Abraham Lincoln
The American president who held the Union together through civil war, freed the slaves, and was assassinated five days after the war ended.
Origin
Abraham Lincoln (1809โ1865) was a self-taught lawyer from Illinois who won the 1860 election as the first Republican president. Eleven Southern states seceded; the Civil War killed roughly 750,000 Americans. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and delivered the Gettysburg Address โ 272 words that became the United States' second constitution in everything but name. John Wilkes Booth shot him at Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865; he died the next morning.
Modern usage
'Honest Abe' is the canonical American byword for integrity in office (often invoked sarcastically about the current occupant). 'A house divided against itself cannot stand' shows up in any speech about polarization. The Gettysburg Address ('Four score and seven years agoโฆ') is the most quoted American political text outside the Declaration of Independence.
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