Question 75 of 100 · 2008 civics test
What was one important thing that Abraham Lincoln did?
From the 100-question list, the version for applications filed before October 20, 2025.
On the 65/20 list: one of the 20 questions for applicants 65 or older with 20 years as permanent residents.
Accepted answers
- freed the slaves (Emancipation Proclamation)
- saved (or preserved) the Union
- led the United States during the Civil War
Any one of these is accepted, unless the question asks for more than one.
Why this is the answer
Any one of the three accepted answers works: he freed the slaves through the Emancipation Proclamation, he saved the Union, or he led the country during the Civil War. Lincoln was president from 1861 to 1865. He regarded the secession of the southern states as unconstitutional and set out to preserve the Union, and in 1863 he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring the slaves in the rebelling Confederate states forever free. That same year he spoke at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg, asking the living to rededicate themselves so that government of the people, by the people, for the people would not perish from the earth. He was killed on April 14, 1865, soon after beginning his second term. Memory hook: he held the country together and ended slavery in the states that had left it.