Abraham Lincoln biography (continues...)

Abraham Lincoln was the first United States president to be assassinated, the first and perhaps the only one to become a true martyr to the cause of democracy.

If not for Lincoln, today the United States would be two and possibly more nations. It would never have attained the prosperity, growth, and world prominence that now distinguishes it. Most importantly to him, it would not be standing as it does, as living proof that democracy can be an enduring and vital form of government.

Lincoln never believed that what he accomplished had been accomplished without divine help and intervention. He once said:  "I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me." He lived with a perpetual sense that he was being swept along by forces larger than himself, to a destiny he could and would not even dare to predict.

If, as Shakespeare, said: "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them," then Abraham Lincoln may be a rare example of all three. He had a natural strength of character and conviction; he worked diligently at improving his own mind and skills; and he was presented by fate with a challenge of such enormous proportions and implications, that he himself believed he was nothing more and nothing less than an instrument in God's hands.