Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln's Early Life
Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a one-room log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky; his family moved to southern Indiana in 1816. Lincoln's formal schooling was limited to three brief periods in local schools, as he had to work constantly to support his family. In 1830, his family moved to Macon County in southern Illinois, and Lincoln got a job working on a river flatboat hauling freight down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. After settling in the town of New Salem, Illinois, where he worked as a shopkeeper and a postmaster, Lincoln became involved in local politics as a supporter of the Whig Party, winning election to the Illinois state legislature in 1834. Like his Whig heroes, Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, Lincoln opposed the spread of slavery to the territories, and had a grand vision of the expanding United States, with a focus on commerce and cities rather than agriculture.
Lincoln taught himself law, passing the bar examination in 1836. The following year, he moved to the newly named state capital of Springfield. For the next few years, he worked there as a lawyer, earning a reputation as "Honest Abe" and serving clients ranging from individual residents of small towns to national railroad lines. He met Mary Todd, a well-to-do Kentucky belle with many suitors (including Lincoln's future political rival, Stephen Douglas), and they married in 1842.
A Wartime President
In the general election, Lincoln again faced Douglas, who represented the northern Democrats; southern Democrats had nominated John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky, while John Bell ran for the brand new Constitutional Union Party. With Breckenridge and Bell splitting the vote in the South, Lincoln won most of the North and carried the Electoral College. After years of sectional tensions, the election of an antislavery northerner as the 16th president of the United States drove many southerners over the brink, and by the time Lincoln was inaugurated in March 1861 seven southern states had seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. After Lincoln ordered a fleet of Union ships to supply South Carolina's Fort Sumter in April, the Confederates fired on both the fort and the Union fleet, beginning the Civil War. Hopes for a quick Union victory were dashed by defeat in the Battle of Bull Run (Manassas), and Lincoln called for 500,000 more troops as both sides settled in for a long conflict.
While the Confederate leader Jefferson Davis was a West Point graduate, Mexican War hero and former secretary of war, Lincoln had only a brief and undistinguished period of service in the Black Hawk War (1832) to his credit. He surprised many by proving to be a more than capable wartime leader, learning quickly about strategy and tactics in the early years of the Civil War, and about choosing the ablest commanders. General George McClellan, though beloved by his troops, continually frustrated Lincoln with his reluctance to advance, and when McClellan failed to pursue Robert E. Lee's retreating Confederate Army in the aftermath of the Union victory at Antietam in September 1862, Lincoln removed him from command. During the war, Lincoln drew criticism for suspending some civil liberties, including the right of habeas corpus, but he considered such measures necessary to win the war.
Victory and Death
In 1864, Lincoln faced a tough reelection battle against the Democratic nominee, the former Union General George McClellan, but Union victories in battle (especially William T. Sherman's capture of Atlanta in September) swung many votes the president's way. In his second inaugural address, delivered on March 4, 1865, Lincoln addressed the need to reconstruct the South and rebuild the Union: "With malice toward none; with charity for all."
As Sherman marched triumphantly northward through the Carolinas, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9. Union victory was near, and Lincoln gave a speech on the White House lawn on April 11, urging his audience to welcome the southern states back into the fold. Tragically, Lincoln would not live to help carry out his vision of Reconstruction. On the night of April 14, the actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth slipped into the president's box at Ford's Theatre in Washington and shot him point-blank in the back of the head. Lincoln was carried to a boardinghouse across the street from the theater, but he never regained consciousness, and died in the early morning hours of April 15.
Robert Frost
Frost, Robert (Lee) (1874 – 1963), a United States poet. Though much of his verse is expressed in simple and colloquial words, he brings to his poems about picking apples, milking cows, mending stone fences, and other homely tasks in New England a dignity and precision similar to that of the Greek classics. Philosophical depth and adroit blending of humor and seriousness mark his work. It is ranked among that of the foremost American poets.
Frost was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in poetry four times: in 1924 for New Hampshire, in 1931 for Collected Poems, in 1937 for A Further Range, and in 1943 for A Witness Tree.
Frost was born in San Francisco. His father died when he was 10, and with his mother he moved to Lawrence, Massachusetts. After attending Dartmouth College for a year, he went to work in a textile mill. In 1895, Frost married Elinor White. She persuaded him to enroll at Harvard University in 1897. He left two years later to become successively, within a year, a schoolteacher, a shoemaker, and editor of a weekly newspaper.
In 1900 Frost bought a farm near Derry, New Hampshire, to establish a poultry business. He supplemented his income by teaching at Pinkerton Academy (1905-11) and New Hampshire State Normal School (1911-12). In the meantime he was writing verse nobody would publish.
IN 1912 Frost sold his farm and took his wife and four children to England. There his first book, A Boy’s Will (1913), was published, winning the praise of English critics. It had been rejected by American publishers. With this and North of Boston (1914) Frost’s reputation began to extend across the Atlantic to his homeland.
Frost came home in 1915 to a farm in New Hampshire. After teaching English at Amherst College (1916-19), he bought a Vermont farm in 1920. In 1921 the University of Michigan made him poet in residence. He later held a similar position at several other institutions. In 1950 the U.S. Senate passed a resolution honoring Frost on the 75th birthday. At President Kennedy’s invitation Frost read one of his poems as part of the inaugural ceremonies in 1961.
