Lincoln's America: 1809 - 1865

Appendix

225 Appendix: Chronology of Lincoln’s America Note: Boldface type indicates events directly related to Lincoln’s life. 1809 February 12: Abraham Lincoln is born in Hardin County, Kentucky. March 4: James Madison is inaugurated the fourth U.S. president. Washington Irving, under a pseudonym, publishes A History of New York. Thomas Paine dies. 1816 Lincoln family moves to Indiana. Indiana is admitted to the Union as the nineteenth state. James Monroe is elected the fifth president. The American Colonization Society is founded. 1818 October 5: Abraham’s mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, dies. Illinois is admitted to the Union as the twenty-first state. Abigail Adams and George Rogers Clark die. 1819 December 2: Abraham’s father, Thomas Lincoln, marries Sarah Johnston. The U.S. Supreme Court renders its decision in McCulloch v. Maryland. 1831 March: Abraham Lincoln builds a flatboat and rides it down the Mississippi to New Orleans. April: He makes a second flatboat trip to New Orleans. July: He arrives in New Salem, Illinois. January 1: William Lloyd Garrison publishes the first issue of the Liberator. November 11: Nat Turner leads a slave revolt. December 5: John Quincy Adams, a future leader of the antislavery movement, takes his seat in Congress. Edgar Allan Poe publishes Poems. John Greenleaf Whittier publishes Legends of New England. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 226 Appendix 1832 Lincoln is defeated as candidate for the Illinois state legislature. April–July: He serves in the Black Hawk War. Chief Black Hawk is defeated. Andrew Jackson, the seventh president, is reelected, with Martin Van Buren as vice president. 1833 May 7: Lincoln is appointed postmaster at New Salem. 1834 January: Lincoln begins work as a surveyor. August: He is elected to the Illinois state legislature. He begins to study law. Cyrus McCormick patents a grain reaper. 1835 August 25: Lincoln’s close friend Ann Rutledge dies. December 12: He introduces a debtor relief bill in the state legislature. Part 1 of Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America is published. 1836 Lincoln is reelected to the Illinois state legislature. He is licensed to practice law. The Alamo falls. The first McGuffey Reader is published. Ralph Waldo Emerson publishes Nature. Roger B. Taney is named chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. 1837 April 15: Lincoln moves to Springfield, Illinois. He becomes the law partner of John T. Stuart. March 4: Martin Van Buren is inaugurated the eighth president. Nathaniel Hawthorne publishes Twice Told Tales. Procter & Gamble and Tiffany & Company are founded. 1838 January 27: Lincoln addresses the Young Men’s Lyceum in Springfield. He is reelected to the Illinois state legislature. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Chronology of Lincoln’s America 227 Frederick Douglass escapes from slavery. James Fenimore Cooper publishes The American Democrat. 1840 Lincoln is reelected to the Illinois state legislature. William Henry Harrison (“Tippecanoe and Tyler Too”) is elected the ninth president. Two Years before the Mast (Richard Henry Dana), The Pathfinder (Cooper), and The Village Blacksmith (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) are published. Part 2 of Tocqueville’s Democracy in America is published. 1842 November 4: Lincoln marries Mary Todd. Phineas T. Barnum takes over the American Museum in New York City. 1844 Lincoln forms a law partnership with William Herndon. He campaigns as elector for Henry Clay. Stephen Collins Foster publishes first song, “Open Thy Lattice, Love.” May 24: Samuel F. B. Morse transmits first telegraph message between cities: “What hath God wrought.” Poe publishes The Purloined Letter. Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanizing rubber. James K. Polk is elected the eleventh president. Mathew Brady opens a photography studio in New York City. 1846 Lincoln is elected to Congress. Elias Howe patents a sewing machine. Daniel Emmett writes “Blue Tail Fly.” Herman Melville, Whittier, Poe, Hawthorne, and Cooper publish new works. The Smithsonian Institution is founded. 1849 Lincoln tries (unsuccessfully) to introduce a bill abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia. He secures a patent, becoming the first (and only) person elected president to hold a patent. Gold is discovered in California. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 228 Appendix Henry David Thoreau is jailed for refusing to pay a poll tax. Francis Parkman, Whittier, Thoreau, and Longfellow publish new works. 1852 July 6: Lincoln delivers the eulogy for Henry Clay. Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin. 1854 October 16: Lincoln gives a speech in Peoria, Illinois, responding to one given earlier by Stephen A. Douglas. The Kansas-Nebraska Act is passed. Thoreau publishes Walden. Foster writes “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair.” 1855 Lincoln wins lawsuit for the Illinois Central Railroad. He begins...