Facts, information and articles about the life of Abraham Lincoln, 16th President Of the United States Abraham Lincoln Facts Born February 12, 1809, Hodgenville, Kentucky Died April 15, 1865, Petersen House, Washington, D.C. prof Presidential Term March 4, 1861 - April 15, 1865 Spouse Mary Todd Lincoln Major Accomplishments Served Four Terms in Illinois Legislature [...]

Lincoln warned the South in his Inaugural Address: "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you.... You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it."

Journey through the life of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th U.S. president, on Biography.com. Learn more about his roles in the Civil War and the Great Emancipation.

Abraham Lincoln, a self-taught Illinois lawyer and legislator with a reputation as an eloquent opponent of slavery, shocked many when he overcame several more prominent contenders to win the Republican Party's nomination for president in 1860. His election that November pushed several Southern states to secede by the time of his inauguration in March 1861, and the Civil War began barely a month later.