Abraham Lincoln is the sixteenth president of the United States of America .
He ruled the country from 1861 to 1865, and this period was marked by a big shift towards the emergence of democracy. What was this man like? We can say that the biography of Lincoln is a clear proof of the reality of the "American dream." This is a real selfmade man, who achieved everything in life exclusively with his work and talents. Born in 1809 in the family of a poor migrant farmer, he reached the heights of the social ladder, headed the Republican Party (1854) and became the leader of the country.
To his goal, as well as to the realization of his ideals, Lincoln President walked for a long time and hard. The formation of his personality was influenced by many factors. At 9, he lost his mother. The stepmother instilled in young Abraham a love of reading. There was only one book at home - the Bible, and the boy memorized it. In the future, this thorough knowledge of the Holy Scriptures has repeatedly helped him in oratory. Such allusions acted stunningly on the listeners.
Forced to earn a living by hard physical labor, Abraham Lincoln - president in the future - was engaged in self-education. His political views were greatly influenced by the works of the French Enlightenment figures, as well as by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Even then, the young man realized that slavery is a shameful phenomenon that must be eradicated.
He was even more firmly established in this thought when the Lincoln family moved to Illinois. In this state, for the past 12 years, slavery has been abolished. Lincoln's president first took up politics in 1832, when he put forward his candidacy in the lower house of Illinois from the Whig party. There he achieved such popularity that he was re-elected three times. In 1856, a new party, the Republican Party, appeared in the United States, and Lincoln joined its ranks. Two years later, he submits his candidacy for the US Senate election. By tradition, the election was preceded by a debate where Lincoln had a fight with his opponent S. A. Douglas. Although the victory went to the latter, the speech “House divided”, devoted to the problem of slavery in America, led Abraham to the category of figures of the first rank in the political arena.
Therefore, in 1860, Lincoln won the four-candidate presidential election. The US President took office at a tragic moment in the history of the country. In 1861, the southern states proclaimed a secession. Lincoln tried to achieve peace by half measures, announcing that the central government did not intend to intervene in state law and abolish slavery, but resolutely refused to introduce it into new territories. In 1862, he approved the Homestead Act, which provided for the allocation of land to each citizen. This act undermined the very foundation of slaveholding latifundia.
But life has made adjustments. It soon turned out that the country's economic prosperity was impossible without the abolition of slavery throughout the state. The victory over the Confederates brought Lincoln immense popularity among the population, but in 1865, South American actor J.W. Booth attempted to assassinate the "captain" (as the poet Walt Whitman called him ) by shooting him in the head. The memory of the martyred president, who was killed for the abolition of slavery in the United States, is immortalized in Washington. The white marble memorial convincingly shows what role President Abraham Lincoln played for his country. The photo preserved from that time shows us a man who is tall not only tall (1.90 m), but also with thoughts. Four million Americans thanks to him gained freedom.