APRIL TO JUNE. Abraham Lincoln is hired by James Gentry to make a flatboat trip down the Mississippi to New Orleans.
1829 MARCH 4. Andrew Jackson is inaugurated.
1830 MARCH. The Lincoln family moves from Indiana to Illinois. They settle near Decatur.
1831 JANUARY 1. William Lloyd Garrison issues the first number of The Liberator, an anti-slavery newspaper.
MARCH. Lincoln goes down the Sangamon River in a canoe with John Hanks. They land four miles from Springfield, where they build a flatboat for Denton Offut for a voyage to New Orleans. On APRIL 19 the boat is stranded on a milldam at New Salem, but Lincoln succeeds in getting it across and continues toward New Orleans.
JUNE. Lincoln returns from New Orleans by steamboat to St. Louis and walks to Decatur, Ill.
JULY. Lincoln goes to New Salem to become a storekeeper for Denton Offut.
AUGUST 21. A slave insurrection, led by Nat Turner, breaks out in Virginia and is put down after much bloodshed.
1832 JANUARY 6. Garrison founds the New England Anti-Slavery Society, the first in America.
SPRING. Offut’s store having failed, Lincoln decides to run for the State Legislature on the Whig ticket and issues his first campaign address on MARCH 9.
APRIL 6. The Indian Chief, Black Hawk, enters Illinois with five hundred warriors.
APRIL 21. Lincoln enrolls in the army for the Black Hawk War, and is elected Captain of his company, He is mustered out on JULY 16 without having seen any actual fighting.
AUGUST 6. Lincoln is defeated in the campaign for the Legislature, although his own precinct votes 277 to 7 for him.
1832 AUTUMN. In partnership with William Berry, Lincoln takes over the stock of another store.
1833 MARCH 4. Andrew Jackson is inaugurated for a second term.
SPRING. The Lincoln-Berry store fails. Berry dies later (JANUARY 10, 1835), leaving Lincoln saddled with a debt of $1100.
MAY 7. Lincoln is made Postmaster of New Salem, his first Federal office.
1834 SUMMER. Lincoln runs again for the State Legislature and on AUGUST 4 is elected. In DECEMBER he leaves Springfield for Vandalia to take his seat. There he meets Stephen A. Douglas for the first time.
1835 FEBRUARY 13. The session ended, Lincoln returns to New Salem.
It is during this year that the love affair between Lincoln and Ann Rutledge is supposed to have culminated in an engagement. In AUGUST, she becomes ill with fever, and on AUGUST 25, she dies.
1836 MARCH 2. Texas declares its independence of Mexico. On MARCH 6 the Alamo falls. In april, the Mexican Army under Santa Anna is defeated and he is taken prisoner.
JUNE 13. Lincoln announces his candidacy for re-election to the Legislature.
AUGUST 1. Mary Owens first arrives in New Salem and Lincoln begins to court her. On this same day, Lincoln is again elected to the Legislature with the highest votes of all the candidates in Sangamon Co.
SEPTEMBER 9. Lincoln applies for a license to practice law.
DECEMBER 5. The Legislature convenes at Vandalia.
1837 FEBRUARY 28. In a vote in the Legislature, Springfield is chosen as the state capital. Lincoln plays a prominent part in making this move.
MARCH 1. The Supreme Court of Illinois grants Lincoln a certificate of admission to the bar.
MARCH 4. Martin Van Buren is inaugurated.
MARCH 15. The Legislature adjourns, and Lincoln returns to New Salem.
APRIL 12. Lincoln arranges to become the law partner of John T. Stuart.
APRIL 15. Lincoln leaves New Salem and takes up residence in Springfield where he rooms with Joshua Speed.
AUGUST 16. Lincoln writes to Mary Owens giving her an opportunity to end the rather tepid romance between them.
SUMMER. Mary Todd visits Springfield, but Lincoln does not meet her. Lincoln is re-elected to the State Legislature.
NOVEMBER 7. Elijah Lovejoy, abolitionist editor, is killed at Alton, Illinois, by a pro-slavery mob.
1838 JANUARY 27. Lincoln speaks before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield on the subject: “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions.”
1839 JUNE 20. The state officers are officially ordered to move from Vandalia to Springfield—the new state capital.
AUTUMN. Mary Todd returns to Springfield and Lincoln meets her for the first time.
DECEMBER 9. The Legislature begins its initial session at Springfield.
1840 Lincoln plays a prominent part in the Whig political campaign this year. He is elected for the fourth and last time to the State Legislature which convenes on NOVEMBER 23rd.
