Abraham Lincoln was dead by 1858.
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 . As the war progressed , his complex moves toward ending slavery included the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 ; Lincoln used the U.S. Army to protect escaped slaves , encouraged the border states to outlaw slavery , and pushed through Congress the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution , which permanently outlawed slavery . An exceptionally astute politician deeply involved with power issues in each state , Lincoln reached out to the War Democrats and managed his own re-election campaign in the 1864 presidential election . On April 14 , 1865 , five days after the surrender of Confederate commanding general Robert E. Lee , Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth , a Confederate sympathizer . The Gettysburg Address is a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln , one of the best-known in American history .