The character arc of Abraham Lincoln
Born 12 February 1809 in a Kentucky log cabin. Died 15 April 1865 in Washington, days after the war ended. Between the two sit about a year of formal schooling, a store that failed into years of debt, a longer list of lost elections than won ones, and the hardest presidency the country has known. The line below draws that whole life in order.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who was Abraham Lincoln?
He lost, and lost, and held the line.
He had about a year of formal schooling in total, snatched between farm chores, and taught himself the rest by firelight with borrowed books. His first venture, a general store in New Salem, failed and left him years in debt he insisted on repaying in full. He read law on his own and passed the bar, and then began a political career best described as persistent: defeated for the legislature, defeated for Congress's nomination, defeated for the Senate twice, defeated for the vice presidential nomination.
The Senate loss of 1858 came after the debates with Stephen Douglas that made him nationally known, which is the pattern of the whole line: the defeats did the work the wins could not. Two years later the divided opposition and his own steadiness carried him to the presidency, and seven states left the Union before he was even sworn in.
He held it together through four years that cost more American lives than any war before or since, kept the aim of union and then of emancipation through defeats that would have broken most men, and lived to see it end. His line is worth reading for its refusal to read its own defeats as verdicts. He kept running.
The moments
Abraham Lincoln's timeline.
The 1810s
Lost his mother at nine
Setback. Milk sickness took her on the Indiana frontier; his sister raised the household after.
The 1830s
Set out on his own
Everyday. Flatboated to New Orleans, then settled in New Salem, splitting rails and clerking.
Lost his first election
Setback. Defeated for the state legislature. His store was failing at the same time.
Won a seat at last
Milestone. Elected to the state House on the second try, and began reading law in earnest.
Admitted to the bar
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Self taught, licensed, and moved to Springfield to practise.
The 1840s
Married Mary Todd
Everyday. A courtship that broke off once and resumed. Four sons followed; only one reached adulthood.
Left Congress unpopular
Setback. One term, an unpopular stand against the Mexican war, and no re nomination. He went back to law.
The 1850s
Stay retired from politics, or return
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: return, over slavery's spread, taken, or stay a prosperous lawyer. He said he could not stay silent while the country decided whether freedom or slavery would grow.
Roused by the Nebraska Act
Milestone, and it changed his direction. The extension of slavery pulled him back into politics for good, in a three hour speech at Peoria.
Lost the Senate race
Setback, and it changed his direction. The debates made him famous across the country. The legislature still chose Douglas.
The 1860s
Elected president
Milestone, and it changed his direction. A divided opposition and a steady hand. Seven states left before the inauguration.
Emancipation Proclamation
Milestone, and it changed everything. It declared the enslaved in rebel states free and changed what the war was for.
The Gettysburg Address
Milestone. Two minutes, two hundred and seventy two words, and a new definition of the country's purpose.
Re elected in wartime
Milestone, and it changed his direction. He had expected to lose. The soldiers' vote and Sherman's march turned it.
The war ended
Milestone, and it changed everything. Lee surrendered. Lincoln asked a band to play Dixie. Six days of peace remained to him.
The line ends 15 Apr 1865, in Washington, days after the guns fell silent. What it set moving has not ended: the union he held and the freedom he signed still shape the country, and every person told they lost too often to matter is standing on his record of losses.
Your turn
Every story draws a unique line.
His took fifty six years and more losses than wins. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about three minutes.
Sources
- David Herbert Donald, Lincoln, 1995.
- The Lincoln Douglas debates, 1858.
- The Emancipation Proclamation, 1 January 1863.
- The Gettysburg Address, 19 November 1863.
- The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Springfield.