Abraham Lincoln Questions

Who was he, what do we know about him as a key political figure in American politics?:
Abraham Lincoln was a self-taught Illinois lawyer and legislator with a reputation as an eloquent opponent of slavery. During the Union on the brink of victory, Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed by the Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth in April 1865,; his untimely death made him a martyr to the cause of liberty and Union. Over the years Lincoln's mythic stature has only grown, and he is widely regarded as one of the greatest presidents in the nation's history.
What is the Gettysburg Address of 1863? When was it delivered by him (not just the year!!) and what issues did it address?
His Emancipation Proclamation, issued in 1863, freed all slaves in the rebellious states and paved the way for slavery's eventual abolition. Gettysburg Address later that year stands as one of the most famous and influential pieces of oratory in American history.
On the morning of November 19, Everett delivered his two-hour oration (from memory) on the Battle of Gettysburg and its significance, and the orchestra played a hymn composed for the occasion by B.B. French. Lincoln then rose to the podium and addressed the crowd. He spoke for less than two minutes, and the entire speech was only 272 words long. Beginning by invoking the image of the founding fathers and the new nation, Lincoln eloquently expressed his conviction that the Civil War was the ultimate test of whether the Union created in 1776 would survive, or whether it would "perish from the earth." The dead at Gettysburg had laid down their lives for this noble cause, he said, and it was up to the living