10-day forecast. 1  Weather News. 2  Dangerous surf will threaten some beachgoers this weekend AccuWeather. 3  Big Sur usually canât keep people away.  Several states at risk of hail, floods during stormy Easter weekend AccuWeather.
Abraham Lincoln, a self-taught Illinois lawyer, legislator and opponent of slavery, was elected president in November 1860âbut by the time of his inauguration in March 1861, seven Southern states had seceded, and the Civil War began a few weeks later.
In office March 1861 - April 1865. Lincoln joined the Republican Party in 1856 and opposed the extension of slavery into new territories, though he could not see a way of abolishing it. His election as president precipitated the American Civil War. Lincolnâs aim was to preserve the Union, not to end slavery, which he made clear in his Gettysburg Address. However, as the war turned in the Unionâs favor in 1863 he proposed in his Emancipation Proclamation to free all slaves after the war.