a short biography of abraham lincoln

April 10, 2024

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Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States of America. He is regarded by many as the most influential president of America. He is known for abolishing slavery from the united states. Lincoln led the nation through the American Civil War, the country’s greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. Abraham Lincoln was in office as president from March 4, 1861, to April 15, 1865. John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln on April 15, 1965.

Early Life:

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in Hodgenville, Kentucky. He was the second son of Thomas and Nancy Lincoln. He was born into a poor family. His mother died when he was nine years old. He self-educated himself into a lawyer. in 1842, Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd. They married at Springfield, Illinois. Abraham Lincoln was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1846. He was a member of the Republican party. He started his fight against slavery at the time. He spoke against the Mexican-American War. He served a two-year term as a congressman. After that, he returned to being a lawyer. He again returned to politics only to abolish slavery for good. On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States. He defeated Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, John C. Breckinridge of the Southern Democrats and John Bell of the new Constitutional Union Party. He became the first president of United States from The Republican Party. The American Civil War broke out in 1861. The slave states defected from the United States and declared a war of Abraham Lincoln’s America. He was re-elected as president in 1864 during the war. Abraham Lincoln led the United States to victory in 1865.

A well-known actor John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln on April 15, 1865. He was the first American president to be assassinated. James A. Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy were assassinated after him. Abraham Lincoln was shot while watching the play Our American Cousin. He was with his wife Mary Todd Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. The died the next morning. His tomb is located at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield.

The Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC was built-in Abraham Lincoln’s honor. It holds a colossal statue of Abraham Lincoln sitting in an armchair. The late precedent has been included in a lot of modern-day fiction in Hollywood. Many successful biographical books and movies have been made on Abraham Lincoln. The five-dollar bills have his portrait embedded.

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Abraham Lincoln

President Abraham Lincoln preserved the Union during the American Civil War and issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing enslaved people.

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Abraham Lincoln was the 16 th president of the United States , serving from 1861 to 1865, and is regarded as one of America’s greatest heroes due to his roles in guiding the Union through the Civil War and working to emancipate enslaved people. His eloquent support of democracy and insistence that the Union was worth saving embody the ideals of self-government that all nations strive to achieve. In 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves across the Confederacy. Lincoln’s rise from humble beginnings to achieving the highest office in the land is a remarkable story, and his death is equally notably. He was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in 1865, at age 56, as the country was slowly beginning to reunify following the war. Lincoln’s distinctively humane personality and incredible impact on the nation have endowed him with an enduring legacy.

FULL NAME: Abraham Lincoln BORN: February 12, 1809 DIED: April 15, 1865 BIRTHPLACE: Hodgenville, Kentucky SPOUSE: Mary Todd Lincoln (m. 1842) CHILDREN: Robert Todd Lincoln , Edward Baker Lincoln, William Wallace Lincoln, and Thomas “Tad” Lincoln ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aquarius HEIGHT: 6 feet 4 inches

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, to parents Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln in rural Hodgenville, Kentucky.

Thomas was a strong and determined pioneer who found a moderate level of prosperity and was well respected in the community. The couple had two other children: Lincoln’s older sister, Sarah, and younger brother, Thomas, who died in infancy. His death wasn’t the only tragedy the family would endure.

In 1817, the Lincolns were forced to move from young Abraham’s Kentucky birthplace to Perry County, Indiana, due to a land dispute. In Indiana, the family “squatted” on public land to scrap out a living in a crude shelter, hunting game and farming a small plot. Lincoln’s father was eventually able to buy the land.

When Lincoln was 9 years old, his 34-year-old mother died of tremetol, more commonly known as milk sickness, on October 5, 1818. The event was devastating to the young boy, who grew more alienated from his father and quietly resented the hard work placed on him at an early age.

In December 1819, just over a year after his mother’s death, Lincoln’s father Thomas married Sarah Bush Johnston, a Kentucky widow with three children of her own. She was a strong and affectionate woman with whom Lincoln quickly bonded.

Although both his parents were most likely illiterate, Thomas’ new wife Sarah encouraged Lincoln to read. It was while growing into manhood that Lincoln received his formal education—an estimated total of 18 months—a few days or weeks at a time.

Reading material was in short supply in the Indiana wilderness. Neighbors recalled how Lincoln would walk for miles to borrow a book. He undoubtedly read the family Bible and probably other popular books at that time such as Robinson Crusoe, Pilgrim’s Progres s, and Aesop’s Fable s.

In March 1830, the family again migrated, this time to Macon County, Illinois. When his father moved the family again to Coles County, 22-year-old Lincoln struck out on his own, making a living in manual labor.

Lincoln was 6 feet 4 inches tall, rawboned and lanky yet muscular and physically strong. He spoke with a backwoods twang and walked with a long-striding gait. He was known for his skill in wielding an ax and early on made a living splitting wood for fire and rail fencing.

Young Lincoln eventually migrated to the small community of New Salem, Illinois, where over a period of years he worked as a shopkeeper, postmaster, and eventually general store owner. It was through working with the public that Lincoln acquired social skills and honed a storytelling talent that made him popular with the locals.

Not surprising given his imposing frame, Lincoln was an excellent wrestler and had only one recorded loss—to Hank Thompson in 1832—over a span of 12 years. A shopkeeper who employed Lincoln in New Salem, Illinois, reportedly arranged bouts for him as a way to promote the business. Lincoln notably beat a local champion named Jack Armstrong and became somewhat of a hero. (The National Wrestling Hall of Fame posthumously gave Lincoln its Outstanding American Award in 1992.)

When the Black Hawk War broke out in 1832 between the United States and Native Americans, the volunteers in the area elected Lincoln to be their captain. He saw no combat during this time, save for “a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes,” but was able to make several important political connections.

As he was starting his political career in the early 1830s, Lincoln decided to become a lawyer. He taught himself the law by reading William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England . After being admitted to the bar in 1837, he moved to Springfield, Illinois, and began to practice in the John T. Stuart law firm.

In 1844, Lincoln partnered with William Herndon in the practice of law. Although the two had different jurisprudent styles, they developed a close professional and personal relationship.

Lincoln made a good living in his early years as a lawyer but found that Springfield alone didn’t offer enough work. So to supplement his income, he followed the court as it made its rounds on the circuit to the various county seats in Illinois.

On November 4, 1842, Lincoln wed Mary Todd , a high-spirited, well-educated woman from a distinguished Kentucky family. Although they were married until Lincoln’s death, their relationship had a history of instability.

When the couple became engaged in 1840, many of their friends and family couldn’t understand Mary’s attraction; at times, Lincoln questioned it himself. In 1841, the engagement was suddenly broken off, most likely at Lincoln’s initiative. Mary and Lincoln met later at a social function and eventually did get married.

The couple had four sons— Robert Todd , Edward Baker, William Wallace, and Thomas “Tad”—of whom only Robert survived to adulthood.

Before marrying Todd, Lincoln was involved with other potential matches. Around 1837, he purportedly met and became romantically involved with Anne Rutledge. Before they had a chance to be engaged, a wave of typhoid fever came over New Salem, and Anne died at age 22.

Her death was said to have left Lincoln severely depressed. However, several historians disagree on the extent of Lincoln’s relationship with Rutledge, and his level of sorrow at her death might be more the makings of legend.

About a year after the death of Rutledge, Lincoln courted Mary Owens. The two saw each other for a few months, and marriage was considered. But in time, Lincoln called off the match.

In 1834, Lincoln began his political career and was elected to the Illinois state legislature as a member of the Whig Party . More than a decade later, from 1847 to 1849, he served a single term in the U.S. House of Representatives. His foray into national politics seemed to be as unremarkable as it was brief. He was the lone Whig from Illinois, showing party loyalty but finding few political allies.

As a congressman, Lincoln used his term in office to speak out against the Mexican-American War and supported Zachary Taylor for president in 1848. His criticism of the war made him unpopular back home, and he decided not to run for second term. Instead, he returned to Springfield to practice law.

By the 1850s, the railroad industry was moving west, and Illinois found itself becoming a major hub for various companies. Lincoln served as a lobbyist for the Illinois Central Railroad as its company attorney.

Success in several court cases brought other business clients as well, including banks, insurance companies, and manufacturing firms. Lincoln also worked in some criminal trials.

In one case, a witness claimed that he could identify Lincoln’s client who was accused of murder, because of the intense light from a full moon. Lincoln referred to an almanac and proved that the night in question had been too dark for the witness to see anything clearly. His client was acquitted.

As a member of the Illinois state legislature, Lincoln supported the Whig politics of government-sponsored infrastructure and protective tariffs. This political understanding led him to formulate his early views on slavery, not so much as a moral wrong, but as an impediment to economic development.

In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act , which repealed the Missouri Compromise , allowing individual states and territories to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery. The law provoked violent opposition in Kansas and Illinois, and it gave rise to today’s Republican Party .

This awakened Lincoln’s political zeal once again, and his views on slavery moved more toward moral indignation. Lincoln joined the Republican Party in 1856.

In 1857, the Supreme Court issued its controversial Dred Scott decision, declaring Black people were not citizens and had no inherent rights. Although Lincoln felt Black people weren’t equal to whites, he believed America’s founders intended that all men were created with certain inalienable rights.

Lincoln decided to challenge sitting U.S. Senator Stephen Douglas for his seat. In his nomination acceptance speech, he criticized Douglas, the Supreme Court , and President James Buchanan for promoting slavery then declared “a house divided cannot stand.”

During Lincoln’s 1858 U.S. Senate campaign against Douglas, he participated in seven debates held in different cities across Illinois. The two candidates didn’t disappoint, giving stirring debates on issues such as states’ rights and western expansion. But the central issue was slavery.

Newspapers intensely covered the debates, often times with partisan commentary. In the end, the state legislature elected Douglas, but the exposure vaulted Lincoln into national politics.

With his newly enhanced political profile, in 1860, political operatives in Illinois organized a campaign to support Lincoln for the presidency. On May 18, at the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Lincoln surpassed better-known candidates such as William Seward of New York and Salmon P. Chase of Ohio. Lincoln’s nomination was due, in part, to his moderate views on slavery, his support for improving the national infrastructure, and the protective tariff.

In the November 1860 general election, Lincoln faced his friend and rival Stephen Douglas, this time besting him in a four-way race that included John C. Breckinridge of the Northern Democrats and John Bell of the Constitution Party. Lincoln received not quite 40 percent of the popular vote but carried 180 of 303 Electoral College votes, thus winning the U.S. presidency. He grew his trademark beard after his election.

Lincoln’s Cabinet

Following his election to the presidency in 1860, Lincoln selected a strong cabinet composed of many of his political rivals, including William Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, and Edwin Stanton.

Formed out the adage “Hold your friends close and your enemies closer,” Lincoln’s cabinet became one of his strongest assets in his first term in office, and he would need them as the clouds of war gathered over the nation the following year.

Before Lincoln’s inauguration in March 1861, seven Southern states had seceded from the Union, and by April, the U.S. military installation Fort Sumter was under siege in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. In the early morning hours of April 12, 1861, the guns stationed to protect the harbor blazed toward the fort, signaling the start of the U.S. Civil War , America’s costliest and bloodiest war.

The newly President Lincoln responded to the crisis wielding powers as no other president before him: He distributed $2 million from the Treasury for war material without an appropriation from Congress; he called for 75,000 volunteers into military service without a declaration of war; and he suspended the writ of habeas corpus, allowing for the arrest and imprisonment of suspected Confederate States sympathizers without a warrant.

Crushing the rebellion would be difficult under any circumstances, but the Civil War, after decades of white-hot partisan politics, was especially onerous. From all directions, Lincoln faced disparagement and defiance. He was often at odds with his generals, his cabinet, his party, and a majority of the American people.

On January 1, 1863, Lincoln delivered his official Emancipation Proclamation , reshaping the cause of the Civil War from saving the Union to abolishing slavery.

The Union Army’s first year and a half of battlefield defeats made it difficult to keep morale high and support strong for a reunification of the nation. And the Union victory at Antietam on September 22, 1862, while by no means conclusive, was hopeful. It gave Lincoln the confidence to officially change the goals of the war. On that same day, he issued a preliminary proclamation that slaves in states rebelling against the Union would be free as of January 1.

The Emancipation Proclamation stated that all individuals who were held as enslaved people in rebellious states “henceforward shall be free.” The action was more symbolic than effective because the North didn’t control any states in rebellion, and the proclamation didn’t apply to border states, Tennessee, or some Louisiana parishes.

As a result, the Union army shared the Proclamation’s mandate only after it had taken control of Confederate territory. In the far reaches of western Texas, that day finally came on June 19, 1865—more than two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation took effect. For decades, many Black Americans have celebrated this anniversary, known as Juneteenth or Emancipation Day, and in 2021, President Joe Biden made Juneteenth a national holiday.

Still, the Emancipation Proclamation did have some immediate impact. It permitted Black Americans to serve in the Union Army for the first time, which contributed to the eventual Union victory. The historic declaration also paved the way for the passage of the 13 th Amendment that ended legal slavery in the United States.

On November 19, 1863, Lincoln delivered what would become his most famous speech and one of the most important speeches in American history: the Gettysburg Address .

Addressing a crowd of around 15,000 people, Lincoln delivered his 272-word speech at one of the bloodiest battlefields of the Civil War, the Gettysburg National Cemetery in Pennsylvania. The Civil War, Lincoln said, was the ultimate test of the preservation of the Union created in 1776, and the people who died at Gettysburg fought to uphold this cause.

Lincoln evoked the Declaration of Independence , saying it was up to the living to ensure that the “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,” and this Union was “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

A common interpretation was that the president was expanding the cause of the Civil War from simply reunifying the Union to also fighting for equality and abolishing slavery.

Following Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, the war effort gradually improved for the North, though more by attrition than by brilliant military victories.

But by 1864, the Confederate armies had eluded major defeat and Lincoln was convinced he’d be a one-term president. His nemesis George B. McClellan , the former commander of the Army of the Potomac, challenged him for the presidency, but the contest wasn’t even close. Lincoln received 55 percent of the popular vote and 212 of 243 electoral votes.

On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee , commander of the Army of Virginia, surrendered his forces to Union General Ulysses S. Grant . The Civil War was for all intents and purposes over.

Reconstruction had already began during the Civil War, as early as 1863 in areas firmly under Union military control, and Lincoln favored a policy of quick reunification with a minimum of retribution. He was confronted by a radical group of Republicans in Congress that wanted complete allegiance and repentance from former Confederates. Before a political debate had any chance to firmly develop, Lincoln was killed.

Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, by well-known actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre in Washington. Lincoln was taken to the Petersen House across the street and laid in a coma for nine hours before dying the next morning. He was 56. His death was mourned by millions of citizens in the North and South alike.

Lincoln’s body first lay in state at the U. S. Capitol. About 600 invited guests attended a funeral in the East Room of the White House on April 19, though an inconsolable Mary Todd Lincoln wasn’t present.

His body was transported to his final resting place in Springfield, Illinois, by a funeral train. Newspapers publicized the schedule of the train, which made stops along various cities that played roles in Lincoln’s path to Washington. In 10 cities, the casket was removed and placed in public for memorial services. Lincoln was finally placed in a tomb on May 4.

On the day of Lincoln’s death, Andrew Johnson was sworn in as the 17 th president at the Kirkwood House hotel in Washington.

Lincoln, already taller than most, is known for his distinctive top hats. Although it’s unclear when he began wearing them, historians believe he likely chose the style as a gimmick.

He wore a top hat to Ford’s Theatre on the night of his assassination. Following his death, the War Department preserved the hat until 1867 when, with Mary Todd Lincoln’s approval, it was transferred to the Patent Office and the Smithsonian Institution. Worried about the commotion it might cause, the Smithsonian stored the hat in a basement instead of putting it on display. It was finally exhibited in 1893, and it’s now one of the Institution’s most treasured items.

Lincoln is frequently cited by historians and average citizens alike as America’s greatest president. An aggressively activist commander-in-chief, Lincoln used every power at his disposal to assure victory in the Civil War and end slavery in the United States.

Some scholars doubt that the Union would have been preserved had another person of lesser character been in the White House. According to historian Michael Burlingame , “No president in American history ever faced a greater crisis and no president ever accomplished as much.”

Lincoln’s philosophy was perhaps best summed up in his Second Inaugural Address , when he stated, “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

The Lincoln Memorial

Since its dedication in 1922, the Lincoln Memorial in Washington has honored the president’s legacy. Inspired by the Greek Parthenon, the monument features a 19-foot high statue of Lincoln and engravings of the Gettysburg Address and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. Former President William Howard Taft served as chair of the Lincoln Memorial Commission, which oversaw its design and construction.

The monument is the most visited in the city, attracting around 8 million people per year. Civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on the memorial’s steps in 1963.

Lincoln has been the subject of numerous films about his life and presidency, rooted in both realism and absurdity.

Among the earlier films featuring the former president is Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), which stars Henry Fonda and focuses on Lincoln’s early life and law career. A year later, Abe Lincoln in Illinois gave a dramatized account of Lincoln’s life after leaving Kentucky.

The most notable modern film is Lincoln , the 2012 biographical drama directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln and Sally Field as his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln . Day-Lewis won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, and the film was nominated for Best Picture.

A more fantastical depiction of Lincoln came in the 1989 comedy film Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure , in which the titular characters played by Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter travel back in time for the president’s help in completing their high school history report. Lincoln gives the memorable instruction to “be excellent to each other and... party on, dudes!”

Another example is the 2012 action film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter , based on a 2010 novel by Seth Grahame-Smith. Benjamin Walker plays Lincoln, who leads a secret double life hunting the immortal creatures and even fighting them during the Civil War.

Lincoln’s role during the Civil War is heavily explored in the 1990 Ken Burns documentary The Civil War , which won two Emmy Awards and two Grammys. In 2022, the History Channel aired a three-part docuseries about his life simply titled Abraham Lincoln .

• Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.
• I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me.
• No man is good enough to govern another man, without that other ’ s consent.
• I have learned the value of old friends by making many new ones.
• Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
• Whenever I hear anyone arguing over slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
• To give the victory to the right, not bloody bullets, but peaceful ballots only, are necessary.
• Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.
• Don ’ t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.
• Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.
• With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation ’ s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.
• I walk slowly, but I never walk backward.
• Nearly all men can handle adversity, if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
• I ’ m the big buck of this lick. If any of you want to try it, come on and whet your horns.
• We can complain because rose bushes have thorns.
• Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?
• It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.

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Abraham Lincoln

By: History.com Editors

Updated: February 7, 2024 | Original: October 29, 2009

Abraham Lincoln , a self-taught lawyer, legislator and vocal opponent of slavery, was elected 16th president of the United States in November 1860, shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War. Lincoln proved to be a shrewd military strategist and a savvy leader: His Emancipation Proclamation paved the way for slavery’s abolition, while his Gettysburg Address stands as one of the most famous pieces of oratory in American history. 

In April 1865, with the Union on the brink of victory, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln’s assassination made him a martyr to the cause of liberty, and he is widely regarded as one of the greatest presidents in U.S. history.

Abraham Lincoln's Childhood and Early Life

Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, to Nancy and Thomas Lincoln in a one-room log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky . His family moved to southern Indiana in 1816. Lincoln’s formal schooling was limited to three brief periods in local schools, as he had to work constantly to support his family.

In 1830, his family moved to Macon County in southern Illinois , and Lincoln got a job working on a river flatboat hauling freight down the Mississippi River to New Orleans . After settling in the town of New Salem, Illinois, where he worked as a shopkeeper and a postmaster, Lincoln became involved in local politics as a supporter of the Whig Party , winning election to the Illinois state legislature in 1834.

Like his Whig heroes Henry Clay and Daniel Webster , Lincoln opposed the spread of slavery to the territories, and had a grand vision of the expanding United States, with a focus on commerce and cities rather than agriculture.

Did you know? The war years were difficult for Abraham Lincoln and his family. After his young son Willie died of typhoid fever in 1862, the emotionally fragile Mary Lincoln, widely unpopular for her frivolity and spendthrift ways, held seances in the White House in the hopes of communicating with him, earning her even more derision.

Lincoln taught himself law, passing the bar examination in 1836. The following year, he moved to the newly named state capital of Springfield. For the next few years, he worked there as a lawyer and served clients ranging from individual residents of small towns to national railroad lines.

He met Mary Todd , a well-to-do Kentucky belle with many suitors (including Lincoln’s future political rival, Stephen Douglas ), and they married in 1842. The Lincolns went on to have four children together, though only one would live into adulthood: Robert Todd Lincoln (1843–1926), Edward Baker Lincoln (1846–1850), William Wallace Lincoln (1850–1862) and Thomas “Tad” Lincoln (1853-1871).

Abraham Lincoln Enters Politics

Lincoln won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1846 and began serving his term the following year. As a congressman, Lincoln was unpopular with many Illinois voters for his strong stance against the Mexican-American War. Promising not to seek reelection, he returned to Springfield in 1849.

Events conspired to push him back into national politics, however: Douglas, a leading Democrat in Congress, had pushed through the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), which declared that the voters of each territory, rather than the federal government, had the right to decide whether the territory should be slave or free.

On October 16, 1854, Lincoln went before a large crowd in Peoria to debate the merits of the Kansas-Nebraska Act with Douglas, denouncing slavery and its extension and calling the institution a violation of the most basic tenets of the Declaration of Independence .

With the Whig Party in ruins, Lincoln joined the new Republican Party–formed largely in opposition to slavery’s extension into the territories–in 1856 and ran for the Senate again that year (he had campaigned unsuccessfully for the seat in 1855 as well). In June, Lincoln delivered his now-famous “house divided” speech, in which he quoted from the Gospels to illustrate his belief that “this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free.”

Lincoln then squared off against Douglas in a series of famous debates; though he lost the Senate election, Lincoln’s performance made his reputation nationally. 

Abraham Lincoln’s 1860 Presidential Campaign

Lincoln’s profile rose even higher in early 1860 after he delivered another rousing speech at New York City’s Cooper Union. That May, Republicans chose Lincoln as their candidate for president, passing over Senator William H. Seward of New York and other powerful contenders in favor of the rangy Illinois lawyer with only one undistinguished congressional term under his belt.

In the general election, Lincoln again faced Douglas, who represented the northern Democrats; southern Democrats had nominated John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky, while John Bell ran for the brand new Constitutional Union Party. With Breckenridge and Bell splitting the vote in the South, Lincoln won most of the North and carried the Electoral College to win the White House .

He built an exceptionally strong cabinet composed of many of his political rivals, including Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates and Edwin M. Stanton .

Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War

After years of sectional tensions, the election of an antislavery northerner as the 16th president of the United States drove many southerners over the brink. By the time Lincoln was inaugurated as 16th U.S. president in March 1861, seven southern states had seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America .

Lincoln ordered a fleet of Union ships to supply the federal Fort Sumter in South Carolina in April. The Confederates fired on both the fort and the Union fleet, beginning the Civil War . Hopes for a quick Union victory were dashed by defeat in the Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) , and Lincoln called for 500,000 more troops as both sides prepared for a long conflict.

While the Confederate leader Jefferson Davis was a West Point graduate, Mexican War hero and former secretary of war, Lincoln had only a brief and undistinguished period of service in the Black Hawk War (1832) to his credit. He surprised many when he proved to be a capable wartime leader, learning quickly about strategy and tactics in the early years of the Civil War, and about choosing the ablest commanders.

General George McClellan , though beloved by his troops, continually frustrated Lincoln with his reluctance to advance, and when McClellan failed to pursue Robert E. Lee’s retreating Confederate Army in the aftermath of the Union victory at Antietam in September 1862, Lincoln removed him from command.

During the war, Lincoln drew criticism for suspending some civil liberties, including the right of habeas corpus , but he considered such measures necessary to win the war.

Emancipation Proclamation and Gettysburg Address

Shortly after the Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg), Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation , which took effect on January 1, 1863, and freed all of the enslaved people in the rebellious states not under federal control, but left those in the border states (loyal to the Union) in bondage.

Though Lincoln once maintained that his “paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery,” he nonetheless came to regard emancipation as one of his greatest achievements and would argue for the passage of a constitutional amendment outlawing slavery (eventually passed as the 13th Amendment after his death in 1865).

Two important Union victories in July 1863—at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and at the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania—finally turned the tide of the war. General George Meade missed the opportunity to deliver a final blow against Lee’s army at Gettysburg, and Lincoln would turn by early 1864 to the victor at Vicksburg, Ulysses S. Grant , as supreme commander of the Union forces.

In November 1863, Lincoln delivered a brief speech (just 272 words) at the dedication ceremony for the new national cemetery at Gettysburg. Published widely, the Gettysburg Address eloquently expressed the war’s purpose, harking back to the Founding Fathers, the Declaration of Independence and the pursuit of human equality. It became the most famous speech of Lincoln’s presidency, and one of the most widely quoted speeches in history.

Abraham Lincoln Wins 1864 Presidential Election

In 1864, Lincoln faced a tough reelection battle against the Democratic nominee, the former Union General George McClellan, but Union victories in battle (especially General William T. Sherman’s capture of Atlanta in September) swung many votes the president’s way. In his second inaugural address, delivered on March 4, 1865, Lincoln addressed the need to reconstruct the South and rebuild the Union: “With malice toward none; with charity for all.”

As Sherman marched triumphantly northward through the Carolinas after staging his March to the Sea from Atlanta, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House , Virginia , on April 9. Union victory was near, and Lincoln gave a speech on the White House lawn on April 11, urging his audience to welcome the southern states back into the fold. Tragically, Lincoln would not live to help carry out his vision of Reconstruction .

Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination

On the night of April 14, 1865, the actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth slipped into the president’s box at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., and shot him point-blank in the back of the head. Lincoln was carried to a boardinghouse across the street from the theater, but he never regained consciousness, and died in the early morning hours of April 15, 1865.

Lincoln’s assassination made him a national martyr. On April 21, 1865, a train carrying his coffin left Washington, D.C. on its way to Springfield, Illinois, where he would be buried on May 4. Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train traveled through 180 cities and seven states so mourners could pay homage to the fallen president.

Today, Lincoln’s birthday—alongside the birthday of George Washington —is honored on President’s Day , which falls on the third Monday of February.

Abraham Lincoln Quotes

“Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time.”

“I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.”

“I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot.”

“I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that struggle was made, and I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be a humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this, his almost chosen people, for perpetuating the object of that great struggle.”

“This is essentially a People's contest. On the side of the Union, it is a struggle for maintaining in the world, that form, and substance of government, whose leading object is, to elevate the condition of men—to lift artificial weights from all shoulders—to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all—to afford all, an unfettered start, and a fair chance, in the race of life.”

“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

“This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

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Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President of the United States, was born near Hodgenville, Kentucky on February 12, 1809. His family moved to Indiana when he was seven and he grew up on the edge of the frontier. He had very little formal education, but read voraciously when not working on his father’s farm.  A childhood friend later recalled Lincoln's "manic" intellect, and the sight of him red-eyed and tousle-haired as he pored over books late into the night.  In 1828, at the age of nineteen, he accompanied a produce-laden flatboat down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, Louisiana—his first visit to a large city--and then walked back home.  Two years later, trying to avoid health and finance troubles, Lincoln's father moved the family moved to Illinois.

After moving away from home, Lincoln co-owned a general store for several years before selling his stake and enlisting as a militia captain defending Illinois in the Black Hawk War of 1832.  Black Hawk, a Sauk chief, believed he had been swindled by a recent land deal and sought to resettle his old holdings.  Lincoln did not see direct combat during the short conflict, but the sight of corpse-strewn battlefields at Stillman's Run and Kellogg's Grove deeply affected him. As a captain, he developed a reputation for pragmatism and integrity.  Once, faced with a rail fence during practice maneuvers and forgetting the parade-ground instructions to direct his men over it, he simply ordered them to fall out and reassemble on the other side a minute later.  Another time, he stopped his men before they executed a wandering Native American as a spy.  Stepping in front of their raised muskets, Lincoln is said to have challenged his men to combat for the terrified native's life.  His men stood down.

After the war, he studied law and campaigned for a seat on the Illinois State Legislature. Although not elected in his first attempt, Lincoln persevered and won the position in 1834, serving as a Whig.

Abraham Lincoln met Mary Todd in Springfield, Illinois where he was practicing as a lawyer. They were married in 1842 over her family’s objections and had four sons.  Only one lived to adulthood.  The deep melancholy that pervaded the Lincoln family, with occasional detours into outright madness, is in some ways sourced in their close relationship with death. 

Lincoln, a self-described "prairie lawyer," focused on his all-embracing law practice in the early 1850s after one term in Congress from 1847 to 1849. He joined the new Republican party—and the ongoing argument over sectionalism—in 1856. A series of heated debates in 1858 with Stephen A. Douglas , the sponsor of the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act , over slavery and its place in the United States forged Lincoln into a prominent figure in national politics. Lincoln’s anti-slavery platform made him extremely unpopular with Southerners and his nomination for President in 1860 enraged them.

On November 6, 1860, Lincoln won the presidential election without the support of a single Southern state.  Talk of secession, bandied about since the 1830s, took on a serious new tone. The Civil War was not entirely caused by Lincoln’s election, but the election was one of the primary reasons the war broke out the following year.

Lincoln’s decision to fight rather than to let the Southern states secede was not based on his feelings towards slavery.  Rather, he felt it was his sacred duty as President of the United States to preserve the Union at all costs.  His first inaugural address was an appeal to the rebellious states, seven of which had already seceded, to rejoin the nation.  His first draft of the speech ended with an ominous message: "Shall it be peace, or the sword?" 

The Civil War began with the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter , South Carolina, on April 12, 1861.  Fort Sumter, situated in the Charleston Harbour, was a Union outpost in the newly seceded Confederate territory. Lincoln, learning that the Fort was running low on food, sent supplies to reinforce the soldiers there. The Southern navy repulsed the supply convoy. After this repulse, the Southern navy fired the first shot of the war at Fort Sumter and the Federal defenders surrendered after a 34-hour long battle. 

Throughout the war, Lincoln struggled to find capable generals for his armies.  As commander-in-chief, he legally held the highest rank in the United States armed forces, and he diligently exercised his authority through strategic planning, weapons testing, and the promotion and demotion of officers.  McDowell , Fremont, McClellan , Pope , McClellan again, Buell , Burnside , Rosecrans --all of these men and more withered under Lincoln's watchful eye as they failed to bring him success on the battlefield. 

He did not issue his famous Emancipation Proclamation until January 1, 1863 after the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam .  The Emancipation Proclamation, which was legally based on the President’s right to seize the property of those in rebellion against the State, only freed slaves in Southern states where Lincoln’s forces had no control. Nevertheless, it changed the tenor of the war, making it, from the Northern point of view, a fight both to preserve the Union and to end slavery.

In 1864, Lincoln ran again for President.  After years of war, he feared he would not win.  Only in the final months of the campaign did the exertions of Ulysses S. Grant , the quiet general now in command of all of the Union armies, begin to bear fruit.  A string of heartening victories buoyed Lincoln's ticket and contributed significantly to his re-election.  In his second inauguration speech , March 4, 1865, he set the tone he intended to take when the war finally ended. His one goal, he said, was “lasting peace among ourselves.” He called for “malice towards none” and “charity for all.” The war ended only a month later.

The Lincoln administration did more than just manage the Civil War, although its reverberations could still be felt in a number of policies.  The Revenue Act of 1862 established the United States' first income tax, largely to pay the costs of total war.  The Morrill Act of 1862 established the basis of the state university system in this country, while the Homestead Act, also passed in 1862, encouraged settlement of the West by offering 160 acres of free land to settlers.  Lincoln also created the Department of Agriculture and formally instituted the Thanksgiving holiday.  Internationally, he navigated the "Trent Affair," a diplomatic crisis regarding the seizure of a British ship carrying Confederate envoys, in such a way as to quell the saber-rattling overtures coming from Britain as well as the United States.  In another spill-over from the war, Lincoln restricted the civil liberties of due process and freedom of the press. 

On April 14, 1865, while attending a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., Abraham Lincoln was shot by Confederate sympathizer, John Wilkes Booth.  The assassination was part of a larger plot to eliminate the Northern government that also left Secretary of State William Seward grievously injured.  Lincoln died the following day, and with him the hope of reconstructing the nation without bitterness.

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Abraham Lincoln — Facts, Information and History on the Life of the 16th U.S. President

Facts, information and articles about the life of abraham lincoln, 16th president of the united states, abraham lincoln facts.

February 12, 1809, Hodgenville, Kentucky

April 15, 1865, Petersen House, Washington, D.C.

Presidential Term

March 4, 1861 – April 15, 1865

Mary Todd Lincoln

Major accomplishments.

Served Four Terms in Illinois Legislature

Member of U.S. House of Representatives

16th President of the United States

Commander in Chief During Civil War

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Abraham Lincoln Summary

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States of America, who successfully prosecuted the Civil War to preserve the nation. He played in key role in passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which officially ended slavery in America. Murdered by John Wilkes Booth , Lincoln became the first U.S. president to be assassinated. Prior to his election as president in 1860, he had successful careers as a lawyer and politician in Illinois, serving several terms in the state legislature and one in the U.S. House of Representatives. He also holds the distinction of being the only U.S. president to receive a patent; in 1849, he designed a system for lifting riverboats off sandbars.

Abraham Lincoln’s Life: Youth

Abraham Lincoln was born on Sinking Springs Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky, on February 12, 1809, to Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. He was named for his paternal grandfather. His birthplace is believed to have been a 16-foot by 18-foot log cabin, which no longer exists. Lincoln had a sister, Sarah, who was two years and two days older than he was, and a younger brother, Thomas, who died in infancy.

When Abraham was two, the family moved to nearby Knob Creek Farm. Five years later, the family moved again, to the wilderness on Little Pigeon Creek in Indiana. On October 5, 1818, his mother died, reportedly of “milk sickness,” caused by drinking milk from cows that have eaten a poisonous, blossoming plant called snakeroot. Thomas Lincoln remarried a year later, to Sarah Bush Johnston, a woman of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, whom he had known for many years. She had three children by a previous marriage, Elizabeth, Matilda, and John. Although Abraham and his father were never close, Sarah and nine-year-old Abraham formed a loving relationship that continued throughout their lives. She encouraged him in his attempts to educate himself, which he did by borrowing and studying books.

Lincoln Moves To Illinois

In 1830, when Abraham was 21, the family moved to Illinois. He performed odd jobs and took a flatboat of goods to New Orleans. At New Salem, he was a partner in a store at that failed and would be many years paying off the last of the store’s creditors, an obligation he referred to as “the National Debt.” Elected captain of a militia unit during the 1832 Black Hawk War —an election he later would say pleased him more than any other—he saw no combat, but he met the man who would change his life in many ways: John Todd Stuart.

Lincoln Becomes A Lawyer

Stuart and Lincoln both ran for the Illinois General Assembly that year; Stuart won, Lincoln didn’t. Two years later, however, both men won election. The more experienced Stuart, known as “Jerry Sly” for his skills at management and intrigue, showed Lincoln the ropes and loaned him law books, that he might study to become an attorney. In 1836, Lincoln received a license to practice law. He would go on to establish a respectable record as an attorney and was often hired by the Illinois Central Railroad.

Lincoln won reelection to the General Assembly in 1836, 1838, and 1840; among his accomplishments was a major role in getting the state capital moved to Springfield. He did not actively seek the post again after 1840, but won the popular vote in 1854; however, he resigned so he would be eligible for election to the U.S. Senate.

