As President, he built the Republican Party into a strong national organization. Further, he rallied most of the northern Democrats to the Union cause. On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy.

From 1834 to 1840, Abraham Lincoln occupied a seat in the Illinois state legislature. He also practiced law in Illinois during the 1830s and '40s, and in that time he became one of the state's most renowned lawyers. He first entered national politics in 1847 while serving a single term in Congress.

Poverty, farm chores, hard work, and reading by the light of the fireplace dominated young Abe's life until he was seventeen, when he found work on a ferryboat. Enjoying the river, he built a flatboat two years later and ran a load of farm produce down the Mississippi River to New Orleans.

Lincoln was the first president not born in one of the original thirteen states. Lincoln remains the tallest person to serve as president, at 6' 4". Lincoln remains the only president to hold a patent. His invention was a device for lifting boats over obstructions in the water.