Abraham Lincoln

Astro-Rayological Interpretation & Charts
Quotes
Biography
Images and Physiognomic Interpretation

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Abraham Lincoln—President of the United States, Humanist, Human Avatar

Lincoln is listed here in relation to the second ray, because not only is there every reason to believe that his personality was upon this ray, but that his monad as well, is upon the ray of Love-Wisdom. Given Abraham Lincoln’s level of evolution, and the extraordinary demands placed upon him by his role, the energy of this monadic ray would emerge, and did. He seemed to be a representative of the energy of Synthesis, which is a second ray expression of the first ray energy.

February 12, 1809, Hodgenville, Kentucky, 2:10 AM, LMT. (Source: Doris Chase Doane) Another time, 6:54 AM, LMT is given in some biographies which state that the birth occurred about “sunup”. The 2:10 AM time yields a Sagittarius Ascendant, and the 6:54 AM time, an Aquarius Ascendant. (For 2:10 AM time: Ascendant, Sagittarius; Sun in Aquarius; Moon in Capricorn; Mercury conjunct Pluto in Pisces; Jupiter also in Pisces; Venus in Aries: Mars in Libra square the Capricorn Moon; Saturn conjunct Neptune in Sagittarius, both conjunct the Ascendant; Uranus in Scorpio) For 6:54 AM time, the Neptune and Saturn conjunction would have been conjunct the MC, giving added weight to Sagittarius just as the Sagittarius rising chart does. An 8:36 AM time is also offered as a rectification, but is unlikely. Died, April 15, 1865,Washington, DC.           

Worked as a rail splitter, flatboatman, storekeeper, postmaster, surveyor, and lawyer in 1836. Member of the legislature, 1834-41; U.S> Representative, 1847-49; president, 1861-65; Issued the Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863. Shot on April 14, 1865.

Abraham Lincoln was more than simply a human being. Spiritually he was, according to the Tibetan Teacher, a racial avatar (EXH 297-298), representing the Forces of Light just as Otto von Bismark held a contrary position with respect to the Force of Materialism. Lincoln came forth upon the first ray (his soul ray), and his greatest achievement was to “preserve the Union”. The power of the first ray of synthesis, supported by the second ray of love-wisdom made this preservation possible. The second ray is very likely his personality ray.           

The sign Aquarius indicates Lincoln as a great humanitarian—someone whose actions affected all of humanity and not just the lives of the citizens of his nation. Interestingly, however, his Aquarius Sun correlates with the soul sign of the United States—also Aquarius.  It was Lincoln’s gift to think beyond petty, parochial concerns, thus realizing the greater destiny of the United States, which it was his duty to protect. Assuming the correctness of the Sagittarius rising chart (which seems correct judging from Lincoln’s bodily stature and physiognomy—his receding, Sagittarian chin), Lincoln can be seen as a prophet and a visionary (Sagittarius Ascendant, with psychic Neptune and karmic Saturn both conjunct. He was attuned through prophetic vision with the destiny of America, and realized his role in fulfilling that destiny through holding the Union in tact.

Both Sagittarius and Aquarius are forward-looking signs, both ruled by Jupiter (Aquarius, esoterically), and both have a great love of freedom. Lincoln is credited with “freeing the slaves” through his Emancipation Proclamation (Aquarius).       

There are advantages to either chart. Surely no one can dispute the importance of Aquarius in the chart, indicating in this case, the third initiation and the great service which follows that degree. The Sagittarius Ascendant could indicate the steady helmsman of a nation which had lost its moral bearings, and the adherence to an orientation which would lead to freedom for all. In the Sagittarius chart, the Moon rules the eighth house of death and is almost exactly squared by Mars, showing, in this case, the suddenness and violence of the assassination. In both charts the prophetic and destined Neptune-Saturn conjunction in Sagittarius is emphasized—conjuncting the Ascendant in the Sagittarius rising chart and conjuncting the Sagittarian MC in the Aquarius rising chart.

A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me.

All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind.

All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.

Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure.

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

And in the end it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.

Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.
(Uranus in Scorpio conjunct North Node)

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

As our case is new, we must think and act anew.

Avoid popularity if you would have peace.

Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
(Mercury in Pisces conjunct Pluto)

Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all.

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.

Die when I may, I want it said by those who knew me best that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.
(Mars in Libra)

Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.
(Neptune conjunct Saturn in Sagittarius conjunct MC)

Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.

Every one desires to live long, but no one would be old.

Everybody likes a compliment.

For those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like.

