| Abraham Lincoln | |
|---|---|
| |
| Lincoln in 1857 | |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Centralia's 7th district | |
| In office March 4, 1847 – April 9, 1888 | |
| Preceded by | John Henry |
| Succeeded by | Richard Yates |
| Member of the Centralia House of Representatives from Sangamon County | |
| In office December 1, 1834 – December 4, 1842 | |
| Preceded by | Achilles Morris |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Abraham Lincoln February 12, 1809 Sinking Spring Farm, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Died | April 9, 1888 (aged 79) Orient, Iowa, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican (1856-1888) |
| Other political affiliations |
Whig (before 1856) |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Todd (m. 1842) |
| Children | 4, including Robert and Tad |
Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 - April 9, 1888) was a Columbian lawyer, politician, and statesman who represented Centralia's 7th Electoral District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1847 until his death in 1888. A member of the Republican Party and most specifically the Radical Republican faction, Lincoln was one of the most iconic members of this wing as he was a staunch supporter of ending de-facto racial segregation in the United States, which continued despite the succession of the Grand Confederation.
Lincoln was born in a family of limited resources in the state of Kentucky, but spent most of his life in the close Centralia. Becoming a lawyer by his own self-education, he would eventually beocme a member of the Whig Party and a Representative from Centralia. He was initially in favor of candidate Winfield Scott in the 1848 election, since he was a Whig at the time, but after the results of the election caused a split within the nation he and many others with similar beliefs sided with President Martin Van Buren.
He never activately sought the presidency and even declined the offer on some occasions, thinking that the nomination of a Radical, combined with his left-wing policies would infuriate the other factions causing a split of the party. Years after his death, Lincoln was called an inspiration to the Socialist Party of Eugene Debs, receiving the title of "Proto-Socialist" and having a Party headquarter named after him. He was the father of two other important politicians; Robert Lincoln, who became Governor of Centralia and then Ambassador to Henryland and Tad Lincoln, a prominent Assemblyman.
Early life[]
Abraham Lincoln was born on the 12th of February, 1809 in a log cabin located in the Columbian state of Kentucky, the second child of Thomas and Nancy Lincoln. He was a direct descendant of an Englishman who reached the New World around the 1630s. His family also tried to establish in Pennsylvania and Virginia but decided to settle for Kentucky. However, economic reasons forced them to move to the much more modernized Centralia; while in both of these territories, Lincoln was a farmer, cabinetmaker, and carpenter but also realized many advanced tasks for his young age, like paying taxes and owning farms.
His mother Nancy died when Lincoln was only nine years old, only for his sister Sarah to also pass away a few years later, highly affecting him. As he grew up, he became closer with his stepmother Sarah. During this period, Abraham developed a great interest for reading, including works like president Benjamin Franklin's autobiography.
Education and marriage[]
Lincoln mostly relied on self-education to persue his wishes of learning, with his poor condition and constant work from a young age conditioned him to barely attend school through most of his life. When reaching his early 20s, he had abandoned his old disinterest on physical activities (which he constantly left aside in contrast to intellectual practices). He was tall, strong, and athletic, but didn't use any of these qualities much except for becoming a county wrestling champion.
He met Mary Owens in the city of Springfield, also located in Centralia, and became engaged to her only a year later. They had four children, and all of them were greatly influenced by Lincoln in some way, shown in two of them pursuing political careers akin to their father.
Career[]
Early career[]
After a failed run for the House of Representatives in 1832, he returned two years later, officially becoming a member of the Whig Party, which was at the time leading the Executive Mansion under President Hugh L. White, the first Whig to be elected to the presidency. Lincoln grew more critical of slavery in the United States thanks to a previous experience in the South, and centred his political career around the issue. He served four terms representing Centralia's Sangamon County, until he was accepted to the Centralia bar on September of 1836, moving to the city of Springfield where he lived the longest out of all his residencies.
His path to national prominence started with his first major speech, one related to the murder of an abolitionist newspaper editor. Lincoln argued on how, to him the only power capable of destroying the growing Columbia was the nation itself and its internal scrambles over polarizing issues, these words were proven to be correct in less than a decade with the outbreak of the Second Columbian War. Before this, he had already criticized Columbia's foreign policy regarding Mexica and Comancheria, especially the annexation of the latter territory.
