Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States. He was born in 1809 in Kentucky and moved to Indiana as a child. Lincoln began his political career in 1834 when he was elected to the Illinois General Assembly. He went on to become a lawyer and help form the Republican party. Lincoln was elected president in 1860 on the Republican ticket. As president, he led the country during the Civil War and signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves. Tragically, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, just after the end of the Civil War.