Lincoln

Lincoln was born on Feb. 12, 1809, near Hodgenville, Kentucky, the son of Nancy Hanks and Thomas

Lincoln , pioneer farmers. At the age of two he was taken by his parents to nearby Knob Creek and at eight

to Spencer Co., Ind. The following year his mother died. In 1819 his father married Sarah Bush Johnston, a

kindly widow. Lincoln grew up a tall, gangling youth, who could hold his own in physical contests and also

showed great intellectual promise, although he had little formal education. After moving with his family to

Macon Co., Ill., in 1831, he struck out on his own, taking a cargo to New Orleans, La., on a flatboat.

He then returned to Illinois and settled in New Salem, a short-lived community on the Sangamon River,

where he split rails and clerked in a store. He gained the respect of his fellow townspeople, including the so

called Clary Grove boys, who had challenged him to fight, and was elected captain of his company in the

Black Hawk War . Returning from the war, he began an unsuccessful venture in shopkeeping that ended

when his partner died. In 1833 he was appointed postmaster but had to supplement his income with surveying

and various other jobs. At the same time he began to study law. The story of his romance with Ann Rutledge

,a local young woman whom he knew briefly before her untimely death, is unsubstantiated.

Defeated in 1832 in a race for the state legislature, Lincoln was elected on the Whig ticket two years

later and served in the lower house from 1834 to 1841. He quickly emerged as one of the leaders of the party

and was one of the authors of the removal of the capital to Springfield, where he settled in 1837. After his

admission to the bar he entered into successive partnerships with John T. Stuart , Stephen T. Logan , and

William Herndon , and soon won recognition as an effective and resourceful attorney. In 1842 Lincoln

married Mary Todd , the daughter of a prominent Kentucky banker, and despite her somewhat difficult

disposition, the marriage seems to have been reasonably successful. The Lincolns had four children, only one

of whom reached adulthood.

His birth in a slave state notwithstanding, Lincoln had long opposed slavery. In the legislature he voted

against resolutions favorable to the “peculiar institution” and in 1837 was one of two members who signed a

protest against it. Elected to Congress in 1846, he attracted attention because of his outspoken criticism of

the