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
(Sun in Aquarius conjunct Ascendant)

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.
(Moon in Capricorn)

Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.
(Mars in Libra)

He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.

He who molds the public sentiment... makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to make.

Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible.

How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.

I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.
(Aquarius Sun & Ascendant)

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.
(Venus in Aries)

I can make more generals, but horses cost money.

I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.

I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end... I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.
(Capricorn Moon)

I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.

I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.

I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.

I don't like that man. I must get to know him better.

I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.

I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day.

I must run the machine as I find it.

I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.

I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.

I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.

I will prepare and some day my chance will come.

I'm a slow walker, but I never walk back.

If a fellow wants to be a nobody in the business world, let him neglect sending the mail man to somebody on his behalf.

If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business.

If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?

If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.

If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance.

If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.

If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.
(Saturn conjunct Neptune in Sagittarius)

If you look for the bad in people expecting to find it, you surely will.

Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.

Knavery and flattery are blood relations.

Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.

Lets have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.
(Saturn conjunct Neptune in Sagittarius conjunct MC)

Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory.

Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.

My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.

My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.

No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.

No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.

Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.

Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

Public opinion in this country is everything.

Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.

Some day I shall be President.

Some single mind must be master, else there will be no agreement in anything.

Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality.

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.

The assertion that "all men are created equal" was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use.

The ballot is stronger than the bullet.
(Mars in Libra)

The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.

The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.

The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person.

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty.

The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read.

The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.

There is another old poet whose name I do not now remember who said, "Truth is the daughter of Time."

There is nothing true anywhere, The true is nowhere to be seen; If you say you see the true, This seeing is not the true one.

These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people.

Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.

To ease another's heartache is to forget one's own.

To give victory to the right, not bloody bullets, but peaceful ballots only, are necessary.

To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.

Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.

Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people may be engaged in. That everyone may receive at least a moderate education appears to be an objective of vital importance.

We live in the midst of alarms; anxiety beclouds the future; we expect some new disaster with each newspaper we read.

We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.

Whatever you are, be a good one.

When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and two-thirds about him and what he is going to say.

When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion.

When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.

When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run.

With Malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds.

You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does good rather than harm.

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence.

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.

You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.

All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.
ATTRIBUTION: Attributed to ABRAHAM LINCOLN.—Josiah G. Holland, The Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 23 (1866), and George Alfred Townsend, The Real Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 6 (1867). According to the latter, Lincoln made this remark to his law partner, William Herndon.

Lincoln’s natural mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, died when he was nine years old and his father remarried the following year. His stepmother, Sarah Bush (Johnston) Lincoln, was loved and respected by Lincoln throughout her life, as evidenced in the many biographical studies of Lincoln. Benjamin P. Thomas says in Abraham Lincoln, p. 12 (1952): “The boy Abraham adored her. Recollection of his own mother dimmed. And in later years he called this woman, who filled her place so well, ‘my angel mother.’”

The Macmillan Book of Proverbs, Maxims, and Famous Phrases, ed. Burton Stevenson, p. 1627 (1965), comments that the remark referred to Lincoln’s stepmother. But the biographers of Lincoln’s natural mother claim the remark referred to her: Caroline Hanks Hitchcock, Nancy Hanks, p. 105 (1899) and Charles Ludwig, Nancy Hanks: Mother of Lincoln, p. 84 (1965).

I could as easily bail out the Potomac River with a teaspoon as attend to all the details of the army.

This supposedly had been part of Lincoln’s response to a young volunteer soldier who had come to Lincoln’s office asking his help with a grievance. The story has been repeated in numerous books on Lincoln: Alexander K. McClure, “Abe” Lincoln’s Yarns and Stories, p. 162 (1904); Ida M. Tarbell, The Life of Abraham Lincoln, vol. 2, p. 153 (1917); and Caroline T. Harnsberger, The Lincoln Treasury, p. 14 (1950).

I have got you together to hear what I have written down. I do not wish your advice about the main matter—for that I have determined for myself.
ATTRIBUTION: Attributed to President ABRAHAM LINCOLN.—Salmon P. Chase, diary entry for September 22, 1862, Diary and Correspondence of Salmon P. Chase, p. 88 (1903, reprinted 1971).
According to the Chase account, Lincoln spoke these words at a cabinet meeting he had called to inform the members of his decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. This quotation is also used in Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, p. 584 (1939).

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.
ATTRIBUTION: President ABRAHAM LINCOLN, second inaugural address, conclusion, March 4, 1865.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 8, p. 333 (1953).

