Abraham Lincoln

1. Experiences/Influences
Abraham Lincoln’s first goal was to become president. The first step he took was that when he was 23, he decided to run for Illinois state legislature, but was defeated. After 2 more years, Lincoln ran for state legislature again. This time he placed second and was one of the four elected to the Illinois House of Representatives. Lincoln was also advised to take up the study of law. He accepted, and had been elected to a second term in state legislature. He also took a job as junior partner in John Todd Stuart’s law office.
Soon after, Abe had an eye for the Congress. In 1846, Lincoln was elected to a seat at the Congress. But his 2-year term was a disappointment. No real action had been taken. He returned to full-time study of the law.
Before Lincoln would become president, however, another problem was rising: slavery. It was something Lincoln disliked, and became another goal for him: to abolish slavery. He held 7 debates with his long-time rival, Stephen A. Douglas, for the Senate. Lincoln lost the election, but the debates had catapulted him to national prominence. He was even mentioned as a possible president, an idea he took up. Later, he ran for it, taking the advice of Grace Bedell, who suggested he should grow a beard to boost his chances of winning. On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president.
Now his only goals were about slavery and the departing South. All compromises Lincoln tried to make failed, and the South was ready for war. Finally, it started when President Lincoln sent supplies to Fort Sumter. He set yet another goal: to end the war as quickly as possible.
It wasn’t easy. Lincoln could not find suitable generals.
Meanwhile, President Lincoln came up with an idea for the slavery problem. He wrote an Emancipation Proclamation, stating that if the rebels didn’t return by January 1, all the remaining Confederate slaves would be freed “thenceforward and forever.” However, the rebels did not return to the Union by the deadline. The Southern slaves were freed in America.
Many slaves joined the Union, but Lincoln still couldn’t find a good general. It went on, until he met Ulysses S. Grant, the general he had been looking for. He appointed Grant general in chief of all Union armies.
Down in Georgia, General Sherman finally pushed his way to Atlanta, setting the city in flames. Soon, after a string of Union victories, the South surrendered. 5 days later, Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth, so ending the Civil War was the last major goal the president would ever accomplish.

2. Character Trait
I think Abraham Lincoln was a confident person. It takes confidence to deliver supplies when you know it might start a war and to keep plowing on without surrendering even when everything is going downhill. During a debate, when a rival called Lincoln “two-faced,” Lincoln responded, “I leave it to my audience. If I had another face, do you think I’d wear this one?” He learned to laugh at his looks, and brushed aside any insults or ridicules in the news paper, though he kept pieces which praised him. Lincoln was also a very confident man ever since he was young, because he would run for important positions and (over time) was not scared of public speeches and debates. Lincoln even ignored the multiple death threats that arrived in his mail every day after the war, believing that they were only meant to scare him, until he was shot at Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865. One thing he was renowned for is his jokes, which he told as greetings, and made him a very confident person. We know him as an American hero who freed the slaves by starting a war, which took confidence. And it also made Lincoln very confident when he declared the Emancipation Proclamation, making the slaves forever free, although there was a risk Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, and Delaware, who were loyal to the Union, but held slaves, would secede. All this made him very confident, and also thoughtful and caring, because the main point of the Civil War was about slavery and keeping the United States together, and you could see that he cared for people and the nation.

3. Personal Successes or Contributions to our society
The thing Abraham Lincoln did that he was most renowned is that he freed the slaves of the South. This may have changed our lives a great deal, for if the Emancipation Proclamation had never been announced, why, people might not realize the cruelty of slavery for a while, and about the only place you would see blacks are in the South plantations for a time. He also brought the North and South together, when the South had seceded. If he didn’t, you might need a passport to get into states like Texas or Georgia, instead of just airplane tickets or car drives. Lincoln had changed the lives of whites and blacks the same. Had he not come along, you would most likely still see WANTED posters everywhere on stores and buildings, and the sound of a whip would still break through the air of the South much longer than 1862. Who knows? Maybe the act would spread throughout the entire United States, to Mexico, and even Canada, if not stopped as early! But no. The United States is still completely united, and slavery has become illegal. Abraham Lincoln has changed the course of American history.

4. Reader’s Personal Reflections
What I found admirable about Lincoln is how he could take action and gain confidence rapidly. No insults would do more than slightly rile him, he just went on to end the Civil War, halt slavery, and run for any position he thought he might like. I don’t know if I can truly ever achieve that, but all the same, his life taught me some lessons. It is all right to speak up for things that others have another opinion of, especially now we have freedom of speech, for you have a right to feel how you feel, and say what you want to say. This is America. And also, laugh at your imperfections.


-By Hannah Wang