Lincoln Goes To Congress

In 1846, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he gave the infamous “Spot” speech about the war that had begun with Mexico. He demanded President James K. Polk reveal the exact spot on which American blood had been shed, starting the war, and whether that spot was on American or Mexican soil.

The speech may have been a reflection of words his “beau ideal” statesman, Speaker of the House Henry Clay, had uttered in a speech Lincoln heard while visiting Lexington, Kentucky, on the way to Washington. Or it may have been a partisan maneuver—Lincoln was a Whig, Polk a Democrat—to ingratiate himself with the older Whigs in Washington. Popular opinion in most of the country supported the war, and newspapers around the country ridiculed him as “Spotty Lincoln.” He did not run for reelection to Congress in 1848, but for the first time in its history, his home district elected a Democrat instead of a Whig. He spent the next several years focusing on his law practice to support his growing family.

In the Illinois legislature, he’d served with Ninian Wirt Edwards of Springfield, the son of a former governor of Illinois. Edwards’ wife was the former Elizabeth Todd of Lexington, Kentucky. When her younger sister, Mary, came from Lexington Lincoln became smitten; as Ninian observed, “Mary could make a bishop forget his prayers.” Although facts are unclear, an understanding apparently developed between Lincoln and Mary, but they parted ways in December of 1840 or January of 1841. Over a year later, a friend brought them back together, and they wed November 4, 1842.

There have long been stories—begun by Lincoln’s long-time law partner, William Herndon—that Lincoln had previously been engaged to Ann Rutledge in New Salem and had nearly lost his mind when she died. However, she was betrothed to another and there is no verifiable evidence of any romantic relationship or understanding between her and Lincoln. Neighbors’ stories indicate Lincoln did take her death hard. He was always prone to fits of “melancholia”—depression—and one state legislator claimed Lincoln told him he wouldn’t carry a pocket knife for fear he’d use it to harm himself.

Family Life With Mary Todd Lincoln

Abraham and Mary Lincoln would produce four children: Robert Todd, named for Mary’s father; Edward (Eddie) Baker, named for a close friend; William (Willie) Wallace, named for Dr. William Wallace, who had married Francis, another Todd sister, and had become close friends with Lincoln; and Thomas (Tad), named for Lincoln’s father who had died two years earlier. Eddie died in 1850, Willie in 1862, and Tad in 1871. Only Robert lived to adulthood; the last of his descendants would die in 1985, ending the Abraham Lincoln family line. (Learn more about Mary Todd Lincoln )

Although Lincoln did not seek office himself during these years, he remained active in the Whig Party, counseling candidates who sought his advice and occasionally responding to speaking requests. In 1854, he essentially was campaign manager for Richard Yates, who was running for the General Assembly. Lincoln did not want to be elected to that body again himself because he knew the legislature would be electing a new U.S. Senator during its coming term, to fill the position of James Shields, who had moved to the Minnesota Territory. (At that time, nearly 60 years before the Seventeenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provided for direct election of senators by the voters, they were chosen by each state’s legislature.) By Illinois law, sitting state legislators could not be elected to the U.S. Congress—and Lincoln desperately wanted to become the new senator, a position he said he would prefer over being president. Regardless, eventually he reluctantly agreed to run . He won more votes than any other candidate but resigned in order to keep his senatorial chances open.

His hopes were dashed again when the vote for senator was taken in 1857. Despite a strong start, he saw that a Democrat would be elected unless the Whigs united, so he threw his supporters’ votes to another candidate.

Since the early 1830s, abolitionists—those who adamantly favored abolishing slavery everywhere in the United States—had become increasingly strident. Even many people like Lincoln who did not approve of slavery also did not approve of the sectional divisiveness engendered by the abolitionists. Slaveholding states—virtually all of which were in the South—in responding to abolitionists’ attacks defended the “peculiar institution” of slavery more vociferously, and sectional tensions grew.

A Nation Dividing

In 1854, a passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed residents of any new states admitted to the Union to decide for themselves whether or not the state would be free or slaveholding. In the 1857 Dred Scott decision the Supreme Court ruled that neither the Declaration of Independence nor the rights guaranteed by the Constitution applied to Negroes and never had. As a result of these events, many who had disassociated themselves with abolitionists’ agitation began drifting into their camp, and the abolitionists movement intensified.

Like his father, Lincoln opposed slavery; however, he also deplored abolitionists’ activities because they threatened to cause a schism in the nation. In regard to “slavery agitation” he said, “In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed. ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand'”

Notes for a speech he delivered in Ohio clearly articulate his opinions on the slavery issue in the 1850s:

“We must not disturb slavery in the states where it exists, because the Constitution, and the peace of the country both forbid us – We must not withhold an efficient fugitive slave law, for the constitution demands it – But we must, by a national policy, prevent the spread of slavery into new territories, or free states, because the constitution does not forbid us, and the general welfare does demand such prevention.” (Abraham Lincoln, (September 16–17, 1859), Notes for Speech in Kansas and Ohio)

The Whig Party to which he had always been dedicated was dying. By 1854, a new party, the Republicans, was taking its place. Comprised of old Whigs, disaffected Democrats and members of the Native American Party (“Know-Nothings”), its unifying theme was opposition to the institution of slavery. In 1856, Lincoln joined the new party.

The Lincoln Douglas Debates

In 1858, he engaged in a legendary series of debates across Illinois with the author of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Sen. Stephen Douglas. The five-foot, four-inch Douglas—”the Little Giant”—and the lanky, six-foot-four Lincoln faced off over the issue of expanding slavery beyond the states where it currently existed. Lincoln carefully made a distinction between slavery where it existed and its expansion into new territories and states. The debates grew national attention, and Lincoln was invited to speak in other states. (Read more about the Lincoln Douglas Debates )

The national attention he received resulted in the Republican Party making him its presidential candidate in the 1860 election. On the divisive matter of slavery, the Republican platform supported prohibiting slavery in the territories but opposed interfering with it in the states where it already existed.

The Democratic Party split, producing two candidates, Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois and John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. An independent Constitutional Union Party ran John Bell of Tennessee as its candidate. Two other independent parties formed but failed to carry a single state in the fall elections. Breckinridge carried the Deep South and two slave-holding East Coast states, Maryland and Delaware; Bell won Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia; Douglas only carried Missouri. Lincoln won every Northern state, California and Oregon; although he failed to win a majority of the popular vote in this drawn-and-quartered election, he won enough electoral votes—180 compared to 123 for all his opponents combined—to become the 16th president.

President Abraham Lincoln

On December 20, nearly three months before Lincoln would take office (presidential inaugurations occurred in March at that time), South Carolina officially seceded from the Union. It was soon joined by all states of the Deep South. They feared the rise of this new, sectional party that opposed expansion of slavery. If the peculiar institution was not allowed to spread, slaveholding states would be outnumbered, and they feared losing the political power that protected slavery.

For weeks, president-elect Lincoln said nothing as state after state renounced its compact with the United States, though it is questionable whether anything he said would have halted the secession movement. Previous presidents under whom secession was threatened—Andrew Jackson and Zachary Taylor—had both said they would send troops to force states to remain in the Union but never had to take that action. Lincoln, faced with the reality of losing a section of the country, felt he did have to after Confederate guns fired during the Battle of Fort Sumter , South Carolina, on April 12, 1861.

The Civil War Begins

He called for 75,000 troops to suppress the Southern rebellion. Virginia, Arkansas and Tennessee then seceded, refusing to fight their fellow Southerners and claiming Lincoln had overreached his authority because Congress was not in session and therefore could not authorize a war.

The new president knew little of military affairs, but just as he had educated himself as a youth, he began a self-education in the art of war, checking books of military history out of the Library of Congress. From this reading, and perhaps from an innate sense of what needed to be done, he at times seemed to understand better than some of his generals that destroying the enemy’s armies was more important than capturing the Confederate capital.

He endured outright insubordination from one commander, Major General George B. McClellan, in charge of the largest Union army. Lincoln said he’d hold McClellan’s horse if it would help to win the war, but once he determined “Little Mac” was too cautious to win much of anything, he removed him. Not until March of 1864, when he placed Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant in charge of all Union armies, did Lincoln find a general in whom he had trust. Grant had previously won major victories at the Siege of Fort Donelson , Battle of Vicksburg , and Battle of Chattanooga .

Lincoln, in choosing his cabinet, had selected those men he felt most capable of handling the duties of the posts he asked them to fill. Some of them had hoped during the last election that they would be filling the chair of the presidency. Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin called the Lincoln Cabinet “A Team of Rivals.” His willingness to work with men, some of whom he knew had a low opinion of him—at least initially—says much about Lincoln’s character and his determination to do whatever it took to preserve the Union.

The Emancipation Proclamation

In the autumn of 1862, following the Battle of Antietam, he announced his  Emancipation Proclamation . It granted freedom to slaves—but only to those in the areas still in rebellion, which didn’t recognize his authority. It was a war measure, meant to prevent European recognition of the slaveholding Confederacy, and it shifted the war from one to preserve the Union to one that would both preserve the Union and end slavery.

Other controversial war measures taken by Lincoln and his administration included infringing on some Constitutional rights, including suspending habeas corpus and shutting down newspapers that opposed the war. He signed the bill admitting West Virginia as a state of the Union, although it had been formed from Virginia without the permission of the state’s government at Richmond, which many, including half of his cabinet members, believed was a violation of Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution. Nevada was admitted at least in part to provide another pro-Union state.

Lincoln Reelected In 1864

In presidential elections of 1864, Lincoln believed he would not be reelected. The war had dragged on for over three years, draining the treasury. Major battles, like the Battle of Shiloh , the Battle of Antietam , the Battle of Fredericksburg , the Battle of Chancellorsville , the Battle Gettysburg , and the Battle of Chickamauga , had each produced over 10,000 casualties, far beyond anything the nation had experienced in previous wars. Grant’s current campaign in Virginia had already suffered nearly 50,000 losses. Radical abolitionists in the North were upset with him for not pressing harder on the slavery issue.

The Democratic Party, banking on war weariness, was running George McClellan, the former general, as their candidate, under the slogan, “The Union as it was, and the Constitution as it is,” and pledging a truce with the Confederacy. Indeed, Lincoln might have lost his bid for re-election, and with it the war, had Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman not captured Atlanta in early September, giving the Union a major victory. Other contributing factors included Lincoln allowing soldiers in the armies to vote in their camps, something that had never been done before. The Democrats themselves made several missteps that hurt their chances. Lincoln won reelection and in his second inaugural address called for, “malice toward none, with charity for all,” attempting to set the stage for a reconciliation with the South.

He had personally experienced the “divided house” he’d once warned of. All but one of his wife’s half-siblings fought for the Confederacy or married men who did, and one of her full brothers became a Confederate surgeon. Only three of her sisters in Illinois and their husbands remained firmly with the Union.

The End Of The Civil War

On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the largest Confederate army to Grant following the Appomattox Campaign and the Appomattox Courthouse , virtually ending the war. Lincoln, asked what should be done with the citizens of the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, responded, “I’d let ’em up easy, let ’em up easy.”

Abraham Lincoln Assassinated

With the light of victory clearly breaking over the horizon, Lincoln and Mary went to Ford’s Theater on the night of April 14 to see the comedy, “Our American Cousin.” During the performance, an actor and staunch Confederate sympathizer named John Wilkes Booth slipped into the presidential box and shot Lincoln in the head. The president died the following morning. Within 24 hours, not a shred of black crepe was to be had in the nation’s capitol as homes, stores and government buildings were draped in mourning. Even some Southern newspapers condemned the assassination.

Lincoln was laid to rest in Springfield, Illinois. In 1876, a counterfeiting gang attempted to steal his body, to exchange it for their master engraver, who had been imprisoned. The plan was thwarted, and when the president’s body was placed in a new tomb in 1901, some 4,000 pounds of cement were poured on top of his coffin to prevent any future attempts.

The popular image of Lincoln has changed many times. He is beloved as the Great Emancipator and the Savior of the Union, but many people, particularly in the South, regard him as a tyrant and a dictator. He has been accused of being racist, though his views were in keeping with those of most Americans of his times. During his presidency, association with black leaders such as Frederick Douglass seem to have made his racial views more enlightened than those of most mid-19th-century Americans.

His primary focus as president always was on restoring the United States as a single nation under the Constitution; ending slavery was secondary to that goal. However, the Thirteenth Amendment, banning slavery throughout the United States, was passed only after Lincoln pulled political strings and granted favors in return for “Aye” votes. It had already failed once in the House, prior to Lincoln’s backroom negotiations. In the words of Thaddeus Stevens, “The greatest measure of the nineteenth century was passed by corruption, aided and abetted by the purest man in America.”

Lincoln’s service as president is also notable for the day of thanksgiving he proclaimed on the last Thursday of November 1864. America’s modern Thanksgiving holiday dates from that first national observation.

To learn more about the assassination of Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre including information on John Wilkes Booth and HistoryNet Articles, please see our Abraham Lincoln Assassination page.

Lincoln Pictures

Abraham Lincoln was the most photographed President of his era. There are portraits, lithographs, and photos of many highlights of his Presidential term.

Abraham Lincoln Quotes

Abraham Lincoln was one of the most famous writers/orators in American history, known for pithy and insightful sayings like “A house divided against itself cannot stand” and “Four score and seven years ago” the opening phrase of the Gettysburg address.

There are many interesting facts about the life of Abraham Lincoln, like the fact that only one of his children, Robert Todd, survived to adulthood. View some little known facts about Lincoln as well as frequently asked questions about the 16th President of the United States

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 rank as one of the most famous debates in history. Though vying for a Senate seat, the debates, which centered around the institution of slavery, had a great effect on the future presidency for Lincoln.x

Mary Todd Lincoln, the spouse of Abraham Lincoln, is one of the most prominent first ladies in history. Born to a prominent Southern family, she helped her husband’s political career. Following his assassination, she remained in mourning until her death in 1884. In 1875, a court judged her insane for a time.

Emancipation Proclamation

The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, freed all slaves in areas still in rebellion against the federal government. Delivered soon after the Union victory at the battle of Antietam, it motivated the Northern war effort and gave the war a higher purpose.

The Gettysburg Address

The Gettysburg Address, written and delivered by Abraham Lincoln after the battle of Gettysburg, is one of the most famous speeches in American History.

Lincoln Speeches

A skilled statesman and orator, Abraham Lincoln gave many memorable speeches, including his most famous, the Gettysburg Address, which is considered one of the greatest speeches in American history.

Lincoln Timeline

Few figures in American History are as significant and memorable as Abraham Lincoln. From his birth in 1809 to his assassination in 1864 to the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in 1922, the timeline of Abraham Lincoln’s life and legacy changed our nation profoundly.

Robert Todd Lincoln

Robert Todd Lincoln was the firstborn son of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. He served in the Union Army and was Secretary of War under President Garfield. He witnessed Garfield’s assassination, and was present at the assassination of President McKinley.

Lincoln’s Assassination

Abraham Lincoln was the first president to be assassinated. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth at the Ford’s Theater on April 14, 1865.

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Abraham lincoln: the lawyer.

Abraham Lincoln spent only four of his 56 years as president of the United States. Yet, given the importance of the events that marked his 1861-65 term of office, the nation’s admiration for him as a man of courage and principle, and the abundance of photographic images that recorded his presidency, it is hard for most people to think of him as anything else.

But there were other facets to the career of this man who led the nation through the Civil War years. Prior to his presidency, Lincoln honed his political skills and aspirations through the practice of law.

In 1837, while serving in the Illinois state legislature, Lincoln completed his legal training and joined the office of John Todd Stuart in the new Illinois capital at Springfield. Except for a sojourn in Washington, D.C., as a Whig Congressman during 1847-49, the law remained the future president’s chief occupation until his election to the White House in 1860.

In his book  Life of Lincoln , William H. Herndon* stated that his partner was a good lawyer but not a scholarly one. Lincoln, he wrote, was “strikingly deficient in the technical rules of law….I doubt if he ever read a single elementary law book through in his life. In fact, I may truthfully say, I never knew him to read through a law book of any kind.”

This assessment has been disputed or at least modified by those who have since studied Lincoln’s law career. But whether or not Lincoln lost some cases due to a lack of technical expertise on certain points of law, the fact remains that he was a successful trial attorney. He knew, everyone agrees, how to win over a jury.

The bulk of Lincoln’s courtroom work took place away from Springfield as he traveled twice a year with the presiding judge and fellow lawyers to the county seats of Illinois’ Eighth Circuit Court. Since most of those who served on the juries in these small towns were farmers and other country folk, Lincoln—himself a product of a rural environment and by nature a slow talker—recognized the need to argue his cases in the simplest and most straightforward manner. As one observer noted, “his illustrations were often quaint and homely, but always clear and apt, and generally conclusive. . . . His wit and humor and inexhaustible store of anecdotes, always to the point, added immensely to his powers as a jury advocate.”

A medical malpractice suit— Fleming vs. Rogers & Crothers —in which Lincoln represented the physician defendants is a case in point.

Just after midnight, on the morning of October 17, 1855, the sleeping residents of Bloomington, Illinois, awoke to the sound of fire bells ringing throughout the community. Before long a crowd of more than 4,000 had congregated to watch firemen struggle to contain the blaze that had begun in the livery stable behind the Morgan House and had spread to neighboring buildings. By the time the fire was extinguished, most of the buildings on the block, including those housing the newspaper offices of the Central Illinois Times and Bloomington Pantagraph , had been destroyed; only the bank and a hardware store remained.

There was one fatality—William Green, a local drayman—and among those injured was Samuel G. Fleming, a carpenter from Bloomington who suffered two broken thighs when a Morgan House chimney collapsed on him. Fleming was carried to the home of his brother John, where he was treated by Drs. Thomas P. Rogers, Jacob R. Freese, and Eli K. Crothers. Dr. Freese set and bandaged Fleming’s left leg, while Crothers worked on the right, assisted by Dr. Rogers. The physicians dressed the limb, Freese later said, “with care and in the same manner as I have seen it done by some of the most celebrated Surgeons of this Country, and in the same manner as is recommended by some of the best authors on Surgery.”

