Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States (1861–65), was born on February 12, 1809, near Hodgenville, Kentucky, and died on April 15, 1865, in Washington, D.C. Born in a Kentucky log cabin, he moved to Indiana in 1816 and to Illinois in 1830. After working as a storekeeper, a rail-splitter, a postman, and a surveyor, he enlisted as a levy in the Black Hawk War( 1832) and was tagged captain of his company. He studied law and, in 1836, passed the bar examination. In 1837, he moved his practice from New Salem to Springfield, Ill. He became a successful circuit-riding counsel, noted for his sharpness, common sense, and honesty (earning the surname “ Honest Abe"). From 1834 to 1840 he served in the Illinois state council, and in 1847 he was tagged as a Whig by the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1856, he joined the Republican Party, which nominated him as its candidate in the 1858 Senate election. In the 1860 presidential election, he ran against Douglas again and won by a large margin in the electoral council, though he secured only two-fifths of the popular vote. On April 14, 1865, (Washington, D.C.), pro-slavery advocate John Wilkes Booth shoots him during a theater performance. Lincoln died the following morning on the 15th.