[4] The film received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Raymond Massey) and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (James Wong Howe).

Abraham Lincoln leaves home for the first time, having been hired along with two of his friends by Denton Offutt to take a load of pigs by water to New Orleans.

When the boat becomes stuck at a dam at the settlement of New Salem, Abe sees and loses his heart to Ann Rutledge, the daughter of the local tavern keeper.

When Mary Todd visits her sister Elizabeth Edwards and her wealthy, influential husband Ninian, a party is held in her honor.

Lincoln runs for a seat in the U.S, Senate and engages in a series of debates with Stephen Douglas, the opposing candidate, during which the main issue is slavery.

Abe wins the election, bids his friends goodbye and boards the train for Washington, D.C. RKO paid "upwards of $175,000" for the play's film rights.

[6] In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Frank S. Nugent called the film "a grand picture and a memorable biography of the greatest American of them all" and praised Massey's performance: "His Lincoln has acquired, with constant usage of the role, a mellowness, an evenness, an assurance that make the character seem less put on than foreordained by nature and by art.

Nationwide, it lost attendance to a number of successful films such as Rebecca, Foreign Correspondent, Pinocchio, The Grapes of Wrath, Fantasia, The Sea Hawk, Our Town, Santa Fe Trail, The Letter, Northwest Passage and Pride and Prejudice.