what did abraham lincoln do before he was president?
Statesman Politician Lawyer
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 Historians agree that it is impossible to predict exactly what Lincoln would have done about Reconstruction if he had lived , but they make projections based on his known policy positions and political acumen . Lincoln biographers James G. Randall and Richard Current , according to David Lincove , argue that : 

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 Lincoln 's first romantic interest was Ann Rutledge , whom he met when he first moved to New Salem ; by 1835 , they were in a relationship but not formally engaged . She died at the age of 22 on August 25 , 1835 , most likely of typhoid fever . In the early 1830s , he met Mary Owens from Kentucky when she was visiting her sister . 

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 = = = Beginnings in politics and marriage = = = 

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 In the United States , President Jackson ordered that Lafayette receive the same memorial honors that had been bestowed on Washington 's death in December 1799 . Both Houses of Congress were draped in black bunting for thirty days , and members wore mourning badges . Congress urged Americans to follow similar mourning practices . Later in 1834 , former president John Quincy Adams gave a eulogy of Lafayette that lasted three hours , calling him " high on the list of the pure and disinterested benefactors of mankind " . 

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 A version popular during the American Civil War adds references to Abraham Lincoln : 
