Here is a document of Abraham Lincoln:)

1. Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln warnedthe Southin his InauguralAddress:"In your hands,my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, andnot in mine, is
the momentousissue ofcivil war. Thegovernment will not assailyou....Youhave no oath registeredin Heaven to destroythe
government, while I shall have themost solemn one topreserve, protectand defend it."
Lincoln thoughtsecessionillegal, and waswilling to use forceto defend Federal law and theUnion. When Confederate
batteries fired on Fort Sumterand forcedits surrender,he called on the statesfor 75,000 volunteers.Four more slave states
joined the Confederacybut fourremained within the Union. TheCivil War hadbegun.
Theson of aKentucky frontiersman,Lincoln hadto struggle fora living and forlearning. Five monthsbefore receiving his
party's nomination forPresident, he sketchedhis life:
"I wasborn Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County,Kentucky. My parentswere both born in Virginia, of undistinguishedfamilies--
second families,perhapsI shouldsay. My mother,whodied in my tenth year, wasof afamily of thename of Hanks....My
father... removed fromKentucky to ...Indiana,in my eighth year....It wasa wild region, with many bears and otherwild
animals still in the woods.There I grew up.... Of coursewhen I came ofage I did notknow much. Still somehow,I couldread,
write, and cipher...but thatwas all."
Lincoln made extraordinary effortstoattain knowledge while working on a farm,splitting rails for fences,and keeping store
at New Salem, Illinois. He wasa captain in the Black Hawk War, spent eight years in the Illinois legislature, androde the
circuit of courtsformany years.His law partnersaid of him,"His ambition was a little engine thatknew norest."
He married Mary Todd,and they had fourboys, only one of whomlived to maturity. In1858 Lincoln ran againstStephen A.
Douglasfor Senator.He lost theelection, but in debating withDouglas he gained a nationalreputation thatwon him the
Republican nomination forPresident in 1860.
As President,he built theRepublican Party into a strong nationalorganization. Further, he rallied mostof the northern
Democratsto the Union cause.On January1,1863, he issuedthe Emancipation Proclamationthat declaredforever free those
slaves within the Confederacy.
Lincoln never let the world forgetthat the Civil War involved aneven larger issue.Thishe stated mostmovingly in
dedicating the military cemetery at Gettysburg: "that we herehighly resolve thatthese dead shall nothave died in vain--that

2. this nation,under God,shall have a new birth of freedom--andthat government of thepeople, by the people,forthe people,
shall not perishfromthe earth."
Lincoln won re-election in 1864, asUnion military triumphsheralded an end tothe war. Inhis planning forpeace, the
President wasflexible andgenerous,encouraging Southernersto lay down their armsand join speedily in reunion.
Thespirit that guided him wasclearly thatof his SecondInauguralAddress,now inscribed onone wall of the Lincoln
Memorial in Washington,D. C.:"With malice toward none; withcharity forall; with firmness in the right,as God gives usto
see the right,let usstrive on to finishthe work we are in; to bind up thenation's wounds...."
On GoodFriday, April 14,1865, Lincoln was assassinatedatFord's Theatre in Washington by JohnWilkes Booth,an actor,
who somehowthoughthe washelping the South.Theopposite wasthe result,for with Lincoln's death,the possibility of
peace with magnanimity died.