Abraham Lincoln

Hello there. My name is Abraham Lincoln, and I want to tell you my story. It begins on a cold day, February 12, 1809, when I was born in a small, one-room log cabin in Kentucky. Our home had a dirt floor and a single window, but it was filled with love. My family didn't have much money, and we moved a few times, first to Indiana and then to Illinois, always looking for a better life on the frontier. I didn't get to go to school for very long—maybe a year in total if you added it all up. But oh, how I loved to learn. My stepmother encouraged my reading, and books became my dearest friends. At night, after a long day of working on the farm, I would read by the flickering light of our fireplace. Books about history and great leaders opened up a whole new world to me. They made me feel like I wasn't just a boy in a log cabin; they made me dream that I could one day do something important for my country.

As I grew taller—and I grew very tall indeed—I tried my hand at many jobs. I was a shopkeeper, a postmaster, and I even worked on a flatboat, traveling down the Mississippi River. Through all these jobs, I learned about people and how to work hard. But my heart was still set on learning. I borrowed books and studied law all by myself. It was difficult, but in 1836, I finally became a lawyer. I wanted to help people solve their problems fairly. People started calling me 'Honest Abe' because I always tried to do what was right, even if it was the harder path. It was during this time, in Springfield, Illinois, that I met a wonderful, smart woman named Mary Todd. We fell in love and got married, and she was my greatest supporter throughout my life. My work as a lawyer helping others made me realize I wanted to help my whole state, and then my whole country. That is what led me to enter politics.

In 1860, I was elected the 16th president of the United States. It should have been a very happy time, but it was also a very sad time for our nation. The country was deeply divided over the terrible issue of slavery. Some states believed it was right to own people, while others, like me, knew it was wrong and that our nation could not survive half-slave and half-free. Soon after I became president, a number of southern states decided to leave the United States, and in 1861, the Civil War began. It was the most difficult time in my life and in our country's history. My most important goal was to keep our great nation together. In 1863, I took a very important step and issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that all enslaved people in the rebelling states were to be freed. Later that year, I gave a speech at a battlefield in Gettysburg. I wanted to remind everyone that our country was built on the idea that 'all men are created equal.'

After four long years of fighting, the Civil War finally ended in 1865. The nation was saved, and we could begin the hard work of coming back together. My heart was filled with hope. I didn't want to punish the states that had left; I wanted to welcome them back 'with malice toward none, with charity for all.' I dreamed of a future where all Americans could live together in peace and freedom. Sadly, I would not get to see that future unfold. Just a few days after the war ended, in April 1865, my life was cut short. But the ideas I fought for lived on. Looking back, I hope my story reminds you that where you come from doesn't decide where you can go. I hope it shows you the importance of honesty, unity, and fighting for what is right, so that a 'government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.'