When Abraham Lincoln died in the early morning hours of April 15,1865,one of the men who was by his deathbed stated in lamentation"Now he belongs to the ages." And history has confirmed that Abraham Lincoln does indeed "belongs to the ages".

Abraham Lincoln,the 16th President of the United States, is undoubtedly one of the best-known figures in history.His face-even his very name has become synonymous with history itself. Of all the U.S. presidents he has ranked as the most famous,best-loved and most-remembered and most-quoted.Some say that Abraham Lincoln is the greatest president in American history. Lincoln came from humble beginnings-very humble.

He was born in a one-room log cabin on February 12,1809 to parents Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln(who is the descendant of modern-day actor Tom Hanks),who were poor,uneducated farmers. Abraham was the second of three children, an older sister Sarah Lincoln, and Thomas Lincoln,Jr. who died in infancy. The family was very poor;they had to work long hard hours just to eke out a living.In fact they were so poor that when the Lincoln children went to school,they had to walk for several miles-both ways nearly every day. In the winter months this was quite a challenge,since the winters back then were particularly brutal. It was so cold that the Lincoln children had hot potatoes put in their shoes to keep their feet warm.

The Lincolns were very religious,and they had strong anti-slavery views which would affect Abraham's moral as well as political moves later on in life. They attended a Baptist church along with Abraham and his older sister. But in his later life Abraham had little use for organized religion even though he had a great love for the Bible,which he often read and quoted from;so he was not affiliated with any religious group. The boy had a great love for reading,he could literally read books for hours,and he read practically every book he could get his hands on,everything from the Bible to Shakespeare.In fact,Abraham Lincoln only had 18 months(1 1/2 years) of formal schooling.

As he got older he grew to be 6"4 tall and he become something of a prominent figure in his community. He was known as a great speaker,and the neighborhood townsfolk would gather around him as he told spell-binding stories. He was also a skilled rail splitter and something of a champion wrestler. Abe-as people began to call him as he got older,entered into the political arena in 1832 when

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