At least one of the doctors visited Fleming daily for the next two weeks and each was satisfied with his progress. In fact, Dr. Freese claimed in a deposition taken in August 1857 that Fleming had stated that, “‘He was getting along first rate, and that, were it not for the confinement, He would scarcely Know that his thighs were broken—so little pain did he suffer.”

That changed about 16 days after the accident, when Fleming began to experience severe pain at the “fracture point of the right leg….” When his sister, who had been nursing him since a week after his injury, ran her hand along the fracture, she thought that she “could discover it misplaced.” The doctors, however, believed the leg was mending as it should and merely ordered an increase in morphine for the injured man. A few days later, Dr. Crothers told Fleming that his pain was a symptom of pleurisy, not anything to do with his leg.

Twenty-four days after the fire, Dr. Rogers, who had been out of town for some time, visited Fleming and removed the bandages. The doctor remarked, according to Miss Fleming, that the legs “were crooked as Ram’s horns.” Rogers sent for the other doctors, and the three measured Fleming’s legs, one of which was found to be almost an inch shorter than the other. They redressed the legs, this time changing the arrangement of the splints.

Eight days later, the trio again removed the bandages and found, Dr. Freese stated, “the left one doing well—but the right one had a considerable bend at the point of fracture. The fracture was originally oblique, and now we found the lower Sharp point of the upper Portion of the thigh bone bending outward from a proper line of the bone—when in sound condition.”

This time, the physicians recommended that Fleming allow them to “break up” the adhesions, reset the thigh, and let the leg again begin the knitting process. After careful discussions with the three doctors, the patient and his family agreed to this procedure.

Dr. Freese administered chloroform to Fleming. He was assisted by Isaac M. Small, a cabinet maker and medical student who was present on this occasion only out of curiosity. Once Fleming was thought to be unconscious, Small stated, Dr. Crothers began “manipulating the limb—That is to break up and re-adjust the fracture, [and] Dr. Rogers took hold of the foot with a view to produce the proper amount of extension.”

As it happened, however, Fleming had not felt the full effects of the chloroform and soon began to scream in pain, ordering the doctors to stop. Dr. Crothers, explained to the patient that if they did not continue, his leg would always be deformed and he would suffer permanent damage, with the possibility of continuing pain and discomfort. Nonetheless, Small remembered, Fleming once again screamed at the doctors to “let him alone, he had suffered enough.” Relatives present in the room reinforced Fleming’s decision, so the doctors discontinued the procedure. Crothers, according to Small, told Fleming “that he would not be responsible for the result, unless [they continued], but acceding to his wishes, they again bandaged the right leg.”

By spring, the leg had healed, but, as Dr. Crothers had expected, it was badly misshapen, causing Fleming to have limited mobility and to walk with a limp. Fleming blamed the doctors for the condition of his leg and, after securing the services of a team of six lawyers, filed suit on March 28, 1856, in the McLean Circuit Court against Drs. Crothers and Rogers.

In his declaration, Fleming alleged that his attending physicians had deliberately failed “to use due and proper care, skill and diligence” in caring for his broken thighs. As a result of this negligence, the suit claimed, Fleming had “thereby suffered and underwent great and unnecessary pain and anguish and…is much reduced and weakened in body…,” and his legs, having healed in an “unsightly and unnatural a manner,” were “crooked, misshapen and useless.” As compensation for his suffering and the expenses incurred during his convalescence, the plaintiff demanded payment by the defendants of $10,000.

To plead their case, Crothers and Rogers turned to attorneys David Brier, Jessie Birch, L. L. Strain, and Andrew W. Rogers, all of Bloomington. To counter the presence on the plaintiff’s legal team of lawyer Leonard Swett, who was known for his grasp of medical issues and the subject of anatomy, Crothers also sought the counsel of Abraham Lincoln and John Stuart.

The former partners, who took the lead in the doctors’ defense, had only a week to prepare their case before the Circuit Court’s spring term opened in Bloomington on April 7, 1856. They requested a continuance from Judge David Davis on the grounds that Dr. Rogers, “the major physician, is now so unwell as to be unable to attend the present term of court, and…his personal presence at the trial is necessary to enable them to conduct the defense of the case properly….” Rogers, they stated, had “visited said plaintiff much more frequently than did said Cerothers [ sic. ] and…has the more intimate acquaintance with, and perfect knowledge of the whole case.” Judge Davis, having been assured that Dr. Rogers would be able to attend the Court’s fall term, continued the case until then but required the defendants to pay the court costs.

Judge Davis and Lincoln enjoyed a close working relationship, as well as a personal friendship. Lincoln traveled with other attorneys who followed Davis’s circuit in a “circus like caravan,” often entertaining the judge and his fellow lawyers after hours with his humorous stories and anecdotes. The judge respected the future president’s legal opinions and his skill as a hardworking frontier lawyer and occasionally asked Lincoln to take the bench in his absence. As a result of this interaction, Judge Davis became one of Lincoln’s mentors.

This apparent conflict of interest was not uncommon on the circuit and rarely aroused objections from other lawyers familiar with the rigors of travel within the Court’s jurisdiction. Younger attorneys on the trial circuit often sought the services of Lincoln, whose experience and presence in the courtroom had earned their respect.

When the Fleming case was called before Judge Davis in September, the defendants again requested a postponement. Dr. Freese, it seemed, had moved to Cincinnati on short notice and had not been able to give his deposition to the attorneys before leaving Bloomington. His testimony was considered vital to the defense because he was present “when plaintiff’s limb was first set, and knows that it was [done] properly . . . .” Likewise he was there when the leg was examined several days later and “saw that it was right then . . . .” Freese had also taken part in the consultation at which the doctors decided not to take immediate action in the hope that the bone “would improve without rebreaking.” And no other witness, the deposition concluded, could so knowledgeably testify to the correctness of the doctors’ efforts on the day that the attempt was made to break the bone’s adhesions. Judge Davis—assured that Freese’s testimony would be available at the next court term and that “this application is not made for delay, but that justice may be done”—again granted the continuance at the defendants’ expense.

Lincoln, William Herndon noted, possessed a “keen sense of justice, and struggled for it, throwing aside forms, methods, and rules, until it appeared as pure as a ray of light flashing through a fog-bank. . . . [W]hen he had occasion to learn or investigate any subject he was thorough and indefatigable in his search. He not only went to the root of the question, but dug up the root, and separated and analyzed every fiber of it.” For this kind of effort, Lincoln, who was always handling several cases simultaneously and who was, during the mid-1850s, heavily involved in politics, required the time that the two continuances provided.

Before Fleming vs. Rogers and Crothers finally came to trial in the spring of 1857, Lincoln had sought instruction from Dr. Crothers in the more technical medical aspects of the case. Using chicken bones to demonstrate his points, Crothers described the chemistry of bone growth and the organic changes that take place in bones during the aging process.

Lincoln found that Crothers’ use of the chicken bones made the technical medical evidence completely comprehensible, and he immediately decided to adopt the same technique in the courtroom. It would not be the only time that the frontier-bred Lincoln would use farm-related metaphors to make his points to a jury or, as president, to Congress and the American people.

During the well-attended, week-long trial, 15 doctors and 21 other witnesses testified on behalf of the plaintiff. The defendants also called upon a bevy of medical men to buttress their claims. Many years after the trial, Dr. Crothers’ daughter Lulu wrote that she had been told of an exchange that took place during Lincoln’s cross-examination of Fleming on the witness stand. When Lincoln asked the plaintiff if he were able to walk, she related, Fleming answered that he could, “but my leg is short, so I have to limp.” At that, Miss Crothers continued, Lincoln dramatically replied: “Well! What I would advise you is to get down on your knees and thank your Heavenly Father, and also these two Doctors that you have any legs to stand on at all!”

Lincoln saved his lesson on how bones heal for his summation to the jury. Then, holding up two chicken-leg bones—one from an old chicken and the other from a young one—he demonstrated to the jury their respective texture and resilience. The bones of the young bird were supple, while those of the old chicken were brittle and broke easily. Fleming, being in middle age, Lincoln pointed out, would have bones more closely resembling the latter than the former. Unable, according to Lulu Crothers, to “remember about the lime or calcium deposited in older peoples’ bones,” Lincoln told the jurors that the bone from the older chicken, “has the starch all taken out of it—as it is in childhood.”

This graphic demonstration had the desired effect on some of the jurors, a majority of whom probably entered the courtroom predisposed toward Fleming and prejudiced against the more affluent defendants. After 18 hours of deliberation, the jurors failed to reach a decision. Judge Davis put the case over to the fall term of court.

By September, the doctors had suffered the loss of another vital witness from the Bloomington area. Isaac Small, who had helped to administer the chloroform to Fleming at the time the attempt was made to re-break his right thigh bone, had moved to Nashville, Tennessee. Judge Davis’s decision to grant this latest continuance in the Fleming suit, however, was based more on Lincoln’s preoccupation at the time with an important regional case involving the Rock Island Bridge—the first built over the Mississippi River—and the importance of east-west transportation to the expanding United States.

Just before 1857 came to an end, Brier and Birch, two of the other attorneys for the defense, asked the judge for a change of venue for the case on the grounds that Fleming had “undue influence over the minds” of the people of McLean County, where the first trial had been heard. The plaintiff’s lawyers not objecting, Davis ordered the case transferred to the Logan County Circuit Court, whose county seat of Lincoln was, ironically, named for opposing counsel.

The retrial of the case never took place, both sides having agreed to a settlement before the March 1858 court term began. The doctors named in the suit agreed to pay the fees incurred by Fleming, whose expense probably totaled less than a thousand dollars.

The “Chicken Bone Case” illustrates the great communicative skills of Abraham Lincoln, who understood his audiences—in this case, the jury—and used wit and metaphor to explain complex issues. Soon after the Fleming suit was settled, Lincoln became preoccupied with the race for U.S. senator from Illinois. Nominated by the new Republican Party in June, Lincoln engaged in a series of debates with the Democratic incumbent, Stephen A. Douglas, that propelled him onto the national political stage.

Although Lincoln lost that election, the campaign was an important step on his road to the White House. Once elected president, he used his language skills to craft carefully worded public statements that rank among America’s greatest expressions of political philosophy. And to a great extent, he used the talents that he had honed as an Illinois circuit lawyer to maintain popular support in the North for the war effort and to develop a political constituency that sustained the army in the field.

*Four years after John T. Stuart, who had encouraged Lincoln’s legal studies, took him in as a partner in 1837, Lincoln joined the firm of Stephen T. Logan, again as a junior partner. In 1844, Lincoln teamed up with William H. Herndon, this time as a senior partner.

Charles M. Hubbard is the Dean of Lincolniana and Associate Professor of History at Lincoln Memorial University.

This article was originally published in the August 1998 issue of American History magazine.

Abraham Lincoln: Commander In Chief

More out of necessity than inclination, Abraham Lincoln became one of the most active commanders in chief in American history, directly influencing and managing events and generals in every field of operations during the Civil War. Never before had a president been able to communicate his desires to far-off commanders as quickly as Lincoln was able to. He could do this because of recent inventions that speeded communication, most notably the telegraph.

Lincoln’s active managerial style was most prominent in 1863. At the beginning of that year, the Union was poised on all fronts to take the offensive. In the West, Federal forces were preparing to move down the Mississippi River to capture Vicksburg, Miss., the last major port along that river not already in Union hands. When this was done, the Confederacy would be cut in two. In Tennessee, a Northern army had fought the Confederates to a draw at Stones River and was preparing to push the Southerners out of middle and eastern Tennessee. In the East, after suffering many defeats in 1862, Union forces had a new commander and were preparing to take the war deeper into Virginia.

As promising as the Union outlook was at the beginning of the year, there would be many problems and disappointments before 1863 ended. Lincoln would be forced to deal with numerous commanders who failed to understand that the main objective of the Union military machine should be defeating the Confederate armies, not merely occupying enemy territory. Lincoln often had to beg his commanders to take action, or relieve and replace a general when he failed to prosecute the war in an aggressive manner.

The stage had been set in July 1862, when Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck had replaced Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan as general in chief of the Union Army. Lincoln hoped that he had found a competent leader to aggressively prosecute the war without much direction from the White House, and at first glance Halleck appeared to be a fine choice. He was a West Point graduate with many years of experience in the Regular Army who had captured Corinth, Miss.

Events, however, soon showed that Halleck was not the aggressive general Lincoln believed him to be. After the Union defeat at the Second Battle of Manassas in August 1862, Halleck seemed to lose confidence in both himself and his generals, and adopted a style of giving suggestions and advice to his subordinates rather than direct orders. He explained his indirect approach to managing his generals’ tactics this way: “To order a general to give battle against his own wishes and judgement is to assume the responsibility of a probable defeat. If a general is unwilling to fight, he is not likely to gain victory.”

Lincoln came to view Halleck as “little more than a first rate clerk,” and the president was forced to take a more active role in military matters than he would have liked. Although Lincoln continued to work through Halleck, he also often communicated directly with his field commanders by telegraph. Earlier in 1862, Lincoln had made a wise move by establishing governmental control of the U.S. telegraph system. Initially, telegraph operations were under the Signal Corps but by 1863, they were placed under a separate entity known as the U.S. Military Telegraph Service. During the course of the war, Lincoln became a common sight at War Department’s telegraph office, reading and composing telegrams that allowed him to follow and supervise Union operations in all theaters of the war.

Lincoln’s main military concerns were focused on three major areas of operation: the Mississippi River, Tennessee, and northern Virginia. Initially, each of these areas had a main field commander with whom Lincoln would have many dealings over the course of the year. In the West, the campaign to capture the last major Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River was under the direction of Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Grant had proved to be an aggressive general, winning several important victories in 1862 that helped to clear the Confederate presence from western Tennessee. Promoted to head the Department of the Tennessee when Halleck left to become general in chief, in November 1862, Grant launched a campaign to capture Vicksburg by an overland route through the state of Mississippi. Confederate cavalry raids on his supply lines forced Grant to cancel this operation and return his army to its initial starting point near Memphis, Tenn. The persistent commander then determined that his next attempt to capture Vicksburg would be via the Mississippi River itself.

In central Tennessee, Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans was in command of the Army of the Cumberland. In October 1862, he had relieved Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell as head of the army. By January 1, 1863, Rosecrans had fought a Confederate army at the Battle of Stones River, forcing the Southerners to withdraw. Rosecrans was then poised to begin a campaign to drive the Confederates from the eastern half of the state.

In northern Virginia, Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside led the Union Army of the Potomac at the start of 1863. But due to Burnside’s crushing defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, Lincoln had lost faith in his ability to lead the army, and he soon replaced him with Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker. Lincoln had his doubts about Hooker, too, mainly due to his vocal criticism of Burnside, but he had performed well as a corps commander and talked aggressively about what he intended to do in the spring campaign.

Politics played a major part in the initial stages of Grant’s advance on Vicksburg. In 1862, a politically appointed general named John A. McClernand, a Democrat, had been authorized by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton to raise troops in several northwestern states as an expeditionary force for use in capturing Vicksburg. The wording of the order made it appear that McClernand would be in command of the operation. But after McClernand had raised the troops and sent them to Memphis, Grant simply took control of the soldiers for his operations down the Mississippi.

Although he disliked and distrusted McClernand, Grant wisely retained him as a corps commander, knowing that Lincoln wished to keep the Illinois Democrat in an important capacity for political reasons. McClernand was not satisfied by the arrangements, and he appealed directly to Lincoln. The president responded directly to McClernand: “I have too many family controversies (so to speak) already on my hands to voluntarily, or so long as I can avoid it, take up another. You are now doing well—much better than you could possibly be if engaged in open war with Gen. Halleck. Allow me to beg that for your sake, for my sake, & for the country’s sake, you give your whole attention to the better work.”

Lincoln also let Grant know when he thought a particular project was especially important. The long winter months had hampered the offensive capabilities of Grant’s army. In order to keep his men occupied and make them feel they were making some headway against the Confederates, Grant had his soldiers work on cutting a canal that would bypass the Vicksburg defenses. Although Grant had little hope of success for the effort, Lincoln felt the project was important. In a January 25 telegram, Halleck told Grant: “Direct your attention particularly to the canal proposed across the point. The President attaches much attention to this.”

The president’s attention was also focused on the Army of the Cumberland and General Rosecrans in central Tennessee. Following Stones River, Rosecrans had the full support of the administration and was advised by Stanton, “There is nothing within my power to grant yourself or your heroic command that will not be carefully given.” But Rosecrans stalled in making any further move against the enemy. As weeks dragged by, Rosecrans continued to request more supplies from the government while making no effort to move. Lincoln’s frustration mounted.

The government tried many different tactics to get Rosecrans to advance, but to no avail. Finally, in an apparent attempt to infuse some spirit of competition between Rosecrans and Grant, Halleck sent each a telegram that offered what could fairly be interpreted as a bribe. The general in chief told them that he was authorized to award a major generalcy in the Regular Army to the first commander who could win an “important, decisive victory.” Instead of choosing to consider it an incentive for good performance, or at the very least ignoring it as Grant did, Rosecrans decided to be insulted by the message. He let his superiors know that he was offended, further worsening relations between himself and Washington.

Meanwhile in the East, the Army of the Potomac was being reorganized in the early months of 1863. Lincoln was still uncertain about Hooker mainly due to his outspoken opinions about the government and Burnside. Hooker had used such terms as “imbecile” and “played out” in describing the president and the government. He even went so far as to say that “nothing [will] go right until we have a dictator, and the sooner the better.”

During the next few months, however, Hooker proved to be a good administrator of the army, reorganizing it into an efficient fighting force. By April, it was ready once again to begin offensive operations. Because of Virginia’s proximity to Washington, Lincoln maintained closer personal contact with and supervision of the general than he did with his western commanders. The president even personally reviewed Hooker’s army on April 6 and gave the general a verbal push, telling him that it was time for his army to move. The Northern public was growing weary of inaction by the Army of the Potomac.

Approximately 130,000 Union soldiers were present for duty in the upcoming Chancellorsville campaign, a large, powerful force with which Hooker could assault the Army of Northern Virginia’s approximately 60,000 soldiers. Having done all that he could to ensure success, Lincoln should have felt confident about victory. But he still had his doubts about the campaign, saying, “I expect the best, but I am prepared for the worst.”

The president could not visit and actively supervise the Union armies in the West, but he could send a personal representative to be his eyes and ears. When the government began to get complaints about Grant from various parties, Lincoln dispatched Assistant Secretary of War Charles A. Dana on a fact-finding mission in April. The commander in chief’s anxiety about Grant was alleviated by Dana’s report, which echoed his later feelings that the general was “an uncommon fellow—the most modest, the most disinterested, and the most honest man I ever knew.”

That spring, Grant attempted several different schemes to bypass the Confederate defenses at Vicksburg. While none proved successful, at least he and his command were making attempts to defeat the enemy. Their efforts did not go unnoticed in Washington, but Lincoln was concerned that Grant was dividing his army before the enemy, which might prove costly. He wanted Grant to unite with Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks’ forces moving north out of New Orleans. In a telegram to Grant dated April 2, Halleck echoed Lincoln’s concerns, warning him, “The division of your army into small expeditions destroys your strength, and when in the presence of the enemy, is very dangerous…what is most desired…is that your forces and those of General Banks should be brought into co-operation as early as possible.”

On April 4, Grant notified Halleck in a dispatch that he was prepared to march his army down the west bank of the Mississippi while “a portion of the naval fleet” would run past the Confederate batteries by night. Then the Navy would ferry his men to the east bank of the river, where they would be on the same side as their objective—Vicksburg. In mid-April, Grant did just what he said he would do. Amazingly, only one naval vessel was lost when the Union navy ran past the guns on Vicksburg’s bluff. Grant’s gamble, contrary to all military logic, paid off, and by the end of the month his army was on the east bank of the river south of Vicksburg and ready to take the fight to the enemy.

Hooker was also ready to fight by the end of April. In a series of brilliant maneuvers, he managed to keep the South in the dark about his intentions and get his army across the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers without interference. Once the army began to move, Lincoln monitored its progress by telegram. On April 27, Lincoln telegraphed Hooker, “How does it look now?” Ninety minutes later, the commander replied: “I am not sufficiently advanced to give an opinion. We are busy. Will tell you as soon as I can, and have it satisfactory.”

On May 1, the Union and Confederate forces collided in a region known as the Wilderness. Over the next three days, a tremendous battle would be fought near a crossroads known as Chancellorsville. Lincoln knew little about the battle until Hooker’s chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Daniel Butterfield, sent the following message: “Though not directed or specially authorized to do so by General Hooker, I think it not improper that I should advise you that a battle is in progress.”

Later during the battle, Butterfield informed Lincoln: “The battle has been most fierce and terrible. Loss heavy on both sides. General Hooker slightly, but not severely, wounded.” Impatient with the lack of information, and perhaps a little alarmed, Lincoln wired back: “Where is General Hooker?”

Finally, on May 5, Butterfield sent a telegram to Lincoln (that was not received until the next day) explaining the dire situation that Hooker and the Army of the Potomac faced. Butterfield advised that the army was still south of the Rappahannock in a strong position, but that Hooker believed it was possible the enemy might have crossed the river and turned his right flank. Butterfield said Hooker believed that “circumstances…make it expedient…that he should retire from this position to the north bank of the Rappahannock for his defensible position.” Momentarily in despair at the prospect of another Union defeat, Lincoln exclaimed after reading the report: “My God! My God! What will the country say! What will the country say!”

By May 7, Lincoln was back to trying to actively manage the army and salvage something from a bad situation. He wrote Hooker to ask if the general had another plan to rebound from this most recent Union defeat. “Have you already in mind a plan wholly or partially formed?” Lincoln wondered. “If you have, prosecute it without interference from me. If you have not, please inform me, so that I, incompetent as I may be, can try and assist in the formation of some plan for the army.”

While Grant and Hooker were moving—with variable results—Rosecrans continued to tarry in Tennessee. By the end of May 1863, Lincoln’s patience with Rosecrans was nearly at an end. It seemed that no one in the government, including Lincoln, could get him to engage the enemy. Not only did Lincoln want Tennessee cleared of the enemy, he also wanted to ensure that the Confederates were prevented from reinforcing their army facing Grant at Vicksburg. On May 23, Lincoln telegraphed Rosecrans directly, “I would not push you to any rashness, but I am very anxious that you do your utmost, short of rashness, to keep [General Braxton] Bragg from getting on to help [General Joseph] Johnston against Grant.” The Army of the Cumberland commander replied: “Dispatch received. I will attend to it.”

But he failed to “attend to it.” On June 2, Halleck informed Rosecrans that if he did not soon move, some of his troops would be transferred to help Grant. The next day, Halleck telegraphed Rosecrans that intelligence indicated that enemy troops in his front were leaving to oppose Grant. Halleck added, “If you cannot hurt the enemy now, he will soon hurt you.” On June 11, the general in chief again telegraphed Rosecrans, informing him of the president’s great dissatisfaction with his inaction. Still he failed to move.

On the same day, Rosecrans responded to Halleck that he had held a council of war with his corps and division commanders, and they had a much different view of events than did Washington. They believed that it was not advisable to move until the fate of Vicksburg had been decided. Rosecrans offered a military maxim that an army should not attempt to fight two decisive battles at the same time. Halleck shot back with a maxim of his own: Councils of war do not fight.

Finally, on June 23, after much prodding by Lincoln and Halleck, Rosecrans finally began his much-awaited advance southward. During the next two weeks, through efficient movement but little actual combat, Rosecrans managed to maneuver the Confederate forces completely out of middle Tennessee. But much to Lincoln’s dismay, Rosecrans missed what should have been the real objective of the campaign, the destruction of the enemy. That failure would come back to haunt him.

In the East, Hooker had intended to launch another campaign against Lee after Chancellorsville. On May 13, Lincoln met with Hooker in Washington. There he gave the general a letter indicating that the time to hit the enemy’s extended lines of communication had passed. Lincoln now expected Hooker to do no more than keep the Confederates at bay with occasional harassing cavalry raids while he put the Army of the Potomac back in good condition.

Over the course of the next few weeks, General Robert E. Lee launched his second invasion of the North in less than a year. It was Hooker’s job to shadow the Confederates and keep his army between the enemy’s forces and Washington. Every decision had to be checked with Lincoln, for he had by then lost nearly all confidence in the Army of the Potomac’s commander. Realizing that the president had no faith in him, Hooker offered his resignation, and perhaps to his surprise, Lincoln immediately accepted it.

The president promoted Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, a corps commander in the Army of the Potomac, to command the army. Halleck informed Meade that he was “free to act as you may deem proper under circumstances as they arise.” Lincoln had chosen Meade because the general hailed from the state in which a major battle was likely to be fought. Lincoln believed that Meade, a Philadelphian, would lead his army well in Pennsylvania, “on his own dunghill.”

The Army of the Potomac met the enemy near the town of Gettysburg, Pa., on July 1. Once the battle was joined, Lincoln kept up with the action via telegrams sent to the War Department. There he read Meade’s dispatches on the first, second and third days of the battle. The last told of the enemy’s withdrawal from the battlefield. Victory had been achieved.

Meanwhile, Grant’s campaign to capture Vicksburg was making steady progress. His main problem was that he faced two separate Confederate armies in Mississippi. One occupied Vicksburg, while the other was assembling at Jackson. Not wanting these two forces to unite, Grant moved his army between them.

Grant’s forces clashed with elements of the Confederate troops from Vicksburg at Champion’s Hill on May 16, and the Southerners then retreated into the defenses around Vicksburg. Grant quickly attempted to take the city by assault, but failed and then turned to a siege to starve out the defenders. As the weeks went by, Halleck reminded Grant that time was of the utmost importance and that the siege “should be pushed day and night.” But Grant could do little but wait out the enemy.

Finally, on July 4, the waiting ended for Grant, Lincoln and the country. Grant sent a message up the Mississippi to be telegraphed Halleck, informing him that the “enemy surrendered this morning.”

The president was in the War Department when the announcement came over the wire on July 7. A humble Lincoln sent Grant a gracious letter of appreciation: “I do not remember that you and I have met personally. I write this now as a grateful acknowledgement for the almost inestimable service you have done the country. I wish to say a word further. When you first reached the vicinity of Vicksburg, I thought you should do what you finally did….When you got below and took Port Gibson, Grand Gulf, and vicinity, I thought you should go down the river and join Gen. Banks; and when you turned Northward East of the Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. I now wish to make the personal acknowledgement that you were right and I was wrong.”

Following Grant’s success, Meade came under pressure to finish off Lee’s army before it could retreat back across the Potomac River. Halleck telegraphed Meade on July 7 that he had given the Confederates a hard blow and that he should follow it up and “give him another before he can reach the Potomac.” On the same day, Halleck forwarded to Meade the text of a note from Lincoln stating that Vicksburg had fallen and “if General Meade can complete his work…by the literal or substantial destruction of Lee’s army, the rebellion will be over.”

Lincoln became convinced that Meade would allow the enemy to escape unless he was pressured to attack. On July 8, Halleck once again urged Meade to attack the enemy’s divided forces as soon as possible–ordering forced marches if necessary. Finally, on July 12, Meade notified Washington that he would attack the next day. Lincoln was in the telegraph office when the message was received. “They will be ready to fight a magnificent battle when there is no enemy there to fight,” Lincoln scoffed.

The president proved to be right. As he predicted, Lee’s army escaped across the Potomac with little additional harm done to it. Lincoln was truly devastated by Meade’s failure to destroy Lee. His feelings about the matter are most evident in a letter that he composed to Meade but never sent him: “I do not believe you appreciate the magnitude of the misfortune involved in Lee’s escape, he was within your easy grasp, and to have closed upon him would, in connection with our recent successes have ended the war. As it is, the war will be prolonged indefinitely.”

Lincoln, however, was not ready to give up on Meade as commander of the Army of the Potomac. He had, after all, won a major, if incomplete, victory against Lee. Very few others could boast of that. Lincoln decided to “try him farther.”

By August, Meade’s army had shrunk to two-thirds the strength it had boasted in July. Several thousand men had been discharged when their enlistments expired. A division was sent to South Carolina for siege operations, and more than 1,500 men were sent to New York City to quell draft riots. Lee actually mounted a minor offensive against Meade, forcing the Union general to fall back from the Rappahannock River toward Washington. Meade checked this movement with a clash at Bristoe Station and eventually pushed southward again. The Federals won a victory at Rappahannock Station in November, but their weak advance ground to a halt later that month along Mine Run. Aside for minor operations against the enemy, the Army of the Potomac would do nothing more until the spring of 1864.

In Tullahoma, Tenn., during the summer of 1863, Rosecrans once again settled into a secure base and began stockpiling supplies for a vague advance sometime in the future. Lincoln wanted a quick advance by the Army of the Cumberland into the strategically important eastern part of the state. The president said that he wanted to do “as much for East Tennessee as I would, or could, if my own home & family were in Knoxville.” Rosecrans again was slow in moving, and once again telegrams flew from Washington to Tennessee in an effort to get the overly deliberate general to move. Finally, on August 4, Halleck telegraphed Rosecrans, “Your forces must move forward without delay.”

The army finally began advancing on August 16. Over the next several weeks, Bragg’s Confederate army retreated into Georgia, abandoning the key railroad center of Chattanooga. Believing that he had the enemy in full retreat and forgetting that Bragg still had an intact army, Rosecrans continued his advance into Georgia. After he belatedly realized that his own army was overextended, Rosecrans attempted to consolidate his force in defensive positions near Chickamauga Creek, 10 miles south of Chattanooga. The Confederates struck the Union positions on September 19, and in a vicious two-day battle Rosecrans and his army were sent scurrying back to Chattanooga.

Assistant Secretary of War Charles Dana was with the Union army at Chickamauga and telegraphed Lincoln details of the defeat on September 20. A rattled Rosecrans wired Washington the same day, saying that he was uncertain whether his army could hold Chattanooga. Lincoln responded immediately that he still had confidence in the general and that the government would do all it could to assist him.

By September 22, concerned that he had not heard from Rosecrans in two days, Lincoln wired him and asked the condition of his forces in Chattanooga. Rosecrans responded that he held the town with 30,000 men but that their fate was in the hands of God—hardly a response to instill confidence. Lincoln continued to try to help Rosecrans restore his faith in himself and his army. But privately, Lincoln had his doubts about Rosecrans, who he said was acting “confused and stunned, like a duck hit on the head.”

On September 23, the Confederate siege of Chattanooga began. The trapped Rosecrans needed help, and Lincoln attempted to find a way to send him reinforcements, debating the best way to do this with Halleck and Stanton. The secretary of war proposed to send soldiers from Meade’s army by railroad. He said that 20,000 troops could be moved in a few weeks—Halleck said such an operation would more likely take a few months.

The two-hour debate ended with Lincoln accepting Stanton’s proposal, and soon the efficiency of the Union railroad system was proven when more than 15,000 men quickly arrived in the vicinity of Chattanooga to augment Rosecrans’ force.

By mid-October, Lincoln had decided that a change in the command system in the West was in order. Grant was promoted to head a unified command that included most of the armies and departments from Tennessee westward. Lincoln gave Grant authority to retain or relieve Rosecrans. Grant chose the latter, replacing the lethargic general with Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas. Grant then proceeded to Chattanooga to take personal command of the efforts to break the siege.

The siege of Chattanooga was broken on October 30 when a small supply line—dubbed the Cracker Line—was opened into the city. Between November 23 and 25, the Union armies under Grant at Chattanooga launched a concerted offensive to clear the Confederates from around the city that ended with Bragg’s army in full retreat southward to Georgia.

By the end of 1863, it was clear to Lincoln that in Grant he had found the aggressive commander he had been seeking since the beginning of the war. In March 1864, Lincoln promoted Grant to lieutenant general, and appointed him general in chief of the Union armies. From this point until the end of the war, the president would no longer actively manage military matters. Having Grant at the helm saved the president time and energy.

The course of events in 1863 had forced Lincoln to become an active commander in chief. It is hard to imagine generals such as Rosecrans ever moving without pressure from above. On all fronts except Grant’s, inaction might have remained the order of the day if not for the president’s vigorous involvement in the prosecution of the war. Perhaps there might not have been the Union defeats at Chancellorsville and Chickamauga, but there might not have been the Union victories at Gettysburg, Vicksburg or Chattanooga, either.

After 1863 the Confederacy’s main armies would undertake no more major offensives, and the Southern bid for a separate, independent nation would fail. Had it not been for Lincoln’s active management of military affairs and steady prodding of his commanders, the outcome of the Civil War and the history of the United States would likely have been very different.

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Abraham Lincoln: Tyrant, Hypocrite or Consummate Statesman

Most Americans—including most historians—regard Abraham Lincoln as the nation’s greatest president. But in recent years powerful movements have gathered, both on the political right and the left, to condemn Lincoln as a flawed and even wicked man.

For both camps, the debunking of Lincoln usually begins with an exposé of the “Lincoln myth,” which is well described in William Lee Miller’s 2002 book Lincoln’s Virtues: An Ethical Biography . How odd it is, Miller writes, that an ‘unschooled’ politician ‘from the raw frontier villages of Illinois and Indiana’ could become such a great president. ‘He was the myth made real,’ Miller writes, ‘rising from an actual Kentucky cabin made of actual Kentucky logs all the way to the actual White House.’

Lincoln’s critics have done us all a service by showing that the actual author of the myth is Abraham Lincoln himself. It was Lincoln who, over the years, carefully crafted the public image of himself as Log Cabin Lincoln, Honest Abe and the rest of it. Asked to describe his early life, Lincoln answered, “the short and simple annals of the poor,” referring to Thomas Gray’s poem “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.” Lincoln disclaimed great aspirations for himself, noting that if people did not vote for him, he would return to obscurity, for he was, after all, used to disappointments.

These pieties, however, are inconsistent with what Lincoln’s law partner, William Herndon, said about him: “His ambition was a little engine that knew no rest.” Admittedly in the ancient world ambition was often viewed as a great vice. In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar , Brutus submits his reason for joining the conspiracy against Caesar: his fear that Caesar had grown too ambitious. But as founding father and future president James Madison noted in The Federalist , the American system was consciously designed to attract ambitious men. Such ambition was presumed natural to a politician and favorable to democracy as long as it sought personal distinction by promoting the public good through constitutional means.

What unites the right-wing and left-wing attacks on Lincoln, of course, is that they deny that Lincoln respected the law and that he was concerned with the welfare of all. The right-wing school—made up largely of Southerners and some libertarians—holds that Lincoln was a self-serving tyrant who rode roughshod over civil liberties, such as the right to habeas corpus. Lincoln is also accused of greatly expanding the size of the federal government. Some libertarians even charge—and this is not intended as a compliment—that Lincoln was the true founder of the welfare state. His right-wing critics say that despite his show of humility, Lincoln was a megalomaniacal man who was willing to destroy half the country to serve his Caesarian ambitions. In an influential essay, the late Melvin E. Bradford, an outspoken conservative, excoriated Lincoln as a moral fanatic who, determined to enforce his Manichaean vision—one that sees a cosmic struggle between good and evil—on the country as a whole, ended up corrupting American politics and thus left a “lasting and terrible impact on the nation’s destiny.”

Although, Bradford viewed Lincoln as a kind of manic abolitionist, many in the right-wing camp deny that the slavery issue was central to the Civil War. Rather, they insist, the war was driven primarily by economic motives. Essentially, the industrial North wanted to destroy the economic base of the South. Historian Charles Adams, in When in the Course of Human Events: Arguing the Case for Southern Secession , published in 2000, contends that the causes leading up to the Civil War had virtually nothing to do with slavery.

