#16 Abraham Lincoln

1861--1865

--Abraham Lincoln led the United States through its greatest constitutional and moral crisis—the American Civil War--by preserving the Union by force while ending slavery and promoting economic  modernization.

--In 1863 he issued his Emancipation Proclamation, a war measure which changed the federal legal status of every enslaved person in the Confederate South to "free". Lincoln later promoted the passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, abolishing slavery.

--The first president to be assassinated, Lincoln was killed by actor John Wilkes Booth in 1865. Though mortally wounded in Ford's Theater, Lincoln died some nine hours after being shot in the back of the head.

--Lincoln's eldest son Robert was close to three separate presidential assassinations. He was invited to Ford Theater the night his father was assassinated, but declined the invitation and remained at the White House instead. He was invited to meet president James Garfield at a train station in Washington, D.C. in 1881 where he was an eyewitness to Garfield’s assassination. Robert was also invited to a New York fair in 1901, where he was present at the time president William McKinley was assassinated.

--Lincoln preferred to honor-duel with swords and axes, as his long reach and natural strength gave him considerable advantage.