He won the Civil War, signed the Emancipation Proclamation and delivered one of the most famous addresses in American history - and today is the 200th anniversary of his birth.

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Ky. His family eventually moved to Indiana, where he was raised with little formal education.

"When I came of age, I did not know much," Lincoln wrote in one of his autobiographies. "Still, somehow, I could read, write, and cipher ... but that was all."

Lincoln provided his own education, studying military history and reading Shakespeare and the Bible. Eventually he moved to Illinois, where he practiced law, became a member of the state legislature, was elected as a U.S. representative and lost a U.S. Senate race.

Matt Thompson, a junior from Ephrata, Wash., said Lincoln's ability to overcome obstacles stands out to him.

"I think that's sort of an inspirational thing for everyone to see," he said.

Running on the Republican ticket, Lincoln won the 1860 presidential election. By the time he took office in 1861, seven southern states had seceded from the U.S. over the issue of slavery, forming the Confederate States of America.

In the weeks before his inauguration, a Confederate ship opened fire on the Union's Fort Sumter, sparking what would become the bloodiest conflict in American history.

BYU Political Science Professor Byron Daynes said Lincoln's greatest contribution to history was his winning of the Civil War.

"He was able to succeed in response to the greatest crisis we'd ever had," he said.

Daynes said while Lincoln overstepped his Constitutional bounds in many of the decisions he made as president, "there is no question that everything he did was in light of trying to hold the nation together."

One of Lincoln's strong points was making difficult choices, said Stephanie Davis, a freshman from Salt Lake City.

"Some of the decisions he had to make were not easy," she said. "They were controversial, so there were people that he was going to upset."

Lincoln's wartime decisions included signing the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. The proclamation granted freedom to all slaves in the Confederacy that were not already under northern control.

Later that year, while dedicating a battlefield cemetery near Gettysburg, Pa., Lincoln gave what presidential historian Michael Beschloss said remains among the greatest speeches any president has ever given.

"We cannot dedicate - we cannot consecrate - we cannot hallow - this ground," Lincoln said. "The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it ... The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here."

On April 9, 1865, just five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer. Daynes said Lincoln's premature death contributed to his fame.

"Assassinated presidents are always given greater respect, particularly if they die in office," he said. "It's a shame that we couldn't see the years play out with him."

Thompson said he considers Lincoln to be one of the best presidents the U.S. has ever had.

"I think from a historical standpoint, what he did can still inspire people," he said.

Davis agreed. "I think he was a good example of leadership," she said. "You don't have to necessarily be president of the United States to follow his example."

Beschloss said Lincoln's story - that of a young man who had almost no formal education but rose to become a world figure - represents the best of the American dream.

"One of the oldest American notions is that any of our children can grow up to be whatever they want," he wrote in USA Weekend. "Whose life embodies this idea more than Lincoln's?"



Copyright Brigham Young University 11 Feb 2009