Abraham Lincoln: Martyr - [Part 1 of 3].

Abraham Lincoln:
Martyr - [Part 1 of 3].

«The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships».

Abraham Lincoln - 1809-1865, 16th U.S. President.

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 Abraham Lincoln: Martyr - [Part 1 of 3].

VOA Learning English presents America’s Presidents.

Today we are talking about Abraham Lincoln.

He was the 16th president of the United States. Many Americans consider him
one of country’s greatest leaders.

Yet people alive when Lincoln was elected in 1860 would probably be surprised
by modern-day opinions about him. He had little formal education or
government experience.

During the presidential campaign, critics made fun of his appearance and his
simple way of talking. They warned that he was not very intelligent and would
harm the nation’s image.

Some of his opponents – especially in Southern states – had even bigger

concerns. They were afraid Lincoln would use the power of the federal
government to end slavery in their states.

They were right.

Early life

Abraham Lincoln was born in the frontier state of Kentucky. His family was
very poor and had a simple home: a log cabin.

Lincoln had to support his parents and his sister by working, so he rarely went
to school. Instead, he taught himself by reading books.

Eventually, he became a lawyer in the state of Illinois.

As a young man, Lincoln was known for several qualities. He was tall and thin.
He was very strong – his neighbors remembered him cutting down trees. And
he was honest. The people he defended in court called him “Honest Abe.”

In time, Lincoln was elected to the Illinois General Assembly, the state’s
legislature. He also served one term as a congressman in the U.S. House of
Representatives.

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 Abraham Lincoln: Martyr - [Part 1 of 3].

But he was not popular there. Voters did not like his opposition to the country’s
war with Mexico.

So Lincoln withdrew from politics and turned his attention to his family. He
had married a Southern belle named Mary Todd in 1842. They had four sons.
But two died when they were very young.

Mary Todd Lincoln in 1846 or 1847

Lincoln also developed his legal career representing railroad companies. Some
people thought he might become the best railroad lawyer in the country. But
that is not what happened.

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 Abraham Lincoln: Martyr - [Part 1 of 3].

Election of 1860

In the 1850s, Lincoln returned to national politics. The division over the issue of
slavery was deepening. Lincoln was not an anti-slavery activist, an abolitionist.
But he did not support the country’s policies on slavery.

Lincoln believed slavery violated the American Declaration of Independence,

which said all men had the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

To be clear, Lincoln did not believe that black people should have the same
rights as white U.S. citizens. But he did not agree that one person should own
other people, or profit from their work while they earned nothing and were held
captive.

About 4 million enslaved people lived in the U.S. in 1860.

Lincoln decided to compete in elections for a seat in the U.S. Senate. He was
chosen as the candidate of a new, anti-slavery party. Members called themselves
Republicans.

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 Abraham Lincoln: Martyr - [Part 1 of 3].

During the election campaign, Lincoln famously discussed the issue of slavery
in a series of debates with Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party’s candidate.

Lincoln’s words moved some voters. But they did not earn him enough votes to
get elected.

So, while Douglas took the seat in the Senate, Lincoln prepared to run for
president. Lincoln said that, if he were elected, he would not expand slavery to
new territories in the country’s west. But he promised not to interfere with
slavery in the Southern states, where it already existed.

Voters in Southern, slave-holding states did not trust Lincoln. Not a single
Southern state supported him in the election of 1860.

But he won anyway. The support of anti-slavery Northerners gave him the
presidency.

In answer, seven Southern states withdrew from the Union. Four more later
joined them. These states formed a new government, called the Confederate
States of America – or, the Confederacy.

Confederate officials chose their own president and wrote their own
constitution, which permitted each state control over its own laws – especially
laws that protected slavery. Confederate officials said they no longer recognized
the power of the U.S. federal government, or its chief executive.

As that chief executive, Lincoln would have to decide what to do.

Civil War

President Lincoln’s first test came a little more than a month after he was sworn-
in.

The event involved Fort Sumter, a federal military base on an island off the coast
of South Carolina. Soldiers on the base needed food. Lincoln said he would send
some by ship.

But Confederate officials considered the fort part of South Carolina, which
belonged to the Confederacy. They demanded that the Union soldiers leave the
fort.

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 Abraham Lincoln: Martyr - [Part 1 of 3].

But Union forces and the U.S. president ignored the Confederates’ demands.