1840 During this year—probably in the latter part of it—he becomes engaged to Mary Todd.
1841 JANUARY 1. “The fatal first of January.” Lincoln breaks off (or attempts to break off) his engagement to Mary Todd. According to Herndon, he was to have been married to her on this day. On this day also, Speed sells his store, and, a few months later moves to Louisville, Ky.
MARCH 4. William Henry Harrison is inaugurated.
APRIL 4. Harrison dies, and John Tyler becomes President.
APRIL 14. The Lincoln-Stuart law partnership is dissolved, and Lincoln becomes a partner of Stephen T. Logan.
AUGUST. Lincoln visits Speed in Louisville.
1842. SPRING and SUMMER. Lincoln has a long and intimate correspondence with Joshua Speed on the general subject of matrimony.
LATE SUMMER. Lincoln again meets Mary Todd and they write a series of letters for the Sangamon Journal lampooning a rival Democratic politician, James Shields.
SEPTEMBER 17. Lincoln is challenged to a duel by Shields.
SEPTEMBER 22. Lincoln and Shields go to Alton to fight, but the duel is called off at the last moment.
NOVEMBER 4. Lincoln is married to Mary Todd. They go to live at the Globe Tavern in Springfield.
1843 AUGUST 1. A son, Robert Todd Lincoln, is born to the Lincolns while they are still living at the Globe Tavern. Shortly after this they move to 214 South 4th Street.
1844 MAY. The Lincolns move into their final home at 8th and Jackson Streets, Springfield.
AUTUMN. The Lincoln-Logan partnership is dissolved. William H. Herndon’s association with Lincoln begins at this time, although Herndon has not yet been admitted to the bar.
AUTUMN. Lincoln is made a Presidential elector on the Whig ticket for Henry Clay. During the campaign he returns to Indiana to speak and addresses his old friends at Gentryville.
DECEMBER 9. Herndon is admitted to the bar and becomes Lincoln’s partner.
1845 MARCH 4. James K. Polk is inaugurated.
DECEMBER 22. Texas is annexed by the United States.
1846 MARCH 10. A second son, Edward Baker, is born to Lincoln.
APRIL 18. Lincoln sends an example of his poetry to Andrew Johnston, a friend who also aspires to write poetry.
MAY 1. The Whig Convention in Petersburg, Illinois, nominates Lincoln for the United States Congress.
MAY 8. Battles take place between United States and Mexican forces at Palo Alto, and, on MAY 9, at Resaca de la Palma.
AUGUST 3. Lincoln is elected to Congress.
AUGUST 8. The Wilmot Proviso, forbidding slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico, is passed in the House.
AUGUST 10. The Wilmot Proviso is held up in the Senate at the end of a session which is permitted to expire without the final passage of the Proviso or of a $2,000,000 war-supplies bill.
SEPTEMBER 6. Lincoln again corresponds with Andrew Johnston, sending him another example of his poetry.
1847 JULY 1. Lincoln leaves Springfield to visit Chicago for the first time. He attends the River and Harbor Convention there on JULY 5–7.
1847 OCTOBER 25. The Lincoln family leaves Springfield for Kentucky en route to Washington.
NOVEMBER 25. The Lincolns leave Lexington to proceed to Washington, where they arrive on DECEMBER 2.
DECEMBER 6. The House of Representatives convenes, and Lincoln is seated for the first time.
DECEMBER 22. Li
ncoln offers a series of resolutions in the House, asking the President whether the “spot” on which American blood was first spilled in the war with Mexico was on United States or Mexican territory.
1848 JANUARY 12. Lincoln attacks President Polk’s war policy during a speech in the House of Representatives.
FEBRUARY 2. A treaty between the United States and Mexico is signed at Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the Mexican War.
JUNE 7–9. Lincoln attends the Whig National Convention in Philadelphia where he supports Zachary Taylor for the Presidential nomination.
JULY 4. Lincoln is present at the great ceremony of the laying of the cornerstone of the Washington monument.
AUGUST 14. Congress adjourns.
SEPTEMBER 9. Lincoln leaves Washington for a speaking tour in New England in behalf of Zachary Taylor, Whig nominee for President. He visits Worcester, New Bedford, Boston, Lowell, Dorchester, Chelsea, Dedham, Cambridge and Taunton.
SEPTEMBER 22. Lincoln and Seward speak on the same platform at a Whig mass meeting at Tremont Temple, Boston.
