We are in Springfield, Illinois having traveled some 360+ miles from Arkansas.

Abraham Lincoln, was born in Kentucky in 1809 into a poor family. He lost his mother when he was nine years old and moved to Springfield, Illinois where he remained for most of his adult life.

Lincoln taught himself to read, became a lawyer and in 1860 was elected as the 16^th President of the United States.

His presidency was a firestorm from the word go. Lincoln’s election victory prompted seven southern slave states to form the Confederate States of America and before he had moved into the White House, the first shots were fired starting the Civil War on April 12, 1861.

Driven to maintain “The Union,” Lincoln confronted Radical Republicans, who demanded harsher treatment of the South, War Democrats, who called for more compromise, anti-war Democrats, who despised him, and irreconcilable secessionists, who plotted his assassination.

As the war progressed, his complex moves towards ending slavery included the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. Lincoln used the U.S. Army to protect escaped slaves, encouraged the border states border to outlaw slavery, and pushed through Congress the 13^th Amendment to the US Constitution which permanently outlawed slavery.

Lincoln was an exceptionally astute politician and managed his own re-election campaign in the 1864 presidential election. On April 14, 1865, five days after the end of the Civil War, Lincoln was assassinated by a Confederate sympathizer and died the next day.

Abraham Lincoln’s final resting place in the Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, Illinois.

Mike rubbing Lincoln’s nose which is said to bring good luck!