Abraham Lincoln was born in Mardin County, Kentucky, on February 12, 1809. The Lincolns moved to Knob Creek, below Louisville, two years later, where they farmed thirty acres of cleared forest land. When Abe was seven, the family crossed the Ohio River into southern Indiana, where the boy grew to manhood. At age twenty-one, Lincoln went with his family to Decatur, Illinois.

The following year, 1831, Lincoln set off on his own, and after a flatboat trip to New Orleans, he settled in New Salem, near Springfield, Illinois. His second bid for the Illinois legislature proved successful in 1834, and Lincoln went to Vandalia, at that time the state's capital.

He served four successive terms. Soon after Springfield became the new state capital, Lincoln opened a law office there. He served as a U.S. congressman for a single term and remained in Washington, D.C., from 1847 to 1849. During the 1850s, Lincoln...