SEPTEMBER 23. Lincoln returns to Springfield where he arrives on OCTOBER 10 to find that his constituents are disgusted with his attack on the administration’s handling of the Mexican War.
1848 LATE NOVEMBER. Lincoln leaves Springfield for Washington where he arrives on DECEMBER 7.
1849 JANUARY 13. Lincoln attempts to introduce a bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia with provision for compensation to owners.
MARCH 4. The House adjourns early on Sunday morning. Lincoln’s term as Congressman expires.
MARCH 5. Lincoln attends Zachary Taylor’s inauguration and goes to the inaugural ball during the evening.
MARCH 7. The United States Supreme Court admits Lincoln to practice before it. About two weeks later he leaves Washington and returns to Springfield where he arrives on MARCH 31.
MAY 22. A patent is granted to Abraham Lincoln for an invention intended to buoy vessels over shoals.
JUNE 10. In an effort to obtain the appointment to the Commissionership of the General Land Office, Lincoln leaves Springfield and goes to Washington where he arrives on JUNE 19.
JUNE 25. Having failed to obtain the appointment, he returns to Springfield.
SEPTEMBER. Lincoln is offered, and declines, the secretaryship of Oregon.
1850 FEBRUARY 1. Edward, Lincoln’s second son, dies after a two weeks’ illness.
MARCH 7. Daniel Webster speaks in the Senate in defense of the Compromise of 1850 and is denounced in the North for defending it.
JULY 9. President Taylor dies. On JULY 10, Vice President Millard Fillmore becomes President.
SEPTEMBER 18. The Fugitive Slave Act, which is part of the Compromise of 1850, is approved by the President.
1850 DECEMBER 21. William Wallace, a third son, is born to the Lincolns.
1851 JANUARY 17. Thomas Lincoln, Lincoln’s father, dies in Coles County, Illinois.
JUNE. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, begins as a serial in The National Era, an abolitionist newspaper in Washington. It runs throughout this year and continues into the spring of 1852.
1852 MARCH 20. Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published in book form and becomes a sensational success.
JUNE 29. Henry Clay dies.
OCTOBER 24. Daniel Webster dies.
NOVEMBER 10. Lincoln takes Ward Hill Lamon as his law partner for business to be handled in Danville, Ill.
1853 MARCH 4. Franklin Pierce is inaugurated.
APRIL 4. Thomas (“Tad”), Lincoln’s fourth son is born.
1854 APRIL 4. Herndon is elected Mayor of Springfield.
MAY 30. The Kansas-Nebraska Act is signed by President Pierce.
AUGUST 9. Lincoln’s interest in politics has been reawakened by the fight over the Kansas-Nebraska bill. He meets Richard Yates, anti-Nebraska Congressman from Illinois, while Yates is on his way home from Washington. Lincoln agrees to campaign for Yates in his fight against the bill.
OCTOBER 4. On the previous day Douglas had spoken in Springfield in defense of the Nebraska Bill. During the afternoon of the fourth Lincoln speaks for three hours in reply to Douglas.
OCTOBER 5. Abolitionists in Springfield using the new name “Republicans” hold a meeting on this day, to which they invite Lincoln. At Herndon’s suggestion he avoids alliance with them and leaves town in order to evade the issue.
OCTOBER 16. Douglas speaks again at Peoria, and Lincoln replies to him during the evening, delivering the address that he had given twelve days before at Springfield, but with some emendations and additions. This is the first of his great speeches.
1854 AUTUMN. Lincoln has an opportunity to become United States Senator because of his position as leader of the anti-Nebraska men in Illinois. He canvasses the members of the Legislature to find out how much support he can get.
1855 FEBRUARY 8. Lincoln is defeated in the race for United States Senator. He throws his votes to an anti-Nebraska Democrat, Lyman Trumbull, who is elected. Lincoln continues to fight against the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
AUGUST 24. Lincoln writes a long letter to Joshua Speed in which he sets forth his own attitude toward slavery and makes clear his political standing.
SEPTEMBER 20–21. Lincoln is employed as associate counsel in a patent suit, McCormick vs. Manny, which is tried at Cincinnati. Edwin M. Stanton, later to be Lincoln’s Secretary of War, is senior counsel; he snubs Lincoln, and Lincoln plays no part in the trial.
1856 MAY 21. Lawrence, Kansas, is sacked by a pro-slavery mob.
MAY 22. Preston Brooks attacks Charles Sumner in the Senate, beating him over the head with a cane and severely injuring him.
