Abraham Lincoln

This week we celebrate the birthday of one of America's greatest sons, Abraham Lincoln.

Our most beloved President of the United States of America was born in a one-room log cabin in Kentucky on 12th February 1809 - two hundred and ten years ago. He grew up on the frontier in a poor family, but he was a determined individual, and self-educated, he became a lawyer in Illinois, before moving into politics, serving for eight years in the state legislature, and two in Congress. 

When he was 40 years old he gave up politics and returned to being a lawyer, but then reentered politics in 1854 after the Democrats opened the prairie lands to slavery - a move he found absolutely abhorrent - and was elected in 1860 as 16th President of the United States. 

Unfortunately, because of his tough stance on slavery, the Southern pro-slavery units took his win as proof that the North was rejecting the constitutional rights of the Southern states to promote slavery, and began the process of secession from the Union to form a new country. 

The North refused to accept the secession, and Lincoln tried his best to suppress the rebellion and restore the Union. It was an impossible position for him to be in, but he earned himself the nickname the Great Emancipator after leading the United States through its civil war and abolishing slavery. Alas, a few days after the war's end, he was assassinated.

More eloquent words have been written about Abraham Lincoln than of any other American, and in a special episode of The Cavalcade of America, many of these have been put together as a collection of famous prose and poetry including works by Carl Sandburg, Walt Whitman, and several others.

You can listen to the show, A Thinking Heart, here on RUSC. Joy has also put together a special page here which lists many shows about Abraham Lincoln and his career, life and loves which you can use to choose several shows for your playlist.

Happy listening my friends,