Lincoln got a license to practice law after several hard years of teaching himself. By .

             the early 1850s, the Lincoln-Herndon law office had become a leading Springfield firm.

             Chairman of the Senate"s Committee on Territories, Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois came out with a new congressional act. Lincoln thought the Kansas-Nebraska Act was just wrong. In the summer of 1854 Lincoln decided to campaign for a position in the Illinois State Assembly. In November he won but resigned because he wanted a seat in the .

             United States Senate, where he thought he could make a real difference. He was defeated by Lyman Trumbull but in 1856, Lincoln was helping to create a new political party in Illinois called the Republicans. The new party"s first and primary goal was to prevent Democrat James Buchanan from winning the Presidency, it failed. Then two days after Buchanan"s inauguration the Supreme Court ruled the Missouri Compromise "unconstitutional" and denied that Negros could never be considered American citizens. On June 16, 1858 the Illinois State Republican Convention nominated Lincoln to run against Stephen Douglas for the United States Senate. The seven Lincoln-Douglas debates during the late summer and fall of 1858 were the highlight of the campaign, in towns all .

             over the state. Ten thousand people attended the opening three-hour debate in Ottawa, Illinois, and there were fifteen thousand at the second in Freeport. Douglas won the Senate race, but the debates launched Lincoln on his own path to presidency. In 1861, on March 4, Lincoln was inaugurated as President. Lincoln"s first official act was the appointment of John G. Nicolay as his private secretary. One month after he had taken office he got word that the 6th Massachusetts Infantry was on its way to defend Washington, which had been attacked by a Baltimore mob leaving thirteen people dead. .

             In May of 1861 Tennessee, North Carolina, and Arkansas joined the Confederacy.