Abe's Election And Presidency.

Hello! I am just so happy that it is my first full day and I already have 12 followers and 163 people that have visited my new blog.  Thank you to all of you for your support and kindness.  It means a lot.  Now to Abe.

Abe before his whiskers

While he was running for President, a girl around eleven named Grace Bedell wrote him a letter.  She told him to grow a beard. She thought it would help him win the election.  It did.  He was running against Stephen Douglas.  Abe won that election.  On March 4th 1861 he started four years of presidency. 

During the Civil War one of his most famous sayings was "A house divided against itself cannot stand."  In 1863 Abe issued the Emancipation Proclamation which abolished slavery in the United States.  Also in November 1863 he delivered a very famous speech called The Gettysburg Address at Soldier National Cemetery in Gettysburg, PA.  Gettysburg was the site of a major battle in the Civil War.  Lincoln spoke about the equality of man and a new birth of freedom.



Five days before his death



Abe ran for a second term as president and he won.   On April 14th 1865, five days after the Civil War ended Lincoln and his wife attended a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C.  While they were watching the play "Our American Cousin", a crazed actor from the south that didn't like President Lincoln snuck into the presidential box after the guard left his post and shot the president in the back of his head.  Everyone thought it was part of the play but it wasn't.  A man in the crowd yelled, "The President is DEAD!"  John Wilkes Booth killed Abraham Lincoln.  Booth jumped off the box and onto the stage.  He yelled some latin words and ran out the stage door. John had broken his leg from the fall so it was hard to run.  He jumped on his horse and road off.  The men that were searching for him found him in a barn in Maryland.  They set the barn on fire but they decided to get him out. They wouldn't be any better than him if they just let him die.  Unfortunately President Lincoln died on April 15th 1865 because he was badly wounded from being shot.  He was 56 years old.  There was a big memorial for him and his body was brought back to Illinois to be buried in his home town.

Fun fact: Abe's oldest son was saved by John W. Booth's brother. Abe's son fell on the train tracks when a train was coming and Booth's brother saved him.

My next post will be about Abe's actions and what we can learn from them.  Then I will be putting up a poll with the question "Who should I post about next?".

My Favorite President

Abraham Lincoln at 37

Welcome everyone to my brand new blog. I am excited to share my love for history with you. I am starting my blog with a post about my favorite president Abraham Lincoln.  Abe Lincoln was born in Kentucky in 1809.  He had an older sister named Sarah.  When he was young his mom died. When Sarah cried about their mom, Abe would comfort his sister with a baby raccoon.  Soon someone claimed the Lincoln land and they moved.  Shortly after Mr. Lincoln got remarried. Abe went to school only little bits at a time.  During his free time he read by the fire.  He read books about George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.  That is how he was so smart and in his later life became a lawyer.

When he was 21 he went to Illinois by boat to a small town named New Salem.  Lincoln worked for the people of the town.  He helped them fight small battles.  Abe became a lawyer for the townspeople.  His friend's son was put in jail for murder but she knows he is innocent.  The boy had been in a fight.   Another man in the crowd supposedly ran over to see if the injured man was OK after the fight.  Instead he stabbed him killing the injured man and blaming the friend's son for it. Lincoln defended the boy.  The jury then found the man from the crowd guilty and let the boy free.

One night Abe met a wealthy young woman from Kentucky at a party.  Her name was Mary Todd.  She soon became Mary Todd Lincoln.  They had four sons but only one lived to be old. 

Mary Todd Lincoln

Please join me tommorow for my next post where I will write about Lincoln's election and presidency.