Lincoln the Westerner

LINCOLN THE WESTERNER
1809 to 1860

Abraham Lincoln was the first president from the West. He spent every year of his life—except the four in the White House—in some of the newest and farthest parts of the United States: Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. (For his two years in the U.S. Congress, his official residence was Springfield, Illinois.) In the West, Lincoln worked toilsome jobs, lost his mother and sister, met his wife, and became a politician. The region was the crucible of America in the nineteenth century, and Lincoln witnessed or participated in much of its development and change: the settlement of new states, Indian Wars, infrastructure needs, the evolution of modern political parties, and the arguments against slavery and slave powers. As Lincoln grew up, so did the country. Other presidents before Lincoln spent time in the West, but Lincoln was the first to be raised wholly outside of the original thirteen colonies.

Raised in the West

Patrick Campbell, Travels in the Interior Inhabited Parts of North America (Edinburgh: Guthrie, 1793).

Humphrey Marshall, The History of Kentucky (Frankfort [KY]: Gore, 1812).

John Filson, The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucke (Wilmington [DE]: Adams, 1784).

G. A. Imlay, Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North America; [with] John Filson, The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucke (New York: Campbell, 1793).

[George Armroyd], A Connected View of the Whole Internal Navigation of the United States (Philadelphia: Carey & Lea, 1826).

Black Hawk, Life of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak (Boston: n.p., 1834).

Lincoln's Life in Congress

Report of the Committee on Internal Improvement (Vandalia [IL]: Sawyer, 1837).

Abraham Lincoln, Public Lands in Illinois (Vandalia [IL]: n.p., 1839).

Congressional Directory, for the Second Session of the Thirtieth Congress (Washington: Gideon, 1849).

Abraham Lincoln, “H.R.301–30th Congress, Report No. 325: Newspaper Subscriptions” (Washington: n.p., 1848).