When Lincoln was nine, his 34-year-old mother died of milk sickness. Soon after, his father married Sarah Bush Johnston, with whom Lincoln became very close and whom he called "Mother." However, he became increasingly distant from his father. Lincoln regretted his father's lack of education, and did not like the hard labor associated with frontier life. Still, he willingly took responsibility for all chores expected of him as a male in the household; he became an adept axeman in his work building rail fences. Lincoln also agreed with the customary obligation of a son to give his father all earnings from work done outside the home until age 21. In later years, he occasionally loaned his father money.
Youth years
When: from 1830 to 1834
Where: Illinois, UNITED STATES
In 1830, fearing a milk sickness outbreak, the family settled on public land in Macon County, Illinois. In 1831, when his father relocated the family to a new homestead in Coles County, Illinois, 22-year-old Lincoln struck out on his own, canoeing down the Sangamon River to the village of New Salem in Sangamon County. In spring 1831, hired by New Salem businessman Denton Offutt and accompanied by friends, he took goods by flatboat from New Salem to New Orleans via the Sangamon, Illinois, and Mississippi rivers. After arriving in New Orleans—and witnessing slavery firsthand—he walked back home.
Lincoln's formal education consisted of approximately 18 months of classes from several itinerant teachers; he was mostly self-educated and was an avid reader. He attained a reputation of brawn and audacity after a very competitive wrestling match, to which he was challenged by the renowned leader of a group of ruffians, "the Clary's Grove boys." His family and neighbors considered him to be lazy. Lincoln avoided hunting and fishing out of an aversion to killing animals
First commercial experience
When: 1832
Where: New Salem, Illinois, UNITED STATES
In 1832, at age 23, Lincoln bought a small general store. He purchased it on credit along with a partner. While the economy was booming in the region, the business struggled and Lincoln eventually sold his share of the business. When his partner later died, Lincoln became liable for a $1,000 debt. Unable to pay he was forced to declare bankruptcy and did not finish repaying his creditors for another 17 years
Early politics
When: 1832
Where: UNITED STATES
From the early 1830s, Lincoln was a steadfast Whig and professed to friends in 1861: "I have always been an old-line Henry Clay Whig." The party favored economic modernization in banking, railroads, and internal improvements, and supported urbanization as well as protective tariffs, and Lincoln supported these positions
Engagement & Marriage
When: from 1840 to 1842
Where: UNITED STATES
In 1840, Lincoln became engaged to Mary Todd, who was from a wealthy slave-holding family in Lexington, Kentucky.They met in Springfield in December 1839, and were engaged sometime in late December. A wedding was set for January 1, 1841, but the couple split as the wedding approached. They later met at a party, and then married on November 4, 1842 in the Springfield mansion of Mary's married sister. While preparing for the nuptials and having cold feet again, Lincoln, when asked where he was going, replied, "To hell, I suppose."
Elected to the House of Representatives
When: 1846
Where: UNITED STATES
In 1846, Lincoln was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served one two-year term.He was the only Whig in the Illinois delegation, but showed his party loyalty by participating in almost all votes and making speeches that echoed the party line. Lincoln developed a plan to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, with compensation for the owners and a popular vote on the matter, but dropped it when he could not get enough Whig supporters. He used his office as an opportunity to speak out against the Mexican–American War, which he attributed to President Polk's desire for "military glory—that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood."
Peoria speech
When: 16 October 1854
Where: Peoria, Illinois, UNITED STATES
In his "Peoria Speech," Lincoln declared his opposition to slavery which he repeated en route to the presidency. Speaking in his Kentucky accent, with a very powerful voice, he said the Kansas Act had a "'declared' indifference, but as I must think, a covert 'real' zeal for the spread of slavery. I cannot but hate it. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world..."
Lincoln–Douglas debates
When: 1858
Where: UNITED STATES
The 1858 campaign featured the seven Lincoln–Douglas debates of 1858, generally considered the most famous political debates in American history. The principals stood in stark contrast both physically and politically. Lincoln warned that "The Slave Power" was threatening the values of republicanism, and accused Douglas of distorting the values of the Founding Fathers that all men are created equal, while Douglas emphasized his Freeport Doctrine, that local settlers were free to choose whether to allow slavery or not, and accused Lincoln of having joined the abolitionists
President election
When: 06 November 1860
Where: UNITED STATES
On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected as the sixteenth president of the United States, beating Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, John C. Breckinridge of the Southern Democrats, and John Bell of the new Constitutional Union Party. He was the first Republican president, winning entirely on the strength of his support in the North; he was not on the ballot in ten states in the South, and won only two of 996 counties in all the Southern states. Lincoln received 1,866,452 votes, Douglas 1,376,957 votes, Breckinridge 849,781 votes, and Bell 588,789 votes
Beginning of the Civil War
When: April 1861
Where: UNITED STATES
The commander of Fort Sumter, South Carolina sent a request for provisions to Washington, and the execution of Lincoln's order to meet that request was seen by the secessionists as an act of war. On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces fired on Union troops at Fort Sumter, forced them to surrender, and began the war. Historian Allan Nevins argued that the newly inaugurated Lincoln miscalculated in believing that he could preserve the Union, and future general William Tecumseh Sherman, then a civilian, visited Lincoln in the White House during inauguration week and was "sadly disappointed" at Lincoln's seeming failure to realize that "the country was sleeping on a volcano" and the South was "'preparing for war'