Leadership can be viewed like a proposition for a chosen view in the limelight of developing leadership qualities and legacy development. Being a president of a large country like the United States of America, during the period that was encompassed with problems ranging from slavery to civil wars, which were internal, is the period that he reigned as the 16th president of the United States of America and leaving behind a legacy that every leader could look forward to achieving while on power (Billings & Williams, 2010). America was faced with many issues, which not only almost disintegrated the country but also made the nation be divided into two which are nowadays the ruling parties the democrats and republicans.
Aiming visionary leadership is the main principle that Lincoln used in achieving his legacy and the power of uniting particular instances, which could have destroyed the integrity of the United States of America. The United States of America was in a transition period in which there were different circumstances that could have destroyed people as citizens in the country. Firstly there developed slavery in the nations, in which Indians and other races were caused to work under the majority ruling of the whites. Leaders from every different perspective of government helped to come into conclusion on how to unite other tribes and communities to a point of stopping their acts of slavery, but somehow it created drifts more than saving innocent people from becoming victims of hard labor. Slavery was not the only problem that faced the Americans at the time of Abraham Lincoln but also civil wars were a common thing that left many without shelter, family members and elevated drifts among its communities. However, Lincoln fought a good fight and strived into power as the 16th president of the United States of America.
Childhood of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was born on a farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky on February 12, 1809. Although he was born in a family of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, he managed to come from a family that valued knowledge a sense modesty. He had well respected family in his community. At the time, their land was at disputes, and they were forced to move to Perry County, Indiana in 1817, where they started back to their routine of farming. At the age of 9 years old, Abraham was struck by a disaster of losing a mother and on the processes it made him alienate against his father and  be hard working little boy. Though, in a short while, his father remarried a woman known as Sarah Bush Johnston. Although Sarah had another child, she encouraged Abraham to read the few books that were available, plus the limited time that he could get in order to gain knowledge.
Fortunately he was motivated and wanted to learn, understand more, but books and time were limited. It was a time while he was growing into manhood that he received something close to formal education: this helped him to develop a vision of gaining higher education than just handwork of farming. In March, 1830, the family moved again to Illinois. At the age of 22 years old, Abraham started making a living through hard labor in farms as he was slowly growing up man with almost 6ft tall. With these attributes, he developed to be a strongman with a gait while working and then managed to gain respect through his hard work, as a shopkeeper, and post master and above all, he developed time to continue his own career and not forgetting education behind. He had different jobs from fire fencing to odd jobs like welding. His readiness to get in touch with people in public while working helped him to become knowledgeable and gain personal exposure, personal social skills and honed his storytelling techniques which could later help him to gain his personal composure spirit.
Education and Law Career
When Lincoln was a fully grown-up man, he was working through hard jobs in the shop keeping, postmaster and welding jobs, he attributed to gaining his personal skills through conversing with people and other social roles played in the society. At the same time, the United States was evolving quickly. Events occurred one after the other, at around that time the Black Hawk war broke out, and the people were scared, hence elected Lincoln as their captain. Through his visionary responsibilities of conserving life as exemplary as his own, he decided not to go to war since it was unnecessary. These incidents made him look for another alternative in the essence of developing leadership roles. He became a member of the Whig Party, and as he supported the Whig Party around the county he became more popular. This propelled him as he started learning and teaching himself law by using the books of William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England. After the two years, he started to look for stability in his political career and at the same time started practicing law at John T. Stuart law firm.
He got involved with Anne Rutledge, but before he got a chance to have a relationship, she passed away through an outbreak of typhoid fever. This left him in a desperate and sorrowful mood, but it developed into a stepping stone that changed his life forever (Thurow, 1976). Therefore in 1844 Abraham partnered with Herndon in the practice of law and this helped him in gaining outside exposure to the events that were happening around the county, for example, he expressed his views of slavery, “although it’s not bad but it’s an enigma into the economic developmentâ€. Although he made a good living as a lawyer in the time, he decided to up his game and looked for jobs around the Illinois congress seats and county. This brought him support at home for gaining the voice to speak about the trend in the country and how it was affecting its citizens.
Political Career
In 1847, Abraham became congress representative in the seat of Illinois. This, in turn, turned him to be personally dominating the perspective of gaining his personal development through gaining power in the process of defining the important aspects of life (Lincoln, 2003). He decided not to run for a second term but went home to practice law again. In the regime of gaining in the time of developing his personal relations with other members of the party, he tried major criminal cases, and other cases against his clients, for example, railway transport development project sprung in 1851. As his visionary representation of his clients spread, he went for the role of wanting to run against the sitting congress man in the seat of Illinois, this move made him succeed in having a good fan base that supported his basic fundamental principles in the concept of having good relations with its residents.
At the time when he was still practicing his law amendments and being a good lawyer, he got engaged to Mary Todd whom he married on November 4, 1842. This marriage was blessed with three children, but only one survived to adulthood due to disease which struck them in the early age. His views were in support of the development of transport, the abolition of slavery and empowerment of a common race, not in the alienation of other African Americans (Tarbell, 1900). During this particular historical ruling by the congress alienating other African American, Lincoln decided to run for congress and oppose the sitting congress and his friend U.S. Senator Stephen Douglas. He rejected the slavery that other leaders supported in the county of Texas and other counties. At the end of the 1861, the republican national congress established a team in support for Abraham Lincoln into presidency. In the end of the election period, Abraham had developed a majority winning stake of 180 votes out of 303 electoral votes.
Assassination
In order to curb the slavery and alienation of the African Americans by the whites, he composed a very strong cabinet that also involved the other candidates who were running against him in his bid for the presidency. Before his inauguration into office as the prime president of the states, the coldest cold war broke out in the United States. His response towards the cold war was not expected but helped through distribution of over $2,000,000 from treasury for war materials, and called for voluntarily volunteers into military service of over 80, 000, which, in turn, suspended the writ of habeas corpus. This made him face disagreements with his supporters, cabinets and other presidents, generals, as well.
Reconstruction was a slow, but a steady process that Lincoln established and this managed to create a policy for amendments. Unfortunately, a group of people in the house republicans confronted him demanding complete allegiance and an act of asking for forgiveness through his unexplained manners in the house of confederates (Rumsch, 2009). However before the development of this project, the 16th president of United States of America Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in the theater on April 14, 1865 by a confederate sympathizer, known as John Wilkes Booth.