My friends—… I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine Being, who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance, I cannot fail.
ATTRIBUTION: President-elect ABRAHAM LINCOLN, farewell address at Springfield, Illinois, February 11, 1861.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 4, p. 190 (1953).

We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot.
ATTRIBUTION: Attributed to ABRAHAM LINCOLN, speech delivered before the first Republican state convention of Illinois, Bloomington, Illinois, May 29, 1856.—The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Arthur B. Lapsley, vol. 2, p. 249 (1905).

Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.
ATTRIBUTION: ABRAHAM LINCOLN, speech in reply to Senator Stephen Douglas, Peoria, Illinois, October 16, 1854.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 2, p. 273 (1953).

You may burn my body to ashes, and scatter them to the winds of heaven; you may drag my soul down to the regions of darkness and despair to be tormented forever; but you will never get me to support a measure which I believe to be wrong, although by doing so I may accomplish that which I believe to be right.
ATTRIBUTION: Attributed to ABRAHAM LINCOLN.—Ida M. Tarbell, The Life of Abraham Lincoln, vol. 1, p. 139 (1900).

It is my ambition and desire to so administer the affairs of the government while I remain President that if at the end I have lost every other friend on earth I shall at least have one friend remaining and that one shall be down inside me.
ATTRIBUTION: Attributed to President ABRAHAM LINCOLN by Enos Clarke, one of the seventy-member delegation of Radicals from Missouri, who met with Lincoln, September 30, 1863. This attribution was made by Clarke in an interview with Walter B. Stevens, who later published it in his Lincoln and Missouri, p. 100 (1916).

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.
ATTRIBUTION: ABRAHAM LINCOLN, speech delivered at the close of the Republican state convention, which named him the candidate for the United States Senate, Springfield, Illinois, June 16, 1858.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 2, p. 461 (1953). The quotation is a slight paraphrase of the Bible, Mark 3:25.

To give the victory to the right, not bloody bullets, but peaceful ballots only, are necessary.
ATTRIBUTION: ABRAHAM LINCOLN, speech c. May 18, 1858.—Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 2, p. 454 (1953).

You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all the time.
ATTRIBUTION: Attributed to ABRAHAM LINCOLN.—Alexander K. McClure, “Abe” Lincoln’s Yarns and Stories, p. 184 (1904).

The ballot is stronger than the bullet.
ATTRIBUTION: Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), U.S. president. Speech, May 29, 1856, Bloomington, Illinois. The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Arthur Brooks Lapsley (1905).

I believe, if we take habitual drunkards as a class, their heads and their hearts will bear an advantageous comparison with those of any other class.
ATTRIBUTION: ABRAHAM LINCOLN, address before the Springfield [Illinois] Washingtonian Temperance Society, February 22, 1842.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 1, p. 278 (1953).

The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatable things, called by the same name—liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatable names—liberty and tyranny.
ATTRIBUTION: President ABRAHAM LINCOLN, address at sanitary fair, Baltimore, Maryland, April 18, 1864.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 7, pp. 301–2 (1953).

What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts, the guns of our war steamers, or the strength of our gallant and disciplined army. These are not our reliance against a resumption of tyranny in our fair land. All of them may be turned against our liberties, without making us stronger or weaker for the struggle. Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, every where. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.
ATTRIBUTION: ABRAHAM LINCOLN, speech at Edwardsville, Illinois, September 11, 1858.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 3, p. 95 (1953).

The Democracy of to-day hold the liberty of one man to be absolutely nothing, when in conflict with another man’s right of property. Republicans, on the contrary, are for both the man and the dollar; but in cases of conflict, the man before the dollar.
ATTRIBUTION: ABRAHAM LINCOLN, letter to Henry L. Pierce and others, April 6, 1859.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 3, p. 375 (1953).

It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride!—how consoling in the depth of affliction!
ATTRIBUTION: ABRAHAM LINCOLN, address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, September 30, 1859.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 3, pp. 481–82 (1953).

The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.
ATTRIBUTION: President ABRAHAM LINCOLN, annual message to Congress, December 1, 1862.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 5, p. 537 (1953).

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
ATTRIBUTION: President ABRAHAM LINCOLN, proclamation appointing a National Fast Day, March 30, 1863.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 6, p. 156 (1953).

In a certain sense, and to a certain extent, he [the president] is the representative of the people. He is elected by them, as well as congress is. But can he, in the nature [of] things, know the wants of the people, as well as three hundred other men, coming from all the various localities of the nation? If so, where is the propriety of having a congress?
ATTRIBUTION: Representative ABRAHAM LINCOLN, remarks in the House, July 27, 1848.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 1, p. 504 (1953).

Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so, whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose—and you allow him to make war at pleasure. Study to see if you can fix any limit to his power in this respect, after you have given him so much as you propose. If, to-day, he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada, to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, “I see no probability of the British invading us” but he will say to you “be silent; I see it, if you dont.”

The provision of the Constitution giving the war-making power to Congress, was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons. Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This, our Convention understood to be the most oppressive of all Kingly oppressions; and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us. But your view destroys the whole matter, and places our President where kings have always stood.
ATTRIBUTION: Representative ABRAHAM LINCOLN, letter to William H. Herndon, February 15, 1848.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 1, pp. 451–52 (1953).

Property is the fruit of labor—property is desirable—is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich, shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprize. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.
ATTRIBUTION: President ABRAHAM LINCOLN, reply to New York Workingmen’s Democratic Republican Association, March 21, 1864.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 7, p. 259–60 (1953).

I walk slowly, but I never walk backward.
ATTRIBUTION: Attributed to ABRAHAM LINCOLN.—Representative Everett M. Dirksen, remarks in the House, September 18, 1941, Congressional Record, vol. 87, p. 7479. Unverified in The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler (1953).

I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races,—that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.
ATTRIBUTION: ABRAHAM LINCOLN, fourth debate with Senator Stephen A. Douglas, Charleston, Illinois, September 18, 1858.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 3, p. 145–46 (1953).

In this and like communities, public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.
ATTRIBUTION: ABRAHAM LINCOLN, reply in the first debate with Senator Stephen A. Douglas, Ottawa, Illinois, August 21, 1858.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 3, p. 27 (1953).

I take it that it is best for all to leave each man free to acquire property as fast as he can. Some will get wealthy. I don’t believe in a law to prevent a man from getting rich; it would do more harm than good.
ATTRIBUTION: ABRAHAM LINCOLN, speech at New Haven, Connecticut, March 6, 1860.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 4, p. 24 (1953).

Those arguments that are made, that the inferior race are to be treated with as much allowance as they are capable of enjoying; that as much is to be done for them as their condition will allow. What are these arguments? They are the arguments that kings have made for enslaving the people in all ages of the world. You will find that all the arguments in favor of kingcraft were of this class; they always bestrode the necks of the people, not that they wanted to do it, but because the people were better off for being ridden. That is their argument, and this argument of the Judge is the same old serpent that says you work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits of it. Turn in whatever way you will—whether it comes from the mouth of a King, an excuse for enslaving the people of his country, or from the mouth of men of one race as a reason for enslaving the men of another race, it is all the same old serpent, and I hold if that course of argumentation that is made for the purpose of convincing the public mind that we should not care about this, should be granted, it does not stop with the negro.
ATTRIBUTION: ABRAHAM LINCOLN, speech at Chicago, Illinois, July 10, 1858.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 2, p. 500 (1953).

I do not understand that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. My understanding is that I can just let her alone.
ATTRIBUTION: ABRAHAM LINCOLN, fourth debate with Senator Stephen A. Douglas, Charleston, Illinois, September 18, 1858.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 3, p. 146 (1953).

Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We—even we here—hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free—honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best, hope of earth.
ATTRIBUTION: President ABRAHAM LINCOLN, annual message to Congress, December 1, 1862.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 5, p. 537 (1953).

Whenever [I] hear any one, arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
ATTRIBUTION: President ABRAHAM LINCOLN, speech to 140th Indiana regiment, March 17, 1865.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 8, p. 361 (1953).

The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society.
ATTRIBUTION: ABRAHAM LINCOLN, letter to Henry L. Pierce and others, April 6, 1859.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 3, p. 375 (1953).

This extraordinary war in which we are engaged falls heavily upon all classes of people, but the most heavily upon the soldier. For it has been said, all that a man hath will he give for his life; and while all contribute of their substance the soldier puts his life at stake, and often yields it up in his country’s cause. The highest merit, then, is due to the soldier.
ATTRIBUTION: President ABRAHAM LINCOLN, remarks at closing of sanitary fair, Washington, D.C., March 18, 1864.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 7, pp. 253–54 (1953).

Honor to the Soldier, and Sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country’s cause. Honor also to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field, and serves, as he best can, the same cause—honor to him, only less than to him, who braves, for the common good, the storms of heaven and the storms of battle.
ATTRIBUTION: President ABRAHAM LINCOLN, letter to George Opdyke and others, December 2, 1863.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 7, p. 32 (1953).

