Abraham Lincoln turns 200

Feb. 12 is the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, and after all this time many Americans are still fascinated with the life and accomplishments of our 16th president.

For many, Lincoln’s presidency is remembered as being marked by the Civil War, his delivering of the Emancipation Proclamation and his assassination by John Wilkes Booth in Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C.

Born Feb. 12, 1809 in Hardin County, Ky., Lincoln was raised by his father, a frontiersman, after his mother died when he was 10 years old. According to Lincoln, growing up in such a wild region did not allow him to learn much other than to read and write.

After spending eight years in the Illinois legislature, Lincoln ran for the Senate in 1858 and lost. The campaign though, gave him a national reputation and led to his nomination as the Republican candidate for president.

After his election Lincoln built the Republican Party into a strong organization as well as rallying many northern Democrats to the Union cause.

Lincoln considered slavery morally evil and as president made it a priority of his Republican Party to eliminate it. For much of his political career though, Lincoln believed the United States should resettle ex-slaves in colonies such as Liberia, rather than assimilate them.

On Jan. 1, 1863 Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves within the Confederacy. Lincoln was re-elected in 1864 and began the work of trying to bring the country back together after the Civil War. Lincoln’s plans were never finished the way he intended, as he was assassinated on April 14, 1865.