LINCOLN, ABRAHAM. - American statesman, born at Big South Fork (Kentucky) on 12 Feb. 1809, died in Washington on 15 Apr. 1865. Of very humble origins, he spent a wandering and adventurous youth, during which he worked at various trades to earn a living. Self-taught, he became a lawyer in the State of Illinois in 1837 and soon distinguished himself for his integrity and skill. He entered political life in 1832 and for several years served as a deputy in the federal Congress.
After a period of private activity, he returned to politics in 1854, prompted by the bitter conflict between slavery and abolitionists, which in the following decade was to create a tragic division within the Confederation. He opposed measures aimed at extending slavery to the new States being formed, and to the economic rationale on which the slaveholding policy of the Southern States was essentially based (for them, slavery was not only a deeply rooted institution but also the foundation of their economy), he opposed a humanitarian principle and the democratic ideal, which demanded that, if not the immediate abolition of this scourge, at least its containment.
The abolitionist currents gave rise to the Republican Party, which, drawing its adherents from the Northern States, opposed the Democratic Party, dominated by the Southern States. Lincoln joined it, initially suggesting a policy of moderation. Once he became its leader, his victory in the presidential elections of 1860 provoked the rebellion of the seven Southern States, which founded an independent Confederation. Despite Lincoln’s efforts to resolve the crisis peacefully and preserve the unity of the country, the growing tension made the outbreak of civil or succession war inevitable. Lincoln initially entered the war in the name of national unity. Only later, also to render European recognition of the Southern Confederation unsustainable (France and England favored the secessionist States with the aim of permanently dividing the United States), did he transform the conflict into a struggle against slavery and, on 1 Jan. 1863, issue the proclamation of emancipation for the four and a half million Negroes then in the United States. Re-elected president in 1864, he was fatally shot on 14 Apr. 1865 by a fanatical secessionist, just as the war was nearing a victorious conclusion.
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