With Malice Toward None Essays - Lincoln Family, Abraham Lincoln

"With Malice Toward None" by Stephen B.Oates Published by Mentor Books About the Author Stephen B. Oates is a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the author of eight other books, including The Fires of Jubilee and To Purge This Land with Blood. His task in this biography was to perpetuate Lincoln as he was in the days he lived. His purpose of this biography was to bring the past into the present for us and his students. The Life of Abraham Lincoln Although other states such as Indiana lay claim to his birth, most sources agree that Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a backwoods cabin in Hodgeville, Kentucky. In an interview during his campaign for the presidency in 1860 Lincoln described his adolescence as "the short and simple annals of the poor." (p 30). His father Thomas was a farmer who married Nancy Hanks, his mother, in 1806. Lincoln had one sister, Sarah, who was born in 1807. The Lincoln family was more financially comfortable than most despite the common historical picture of complete poverty. They moved to Indiana because of the shaky system of land titles in Kentucky. Because the Lincoln's arrived in Spencer County at the same time as winter, Thomas only had time to construct a "half-faced camp." Made of logs and boughs, it was enclosed on only three sides with a roaring fire for the fourth. The nearest water supply was a mile away, and the family had to survive on the abundance of wild game in the area. Less than two years after the move to Indiana, Mrs. Lincoln caught a horrible frontier disease known as "milk sick.". Thomas Lincoln returned to Kentucky to find a new wife. On December 2 he married Sarah Bush Johnston, a widow with three children, and took them all back to Indiana. Although there were now eight people living in the small shelter, the Lincoln children, especially Abe, adored their new stepmother who played a key role in making sure that Abe at least had some formal education, amounting to a little less than a year in all. To support his family it was necessary that Abe worked for a wage on nearby farms. "He was strong and a great athlete, but Abe preferred to read instead. Although few books were available to a backwoods boy such as himself, anything that he could obtain he would read tenaciously" (p 56). Although his formal education had come to an end, his self-education was just beginning. After a three month flatboat journey along the Ohio and Mississippi, the 19 year old Lincoln returned to Indiana with an enthusiasm for the lifestyles that he had just encountered. Unfortunately, his new-found joy did not last long as his sister Sarah died in childbirth on January 20, 1828. In 1830 the Lincoln family decided to leave Indiana in hopes of a better future in Illinois. It was soon thereafter that Abraham became a leader in the town of New Salem while operating a store and managing a mill. The next step for such an ambitious man was obvious--he entered politics, finishing eighth out of thirteen in a race for the Illinois House of Representatives in August of 1832. Abraham Lincoln was a strong supporter of Whig founder Henry Clay and his "American System." This system that arose from the National Republicans of 1824 was in opposition to the powerful Democratic party of President Andrew Jackson. Lincoln agreed with Clay that the government should be a positive force with the purpose of serving the people. Internal improvements were high on both mens' lists, and this stand made the relatively unknown Lincoln popular in rural Illinois from the start. As the Whigs rose in stature throughout the 1830's, so did Lincoln, but not without paying his dues along the way. For eighty days in the spring and early summer of 1832 Lincoln served in the military. On a constant search for Black Hawk, war leader of the Sauk and Fox Indians, he never saw any fighting but he did prove to be a superior leader of men in some of the most trying situations, including threats of desertion. "In return for his eleven and a half weeks of service Lincoln earned a mere $125, but the connections that he made with future leaders of Illinois and the experiencing of life from a soldier's viewpoint proved to be priceless in his future political career" (p 80). During this time Lincoln ran for and won a seat in the Illinois Legislature with bipartisan support. In 1846 Lincoln

How to Write a Propositional Essay

How to Write a Propositional EssayAlthough it is not recommended, there are some people who write persuasive essays on specific business topics. Some of these people will do a professional proposal and sell their services or products to potential clients in order to promote their expertise and skills. You can even use a proposal as a solution sample for other people's proposal writing projects.Now, it is important to mention that a persuasive essay is not the same as a sales pitch. Most of the sales pitches found in magazines and newspapers are not persuasive at all. A persuasive essay does not present you as a person selling a product, and a sales pitch does not need to be persuasive. In fact, the opposite can often happen.If you plan to write a persuasive essay on a subject and sell something, you will first need to get your proposal to your target audience. The proposal writing process is very different from that of a sales pitch. You should have a strong rapport with your audienc e before you start writing a persuasive essay. The most important things to keep in mind when writing a persuasive essay are:Always remember that a proposal is a solution sample. The audience for your proposal is your prospective clients, but the solution you give them is the solution they are going to have if they buy the product you are selling. It is important that you choose a topic that would be useful to the readers.You should not make a persuasive essay out of the proposal you write. Make sure that the information you put into the proposal is relevant and helpful to the reader.When writing a persuasive essay, you will need to write something that expresses your experience. A persuasive essay gives a brief description of the topic you are writing about. It should also be informative and concise, and it should be easy to understand.Your persuasive essay should be persuasive and appealing. Your audience should be able to quickly determine whether or not they want to read your es say. After all, you are already selling the product you are selling. If they are interested, they will want to know more about the product you are selling.Remember that you should have an idea of what type of persuasive essay you are going to write, and then you should have a clear idea of what type of writer you are. There are many types of writers, so the best way to find out how to write a persuasive essay is to read the works of the best writers in the field. Some of these writers will allow you to do a research project on how to write a persuasive essay. This allows you to learn how to compose a persuasive essay before you even begin writing it.