I am glad to know that there is a system of labor where the laborer can strike if he wants to! I would to God that such a system prevailed all over the world.
ATTRIBUTION: ABRAHAM LINCOLN, speech at Hartford, Connecticut, March 5, 1860, as reported in the Hartford Daily Courant, March 6, 1860.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 4, p. 7 (1953).

I believe each individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruit of his labor, so far as it in no wise interferes with any other man’s rights—that each community, as a State, has a right to do exactly as it pleases with all the concerns within that State that interfere with the right of no other State, and that the general government, upon principle, has no right to interfere with anything other than that general class of things that does concern the whole.
ATTRIBUTION: ABRAHAM LINCOLN, speech at Chicago, Illinois, July 10, 1858.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 2, p. 493 (1953).

Beware of rashness, but with energy, and sleepless vigilance, go forward and give us victories.
ATTRIBUTION: President ABRAHAM LINCOLN, letter to General Joseph Hooker, January 26, 1863.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 6, p. 79 (1953).

I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that struggle was made, and I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this, his almost chosen people, for perpetuating the object of that great struggle.
ATTRIBUTION: President-elect ABRAHAM LINCOLN, address to the New Jersey Senate, February 21, 1861.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 4, p. 236 (1953).

I think very much of the people, as an old friend said he thought of woman. He said when he lost his first wife, who had been a great help to him in his business, he thought he was ruined—that he could never find another to fill her place. At length, however, he married another, who he found did quite as well as the first, and that his opinion now was that any woman would do well who was well done by. So I think of the whole people of this nation—they will ever do well if well done by. We will try to do well by them in all parts of the country, North and South, with entire confidence that all will be well with all of us.
ATTRIBUTION: President-elect ABRAHAM LINCOLN, remarks at Bloomington, Illinois, November 21, 1860.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 4, pp. 143–44 (1953).

Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.
ATTRIBUTION: ABRAHAM LINCOLN, speech at Kalamazoo, Michigan, August 27, 1856.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 2, p. 366 (1953).

As an individual who undertakes to live by borrowing, soon finds his original means devoured by interest, and next no one left to borrow from—so must it be with a government.
ATTRIBUTION: ABRAHAM LINCOLN, campaign circular from Whig Committee, March 4, 1843.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 1, p. 311 (1953).

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
ATTRIBUTION: President ABRAHAM LINCOLN, address before the Young Men’s Lyceum, Springfield, Illinois, January 27, 1838.—The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 1, p. 109 (1953).

Born February 12, 1809
Hardin County, Kentucky
Died April 15, 1865, age 56
Washington, D.C.
Political party Whig, Republican
Spouse Mary Todd Lincoln
Religion No affiliation
Signature
Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American politician elected as the 16th President of the United States (1861 to 1865), and the first president from the Republican Party.

His greatest contributions were the ending of American slavery and the preservation of the Union, through his outstanding leadership of the Federal (Northern) forces during the devastating American Civil War. He selected the Union generals and approved their strategies; he supervised placement of the senior civilian government officials; he oversaw foreign and domestic diplomacy; he spearheaded party patronage and operations; and he galvanized decisive public support through his many letters and speeches. Lincoln's remarkable influence was driven by his powerful rhetoric as an orator. His Gettysburg Address rededicated and reinvigorated the nation to a cry for freedom and democracy - a voice that still remains as a cherished core component of the American way of life.

1809
On the stormy morning of Sunday, February 12, Nancy Hanks Lincoln , wife of Thomas , gave birth to a boy. He was born on a bed of poles covered with corn husks. The baby was named Abraham after his grandfather. The birth took place in the Lincolns' rough-hewn cabin on Nolin Creek near Hodgenville, Kentucky. Thomas Lincoln was an uneducated carpenter and a farmer. Nancy Lincoln had little or no schooling and could not write.

