ABSTRACT
Considered by many to be the greatest president in the history of the United States, Abraham Lincoln guided the Union (North) to a hard-fought victory over the Confederacy (South), preserving the unity of the nation and putting an end to slavery in the United States. Lincoln was elected to the Illinois legislature in 1834, serving until 1837. Elected to the US House of Representatives in 1847, he served only two years, then withdrew from politics, disillusioned with Congress's inability to resolve the problem of slavery in the country's new states. In 1860 Lincoln was nominated by the Republican Party as its candidate for president. His victory was followed by the secession of the Southern states, starting with South Carolina on December 20, 1860, and the formation of the Confederate States of America. The Thirteenth Amendment, ratified on January 31,1865, after hard lobbying by Lincoln, banned slavery in all of the states.