This approach to rewriting history has been going on for more than a century. Alexander Stephens, former vice president of the Confederacy, published a two-volume history of the Civil War between 1868 and 1870 in which he hardly mentioned slavery, insisting that the war was an attempt to preserve constitutional government from the tyranny of the majority. But this is not what Stephens said in the great debates leading up to the war. In his “Cornerstone” speech, delivered in Savannah, Ga., on March 21, 1861, at the same time that the South was in the process of seceding, Stephens said that the American Revolution had been based on a premise that was ‘”fundamentally wrong.” That premise was, as Stephens defined it, “the assumption of equality of the races.” Stephens insisted that instead: “Our new [Confederate] government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea. Its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man. Slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great and moral truth.”

This speech is conspicuously absent from the right’s revisionist history. And so are the countless affirmations of black inferiority and the “positive good” of slavery—from John C. Calhoun’s attacks on the Declaration of Independence to South Carolina Senator James H. Hammond’s insistence that “the rock of Gibraltar does not stand so firm on its basis as our slave system.” It is true, of course, that many whites who fought on the Southern side in the Civil War did not own slaves. But, as Calhoun himself pointed out in one speech, they too derived an important benefit from slavery: ‘With us the two great divisions of society are not the rich and the poor, but white and black; and all the former, the poor as well as the rich, belong to the upper class, and are respected and treated as equals.’ Calhoun’s point is that the South had conferred on all whites a kind of aristocracy of birth, so that even the most wretched and degenerate white man was determined in advance to be better and more socially elevated than the most intelligent and capable black man. That’s why the poor whites fought—to protect that privilege.

Contrary to Bradford’s high-pitched accusations, Lincoln approached the issue of slavery with prudence and moderation. This is not to say that he waffled on the morality of slavery. “You think slavery is right, and ought to be extended,” Lincoln wrote Stephens on the eve of the war, “while we think it is wrong, and ought to be restricted.” As Lincoln clearly asserts, it was not his intention to get rid of slavery in the Southern states. Lincoln conceded that the American founders had agreed to tolerate slavery in the Southern states, and he confessed that he had no wish and no power to interfere with it there. The only issue—and it was an issue on which Lincoln would not bend—was whether the federal government could restrict slavery in the new territories. This was the issue of the presidential campaign of 1860; this was the issue that determined secession and war.

Lincoln argued that the South had no right to secede—that the Southern states had entered the Union as the result of a permanent compact with the Northern states. That Union was based on the principle of majority rule, with constitutional rights carefully delineated for the minority. Lincoln insisted that since he had been legitimately elected, and since the power to regulate slavery in the territories was nowhere proscribed in the Constitution, Southern secession amounted to nothing more than one group’s decision to leave the country because it did not like the results of a presidential election, and no constitutional democracy could function under such an absurd rule. Of course the Southerners objected that they should not be forced to live under a regime that they considered tyrannical, but Lincoln countered that any decision to dissolve the original compact could only occur with the consent of all the parties involved. Once again, it makes no sense to have such agreements when any group can unilaterally withdraw from them and go its own way.

The rest of the libertarian and right-wing case against Lincoln is equally without merit. Yes, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and arrested Southern sympathizers, but let us not forget that the nation was in a desperate war in which its very survival was at stake. Discussing habeas corpus, Lincoln insisted that it made no sense for him to protect this one constitutional right and allow the very Union established by the Constitution, the very framework for the protection of all rights, to be obliterated. Of course the federal government expanded during the Civil War, as it expanded during the Revolutionary War, and during World War II. Governments need to be strong to fight wars. The evidence for the right-wing insistence that Lincoln was the founder of the modern welfare state stems from the establishment, begun during his administration, of a pension program for Union veterans and support for their widows and orphans. Those were, however, programs aimed at a specific, albeit large, part of the population. The welfare state came to America in the 20th century. Franklin Roosevelt should be credited, or blamed, for that. He institutionalized it, and Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon expanded it.

The left-wing group of Lincoln critics, composed of liberal scholars and social activists, is harshly critical of Lincoln on the grounds that he was a racist who did not really care about ending slavery. Their indictment of Lincoln is that he did not oppose slavery outright, only the extension of it, that he opposed laws permitting intermarriage and even opposed social and political equality between the races. If the right-wingers disdain Lincoln for being too aggressively antislavery, the left-wingers scorn him for not being antislavery enough. Both groups, however, agree that Lincoln was a self-promoting hypocrite who said one thing while doing another.

Some of Lincoln’s defenders have sought to vindicate him from these attacks by contending that he was a “man of his time.” This will not do, because there were several persons of that time, notably the social-reformer Grimké sisters, Angelina and Sarah, and Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, who forthrightly and unambiguously attacked slavery and called for immediate and complete abolition. In one of his speeches, Sumner said that while there are many issues on which political men can and should compromise, slavery is not such an issue: “This will not admit of compromise. To be wrong on this is to be wholly wrong. It is our duty to defend freedom, unreservedly, and careless of the consequences.”

Lincoln’s modern liberal critics are, whether they know it or not, the philosophical descendants of Sumner. One cannot understand Lincoln without understanding why he agreed with Sumner’s goals while consistently opposing the strategy of the abolitionists. The abolitionists, Lincoln thought, approached the restricting or ending of slavery with self-righteous moral display. They wanted to be in the right and—as Sumner himself says—damn the consequences. In Lincoln’s view, abolition was a noble sentiment, but abolitionist tactics, such as burning the Constitution and advocating violence, were not the way to reach their goal.

We can answer the liberal critics by showing them why Lincoln’s understanding of slavery, and his strategy for defeating it, was superior to that of Sumner and his modern-day followers. Lincoln knew that the statesman, unlike the moralist, cannot be content with making the case against slavery. He must find a way to implement his principles to the degree that circumstances permit. The key to understanding Lincoln is that he always sought the meeting point between what was right in theory and what could be achieved in practice. He always sought the common denominator between what was good to do and what the people would go along with. In a democratic society this is the only legitimate way to advance a moral agenda.

Consider the consummate skill with which Lincoln deflected the prejudices of his supporters without yielding to them. In the Lincoln-Douglas debates during the race for the Illinois Senate, Stephen Douglas repeatedly accused Lincoln of believing that blacks and whites were intellectually equal, of endorsing full political rights for blacks, and of supporting “amalgamation” or intermarriage between the races. If these charges could be sustained, or if large numbers of people believed them to be true, then Lincoln’s career was over. Even in the free state of Illinois—as throughout the North—there was widespread opposition to full political and social equality for blacks.

Lincoln handled this difficult situation by using a series of artfully conditional responses. “Certainly the Negro is not our equal in color—perhaps not in many other respects; still, in the right to put into his mouth the bread that his own hands have earned, he is the equal of every other man. In pointing out that more has been given to you, you cannot be justified in taking away the little which has been given to him. If God gave him but little, that little let him enjoy.” Notice that Lincoln only barely recognizes the prevailing prejudice. He never acknowledges black inferiority; he merely concedes the possibility. And the thrust of his argument is that even if blacks were inferior, that is not a warrant for taking away their rights.

Facing the charge of racial amalgamation, Lincoln said, “I protest against that counterfeit logic which concludes that because I do not want a black woman for a slave, I must necessarily want her for a wife.” Lincoln is not saying that he wants, or does not want, a black woman for his wife. He is neither supporting nor opposing racial intermarriage. He is simply saying that from his antislavery position it does not follow that he endorses racial amalgamation. Elsewhere Lincoln turned antiblack prejudices against Douglas by saying that slavery was the institution that had produced the greatest racial intermixing and the largest number of mulattoes.

Lincoln was exercising the same prudent statesmanship when he wrote to New York newspaper publisher Horace Greeley asserting: “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.” The letter was written on August 22, 1862, almost a year and a half after the Civil War broke out, when the South was gaining momentum and the outcome was far from certain. From the time of secession, Lincoln was desperately eager to prevent border states such as Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky and Missouri from seceding. These states had slavery, and Lincoln knew that if the issue of the war was cast openly as the issue of slavery, his chances of keeping the border states in the Union were slim. And if all the border states seceded, Lincoln was convinced, and rightly so, that the cause of the Union was gravely imperiled.

Moreover, Lincoln was acutely aware that many people in the North were vehemently antiblack and saw themselves as fighting to save their country rather than to free slaves. Lincoln framed the case against the Confederacy in terms of saving the Union in order to maintain his coalition—a coalition whose victory was essential to the antislavery cause. And ultimately it was because of Lincoln that slavery came to an end. That is why the right wing can never forgive him.

In my view, Lincoln was the true “philosophical statesman,” one who was truly good and truly wise. Standing in front of his critics, Lincoln is a colossus, and all of the Lilliputian arrows hurled at him bounce harmlessly to the ground. It is hard to put any other president — not even George Washington — in the same category as Abraham Lincoln. He is simply the greatest practitioner of democratic statesmanship that America and the world have yet produced.

This article was written by Dinesh D’Souza and originally published in the April 2005 issue of American History Magazine.

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Help inform the discussion

Abraham Lincoln: Life in Brief

When Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860, seven slave states left the Union to form the Confederate States of America, and four more joined when hostilities began between the North and South. A bloody civil war then engulfed the nation as Lincoln vowed to preserve the Union, enforce the laws of the United States, and end the secession. The war lasted for more than four years with a staggering loss of more than 600,000 Americans dead. Midway through the war, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves within the Confederacy and changed the war from a battle to preserve the Union into a battle for freedom. He was the first Republican President, and Union victory ended forever the claim that state sovereignty superseded federal authority. Killed by an assassin's bullet less than a week after the surrender of Confederate forces, Lincoln left the nation a more perfect Union and thereby earned the admiration of most Americans as the country's greatest President.

Born dirt-poor in a log cabin in Kentucky in 1809, Lincoln grew up in frontier Kentucky and Indiana, where he was largely self-educated, with a taste for jokes, hard work, and books. He served for a time as a soldier in the Black Hawk War, taught himself law, and held a seat in the Illinois state legislature as a Whig politician in the 1830s and 1840s. From state politics, he moved to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1847, where he voiced his opposition to the U.S. war with Mexico. In the mid-1850s, Lincoln left the Whig Party to join the new Republican Party. In 1858, he went up against one of the most popular politicians in the nation, Senator Stephen Douglas, in a contest for the U.S. Senate. Lincoln lost that election, but his spectacular performance against Douglas in a series of nationally covered debates made him a contender for the 1860 Republican presidential nomination.

Fighting for Unity and Freedom

In the 1860 campaign for President, Lincoln firmly expressed his opposition to slavery and his determination to limit the expansion of slavery westward into the new territories acquired from Mexico in 1850. His election victory created a crisis for the nation, as many Southern Democrats feared that it would just be a matter of time before Lincoln would move to kill slavery in the South. Rather than face a future in which black people might become free citizens, much of the white South supported secession. This reasoning was based upon the doctrine of states' rights, which placed ultimate sovereignty with the states.

Lincoln vowed to preserve the Union even if it meant war. He eventually raised an army and navy of nearly three million Northern men to face a Southern army of more than two million soldiers. In battles fought from Virginia to California (but mainly in Virginia, in the Mississippi River Valley, and along the border states) a great civil war tore the United States apart. In pursuing victory, Lincoln assumed extralegal powers over the press, declared martial law in areas where no military action justified it, quelled draft riots with armed soldiers, and drafted soldiers to fight for the Union cause. No President in history had ever exerted so much executive authority, but he did so not for personal power but in order to preserve the Union. In 1864, as an example of his limited personal ambitions, Lincoln refused to call off national elections, preferring to hold the election even if he lost the vote rather than destroy the democratic basis upon which he rested his authority. With the electoral support of Union soldiers, many of whom were given short leaves to return home to vote, and thanks to the spectacular victory of Union troops in General Sherman's capture of Atlanta, Lincoln was decisively reelected.

What started as a war to preserve the Union and vindicate democracy became a battle for freedom and a war to end slavery when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January of 1863. Although the Proclamation did not free all slaves in the nation—indeed, no slaves outside of the Confederacy were affected by the Proclamation—it was an important symbolic gesture that identified the Union with freedom and the death of slavery. As part of the Proclamation, Lincoln also urged black males to join the Union forces as soldiers and sailors. By the end of the war, nearly two hundred thousand African Americans had fought for the Union cause, and Lincoln referred to them as indispensable in ensuring Union victory.

Personal Tragedies and Triumphs

While the war raged, Lincoln also suffered great personal anguish over the death of his beloved son and the depressed mental condition of his wife, Mary. The pain of war and personal loss affected him deeply, and he often expressed his anguish by turning to humor and by speaking eloquently about the meaning of the great war which raged across the land. His Gettysburg Address, delivered after the Battle of Gettysburg, as well as his second inaugural in 1865, are acknowledged to be among the great orations in American history.

Almost all historians judge Lincoln as the greatest President in American history because of the way he exercised leadership during the war and because of the impact of that leadership on the moral and political character of the nation. He conceived of his presidential role as unique under the Constitution in times of crisis. Lincoln was convinced that within the branches of government, the presidency alone was empowered not only to uphold the Constitution, but also to preserve, protect, and defend it. In the end, however, Lincoln is measured by his most lasting accomplishments: the preservation of the Union, the vindication of democracy, and the death of slavery—accomplishments achieved by acting "with malice towards none" in the pursuit of a more perfect and equal union.

Michael Burlingame

Professor Emeritus of History Connecticut College

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Abraham Lincoln

Life span: Born: February 12, 1809, in a log cabin near Hodgenville, Kentucky. Died: April 15, 1865, in Washington, D.C., the victim of an assassin.

Presidential term: March 4, 1861 - April 15, 1865.

Lincoln was in the second month of his second term when he was assassinated.

Accomplishments: Lincoln was the greatest president of the 19th century, and perhaps of all American history. His greatest accomplishment, of course, was that he held the nation together during the Civil War while also bringing an end to the great divisive issue of the 19th century, slavery in America .

Supported by: Lincoln ran for president as the candidate of the Republican Party in 1860, and was strongly supported by those who opposed the extension of slavery into new states and territories.

The most devoted Lincoln supporters had organized themselves into marching societies, called Wide-Awake Clubs . And Lincoln received support from a broad base of Americans, from factory workers to farmers to New England intellectuals who opposed the institution of slavery.

Opposed by: In the election of 1860 , Lincoln had three opponents, the most prominent of whom was Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. Lincoln had run for the senate seat held by Douglas two years previously, and that election campaign featured the seven Lincoln-Douglas Debates .

In the election of 1864 Lincoln was opposed by General George McClellan, whom Lincoln had removed from command of the Army of the Potomac in late 1862. McClellan’s platform was essentially a call to bring an end to the Civil War.

Presidential campaigns: Lincoln ran for president in 1860 and 1864, in an era when candidates did not do much campaigning. In 1860 Lincoln only made one appearance at a rally, in his own hometown, Springfield, Illinois.

Personal Life

  Spouse and family:  Lincoln was married to  Mary Todd Lincoln . Their marriage was often rumored to be troubled, and there were many rumors focusing on her  alleged mental illness .

The Lincolns had four sons, only one of whom,  Robert Todd Lincoln , lived to adulthood. Their son Eddie died in Illinois. Willie Lincoln died in the White House in 1862, after becoming ill, probably from unhealthy drinking water. Tad Lincoln lived in the White House with his parents and returned to Illinois after his father's death. He died in 1871, at the age of 18.

Education:   Lincoln only attended school as a child for a few months, and was essentially self-educated. However, he read widely, and many stories about his youth concern him striving to borrow books and reading even while working in the fields.

Early career:  Lincoln practiced law in Illinois, and became a well-respected litigator. He handled all sorts of cases, and his legal practice, often with frontier characters for clients, provided many stories he would tell as president.

Later career:  Lincoln died while in office. It is a loss to history that he was never able to write a memoir.

Facts to Know About Lincoln

  Nickname:  Lincoln was often called "Honest Abe." In the 1860 campaign, his history of having  worked with an ax  prompted him to be called the “Rail Candidate” and “The Rail Splitter.”

Unusual facts:  The only president to have received a patent, Lincoln designed a boat that could, with inflatable devices, clear sandbars in a river. The inspiration for the invention was his observation that riverboats on the Ohio or even the Mississippi River could get stuck trying to cross the shifting obstacles of silt that would build up in the river.

Lincoln's fascination with technology extended to the telegraph. He relied on telegraphic messages while living in Illinois in the 1850s. And in 1860 he learned about his nomination as the Republican candidate via a telegraph message. On Election Day that November, he spent much of the day at a local telegraph office until word flashed over the wire that he had won.

As president, Lincoln used the telegraph extensively to communicate with generals in the field during the Civil War.

Quotes:  These  ten verified and significant Lincoln quotes  are only a fraction of the many quotes attributed to him.

Death and funeral:   Lincoln was shot  by  John Wilkes Booth  at Ford’s Theatre on the evening of April 14, 1865. He died early the next morning.

Lincoln’s funeral train  traveled from Washington, D.C. to Springfield, Illinois, stopping for observances in major cities of the North. He was buried in Springfield, and his body was eventually placed in a large tomb.

Legacy:  Lincoln’s legacy is enormous. For his role in guiding the country during the Civil War and his actions that made enslavement illegal, he will always be remembered as one of the great American presidents.

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• Stephen Douglas, Perennial Lincoln Opponent and Influential Senator
• National Parks in Illinois: Politics, Commerce, and Religious Freedom
• The Corwin Amendment, Enslavement, and Abraham Lincoln
• Was Mary Todd Lincoln Mentally Ill?

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Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was the 16th President of the United States, serving from 1861 to 1865. Widely regarded as one of the greatest presidents in American history, he is renowned for his leadership during the American Civil War, preserving the Union, and issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, a pivotal step in ending slavery. Lincoln’s eloquence, exemplified in speeches like the Gettysburg Address, and his commitment to equality have solidified his lasting impact on the nation.

