Abraham Lincoln guided his country through the most dificult times the U.S. has ever experienced -the Civil War between the North and the South, and then he abolished slavery. No small task! By issuing the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, he promoted the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified later by the states in 1865. He was a master at rallying public opinion through his speeches and rhetoric. His famous Gettysburg Address is one of many examples, and one of the most quoted speeches in U.S. history. On slavery: "Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally." His assassination in 1865 was the first one in U.S. history.