23--3--2007

 

----- From Log Cabin to the White House

 

    Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin on February 12,1809.When Abe was still very young,he used to sit by the fire in the evening and read. in those days there weren't many schools in Kentucky and Indiana when he grew up.but abe studied by himself and learned all he could.

   He knew,however,that his use of the English language was not always correct,books were so scarce at that time that Abe had to walk ten miles to buy an English grammar book. he studied the book carefully and soon he had improved his speech.

   Lincoln worked at many jobs during his youth,he was a storekeeper,postman,and surveyor. when he had any free time ,he studied law, one of the greatest moments of his life was when he passed his bar examintion and become a lawyer. he believed in honesty more than anything else.and the law,he thought,was a nation's honesty.

   Lincoln became well-known as a lawyer in Spring-field,Illinois. he was also known as a champion of Negro slaves.he believed slavery was wrong."as i would not be a slave",he said,"so i would not be a master".

   When he was elected to the United states Congress,the people of the North thought of him as a friend of freedom. but the people of the South feared him because he wanted to free the slaves.

   On March 4,1861,Lincoln became the President of the United States. but bitterness had spread througt the North and South over the question of slavery,soon the southern states left the Union and formed the Confederate States of America.

   Lincoln asked them to reconsider,"in your hands...and not mine,"he said,"is the terrible issue civil war."

   But war came.Lincoln's first great purpose was to save the Union; the second,to free the slaves,on January 1,1863,Lincoln signed one of the great documents of American history,the Emancipation Proclamation,which freed all slaves in the United States.

   The long ,hard war lasted four years ,in 1865,peace finally came and the country was united again.but Lincoln did not shout and cheer.he thought only of the people who had suffered and died.and he thought of the poor,defeated people pf the South.

   "Which malice toward none",he said,"with charity for all... let us strive to finish the work we are in."

    Lincoln did not live to continue his plans to help the Union and the newly freed slaves.he was shot at Ford's Theatre in Washington,D.C.,on April 14,1865,he is remembered as a champion of freedom--"the Great Eman-cipator."