Abraham Lincoln is born: Feb. 12, 1809

[TomSea]

Abraham Lincoln is born: Feb. 12, 1809

Abraham Lincoln, who would hold the Union together through a blood-soaked Civil War as the nation’s 16th president, was born on this day in 1809 in a log cabin near Hodgenville, Kentucky. As the conflict raged more than 50 years later, Lincoln insisted that work on the U.S. Capitol Dome continue. He viewed the construction project as a clear signal that “we intend the Union shall go on.”

Lincoln was the first president to get Congress to levy an income tax. In 1863, Lincoln also got the lawmakers to proclaim Thanksgiving as the nation’s sole federally authorized holiday with religious roots.

Fourteen years before his 1860 presidential campaign, Lincoln was elected to the House from Illinois as a Whig anti-war activist. He spoke out against the Mexican-American War, which he saw as evidence of President James Polk’s desire for “military glory — that attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood.”

Continued: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/abraham-lincoln-is-born-feb-12-1809-234917