American Civil War

Hello there. My name is Abraham Lincoln, and I want to tell you about a time when our country, the United States of America, was in great trouble. I have always loved this nation. I think of it as one big, beautiful house where a large family lives together. But when I was alive, our family was arguing about something very important, and it was threatening to tear our house apart. The problem was an awful practice called slavery, which meant that some people in our country were allowed to own other people as property. The states in the North believed this was wrong, while many states in the South wanted it to continue. Our house was divided. In the year 1860, I was elected president. My deepest wish was to be the person who could fix the cracks in our home and keep our family together. But the argument was too strong. Soon after, some of the southern states decided they didn't want to be part of the family anymore. They broke away to form their own country. I knew I couldn't let our great house crumble. So, in 1861, a terrible war began, a war to decide if our nation would remain one, or be split in two forever.

Those were the longest and saddest years of my life. It pained my heart to see Americans fighting against other Americans. It was like watching brothers on a playground, so angry they had forgotten they were family. Our soldiers in the North, who we called the Union, wore blue uniforms. The soldiers from the South, called the Confederacy, wore gray. The sounds of battle were deafening, with cannons roaring like thunder and smoke filling the sky. For a long time, it felt like the fighting would never end. We had difficult days and lost many brave men. But then, in the summer of 1863, a great and terrible battle was fought in a small town called Gettysburg. The Union soldiers won that battle, and it was a turning point. It gave us the hope and strength we needed to carry on. Around that same time, I did something I believed was one of the most important things I would ever do. I wrote a document called the Emancipation Proclamation. I knew our country could never be truly whole or truly free as long as some people were enslaved. This proclamation was a promise that if the Union won the war, millions of men, women, and children held in slavery would be forever free. Suddenly, the war was about something even bigger than just keeping our house together. It was now a fight for freedom for everyone.

Finally, after four long years, the war ended in the spring of 1865. The cannons fell silent, and our country was whole again. I felt such a great sense of relief, but I also knew our work was far from over. Our house was still standing, but it was badly damaged and needed to be repaired. We had to learn how to be a family again, to heal the anger and sadness that the war had caused. We also had to make sure our promise of freedom was kept. To do this, we added the 13th Amendment to our Constitution, which is our country’s book of rules. This amendment made slavery illegal everywhere in the United States, for good. A few years earlier, at Gettysburg, I gave a short speech and said that the soldiers had fought so that our nation might have a 'new birth of freedom.' That’s what I hoped for our future. I wanted our country, which was built on the powerful idea that all people are created equal, to live up to that promise. Looking back, I want you to remember that even when we disagree, we are all part of one American family. We must always work to be kind, fair, and understanding with one another to keep our house strong and united.