Abraham Lincoln Gettysburg Address Engraved Commemorative Card – American Bank Note Company

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky, and spent much of his childhood on the American frontier in Indiana. Although he received little formal schooling, he educated himself through extensive reading and developed a lasting interest in law, government, and public affairs. After moving to Illinois as a young man, Lincoln worked in several occupations before becoming an attorney and establishing a successful legal practice. He served in the Illinois legislature and one term in the United States House of Representatives, gradually gaining national recognition for his opposition to the expansion of slavery. In 1860, he was elected the sixteenth president of the United States.

Lincoln assumed office as the nation descended into the Civil War, and his presidency became devoted to preserving the Union. In 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation and delivered the Gettysburg Address, expressing the principles of equality and representative government in one of the most enduring speeches in American history. He supported the constitutional abolition of slavery and was elected to a second presidential term in 1864. Shortly after the war’s decisive conclusion, Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theatre in Washington on April 14, 1865, and died the following morning. His leadership during the country’s greatest national crisis and his commitment to liberty established him as one of the most consequential presidents in American history.