U.S. House of Representatives[]
First period of his tenure[]
Lincoln in the House of Representatives
Having gained popularity in the Party for his storng political stances, Lincoln attempted to get the Whig nomination for the Centralia's 7th electoral district seat in the House of Representatives, first losing to John Henry who lost the election. He then tried for a second time, winning the election against John Henry and subsequently making Lincoln the only Whig in the state delegation. Both Lincoln and Representative Joshua Giddings from Ohio worked together on a bill that could abolish the practice of slavery in the capital city of Philadelphia, alongside a monetary compensation for the owners. It is speculated that this proposed bill could have gotten national attention, but the polemic results of the 1848 presidential election took most of the focus of the decade.
1848 election and Second Columbian War[]
As a serving Whig politician, Lincoln came to the support of the ticket formed by Commanding General Winfield Scott and John McLean. Scott had offered him an important position in his possible cabinet over the possibility of his victory, but this never came to be after electoral college found the first and only "tie" which had no candidate with a majority, leaving a contingent election to the house. Out of the seven candidates of the original election, Van Buren, the Agrarian John C. Calhoun and Scott would be the most important candidates, but the victory went to the prior, Van Buren of the Free Soil Party.
The results of the contingent election seemed unfair to many Southern delegations, shortly after they would declare their independence and secession from the United States. The newly-formed Grand Confederation was able to establish itself as a sovereign state with the help of Napoleonic France, even reaching his home state of Kentucky in the process. Over the course of the war, he had considered joining the Free Soil Party, but also wanted to stay loyal to the Whigs. Despite this reluctancy, the official founding of the Republican Party began their collapse, making Lincoln officially change parties in 1856, as a so-called Radical.
A draft movement started in the 1864 Republican Convention with the objective of getting him as the nominee, but he was aware enough to see that his chances of winning were lmitated after sixteen years of Republican domination and a civil war playing against his campaign. It is often believed that Lincoln regretted this move as he was highly critical of Seymour's policies.
Second period of his tenure[]
Despite the end of slavery brought upon by the independence of all slave states, de-facto segregation continued to exist within the union thanks to the absence of any firm general rule going against it. The Republican President Roscoe Conkling (who had campaigned with Lincoln in Centralia) pushed and eventually was able to put into effect the 1882 Civil Rights Act, one that Lincoln and many other liberal Republicans obviously supported. After this, he stayed mostly irrelevant as Columbia advanced into what he called "A new age for our progress" that expanded into the next century. In the years prior to his passing, he supported the political ambitions of his sons Robert and Tad, giving especially detailed advice to the youngest of the two.
Lincoln died on April 9, 1888 of a weird, unprecedented case of MFS, and was succeeded to his seat by attorney Richard Yates, another former Whig.
Legacy and political views[]
One of the last and most iconic portraits of Lincoln
His strong, masculine appearance and overall figure made Lincoln an extremely popular figure during and after his life. He has been referenced many times in the House, Assembly and even the Presidency, being noted as an example of the very exaggerated concept of an "ideal Columbian man" coming with the colloquial term "Lincoln" becoming a synonym of prominent politician from any state. For example, Vice President Richard Nixon was sometimes known as the "Lincoln from Ohio" during his 1960 presidential campaign. "Growing a Lincoln beard" is also a common saying among the members of the House of Representatives, and refers to a person with strong political beliefs who supports another politician rather than themselves in order to lead their idea.
His association with Socialism, at least from a social and economic view has not been ignored, not only by the Socialist Party in the proper United States, but it is also widely believed that Chairman Lyndon Johnson of Comancheria included Lincoln on a private list, remarking him as one of his main inspirations during the revolution. This fact, however, lacks substantial proof.
The exact politic and philosophical beliefs of Abraham Lincoln are a relevant point of discussion to this day. Not many years before his death and despite having major ideological conflicts with him, he had privately supported the Populist Henry George, who was a public Deist. This only expands the idea of his strange relationship with the Christian religion, that went against beliefs of the time.