As promised, Lincoln sent the supply ships. As expected, Confederate soldiers

attacked. A day and a half later, the fort’s Union soldiers surrendered.

The clash did not last long, and no one was killed in the fighting. But the battle
at Fort Sumter marked the official beginning of hostilities between the Union
and the Confederacy.

Lincoln immediately took action to answer the loss of Fort Sumter. He called on
state militias for troops and asked for a special meeting of Congress.

The president was careful not to ask Congress to make an official declaration of
war, in part because he did not want to recognize the Confederacy as a separate
nation. Instead, he called the Southern states’ opposition a rebellion.

However, the conflict between the Southern Confederacy and the Northern
Union was a civil war.

Neither side expected the fighting to last very long – a few weeks or maybe
months. Instead, the Civil War lasted four and a half years.

Most of the major battles took place near Washington, DC, in the states of
Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Soldiers and civilians also clashed in the
west, in Tennessee, as well as in the southern states of Mississippi, South
Carolina, and Georgia.

But the war involved the entire country. At least 4 million men fought in it.
Among the soldiers were African-American and Native-American men.

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 Abraham Lincoln: Martyr - [Part 1 of 3].

More than two percent of the population died

in the Civil War.

The conflict divided families. Brothers, fathers and sons fought against each
other.

Women in both the North and South also supported the war effort. They cooked
meals, made and repaired clothing for the troops, served as nurses and cared
for the soldiers. Both white and African-American women also took over the
work of men who had left to fight.

And more than 620,000 men died -- recent scholarship says as many as 750,000.
The Civil War remains the bloodiest war in American history.

And it changed the country. The war radically affected American politics,
economics, and society.

Abraham Lincoln was the U.S. president through all of it.

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 Abraham Lincoln: Martyr - [Part 1 of 3].

Next week's article will discuss Lincoln’s presidency and legacy.

I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.

Kelly Jean Kelly wrote this story for Learning English. George Grow was the
editor.

You can take the audio (mp3) from my Personal Page, or the next url:

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/americas-presidents-abraham-
lincoln/3884227.html

Lazos Increíbles.

M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz.

The Books, and a Mexico with Competence of Integration in the World.

Visa & Passport of the 21st Century.

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 Abraham Lincoln: Martyr - [Part 1 of 3].

Discover The VOA- ERD Collection for Your English.

«Aves», «Water», «Beauty», «Perfection» - «Salutation of God».

Visit my Personal Page. Get ahead.

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 Abraham Lincoln: Martyr - [Part 1 of 3].

Know the Project: Books of English, from English 1 to 5, for all

the CBTIS of the United Mexican States.

The Students can do the organization as they like it; but

absolutely, the Responses are written by hand, and the Works
are Presented by Groups with a Maximum of 5 persons.

«I formulated a project for the CBTIS (Technological Industrial and of Services Center of
Bachelor Degree) 107 of Tuxtepec, Oaxaca, México consisting in giving to the Library of this
Institution with five volumes of English language, of my authorship. A book for each semester,
from the first English book to fifth English book (according to the plan of studies in this regard
of the CBTIS). At no cost to the Institution, because this is a donation (in the staff, I solve my
expenses of the project with income of my employment as a professor that I would be in this
CBTIS).
One of the major advantages of this project is to solve the need of the student of
spending in books of English language because the books will be at your complete disposal into
the student community in the Library of the institution.
Afterward, in an immediate subsequent phase of this project is that among the student
community of this CBTIS and all the CBTIS of the United Mexican States will have these 5
volumes of English language by means of a page of Google; read it, neither cost nor restriction
to obtain them.
Well, as a last note, I must say that these books will have the format of 'workbook'.
This, as an intelligent work with foundations and then their respective exercises to resolve, into
a concurrent process».
M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz.
The Books, and a Mexico with Competence of Integration in the World.
Visa & Passport of the 21st Century. - Lazos Increíbles.

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 Abraham Lincoln: Martyr - [Part 1 of 3].

Links, for Your Preparation.

Just remember, when you think all is lost, the future remains.
Dr. Robert H. Goddard.
Visit: https://sites.google.com/site/mcenriqueruizdiaz/
Also: https://sites.google.com/site/mccenriqueruizdiaz/
And: https://mcenriqueruizdiaz.blogspot.mx/
Get Instruments for your Training.

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