1811-1812

In 1811 the Lincolns moved to a farm on Knob Creek which was also near Hodgenville. In 1811 or 1812 (possibly as late as 1815) Abraham's younger brother, Thomas, died in infancy.
1815
Abraham spent a short amount of time in a log schoolhouse. He began to learn his ABC's from a teacher named Zachariah Riney. He attended school with his sister, Sarah. Sarah had dark hair and gray eyes, and she was two years older than Abraham. Abraham attended school dressed in a raccoon cap, buckskin clothes, and pants so short that several inches of his calves were exposed. At home young Abraham heard the scriptures read from the family Bible.
1816
Young Lincoln was saved from drowning by playmate Austin Gollaher. Abraham and Sarah briefly attended school taught by Caleb Hazel, a neighbor. Late in the year the Lincoln family moved to southern Indiana and settled near present-day Gentryville. A cabin was constructed near Little Pigeon Creek. It measured 16 X 18 feet, and it had one window.
1818
Abraham's mother, Nancy, passed away on October 5th. She died of 'milk sickness,' a disease contracted by drinking milk from cows which have grazed on poisonous white snakeroot. In later years, Abraham would recall helping to carve pegs for his mother's coffin. Thomas Lincoln hauled the coffin, which was made of green pine, on a sled to the top of a thickly wooded hill and buried her without a formal funeral service. In Lexington, Kentucky, Mary AnnTodd, Abraham's future wife, was born on December 13th.
1819
Thomas Lincoln married Sarah Bush Johnston on December 2nd. Sarah's first husband, Daniel Johnston, had died in the summer of 1816. She added 3 new children by her former marriage to the Lincoln household - Elizabeth, 12; John, 9; and Matilda, 8. Abraham grew to be much closer to his step-mother than he was to his father. During 1818 or 1819 young Abraham was kicked and almost killed by a horse.
1821
Abraham began borrowing books from neighbors. He read "Pilgrim's Progress," "Aesop's Fables," "Arabian Nights", and "Robinson Crusoe."
1822
Abraham attended school taught by James Swaney for about 4 months.
1824
Abraham attended school taught by Azel Dorsey.
1825
Abraham borrowed a book titled "Life of Washington" by Parson Mason Weems. When the book got soaked with rain, he worked off its worth for his neighbor from whom he had borrowed it (Josiah Crawford). This was the very first book Abraham ever personally owned.
1826
Abraham's sister, Sarah, married a neighbor named Aaron Grigsby on August 2, but she died in childbirth 1 1/2 years later on January 28, 1828, just 3 weeks before her 21st birthday. Sarah was buried with her baby boy who was still-born.
1827
Abraham earned his first dollar ferrying passengers to a steamer on the Ohio River.
1828
Using a flatboat as transportation, Abraham took a load of farm produce down the Mississippi River to New Orleans with Allen and James Gentry.
1830
The Lincolns moved from Indiana to Illinois. Abraham drove one of the ox wagons. They built a log cabin on the north bank of the Sangamon River about 10 miles southwest of Decatur in Macon County. Later the family moved southeast to Goose Nest Prairie in Coles County, Illinois.
1831
Young Lincoln decided to leave his family and go off on his own. His anti-slavery opinions may have been formulated when he saw the abuse of slaves during his second flatboat trip to New Orleans. In July he moved to New Salem, Illinois, where he boarded at Rutledge's tavern and became acquainted with the owner's daughter, Ann. New Salem was a frontier village consisting of one long street on a bluff over the Sangamon River. On August 1 Lincoln cast his first ballot.
1832
Lincoln joined the Illinois militia for the Black Hawk War. He was elected Captain of the volunteers but saw no military action during approximately 3 months of service. On August 6th Lincoln was defeated while running for the Illinois State Legislature. Lincoln began to operate a general store in New Salem along with William F. Berry.
1833
Lincoln became Postmaster of New Salem on May 7th. The store he operated with William Berry failed. In the fall he learned surveying and was appointed Assistant Surveyor in the northwest part of Sangamon County. Lincoln met a young woman named Mary Owens. She was 4 months older than he was, and she came to New Salem to visit her sister.
1834
Again Lincoln ran for the Illinois State Legislature, but this time he was elected. During the summer, John T. Stuart advised Lincoln to study law. On December 1 Lincoln took his seat in state government in Vandalia (Illinois' capital prior to Springfield). He became a member of the Long Nine (the nickname for the delegation from Sangamon County because their combined height was exactly 54 feet).
1835
When the state legislature adjourned in February, Lincoln returned to New Salem and resumed his legal studies with great determination. Additionally, he continued surveying. On August 25th Ann Rutledge passed away. Although it's unproven, some felt Ann was Lincoln's first love.
1836
Lincoln was re-elected to the Illinois House of Representatives. On September 9th, Lincoln was licensed to practice law.
1837
