Portrait of President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), 16th President of the United States until his assassination on April 14, 1865, by John Wilkes Booth. President Lincoln is depicted as “The Great Emancipator,” seated with the Emancipation Proclamation before him. In the background, a personification of the spirit of liberty is shown trampling and breaking the chains of slavery, foreshadowing the Union victory during the American Civil War, and the end of slavery.