November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln is elected as the 16th president and is the first Republican to hold this office. He delivers his first inaugural address in March of 1861. At 4:30 a.m., April 12, 1861, the Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter and the Civil War begins.
One of the most eventful declarations in history was given in 1863 as President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves in territories held by confederates.
“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any States or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever