EXPERIENCE

• Served as the first Republican Party president and built the Republican Party into a powerful national organization.
• Defended and preserved the unity of the United States by defeating the secessionist Confederacy in the Civil War, and instituted a formal Reconstruction Plan to reunite the nation after the war.
• Supervised all aspects of the war effort and selected top generals (including Ulysses S. Grant) to lead military campaigns
• Issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, freeing slaves within the Confederacy. Endorsed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which totally abolished slavery.
• Delivered the Gettysburg Address, the most famous speech in American history.
• Signed landmark legislation, including the National Banking Act, legislation that protected American industry, and a bill that chartered the first transcontinental railroad.
• Supported the Federal Homestead Law (1862), which allowed poor people in the east to acquire land in the west.

• Led the Long Nine group of seven legislators and two senators in moving the state capital from Vandalia to Springfield
• Helped pass a bill to build better roads and construct a system of canals and railroads making Illinois a more progressive and accessible state.
  

• Prepared cases for federal courts, the Illinois Supreme Court and the state’s Eighth Judicial Circuit. Admitted to practice in United States Circuit Court in 1839
• Joined the Republican Party in 1856 and gained national attention by challenging Stephen A. Douglas to a series of debates in 1858

• Worked diligently to serve and please customers. Routinely walked several miles to deliver mail when I know that someone is waiting for an important letter.