1832

Finding his Way

Lincoln came into his own in the river village of New Salem, Illinois.
After arriving in 1831, he worked several jobs, including store clerk, surveyor, and postmaster. His first major step toward leadership, however, came when he volunteered to fight in the 1832 Black Hawk War—a state and federal effort to forcibly remove indigenous people trying to reclaim their land—and his company elected him captain. Lincoln later recalled that election “gave me more pleasure than any I have had since.” In this document, Lincoln discharges a fellow militiaman, fulfilling one of his last duties as captain.

During his Black Hawk War service, Lincoln also ran for the Illinois House of Representatives. He lost that election, but ran again in 1834, won, and eventually served four terms. Lincoln’s quiet ambition and the connections he would make in the legislature provided the foundation for his rise to national leadership.

1858

Challenging Douglas

The national debate over slavery’s expansion took center stage in the 1850s. Lincoln’s beloved Whig Party collapsed over the issue and Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas ascended as a major figure in the Democratic Party. These forces pushed Lincoln to publicly adopt a more anti-slavery view and eventually join the new Republican Party.

Lincoln’s 1858 attempt to unseat Douglas happened in the midst of this broader conflict and became a national story. Over a series of seven debates—a unique campaign feature at the time—he and Douglas fought over the legal nature of slavery, the wisdom of Douglas’s policies, and the place of Black people in American society. Lincoln wrote these notes before the third debate at Jonesboro, reflecting on the Kansas statehood crisis and the legality of slavery’s expansion. Lincoln did not win Douglas’s seat but gained a national reputation that positioned him for a presidential run.

1860

Lincoln’s Platform

The national slavery debate peaked with Lincoln’s 1860 presidential campaign. He ran against three other candidates—two from the fracturing Democratic Party and one from the “Constitutional Union” party specifically focused on fostering sectional compromise. Lincoln and the Republicans ran on a platform of preventing slavery’s expansion, but opponents frequently accused them of being abolitionists seeking slavery’s immediate end.

In this letter, candidate Lincoln walks a fine line to resist being characterized as an abolitionist. He notes that he has never publicly called for the immediate end of slavery, nor was it included in the Republican Party platform. While this surely persuaded some moderate Northerners, many white Southerners remained committed to preventing a Republican administration from ever assuming the presidency. With Lincoln’s election, secessionists made good on their promise to treasonously try to form an independent, slaveholding nation.

1861

Willie Writes Home

Only one of Abraham and Mary Lincoln’s four sons lived to adulthood. By the time they reached Washington, they had already lost one child, Eddy. The war brought loss and hardship to all Americans, and the Lincolns were not exempted. This letter, for instance, vividly shows 10-year-old Willie coming face-to-face with the war’s awful cost. He writes to his neighbor Henry Remann back in Springfield that family friend Colonel Elmer Ellsworth has been killed.

Ellsworth was an American celebrity, and the boys would have met him during the brief time he studied law under Lincoln. Tragically, he became the first Union officer to die in the Civil War, and Willie is telling the story to Henry as best he can. Sadly, Willie himself had less than a year to live, eventually succumbing to illness in the White House.

1863

Forever Free

The Emancipation Proclamation bears Lincoln’s name, but it was the product of decades of struggle by numerous people. African Americans, in particular, fought hard to end slavery and were among the first to recognize the Civil War’s potential for emancipation. They pressured Northern soldiers and politicians in numerous ways, especially by fleeing their enslavement to assist the Union war effort.

By the summer of 1862, those efforts and the Confederacy’s stubborn defense had convinced many Northerners that it was time to directly assault slavery. Lincoln was prominent among them and began conceiving of an Emancipation Proclamation, which would take effect on January 1, 1863. It freed only enslaved people in areas under rebellion and opened the door for Black enlistment in the U.S. military. The original document burned in the 1871 Chicago Fire, but this is one of 48 copies Lincoln signed to raise funds for Northern soldiers.

African American Soldiers

A group of African American Civil War soldiers.

Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

1863

A New Birth of Freedom

Almost a year after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, Lincoln traveled to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to dedicate its new National Cemetery. The largest battle ever fought in North America had been waged there from July 1-3, 1863, and Lincoln stood on that same ground on November 19 to try and give meaning to the bloodshed. He spoke with humility about the sacrifices made there but resolved that those losses would help foster a “new birth of freedom” in America.

It became his most famous political speech and perhaps the most well-known in recorded history. The original handwritten text has been lost, but Lincoln wrote five copies over the rest of his life. This is one of those original copies, acquired by the State of Illinois in 1944 partly through pennies and nickels donated by schoolchildren.

1865

Mary Takes Charge

By the end of the Civil War, Mary had lost two of her four sons and witnessed the murder of her husband. She was emotionally shattered by these losses and carried that burden for the rest of her life. This letter finds Mary in Chicago only a few months after the president’s death, writing to Governor Richard J. Oglesby fervently advocating for Lincoln’s tomb to be placed in Springfield’s Oak Ridge Cemetery.

Mary ultimately succeeded in those efforts, arguing against sites in major American cities, like Chicago and Washington. Although Mary herself did not return to Springfield until much later in life, she believed Lincoln’s body belonged there not just because the town had fostered his political rise but also because Eddy Lincoln was already buried there. It was one of the many ways she worked to protect her husband’s legacy.