Legacy of Lincoln: 35 Enlightening Facts About Abraham Lincoln and His Impact

Abraham Lincoln's religious views are highly ambiguous and a matter of debate. He never joined any Church, and was a skeptic as a young man and sometimes ridiculed revivalists. Many friends and family of Lincoln rejected that he was a believing Christian.

27. Whenever Abraham Lincoln felt the urge to tell someone off, he would compose a “hot letter.” He’d pile all of his anger into a note and put it aside until his emotions cooled down. He would then write: ‘Never sent. Never signed.’

28. Abraham Lincoln suffered from many visual problems, including strabismus, which made it difficult for him to look people in the eye. He also switched between multiple pairs of glasses for various uses due to farsightedness

29. During the Civil War, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and oversaw mass arrests of up to 38,000 antiwar protesters and journalists in the North.

30. Abraham Lincoln had very little formal schooling and was largely self-educated.

Abraham Lincoln suffered from a lifelong “melancholy,” a condition we now call clinical depression. His suffering was so severe, that his community had to put him under a “suicide watch.” He also refused to carry a knife, because he feared he would harm himself.

32. Abraham Lincoln set the national day for Thanksgiving in 1863 partially to celebrate “the advancing armies and navies of the Union.“

33. In 1862, Abraham Lincoln wanted to deport free African Americans to Brazil. The plan failed because Brazil said no.

34. Abraham Lincoln created the secret service just hours before he was assassinated.

35. Abraham Lincoln's corpse was sent on a two-week funeral tour across America, shown openly to thousands. In the course of the trip, the body visibly decomposed, bloated, and darkened. In New York City alone, the body was seen by over 150,000 and exposed to the air for 23 hours straight.