Abraham Lincoln was in politics.
Abraham Lincoln ( [ ˈeɪbrəhæm_ˈlIŋkən ] February 12 , 1809 -- April 15 , 1865 ) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865 . Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War -- its bloodiest war and perhaps its greatest moral , constitutional , and political crisis . The Gettysburg Address is a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln , one of the best-known in American history . The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly , the state legislature of the U.S. state of Illinois . John Wilkes Booth ( May 10 , 1838 -- April 26 , 1865 ) was an American actor and assassin , who murdered President Abraham Lincoln at Ford 's Theatre in Washington , D.C. on April 14 , 1865 .