Republican Candidate

Abraham Lincoln

On February 12, 1809 Abraham Lincoln was born in Hodgenville, KY by mother Nancy Lincoln and father Thomas Lincoln. Growing up, Lincoln attended a Separate Baptists church which had strict moral standards that had opposed arbitrary aspects that were considered unholy such as drinking alcohol, sex before marriage, and even slavery. Lincoln would carry on these morals and aspects through his interest in law as he was a self-educated lawyer in Illinois, as well as a Whig Party leader and a state legislator during the 1830s. In March 1861, Abraham Lincoln began his presidency as the 16th president of the United States. Lincoln disproved slavery before and during his election as slavery was still a recurring factor within the southern slave states. He turned to politics and opposed the pro-slavery Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which gave new incoming settlers the right to determine slaves in their areas through popular sovereignty. Through his belief in the immorality of slavery, he issued himself as part of the Republican Party. His philosophy was modeled through his morals and belief system, as well as based on reason and respect for the law. "For Lincoln there was nothing higher than the rule of law, without which there could be no real freedom," wrote historian James Oakes. Because of his basis in reason through Republicanism, there was a consistency to Lincoln’s moral philosophy and a consistent focus on morality. Eventually, on January 1st, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which stated that "as a fit and necessary military measure, on January 1, 1863, all persons held as slaves in the Confederate states will thenceforward, and forever, be free". This document is what ended slavery, once and for all in the United States, and this completed the goal Abraham Lincoln had surrounded his entire belief system around.