Lincoln, 28, was admitted to the Illinois Bar on March 1, and he moved to Springfield on April 15. He became a law partner of John T. Stuart and lived with Joshua Speed. Lincoln now had income from a law practice as well as a state legislator. In the fall Mary Owens rejected Lincoln's marriage proposal.
1838
Lincoln was elected for a 3rd time to the Illinois House of Representatives.
1839
Lincoln met Mary Ann Todd who had moved to Springfield from Lexington, Kentucky. Mary was living at the home of her older sister, Elizabeth Edwards. Most likely, the two met at a ball. Despite great differences in background, they became interested in each other.
1840
For the 4th and last time, Lincoln won election to the Illinois House of Representatives. In the fall Lincoln became engaged to Mary Todd.
1841
Lincoln and Mary Todd broke off their engagement. Lincoln became a law partner of Stephen T. Logan on May 14th.
1842
A proposed duel with James Shields on September 22 never came off. Lincoln married Mary Todd on November 4. James Harvey Matheny was the best man. Abraham gave Mary a gold wedding ring with the words "Love is Eternal" engraved inside the band. Mary wore this ring until the day she died. The marriage took place in the parlor of the Edwards' home, and the ceremony was performed by Reverend Charles Dresser, an Episcopal minister. The Lincolns moved into the Globe Tavern, a two story wooden structure in Springfield, where they boarded for $4.00 a week.
1843
The first son of the Lincolns, Robert Todd, was born August 1 at the Globe Tavern. He was so-named in honor of Mary's father. Late in the year the Lincolns moved out of the Globe Tavern and began renting a 3 room frame cottage at 214 South Fourth Street in Springfield.
1844
Abraham and Mary purchased a home from Dr. Dresser in Springfield for $1500. It was located at the corner of Eighth and Jackson. The family moved in on May 2nd. Lincoln visited his former home in Indiana while campaigning for Henry Clay, the Whig candidate for President. In December Lincoln accepted William Herndon as his law partner.
1846
The Lincolns had their first photograph taken. Abraham and Mary's second son, Edward Baker, was born on March 10th. On August 3rd Mr. Lincoln was elected to the United States House of Representatives. He took his seat the next year and spoke out against the Mexican War.
1847
The Lincolns boarded at Mrs. Anna G. Sprigg's boardinghouse in Washington (nowadays the Library of Congress is located on this site). On December 22nd Lincoln introduced the "spot" resolutions in Congress (having to do with his opposition to the Mexican War). Lincoln also became known for his opposition to slavery.
1848
Lincoln campaigned for the Whig Presidential candidate, Zachary Taylor, throughout New England. His opposition to the Mexican War was not popular in Illinois. During the summer the Lincolns, with the two boys, traveled through the state of New York, visited Niagara Falls, and took a steamer from Buffalo across the Great Lakes.
1849
Lincoln failed in his attempt to be appointed commissioner of the General Land Office, and he returned to a full time law practice in Springfield as his term in the House of Representatives had expired on March 4th. On March 7th he was admitted to practice law before the United States Supreme Court. Also, he received a patent for his device that would lift vessels over shallow spots by means of inflating buoyant chambers. Nothing ever came of his invention.
1850
Lincoln's son, "Eddie," died on February 1. His third son, William Wallace ("Willie") was born on December 21st.
1851
Mr. Lincoln's father, Thomas, passed away from a kidney ailment on January 17th. He was 73 years old and died in Coles County, Illinois. Abraham did not attend the funeral.
1853
The fourth and last son of the Lincolns, Thomas ("Tad"), was born on April 4th. His nickname stemmed from the fact that his father thought he looked like a tadpole.
1854
Lincoln was elected to the Illinois legislature, but he declined the office on November 27th to become a candidate for the U.S. Senate. (He was defeated in this attempt early in 1855). His re-entry into politics was fueled by his opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Lincoln jotted down his famous quote on slavery and democracy: "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master - This expresses my idea of democracy - Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy - " (The exact date of this quote is uncertain. Some sources put its origin in 1858. It was written on a scrap of paper and is not known to be part of any speech or special occasion. Mary Todd Lincoln gave it to her friend Myra Bradwell who had helped get Mrs. Lincoln released from the Illinois sanatorium she was sent to in 1875).
1856
Lincoln helped organize the new Republican Party in Illinois. In Bloomington he gave his famous "Lost Speech" on May 29th. Although he wasn't nominated, he received 110 votes for Vice-President at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. During the Presidential campaign, Lincoln gave over 50 speeches in support of the Republican nominee, John C. Fremont. The Lincolns added a second story to their Springfield home.
1857
Lincoln spoke out against the Dred Scott decision.
1858
Lincoln was nominated by the Republicans to run for the U.S. Senate against Stephen Douglas. He gave his famous "House Divided" speech.

