Presidential inauguration of Abraham Lincoln on March 4, 1861. Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 - April 15, 1865) was the 16th American President. Reared on the western frontier, Lincoln was mostly self-educated. He became a country lawyer, an Illinois state legislator and member of the House of Representatives. He was elected president in 1860, but before Lincoln took office, seven southern slave states declared their secession and formed the Confederacy. When war began Lincoln concentrated on both the military and political dimensions of the war effort, seeking to reunify the nation. He exercised unprecedented war powers, including the arrest and detention without trial of thousands of suspected secessionists. He issued his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and promoted the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. Lincoln married Mary Todd in 1842. They had four sons; Robert Todd, Edward Baker, Willie and Tad, but only Robert survived to adulthood. Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at the Ford Theater on April 14th, 1865. After being in a coma for nine hours, Lincoln died at 7:22 am on April 15, at the age of 56.