals, including William Seward, Salmon P.

Chase, Edward Bates, and Edwin Stanton. In the early morning hours of April 12,the guns stationed to protect the harbor blazed toward the fort, signaling the start of the U. Crushing the rebellion would be difficult under any circumstances, but the Civil War, after decades of white-hot partisan politics, was especially onerous. From all directions, Lincoln faced disparagement and defiance.

He was often at odds with his generals, his cabinet, his party, and a majority of the American people. On January 1,Lincoln delivered his official Emancipation Proclamationreshaping the cause of the Civil War from saving the Union to abolishing slavery. And the Union victory at Antietam on September 22,while by no means conclusive, was hopeful.

It gave Lincoln the confidence to officially change the goals of the war. On that same day, he issued a preliminary proclamation that slaves in states rebelling against the Union would be free as of January 1. In the far reaches of western Texas, that day finally came on June 19, —more than two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation took effect.

For decades, many Black Americans have celebrated this anniversary, known as Juneteenth or Emancipation Day, and inPresident Joe Biden made Juneteenth a national holiday. Still, the Emancipation Proclamation did have some immediate impact. It permitted Black Americans to serve in the Union Army for the first time, which contributed to the eventual Union victory.

The historic declaration also paved the way for the passage of the 13 th Amendment that ended legal slavery in the United States. On November 19,Lincoln delivered what would become his most famous speech and one of the most important speeches in American history: the Gettysburg Address. Addressing a crowd of around 15, people, Lincoln delivered his word speech at one of the bloodiest battlefields of the Civil War, the Gettysburg National Cemetery in Pennsylvania.

The Civil War, Lincoln said, was the ultimate test of the preservation of the Union created inand the people who died at Gettysburg fought to uphold this cause. A common interpretation was that the president was expanding the cause of the Civil War from simply reunifying the Union to also fighting for equality and abolishing slavery.

His nemesis George B. Lincoln received 55 percent of the popular vote and of electoral votes. On April 9,General Robert E.