The Old State Capitol in Springfield where Lincoln gave the House Divided speech.
During the summer, Lincoln and Douglas engaged in a series of 7 debates throughout Illinois. On November 2nd Douglas won the election.
1859
Lincoln gave political speeches in Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin, and the Kansas Territory.
"If any personal description of me is thought desirable, it may be said, I am, in height, six feet, four inches, nearly; lean in flesh, weighing, on an average, one hundred and eighty pounds; dark complexion, with course black hair, and grey eyes - no other marks or brands recollected."
Abraham Lincoln, in a brief biographical sketch, December 20, 1859.

1860
Lincoln gained national fame because of his powerful speech at Cooper Union in New York City on February 27th. He toured New England making more speeches. Regarding the presidency, he wrote a friend on April 29th that "The taste is in my mouth a little." On May 18th he was nominated for President at the Republican National Convention in Chicago. In July the Lincolns' eldest son, Robert, enrolled at Harvard University. On October 15th 11-year-old Grace Bedell of Westfield, New York, wrote Lincoln a letter suggesting he grow a beard. He decided to follow her advice. On November 6th Lincoln was elected President over 3 opponents (Stephen Douglas, John Breckinridge, and John Bell) winning 39% of the popular vote but nearly 60% of the electoral vote. The Lincolns rented their home for $350 a year and sold most of their furniture. Much of the furniture was purchased by L.L. Tildon of Chicago, and it was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
1861
Abraham visited his beloved step-mother, Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln. On the rainy Monday morning of February 11th he left Springfield by train bound for Washington. He had roped his trunks himself and labeled them, "A. Lincoln, The White House, Washington, D.C." Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America on February 18th. Lincoln arrived in Washington on February 23rd and was inaugurated as the 16th President of the United States on March 4th. The Civil War began with the Confederate attack on Ft. Sumter in April. On April 15th Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to serve for 3 months. The Union met disaster at the Battle of Bull Run.
1862
On January 13th the President appointed Edwin Stanton as Secretary of War. On February 20th "Willie" Lincoln died in the White House of typhoid fever. Lincoln proposed a plan of compensated emancipation for slaves in states that remained loyal to the Union. On September 22nd the President announced the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation after the Battle of Antietam. On October 2nd the President visited General George McClellan and other Union officers at Antietam.
1863
On January 1st the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves in the rebelling areas, took effect. On March 3rd Lincoln approved the first draft law in U.S. history. In early July the Union won two major battles at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. A huge anti-draft riot took place in New York City, and many were killed. On October 3rd Lincoln issued a proclamation creating Thanksgiving Day. On November 19th Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address which dedicated the battlefield there to the soldiers who had perished. He called on the living to finish the task the dead soldiers had begun. He spoke for about 2 1/2 minutes following a 2 hour speech by Edward Everett. On November 26 the first national observance of Thanksgiving was held.
1864
Lincoln nominated Ulysses S. Grant as the first full lieutenant general since George Washington. Grant assumed his role as General-in-Chief of Union armies. Lincoln received the Republican (National Union Party) nomination on June 8th to run for a 2nd term as President. Andrew Johnson was his Vice-Presidential running mate. On November 8th he easily defeated Democrat George B. McClellan in the Presidential election. Later in November General Sherman set Atlanta on fire and began his destructive "march to the sea." On December 6th Lincoln nominated Salmon P. Chase for Chief Justice.

Pictured above is the Lincoln Cottage at the Soldiers' Home - where the Lincolns often stayed to avoid Washington's summer heat. Once a shot was fired through Lincoln's hat (possibly by a hunter but probably by a sniper) while the President was on horseback near the Soldiers' Home. The President asked that no mention of it be made to the public. He said, "It was probably an accident and might worry my family."

1865
A peace conference at Hampton Roads, Virginia, failed. On March 4th Lincoln was inaugurated as President for the second time.
This is a Library of Congress photograph of Lincoln speaking at his 2nd Inauguration.

Richmond was abandoned by the Confederates, and Lincoln walked through the streets of that city on April 4th. On April 9th Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox. Lincoln gave his last public speech on April 11th. He told a crowd at the White House that he hoped for an early return of all the seceded states to the Union. The Lincolns attended the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre on April 14th, and Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth at about 10:15 P.M. The President died the next morning at 7:22 A.M. + 10 seconds. He was 56 years old at the time of his death. Andrew Johnson took the oath of office as the 17th President on April 15th. On April 21st a nine car funeral train that included 300 dignitaries left Washington, D.C. and began a nearly 1700 mile journey back to Springfield. During the afternoon of May 4th, Lincoln's body was buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery .

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