With Malice Toward None

The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition    

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Young Lincoln

The Amateur Poet The Amateur Poet

Born in a Kentucky log cabin to a frontier family who later moved to Indiana and Illinois, young Abraham Lincoln grew up in abject poverty. He had about eighteen months of formal education because he worked to supplement his family’s income. An avid reader, he made extraordinary efforts to gain knowledge while working at many jobs, from farm hand to store clerk. This admirable diligence eventually led to his becoming a respected lawyer and Illinois state political figure. In November 1842 Lincoln married Mary Todd, daughter of a prominent Kentucky slave-owning family.  The couple settled in Springfield, Illinois, where their four sons were born.

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