LINCOLN, Abraham, a Representative from Illinois and 16th President of the United
States; born in Hardin County, Ky., February 12, 1809; moved with his parents
to a tract on Little Pigeon Creek, Ind., in 1816; attended a log-cabin school
at short intervals and was self-instructed in elementary branches; moved with
his father to Macon County, Ill., in 1830 and later to Coles County, Ill.; read
the principles of law and works on surveying; during the Black Hawk War he
volunteered in a company of Sangamon County Rifles organized April 21, 1832;
was elected its captain and served until May 27, when the company was mustered
out of service; reenlisted as a private and served until mustered out June 16,
1832; returned to New Salem, Ill., and was unsuccessful as a candidate for the
State house of representatives; entered business as a general merchant in New
Salem; postmaster of New Salem 1833-1836; deputy county surveyor 1834-1836;
elected a member of the State house of representatives in 1834, 1836, 1838, and
1840; declined to be a candidate for renomination; admitted to the bar in 1836;
moved to Springfield, Ill., in 1837 and engaged in the practice of law; elected
as a Whig to the Thirtieth Congress (March 4, 1847-March 3, 1849); did not seek
a renomination in 1848; an unsuccessful applicant for Commissioner of the
General Land Office under President Taylor; tendered the Governorship of Oregon
Territory, but declined; unsuccessful Whig candidate for election to the United
States Senate before the legislature of 1855; unsuccessful Republican candidate
for the United States Senate in 1858; elected as a Republican President of the
United States in 1860; reelected in 1864 and served from March 4, 1861, until
his death; shot by an assassin in Washington, D.C., April 14, 1865, and died
the following day; lay in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, April
19-21, 1865; interment in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, Ill.
BibliographyDonald, David H.
Lincoln. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995; Findley, Paul.
A. Lincoln: The Crucible of Congress. New York: Crown
Publishers, Inc., 1979; Riddle, Donald W.
Congressman Abraham Lincoln. Urbana: University of Illinois
Press, 1957; Basler, Roy Prentice, ed.
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. 9 vols. New
Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1953-1955.