* Taken from New Standard Encyclopedia, Ferguson Publishing Co., Chicago, 2002
Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a one-room log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky; his family moved to southern Indiana in 1816. Lincoln's formal schooling was limited to three brief periods in local schools, as he had to work constantly to support his family. In 1830, his family moved to Macon County in southern Illinois, and Lincoln got a job working on a river flatboat hauling freight down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. After settling in the town of New Salem, Illinois, where he worked as a shopkeeper and a postmaster, Lincoln became involved in local politics as a supporter of the Whig Party, winning election to the Illinois state legislature in 1834. Like his Whig heroes, Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, Lincoln opposed the spread of slavery to the territories, and had a grand vision of the expanding United States, with a focus on commerce and cities rather than agriculture.
Lincoln taught himself law, passing the bar examination in 1836. The following year, he moved to the newly named state capital of Springfield. For the next few years, he worked there as a lawyer, earning a reputation as "Honest Abe" and serving clients ranging from individual residents of small towns to national railroad lines. He met Mary Todd, a well-to-do Kentucky belle with many suitors (including Lincoln's future political rival, Stephen Douglas), and they married in 1842.
A Wartime President
In the general election, Lincoln again faced Douglas, who represented the northern Democrats; southern Democrats had nominated John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky, while John Bell ran for the brand new Constitutional Union Party. With Breckenridge and Bell splitting the vote in the South, Lincoln won most of the North and carried the Electoral College. After years of sectional tensions, the election of an antislavery northerner as the 16th president of the United States drove many southerners over the brink, and by the time Lincoln was inaugurated in March 1861 seven southern states had seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. After Lincoln ordered a fleet of Union ships to supply South Carolina's Fort Sumter in April, the Confederates fired on both the fort and the Union fleet, beginning the Civil War. Hopes for a quick Union victory were dashed by defeat in the Battle of Bull Run (Manassas), and Lincoln called for 500,000 more troops as both sides settled in for a long conflict.
While the Confederate leader Jefferson Davis was a West Point graduate, Mexican War hero and former secretary of war, Lincoln had only a brief and undistinguished period of service in the Black Hawk War (1832) to his credit. He surprised many by proving to be a more than capable wartime leader, learning quickly about strategy and tactics in the early years of the Civil War, and about choosing the ablest commanders. General George McClellan, though beloved by his troops, continually frustrated Lincoln with his reluctance to advance, and when McClellan failed to pursue Robert E. Lee's retreating Confederate Army in the aftermath of the Union victory at Antietam in September 1862, Lincoln removed him from command. During the war, Lincoln drew criticism for suspending some civil liberties, including the right of habeas corpus, but he considered such measures necessary to win the war.
Victory and Death
In 1864, Lincoln faced a tough reelection battle against the Democratic nominee, the former Union General George McClellan, but Union victories in battle (especially William T. Sherman's capture of Atlanta in September) swung many votes the president's way. In his second inaugural address, delivered on March 4, 1865, Lincoln addressed the need to reconstruct the South and rebuild the Union: "With malice toward none; with charity for all."
As Sherman marched triumphantly northward through the Carolinas, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9. Union victory was near, and Lincoln gave a speech on the White House lawn on April 11, urging his audience to welcome the southern states back into the fold. Tragically, Lincoln would not live to help carry out his vision of Reconstruction. On the night of April 14, the actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth slipped into the president's box at Ford's Theatre in Washington and shot him point-blank in the back of the head. Lincoln was carried to a boardinghouse across the street from the theater, but he never regained consciousness, and died in the early morning hours of April 15.
Robert Frost
Frost, Robert (Lee) (1874 – 1963), a United States poet. Though much of his verse is expressed in simple and colloquial words, he brings to his poems about picking apples, milking cows, mending stone fences, and other homely tasks in New England a dignity and precision similar to that of the Greek classics. Philosophical depth and adroit blending of humor and seriousness mark his work. It is ranked among that of the foremost American poets.
Frost was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in poetry four times: in 1924 for New Hampshire, in 1931 for Collected Poems, in 1937 for A Further Range, and in 1943 for A Witness Tree.
Frost was born in San Francisco. His father died when he was 10, and with his mother he moved to Lawrence, Massachusetts. After attending Dartmouth College for a year, he went to work in a textile mill. In 1895, Frost married Elinor White. She persuaded him to enroll at Harvard University in 1897. He left two years later to become successively, within a year, a schoolteacher, a shoemaker, and editor of a weekly newspaper.
In 1900 Frost bought a farm near Derry, New Hampshire, to establish a poultry business. He supplemented his income by teaching at Pinkerton Academy (1905-11) and New Hampshire State Normal School (1911-12). In the meantime he was writing verse nobody would publish.
IN 1912 Frost sold his farm and took his wife and four children to England. There his first book, A Boy’s Will (1913), was published, winning the praise of English critics. It had been rejected by American publishers. With this and North of Boston (1914) Frost’s reputation began to extend across the Atlantic to his homeland.
Frost came home in 1915 to a farm in New Hampshire. After teaching English at Amherst College (1916-19), he bought a Vermont farm in 1920. In 1921 the University of Michigan made him poet in residence. He later held a similar position at several other institutions. In 1950 the U.S. Senate passed a resolution honoring Frost on the 75th birthday. At President Kennedy’s invitation Frost read one of his poems as part of the inaugural ceremonies in 1961.
* Taken from New Standard Encyclopedia, Ferguson Publishing Co., Chicago, 2002