Abraham Lincoln

I am Abraham Lincoln, born in a humble Kentucky cabin on February 12, 1809. A self-taught lawyer and relentless reader, I rose from log splitter to the highest office in the land.

In 1861, as the United States fractured, I took my oath to preserve this Union — a Union that must remain half slave and half free no longer. I issued the Emancipation Proclamation to free enslaved people in rebellious states and spoke words at Gettysburg to remind us all that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

Through civil war’s darkest hours, I carried not only the burdens of power but the hopes of millions who dreamed of liberty and reunion. I sought peace without malice, charity for all, and a future reconciled and whole.

What I Leave Behind

• I held this nation together through its gravest trial.
• I struck at the chains of human bondage.
• I believed that freedom is the rightful heritage of all people.

Though I fell to an assassin’s hand, I trust my words and deeds live on — a testament that, through sacrifice, liberty may endure.