Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States who led the country during the Civil War. He came from a poor family in Illinois and became a lawyer and politician, being elected president in 1860 on the Republican ticket. As president, Lincoln preserved the Union, issued the Emancipation Proclamation to free slaves, and strengthened the federal government. After his assassination in 1865, Lincoln was recognized as one of America's greatest presidents for reuniting the country and abolishing slavery.

2. Introduction
• Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865)
• He was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March
1861 until his assassination in April 1865.
• Lincoln led the United States through its greatest constitutional,
military, and moral crisis—the American Civil War—preserving
the Union, abolishing slavery, strengthening the national
government and modernizing the economy.

3. • Reared in a poor family on the western frontier, Lincoln was self-
educated, and became a country lawyer, a Whig Party leader, Illinois
state legislator during the 1830s, and a one-term member of
the United States House of Representatives during the 1840s.
• He promoted rapid modernization of the economy through banks,
canals, railroads and tariffs to encourage the building of factories; he
opposed the war with Mexico in 1846.

4. Some Abraham
Lincoln Quotes
• “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.”
• "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.”
• "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.”

5. • "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.”
• "Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest
concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.”

6. How Lincoln became
America's Greatest President
• It wasn't Abraham Lincoln's strengths but the self-discipline with
which he used those strengths for the right purpose.
– Abraham Lincoln's journey from being just another politician to
becoming America's greatest president.
– A key to this transformation was how Lincoln, developed the
self-discipline to take one of his signature strengths—his
mastery of language—and used it to serve the interests of the
American people rather than his own.

8. • It would be doing injustice to his speech to endeavor to give a
sketch of it. It was replete with good sense, sound reasoning, and
irresistible argument, and spoken with that perfect command of
manner and matter which so eminently distinguishes the Western
orators.
--Lowell (Massachusetts) Daily Journal, Sept. 18, 1848
• We shall not undertake to tell what he said to the people, but we do
not hesitate to say that his arguments on the leading issue between
the parties were unanswerable; and we wish every man in the State
could hear the same.
--Paris (Illinois) Prairie Beacon, August 8, 1856
Quotes from
esteemed Columnists

9. • How any reasonable man can hear one of Mr. Lincoln's speeches
without being converted to Republicanism, is something that we
can't account for.
--Bloomington (Illinois) Pantagraph, September 3, 1858
• Mr. Lincoln spoke nearly two hours and we believe he would have
held his audience had he spoken all night.
--Dover (New Hampshire) Inquirer, March 8, 1860

10. Characteristics
• President Abraham Lincoln appointed the best and brightest to his
Cabinet, individuals who were also some of his greatest political
rivals.
• He demonstrated his leadership by pulling this group together into a
unique team that represented the greatest minds of his time

11. CHARACTERISTICS
Capacity to
Listen to
Different Points
of View
Ability to
Learn on
the Job
Willingness
to Share
Credit for
Success
Willingness
to Share
Blame for
Failure
Awareness
of Own
Weaknesses
Ability to
Control
Emotions
Know How
to Relax and
Replenish
Go Out into
Field &
Manage
Directly
Strength to
Adhere to
Fundamental
Goals
Ability to
Communicate
Goals &
Vision

12. Achievements
• Elected President of the United States of America in 1860
• 1st Republican President in American history
• Commander-In-Chief during the Civil War
• Issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863- a strong supporter
of the Thirteenth Amendment to formally end slavery in the U.S.
• Signed the Homestead Act which opened millions of acres of
government-owned land in the West

13. • Named in countless political campaigns as an influence on the
candidates' own views and political education
(recent-Barack Obama's election as President of the U.S.,2009)
• Only person to ever both hold a patent and serve as President of the
United States.
• Lincoln signed into law included the Homestead Act, the Morrill Act,
the National Banking Act, and a bill that chartered the first transcontinental
railroad
• Made Thanksgiving a standardized national holiday in 1863.
• Birthday celebrated as national holiday- President’s Day

14. President's recognizable
image appears on the
penny
The five dollar bill

15. The national landmark at Mt. Rushmore

16. Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. -1862

17. In this temple. As in the hearts of the people.
For whom he saved the union
The memory of Abraham Lincoln is destined Forever

18. "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.“
- Abraham Lincoln
(House Divided Speech, June 16, 1858)

19. Thank You...