Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States of America. He was born in 1809 in Hodgenville, Kentucky to a farming family. From an early age he started working as a farmer, while at the same time reading intensively to perfect his education.

In 1834 he was elected a member of the Illinois House of Representatives, a position in which he was elected until 1840. From 1837 he engaged in law and on a professional level, while in 1844 he became the leader of the Whig party. Two years later he managed to be elected to Congress but without distinguishing himself.

He returned to the political scene in 1854, when the Republican Party was founded and the issue of slavery was raised. With fiery speeches against slavery, he managed to attract the attention of the world and emerge as one of the most important personalities of the time.

In 1860 he ran for the presidency, which he won even though he failed to gain ground in the southern states. In the message to the American people in March 1861, he declared that slavery would temporarily continue but not expand.

The southern states, however, had already decided on their next moves. The southern states had already formed their own government with the capital at Richmond, Virginia. In April 1861, the American Civil War broke out.

On New Year’s Day 1863, he signed the famous Black Emancipation Act, which was inserted as an amendment to the constitution in 1865. In 1864, after the continuous victories of the army, he was elected for the second time as president of the United States with a percentage of 55%.

He knew his opponents and enemies. He had once confided that he had two enemies – abroad the Southern army and at home the state’s banker-lenders.

And yet in his inaugural address on March 4, 1865, Abraham Lincoln declared that he “beareth no malice against any“, that he seeks “mercy for all” and that he desires above all “peace among us“.

On April 14, 1865, while he was in the gallery at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C., John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Southern fanatic, shot him in the head with a bullet, immediately afterward shouting in Latin “Sic semper tyrannis!“, meaning ” So always with tyrants!” Lincoln was taken to a neighboring house in a comatose state, where he expired early on the morning of April 15.

Lincoln was married to Mary Todd and they had 4 children.

Abraham Lincoln is recognized by historians and political scientists as perhaps the most important president of the United States of America.

Abraham Lincoln said hundreds of quotes, some of which are the following:

• Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be. 
• Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends? 
• America will never be destroyed from the outside. 
• My Best Friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read.
• Those who look for the bad in people will surely find it.
• The best way to predict your future is to create it.
• I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.