MAY 29. Lincoln attends the Republican State Convention at Bloomington, Ill. He is nominated as a Presidential elector and makes a speech that brings the crowd to its feet cheering. (The famous “Lost Speech.”) This marks Lincoln’s first open adherence to the principles of the Republican party.
JUNE 19. The Republican party, in convention at Philadelphia, nominates John C. Frémont for President. In the balloting, Lincoln receives 110 votes for Vice President, but W. L. Dayton of New Jersey is nominated. During the next few months Lincoln speaks more than fifty times for Frémont.
NOVEMBER 4. Frémont is defeated, and James Buchanan is elected President on the Democratic ticket.
DECEMBER 10. Although the Republicans have lost the election, they feel that they have made many political gains. They hold a banquet at Chicago at which Lincoln speaks.
MARCH 4. James Buchanan is inaugurated.
MARCH 6–7. The Dred Scott decision is made public by the Supreme Court which rules that Negroes can not become citizens and that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was invalid from its inception.
JUNE 12. Stephen A. Douglas speaks in Springfield on the Dred Scott decision and on Kansas.
JUNE 15. Ah election is held in Kansas at which delegates to a constitutional convention are to be chosen. The Free State men, fearing duplicity, refuse to participate in the election.
JUNE 26. Lincoln speaks in Springfield in reply to Douglas.
LATE JULY. Lincoln makes a brief trip to New York, the purpose of which is unknown.
OCTOBER 5. The Free State men in Kansas win control of the Legislature. Nevertheless, on OCTOBER 19, the pro-slavery constitutional convention meets, determined to make Kansas a slave state.
DECEMBER 9. Douglas speaks in the United States Senate, denouncing the Lecompton constitution for Kansas and breaking with Buchanan and the Democratic party.
DECEMBER 21. An election is held in Kansas on the adoption of the Lecompton constitution. Again the Free State men refuse to vote. The election is proved to be based on fraudulent returns. The anti-slavery Kansas Legislature appoints another election day at which the whole constitution may be accepted or rejected.
1858 JANUARY 4. This election is held in Kansas, and the Lecompton constitution is rejected by an overwhelming vote which shows that Kansas is a section predominantly opposed to slavery
.
MARCH. Herndon goes East to consult with anti-slavery leaders there.
MAY 7. Lincoln successfully defends Duff Armstrong, son of Hannah Armstrong, an old New Salem friend, in a trial for murder held at Beardstown. He proves his case by the use of an almanac.
JUNE 16. The Illinois Republican Convention, meeting at Springfield, unanimously chooses Lincoln for the United States Senate to replace Douglas. During the evening, Lincoln delivers his celebrated “House Divided” speech.
JULY 9. Douglas speaks in Chicago from the balcony of the Tremont House. Lincoln is present and takes notes of what he says.
JULY 10. Lincoln, speaking at the same place, replies to Douglas.
JULY 17. During the afternoon Douglas speaks at an open air meeting in Springfield. Lincoln replies to him in the evening, speaking in the Hall of Representatives.
JULY 24–31. The Republicans are dissatisfied at the way Lincoln has been following Douglas. They urge him to challenge Douglas to a series of formal debates. This is now arranged.
AUGUST 2. The people of Kansas again refuse the Lecompton constitution together with a free-land bribe. The debates between Lincoln and Douglas are held as follows:
AUGUST 21. At Ottawa.
1858 AUGUST 27. At Freeport.
SEPTEMBER 15. At Jonesboro.
SEPTEMBER 18. At Charleston.
OCTOBER 7. At Galesburg.
OCTOBER 13. At Quincy.
OCTOBER 15. At Alton.
NOVEMBER 2. Election day. The Republicans in Illinois are successful in electing some state officers and in making general gains, but the Democrats still hold a majority in the Legislature, making it almost certain that Douglas will be elected to the Senate.
1859 JANUARY 5. The election is held in the State Legislature at which Douglas is returned to the Senate—a foregone conclusion.
SEPTEMBER 16. Lincoln speaks at Columbus, Ohio.
SEPTEMBER 17. He speaks at Cincinnati.
SEPTEMBER 30. He speaks before the Wisconsin Agricultural Society at Milwaukee.
OCTOBER 16. John Brown captures the Federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry.
OCTOBER 18. John Brown is captured at daybreak and is taken the next day to jail at Charlestown, Virginia.
NOVEMBER 2. John Brown is sentenced to death.
The Life and Writings of Abraham Lincoln Page 23