Early Life and Education

Abraham Lincoln’s early life and education laid the foundation for a remarkable journey from a log cabin in Kentucky to the presidency of the United States. Born on February 12, 1809, in Hardin County (now LaRue County), Kentucky, Lincoln was the second child of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. The family’s economic circumstances were modest, and life on the frontier presented numerous challenges.

The Lincoln family’s financial struggles led them to move to Indiana in 1816, where young Abraham experienced the hardships of pioneer life. Tragically, in 1818, when Lincoln was just nine years old, his mother, Nancy, succumbed to milk sickness, a common ailment in the region. Her death had a profound impact on Lincoln, leaving him with a sense of loss that would resonate throughout his life.

Thomas Lincoln, Abraham’s father, remarried the following year to Sarah Bush Johnston, a widow with three children of her own. Sarah played a pivotal role in young Abraham’s life, fostering his love for learning and providing a stabilizing influence. Despite the family’s limited resources, she encouraged his education, recognizing his intellectual potential.

Lincoln’s formal education was minimal, consisting of brief periods in frontier schools where he learned the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic. His education was irregular, as he often had to work to help support the family. Nonetheless, Lincoln displayed a keen interest in learning and exhibited a voracious appetite for reading.

In 1830, the Lincoln family, seeking improved economic prospects, moved once again, this time to Macon County, Illinois. Abraham, now in his twenties, began to strike out on his own. His years in Illinois were marked by various jobs, including working as a rail-splitter, store clerk, and postmaster. These experiences not only contributed to his work ethic but also exposed him to the realities of life on the expanding frontier.

One of Lincoln’s pivotal experiences during this period was serving in the Illinois militia during the Black Hawk War of 1832. Though the conflict was brief and inconclusive, it provided Lincoln with some exposure to military life and leadership, foreshadowing the challenges he would face decades later as President during the Civil War.

Despite the economic and personal challenges, Lincoln’s determination to educate himself remained steadfast. He utilized any opportunity to borrow books, often walking long distances to borrow volumes from neighbors. His reading covered a wide range of subjects, including law, literature, and politics. Books such as the Bible, Aesop’s Fables, and Shakespeare’s works left a lasting imprint on his rhetorical style and moral outlook.

In 1832, Lincoln made his first foray into politics, running for a seat in the Illinois State Legislature as a member of the Whig Party. Although he did not win, this campaign marked the beginning of his political career. Two years later, in 1834, he won a seat in the legislature, serving four consecutive terms. During this time, he continued to study law on his own, laying the groundwork for his future legal career.

Lincoln’s passion for the law led him to seek admission to the bar. In 1836, he achieved this milestone and commenced his legal practice in Springfield, Illinois. The following year, he was elected to the Illinois State Legislature and began building a reputation as a capable and honest politician. His legal career flourished, and he gained a reputation for fairness and integrity in his dealings.

In 1842, Lincoln married Mary Todd, a woman from a prominent Kentucky family. The couple would go on to have four sons: Robert, Edward, William, and Thomas. However, tragedy struck the Lincoln family with the death of their second son, Edward, at a young age.

Abraham Lincoln’s early life was marked by perseverance in the face of adversity, a commitment to self-improvement, and a growing presence in the world of Illinois politics. His experiences on the frontier, combined with a thirst for knowledge and an innate sense of justice, shaped the qualities that would later define his presidency. As he navigated the challenges of the rapidly changing nation, these formative years provided the crucible in which Lincoln’s character and leadership qualities were forged.

Political Career

Abraham Lincoln’s political career was a journey that saw him rise from the Illinois State Legislature to become the 16th President of the United States during one of the nation’s most challenging periods – the Civil War. His political ascent was marked by a commitment to preserving the Union and a fervent opposition to the expansion of slavery.

Lincoln’s early political career gained momentum in the 1830s when he served in the Illinois State Legislature as a member of the Whig Party. During this time, he demonstrated an ability to navigate the complexities of state politics while honing his skills as a persuasive speaker. His reputation as an honest and hardworking legislator began to take shape, setting the stage for his future endeavors.

In 1836, Lincoln received his license to practice law and embarked on a legal career in Springfield, Illinois. His involvement in politics continued, and he gained election to the Illinois State Legislature in 1834, 1836, 1838, and 1840. Throughout these years, he developed a keen interest in infrastructure development, advocating for improvements such as roads and canals that would benefit the growing state.

Lincoln’s focus on law and politics intertwined, as he leveraged his legal acumen to navigate the political landscape. In 1846, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a member of the Whig Party. Lincoln’s single term in Congress from 1847 to 1849 coincided with the tumultuous debate over the Mexican-American War. While he initially supported the war, he later questioned its origin and demanded that President James K. Polk specify the exact location where hostilities began.

Upon returning to Springfield after his congressional term, Lincoln resumed his legal practice, earning a reputation as a skilled and ethical lawyer. His political ambitions, however, were undeterred. As the nation grappled with the divisive issue of slavery, the political landscape underwent a significant transformation. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 had temporarily maintained a balance between free and slave states, but the acquisition of new territories reignited the debate.

The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, which allowed territories to decide on the issue of slavery through popular sovereignty, intensified tensions. This event prompted Lincoln to reenter politics, and he aligned himself with the newly formed Republican Party, an anti-slavery political force. In 1856, he campaigned for the Republican candidate John C. Frémont, and by 1858, he emerged as a prominent figure within the party.

The Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 marked a critical point in Lincoln’s political career. His opponent, Senator Stephen A. Douglas, advocated for popular sovereignty on the issue of slavery. Lincoln, however, argued that the nation could not endure permanently half slave and half free. The debates were widely covered in the press and elevated Lincoln’s national profile, even though he lost the Senate race to Douglas.

The following year, in 1859, Lincoln delivered a speech in New York City at the Cooper Union, further solidifying his reputation as a serious political figure. The speech emphasized his opposition to the expansion of slavery and resonated with anti-slavery sentiments in the North.

The Republican National Convention of 1860 saw Lincoln emerge as the party’s presidential candidate. His nomination was a reflection of the Republican Party’s commitment to preventing the spread of slavery into new territories. The Democratic Party, split along regional lines, nominated multiple candidates, leading to a divided electorate.

In the 1860 presidential election, Lincoln won a decisive victory in the Electoral College, securing 180 electoral votes. His victory, however, did not sit well with Southern states that feared Republican policies would threaten their institution of slavery. The secession crisis unfolded, leading to the formation of the Confederate States of America and the outbreak of the Civil War.

Upon his inauguration on March 4, 1861, Lincoln faced the daunting task of preserving the Union. The Southern states’ secession presented a direct challenge to the authority of the federal government. Lincoln, committed to maintaining the integrity of the nation, declared secession illegal and embarked on a course to reunite the divided states.

Throughout the Civil War, Lincoln faced intense political pressures and military challenges. He made key strategic decisions, including the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, which declared all slaves in Confederate-held territory to be free. While this did not immediately free all slaves, it changed the moral tone of the war and aligned Union forces with the cause of ending slavery.

In 1864, Lincoln faced a contentious reelection campaign against Democratic candidate George McClellan. Despite setbacks and public discontent over the prolonged war, Lincoln prevailed. His leadership during the war and his commitment to principles such as the preservation of the Union and the abolition of slavery cemented his legacy as one of America’s greatest presidents.

Tragically, Lincoln’s life was cut short by an assassin’s bullet on April 14, 1865, just days after the war’s conclusion. His assassination marked a somber end to a political career that had navigated the nation through its darkest hour.

Abraham Lincoln’s political career was marked by a steadfast commitment to principles, astute leadership during a tumultuous period, and a dedication to preserving the Union. His legacy endures as a symbol of unity, freedom, and the enduring pursuit of justice in the face of adversity.

Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, from 1861 to 1865, is etched in history as a defining chapter in the United States . Leading the nation through the Civil War, Lincoln faced unprecedented challenges, demonstrating leadership, resolve, and a commitment to principles that would shape the future of the country.

Lincoln assumed office on March 4, 1861, at a time when the nation was on the brink of division. Southern states had already seceded, forming the Confederate States of America. The new president inherited a deeply divided nation and the monumental task of preserving the Union. In his inaugural address, Lincoln appealed for unity, stating, “We are not enemies but friends. We must not be enemies.”

As the Confederacy seized federal forts and arsenals, tensions escalated, and on April 12, 1861, Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. This marked the beginning of the Civil War, a conflict that would test the resilience of the nation and the leadership of its president.

Lincoln’s approach to the war was rooted in his dedication to preserving the Union. Initially, he framed the conflict as a rebellion that needed to be suppressed, emphasizing the constitutional duty of the federal government to maintain its authority. The war’s early stages were marked by a series of Union defeats, and the president faced criticism for what some perceived as indecision.

However, Lincoln’s leadership style evolved as the war progressed. He began to grasp the magnitude of the conflict and the need for a more robust and strategic approach. In 1862, he introduced the Emancipation Proclamation, a groundbreaking executive order that declared all slaves in Confederate-held territory to be free. While this did not immediately free the slaves, it changed the character of the war, making the abolition of slavery a central goal for the Union.

The Battle of Antietam in September 1862 provided a crucial turning point. Although it was one of the bloodiest battles of the war, it ended in a tactical draw. Nonetheless, it gave Lincoln the opportunity to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, signaling the Union’s commitment to ending slavery. The final proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863, and it added a moral imperative to the Union cause, framing the war as a struggle for freedom.

Lincoln faced criticism and opposition, even within his own party, over issues such as the draft and the suspension of habeas corpus. However, he maintained a firm grip on the direction of the war. The selection of Ulysses S. Grant as the commanding general of the Union Army in 1864 proved pivotal. Grant’s aggressive tactics and commitment to total war brought about decisive victories for the Union, albeit at a heavy cost.

The election of 1864 was a crucial moment in Lincoln’s presidency. Despite facing significant political challenges and discontent over the prolonged war, Lincoln secured his reelection. His victory was a testament to the public’s belief in his leadership and the Union cause.

As the war neared its conclusion in early 1865, Lincoln focused on the task of reconstructing the nation. His vision for reconstruction emphasized a lenient approach toward the Southern states, seeking to bring them back into the Union with minimal retribution. Lincoln’s second inaugural address in March 1865 reflected his commitment to healing the nation’s wounds, famously stating, “With malice toward none, with charity for all.”

Tragically, Lincoln’s presidency was cut short by an assassin’s bullet. On the evening of April 14, 1865, while attending a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., John Wilkes Booth shot the president. Lincoln succumbed to his injuries the following day, becoming the first U.S. president to be assassinated.

Lincoln’s presidency left an indelible mark on American history. His leadership during the Civil War, commitment to the preservation of the Union, and advocacy for the abolition of slavery have solidified his legacy as one of the nation’s greatest leaders. The Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address, delivered in November 1863, are enduring symbols of his dedication to freedom and equality.

The Gettysburg Address, delivered on the battlefield where thousands had perished, succinctly encapsulated the principles for which the Union fought. Lincoln’s words, “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,” resonated not only with the immediate audience but with generations to come.

Lincoln’s presidency demonstrated that the nation could weather the storms of internal strife and emerge with a renewed commitment to its founding principles. Despite the immense challenges he faced, Lincoln’s leadership during a pivotal period in American history secured his place as a symbol of unity, perseverance, and the enduring pursuit of a more perfect union.

Emancipation Proclamation

The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, stands as one of the most significant milestones in American history. This executive order forever altered the course of the Civil War and transformed the conflict from a struggle to preserve the Union into a moral crusade against slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation was a watershed moment that underscored the evolving nature of the Union’s goals and reshaped the trajectory of the nation.

At the onset of the Civil War in 1861, the primary objective for both the Union and the Confederacy was the restoration or secession of the Union, respectively. While the moral issue of slavery simmered beneath the surface, it wasn’t initially the central focus of the conflict. However, as the war unfolded and the Union faced setbacks on the battlefield, the need for a more profound moral purpose became apparent.

In the early years of the war, Lincoln faced the challenge of managing conflicting interests within the Union. Border states like Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and Delaware still permitted slavery, and Lincoln needed to maintain their support for the Union cause. Balancing these competing concerns was a delicate task, as a strong stance against slavery risked alienating crucial states.

The Emancipation Proclamation emerged as a strategic and moral response to the evolving nature of the war. Lincoln recognized that the Union needed a cause that resonated with its citizenry and the broader international community. Additionally, the Union sought to undermine the Confederacy’s economic and military infrastructure, much of which relied on the institution of slavery.

The preliminary Emancipation Proclamation was issued on September 22, 1862, after the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam. This battle, fought in Maryland, provided a critical turning point and an opportunity for Lincoln to make a bold move. The preliminary proclamation warned that if the Southern states did not return to the Union by January 1, 1863, all slaves in those states would be declared free.

On January 1, 1863, with no Confederate states having returned to the Union, Lincoln fulfilled his promise and issued the final Emancipation Proclamation. This executive order declared “that all persons held as slaves” within the Confederate states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” However, it explicitly exempted the border states and areas of the Confederacy under Union control.

The Emancipation Proclamation marked a significant shift in the Union’s goals. While it did not immediately free all slaves, it fundamentally changed the character and purpose of the war. The proclamation made the abolition of slavery a central objective of the Union, turning the conflict into a struggle for freedom and equality.

One of the crucial diplomatic implications of the Emancipation Proclamation was its impact on international perceptions. By aligning the Union cause with the abolition of slavery, Lincoln sought to gain support from European nations, particularly Great Britain and France, which had abolished slavery. This strategic move aimed to prevent these countries from recognizing the Confederacy and providing support.

While the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in and of itself, it had profound effects on the Union war effort. It gave a moral purpose to the conflict, energizing abolitionists and attracting African Americans to join the Union Army and Navy. Approximately 200,000 African Americans, both free and formerly enslaved, served in the Union military, contributing significantly to the Union’s victory.

Moreover, the proclamation paved the way for the eventual abolition of slavery through constitutional amendments. Lincoln recognized the need for permanent legal measures to eradicate slavery, and he supported the passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. Ratified in December 1865, this amendment officially abolished slavery in the United States.

While the Emancipation Proclamation had limitations, including its geographical scope and its reliance on executive authority during wartime, its symbolic and practical impact cannot be overstated. It signaled a moral commitment to freedom, influenced the course of the war, and set the stage for the broader struggle for civil rights that would unfold in the post-war era.

The Emancipation Proclamation remains a testament to the complexities of leadership during times of crisis. Lincoln’s willingness to evolve and adapt to the changing nature of the war demonstrates the dynamic nature of his presidency. By issuing the proclamation, he not only transformed the Union’s war effort but also contributed to the broader arc of American history, laying the groundwork for a more just and inclusive society.

Gettysburg Address

Delivered on November 19, 1863, the Gettysburg Address by President Abraham Lincoln stands as one of the most iconic and revered speeches in American history. Given during a dedication ceremony for the Soldiers’ National Cemetery at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg, the address encapsulates the essence of American democracy, the sacrifice of the Civil War, and the enduring pursuit of a “new birth of freedom.”

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought from July 1 to 3, 1863, was a pivotal engagement in the Civil War. With staggering casualties on both sides, it marked a turning point in favor of the Union. The magnitude of the loss prompted the establishment of a national cemetery to honor the fallen soldiers, and Lincoln was invited to deliver a few appropriate remarks at its dedication.

Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, though brief, is a masterpiece of concise and impactful rhetoric. In just over two minutes, he addressed the fundamental principles of the nation, reflected on the sacrifices made on the battlefield, and articulated a vision for the future. The opening lines, “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” eloquently harked back to the founding of the United States and the ideals that underpinned its creation.

The central theme of the Gettysburg Address is encapsulated in Lincoln’s assertion that the nation is engaged in a great “civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.” Lincoln framed the conflict not merely as a struggle to preserve the Union but as a test of the very principles upon which the nation was founded – a test of whether a government “of the people, by the people, for the people” could endure.

The speech then shifted to a poignant acknowledgment of the sacrifices made by those who fought on the battlefield. Lincoln expressed that it was altogether fitting and proper to dedicate a portion of the nation’s consecrated ground as a final resting place for those who had given their lives. He emphasized that the living had a solemn duty to ensure “that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.”

The phrase “a new birth of freedom” encapsulates Lincoln’s vision for the nation’s future. He recognized that the war was not merely a struggle to preserve the Union but a moral reckoning with the institution of slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation, issued earlier in 1863, had declared slaves in Confederate-held territory to be free, aligning the Union’s cause with the broader fight for liberty and equality.

Lincoln’s emphasis on equality and the idea that the United States was a nation dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal was a radical departure from the prevailing racial attitudes of the time. In the context of the mid-19th century, with slavery still deeply entrenched in the South, Lincoln’s words were a bold declaration of the nation’s commitment to the principles of the Declaration of Independence.

The brevity and simplicity of the Gettysburg Address belie its profound impact. Lincoln’s eloquence and moral clarity resonated not only with those present at the dedication but with future generations. The address became a touchstone for the nation’s identity, reminding Americans of the enduring principles that bind them together.

The Gettysburg Address also contributed to a shift in the perception of the Civil War. It reframed the conflict as a struggle for a new birth of freedom and emphasized the transformative potential of the nation’s ordeal. Lincoln’s words resonated with a sense of national purpose and a commitment to building a more just and inclusive society.

While the Gettysburg Address was initially met with mixed reviews, its stature grew over time. Today, it is regarded as one of the greatest speeches in American history, studied for its rhetorical brilliance and its timeless articulation of democratic principles. Its brevity, combined with its profound message, makes it a masterpiece of concise communication, encapsulating the essence of the American experiment in a few hundred words.

As the United States faced the challenges of the Civil War, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address provided a moral compass for the nation. It reminded Americans that their experiment in democracy was worth preserving, and that the sacrifices made on the battlefield were not in vain. The address endures as a testament to the enduring power of words to inspire and shape the course of a nation.

