Abraham Lincoln was America’s most illustrious President. He steered the nation towards progress by fighting for the emancipation of enslaved black people in the United States. Initially however, not all the 50 states were in favour of abolishing slavery and this led to the American Civil War which took place from 1861 to 1865.
This was because the Southern states in the U.S. depended on slavery to run their cotton farms and were unwilling to let their slaves go free. They clashed with the more advanced northerners who were opposed to any sort of human bondage. At this time the northerners were led by the leader of the Republicans, Abraham Lincoln.
When Lincoln was elected president in 1860, 11 southern states retaliated by forming the Confederate States of America. Civil War followed which lasted for 4 years during which Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which declared freedom of all slaves in 1863. He was re-elected in 1864 even as Union military victories signalled the end of the Civil War.
Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC on April 14, 1865. He died the following morning on April 15. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth, a member of the Confederate cause, in the back of the head. Booth used a 44 calibre Derringer pistol which he hid in his pocket.
His assassination was part of a larger conspiracy intended by Booth to revive the Confederate cause by eliminating the three most important officials of the United States government. Secretary of State William H Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson were also intended victims but beyond Lincoln’s death, the plot failed: Seward was wounded but survived and Johnson’s would be attacker lost his nerve. Lincoln is remembered as one of the most venerated heroes of the United States and his legacy of government of the people, by the people and for the people continues to this day in the U.S.A.
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