Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States, 1860. Lincoln (1809-1865) joined the Republican party in 1858 and was elected president two years later. In 1863, he proclaimed the emancipation of all slaves in the southern Confederate states and later that year restated his anti-slavery views in the Gettysburg Address. During his 1864 campaign for re-election, Lincoln embraced the abolition of slavery. He was infamously shot by actor John Wilkes Booth whilst attending the theatre in 1865.