Abraham Lincoln by Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was very important to the past history of our country. He helped to abolish slavery in this country and kept the American Union from splitting apart during the Civil War. At 22, he moved to New Salem, Illinois. With his gift for swapping stories and making friends, he became quite popular and was elected to the Illinois legislature in 1834. In his spare time, he …showed first 75 words of 423 total…

…showed last 75 words of 423 total…slaves free in the Confederate states. This was his famous Emancipation Proclamation, issued in 1863. But Lincoln knew that something else had to be done to insure liberty for the slaves after the war. So he worked hard to pass an antislavery amendment to the Constitution. The Thirteenth Amendment, passed by Congress in 1865, prohibited slavery in all states. It was this important act, and the Emancipation Proclamation, that won Lincoln his reputation as the Great Emancipator.