Personal Struggles

Abraham Lincoln’s life was marked by a series of personal struggles, from the hardships of his early years to the immense challenges he faced as President during the Civil War. These struggles not only shaped his character but also contributed to his resilience, empathy, and commitment to the principles of democracy.

Lincoln’s early life was one of poverty and frontier hardship. Born on February 12, 1809, in a log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky (now LaRue County), he grew up in a family that faced constant economic challenges. His father, Thomas Lincoln, was a farmer, carpenter, and land surveyor, and the family moved frequently in search of better opportunities.

Tragedy struck the Lincoln family when Abraham was just nine years old. His mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, died from milk sickness, a common ailment in the region. This loss had a profound impact on Lincoln, leaving him with a sense of abandonment and loss that would linger throughout his life.

After his mother’s death, Lincoln’s father remarried to Sarah Bush Johnston, a widow with three children of her own. Sarah played a crucial role in Lincoln’s life, providing stability and encouragement. Despite the family’s limited resources, she recognized Abraham’s intellectual potential and encouraged his love for learning.

Lincoln’s formal education was minimal, consisting of sporadic attendance at frontier schools where he learned basic reading, writing, and arithmetic. However, his education extended far beyond the classroom. With limited access to books, Lincoln became an avid reader, often walking long distances to borrow volumes from neighbors. His self-directed study included the Bible, Aesop’s Fables, Shakespeare’s works, and other classics.

The challenges of frontier life compelled Lincoln to work from a young age. He took on various jobs, including farm labor, rail-splitting, and working as a store clerk and postmaster. These experiences not only instilled a strong work ethic but also exposed him to the realities of life on the expanding American frontier.

In 1830, seeking better economic prospects, the Lincoln family moved to Illinois. Abraham Lincoln, now in his twenties, began to strike out on his own. His years in Illinois were marked by various jobs and continued struggles. He served in the Illinois militia during the Black Hawk War of 1832, gaining some exposure to military life.

Lincoln’s entry into the world of politics provided both opportunities and challenges. He began his political career in the Illinois State Legislature as a member of the Whig Party, serving multiple terms during the 1830s. However, political success did not shield him from personal setbacks. In 1832, he experienced his first electoral defeat when he ran for the Illinois State Legislature and lost.

Despite this setback, Lincoln persisted in his political pursuits and continued to study law on his own. He gained admission to the Illinois bar in 1836 and commenced his legal practice in Springfield. His legal career flourished, and he earned a reputation for honesty, fairness, and a keen intellect.

In 1842, Lincoln married Mary Todd, a woman from a prominent Kentucky family. The couple faced personal tragedies, including the death of their second son, Edward, at a young age. Lincoln’s responsibilities as a husband and father added to the complexities of his life, and his marriage experienced its share of challenges.

As the nation grappled with the divisive issue of slavery in the 1850s, Lincoln found himself at the center of the political maelstrom. The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 and the subsequent events, including the violent clashes in Kansas and the infamous Dred Scott decision by the Supreme Court, intensified the national debate.

In 1858, Lincoln engaged in a series of debates with Senator Stephen A. Douglas during the Illinois Senate race. Though he lost the election, these debates elevated Lincoln’s national profile and solidified his reputation as a skilled orator and a staunch opponent of the spread of slavery.

The personal struggles of Lincoln’s life converged with the seismic challenges facing the nation. The issue of slavery had reached a boiling point, and the election of 1860 saw Lincoln become the first Republican president. Southern states, fearing the impact of Lincoln’s anti-slavery stance, began to secede from the Union, setting the stage for the Civil War.

Lincoln’s presidency was marked by the monumental struggle to preserve the Union. As the nation descended into war, he faced unprecedented challenges, both on the battlefield and on the home front. The staggering loss of life and the complexities of military strategy weighed heavily on him.

The personal toll of the war was evident in Lincoln’s appearance. He aged rapidly, and the burden of leadership manifested physically. The weight of the nation’s divisions, coupled with the loss of countless lives, including his own son Willie, contributed to a heavy personal toll.

The Emancipation Proclamation, issued in 1863, represented a personal and moral struggle for Lincoln. While he had always opposed the expansion of slavery, the proclamation signaled a transformative shift, aligning the Union’s cause with the abolition of slavery. This decision reflected both a moral conviction and a strategic calculation about the future of the nation.

Lincoln’s personal struggles were perhaps most evident in his interactions with the public and the soldiers on the front lines. He took the time to visit wounded soldiers and comfort grieving families, displaying a deep empathy that resonated with the American people. His famous letter to Mrs. Lydia Bixby, a mother who had lost five sons in the war, exemplifies his ability to connect on a deeply personal level.

The weight of the war’s toll on the nation, combined with the personal challenges of Lincoln’s life, culminated in his famous Gettysburg Address. Given at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery on the site of the pivotal Battle of Gettysburg, the address captured the essence of the nation’s struggle and articulated a vision for a “new birth of freedom.”

Tragically, Lincoln’s life was cut short by an assassin’s bullet on April 14, 1865, just days after the end of the war. His assassination marked the culmination of personal and national struggles, leaving a legacy that would endure through the ages.

Abraham Lincoln’s life was a testament to the human capacity for resilience and growth in the face of adversity. From the log cabin in Kentucky to the hallowed halls of the White House, his journey reflected the struggles and triumphs of a nation at a critical juncture. The personal challenges he faced informed his leadership style, fostering empathy, humility, and an unwavering commitment to the principles that define the American experiment in democracy.

Personal Life and Relationships

Abraham Lincoln’s personal life and relationships were marked by triumphs and tragedies, shaping the man who would become the 16th President of the United States. From his early family life in a log cabin to his complex relationships with his wife and children, Lincoln’s personal journey reflects the joys and sorrows that accompany a life dedicated to public service.

Lincoln’s childhood was humble, born to Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln in a log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky, on February 12, 1809. Tragedy struck early when Lincoln’s mother died when he was just nine years old. The loss of his mother had a profound impact on Lincoln, leaving him with a deep sense of loss and abandonment.

Following his mother’s death, Lincoln’s father, Thomas, remarried to Sarah Bush Johnston, a widow with three children of her own. Sarah played a pivotal role in Lincoln’s life, providing emotional support and stability during his formative years. Despite the family’s limited resources, she recognized Lincoln’s intellectual potential and encouraged his love for learning.

In 1830, seeking better economic opportunities, the Lincoln family moved to Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln, now in his twenties, began to establish himself. This period marked the beginning of Lincoln’s independent life, as he took on various jobs and started to engage in local politics.

Lincoln’s personal life took a significant turn in 1839 when he met Mary Todd, a vivacious and well-educated young woman from a prominent Kentucky family. The two were engaged in 1840 but faced a series of personal and financial challenges that led to a temporary breakup. However, they eventually reconciled and were married on November 4, 1842.

The marriage between Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd was a union of contrasts. Mary came from a well-connected and affluent family, while Lincoln’s background was one of poverty and hardship. Despite their differences, they shared a deep emotional connection and a mutual respect for each other.

The Lincolns went on to have four sons: Robert, Edward, William, and Thomas. However, their family life was marked by personal tragedies. Edward, their second son, died at the young age of four in 1850. This loss deeply affected both parents, and Lincoln reportedly grieved intensely over the death of his son.

As Lincoln’s political career progressed, his relationship with Mary faced its share of challenges. Mary Todd Lincoln, while intelligent and politically astute, struggled with mental health issues and faced public criticism. The stresses of Lincoln’s political life, combined with the burdens of the nation during the Civil War, took a toll on their relationship.

Despite the strains on their marriage, the Lincolns shared a genuine bond. Mary played a supportive role during Lincoln’s political career, providing advice and engaging in political discussions. Her social skills and connections were valuable assets, particularly during Lincoln’s presidency.

The White House, during Lincoln’s tenure, became a reflection of both his leadership and his family life. The Lincolns faced the immense personal and emotional toll of the Civil War, with Mary experiencing the loss of friends and family members who fought on both sides of the conflict. The death of their son Willie in 1862 added to the weight of their personal struggles.

Abraham Lincoln’s parenting style was characterized by a balance of discipline and affection. He was known for being indulgent with his sons, allowing them to explore the White House freely. His interactions with his children were marked by warmth and a genuine interest in their well-being.

While the presidency brought unparalleled challenges, Lincoln’s role as a father remained important to him. He took time to engage with his children, whether through reading to them or participating in games. His relationship with his youngest son, Tad, was particularly close, and Tad often accompanied his father to official events and meetings.

The personal challenges faced by the Lincoln family extended to the nation as a whole. The Civil War brought unprecedented loss and suffering, and Lincoln, burdened by the weight of the conflict, sought solace in his family. The strains on his marriage and the grief over the loss of loved ones mirrored the collective pain experienced by the nation.

Lincoln’s personal struggles were evident in his appearance as well. The burdens of leadership, combined with the grief of the war, aged him rapidly. His haggard appearance and the lines on his face spoke to the personal toll of the presidency and the immense challenges faced by the nation.

As the war neared its conclusion in 1865, the Lincolns faced the prospect of reconstruction and healing. Lincoln’s second inaugural address, delivered on March 4, 1865, reflected his vision for a reunified nation. He called for “malice toward none” and “charity for all,” emphasizing the need for reconciliation and unity.

Tragically, Abraham Lincoln’s life was cut short by an assassin’s bullet on April 14, 1865, just days after the war’s conclusion. His assassination marked a somber end to a presidency marked by personal and national struggles. The mourning that swept the nation mirrored the personal grief experienced by the Lincoln family.

The legacy of Abraham Lincoln’s personal life and relationships endures through the ages. His marriage to Mary Todd, marked by challenges and love, reflects the complexities of personal relationships amid the tumult of political life. The losses suffered by the Lincoln family mirrored the collective pain of the nation during the Civil War.

Lincoln’s ability to navigate personal and familial struggles while leading a nation through its darkest hour is a testament to his resilience and character. His commitment to principles of unity and equality, as articulated in the Gettysburg Address and the Emancipation Proclamation, was not only a reflection of his political philosophy but also an expression of his deeply held beliefs about the nature of the American experiment.

In the end, Abraham Lincoln’s personal life and relationships were woven into the fabric of his presidency and the nation’s history. His journey from a log cabin in Kentucky to the White House, marked by personal triumphs and tragedies, remains a poignant and enduring chapter in the story of America.

Views on Slavery

Abraham Lincoln’s views on slavery evolved throughout his life, reflecting the complex and shifting dynamics of the institution in American society. From his early encounters with slavery on the frontier to his leadership during the Civil War, Lincoln’s stance on slavery transformed from one of pragmatic opposition to a steadfast commitment to its abolition, culminating in the Emancipation Proclamation and his pursuit of the 13th Amendment.

Lincoln’s early exposure to slavery occurred during his childhood in Kentucky and Indiana. Growing up on the frontier, he witnessed the presence of slavery, as some families in the region owned enslaved individuals. However, his family did not own slaves, and their economic circumstances were such that they were often struggling to make ends meet.

The death of Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, when he was just nine years old, added a layer of complexity to his early experiences with slavery. After his mother’s death, his father, Thomas Lincoln, remarried to Sarah Bush Johnston, a widow with three children. The Lincolns’ blended family did not own slaves, but their economic challenges persisted.

As Lincoln ventured into the realm of politics and law, his views on slavery became more pronounced. In the Illinois State Legislature during the 1830s, Lincoln aligned himself with the Whig Party, which generally opposed the expansion of slavery into new territories. However, his early political career did not center explicitly on the issue of slavery; rather, it focused on economic development, infrastructure, and issues relevant to the growing state of Illinois.

Lincoln’s personal and political views on slavery began to crystallize during his time in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1847 to 1849. While he was a member of the Whig Party during his single term, the issue of the Mexican-American War brought the question of slavery to the forefront. Lincoln initially supported the war, but he grew increasingly critical and called for President James K. Polk to specify the exact spot where hostilities began. This scrutiny marked a shift in his political stance, foreshadowing a more principled approach to issues related to slavery.

Upon leaving Congress, Lincoln returned to Springfield, Illinois, and resumed his legal practice. During the 1850s, the national debate over the expansion of slavery intensified, fueled by events such as the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. This act, championed by Senator Stephen A. Douglas, allowed territories to decide the issue of slavery through popular sovereignty, effectively repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820.

The turmoil surrounding the Kansas-Nebraska Act rekindled Lincoln’s political ambitions. By this time, the Whig Party was disintegrating, and Lincoln found a new political home within the newly formed Republican Party, an anti-slavery coalition. He recognized the moral and political implications of the slavery debate, and his commitment to preventing its spread gained prominence.

The Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 marked a turning point in Lincoln’s political career and showcased his evolving views on slavery. As the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, Lincoln engaged in a series of debates with Senator Stephen A. Douglas, who advocated for popular sovereignty on the issue of slavery. Lincoln articulated a more principled stance, arguing that the nation could not endure permanently half slave and half free.

In his famous House Divided speech delivered in Springfield in 1858, Lincoln stated, “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.” This declaration captured the essence of his evolving perspective on slavery. While he did not advocate for immediate abolition, he firmly opposed the extension of slavery into new territories.

The 1858 Senate race, which Lincoln ultimately lost to Douglas, elevated Lincoln’s national profile. His articulation of a moral opposition to the expansion of slavery resonated with anti-slavery sentiments in the North. While he did not win the Senate seat, the debates set the stage for his future political ambitions and solidified his position as a prominent figure within the Republican Party.

The 1860 presidential election marked a critical juncture in Lincoln’s views on slavery. As the Republican nominee, he ran on a platform opposing the extension of slavery into new territories. The election’s outcome triggered the secession crisis, as Southern states feared the impact of Lincoln’s anti-slavery policies on their institution.

When Lincoln assumed the presidency on March 4, 1861, seven Southern states had already seceded from the Union. His primary goal was to preserve the Union, but the issue of slavery remained at the forefront. In his inaugural address, Lincoln reassured the Southern states that he had no intention of interfering with slavery where it already existed but firmly asserted that secession was illegal.

The outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861 transformed the nature of the conflict and Lincoln’s approach to slavery. The initial focus remained on preserving the Union, but as the war unfolded, it became evident that the institution of slavery was central to the Southern economy and war effort.

The turning point came with the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. The proclamation declared all slaves in Confederate-held territory to be free, fundamentally changing the character and purpose of the war. While it did not immediately free all slaves, it shifted the moral tone of the conflict and aligned the Union cause with the broader goal of ending slavery.

Lincoln’s decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation reflected both moral conviction and strategic calculation. Morally, he had come to view slavery as incompatible with the principles of liberty and equality upon which the nation was founded. Strategically, he recognized the potential to weaken the Confederacy by undermining its economic foundation and gaining support from abolitionist factions in Europe.

The proclamation marked a profound evolution in Lincoln’s views on slavery, transforming him from a pragmatist who opposed its expansion to a leader committed to its abolition. As the war progressed, Lincoln became increasingly convinced that the nation could not endure with slavery persisting in any form.

In 1864, as the war continued and Lincoln faced a contentious reelection campaign, he pushed for the passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment, which would officially abolish slavery, represented a definitive break from the past. Lincoln saw the need for a permanent legal measure to eradicate slavery and believed that the amendment would be a fitting conclusion to the war.

The 13th Amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865, several months after Lincoln’s assassination. While Lincoln did not live to see its final ratification, his advocacy for the amendment reflected the culmination of his evolving views on slavery. The nation that emerged from the Civil War was fundamentally altered, with the abolition of slavery enshrined in its constitutional framework.

Abraham Lincoln’s journey from a young man on the frontier witnessing the complexities of slavery to the President who issued the Emancipation Proclamation and advocated for the 13th Amendment reflects a profound evolution in his views. His commitment to preserving the Union shifted from a pragmatic concern for the nation’s stability to a principled stance against the institution of slavery. The trajectory of Lincoln’s views on slavery mirrored the tumultuous times in which he lived, reflecting the broader transformation of the nation during a period of unprecedented crisis.

While Lincoln’s evolution on the issue of slavery has been analyzed and debated by historians, it underscores the complex interplay of moral, political, and strategic considerations that shape leaders and their decisions. Lincoln’s ability to adapt and grow in response to the challenges of his time is a testament to his leadership, pragmatism, and commitment to the enduring principles of freedom and equality.

In the annals of American history, Abraham Lincoln stands as a symbol of leadership during a pivotal moment. His views on slavery, as reflected in his speeches, debates, and ultimately in the policies of his presidency, played a crucial role in shaping the nation’s trajectory. From the plains of the Midwest to the hallowed halls of the White House, Lincoln’s journey encapsulates the moral and political struggle to reconcile the principles of liberty with the institution of slavery.

As we reflect on Lincoln’s legacy, it prompts us to consider the broader implications of leadership in times of crisis. Lincoln’s willingness to confront and reassess his views, particularly on an issue as divisive as slavery, serves as a compelling example for leaders navigating complex and contentious challenges. His legacy challenges us to strive for a more just and inclusive society, guided by the enduring principles that define the American experiment in democracy.

Assassination and Legacy

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln on the evening of April 14, 1865, just days after the end of the Civil War, marked a tragic and fateful conclusion to a presidency that had guided the nation through its darkest hour. Lincoln’s legacy, forged in the crucible of war and shaped by his steadfast commitment to the principles of freedom and equality, endures as a beacon in American history.

On the night of April 14, 1865, President Lincoln attended a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. Unbeknownst to him, this seemingly ordinary evening would become one of the most pivotal moments in American history. John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer and actor, entered the President’s theater box and shot Lincoln in the back of the head.

The nation awoke to the shocking news of Lincoln’s assassination on the morning of April 15, 1865. The joy that had accompanied the recent end of the Civil War was instantly replaced by grief and sorrow. The President’s death sent shockwaves through the nation, leaving a profound void at a critical juncture of reconstruction and healing.

Lincoln succumbed to his injuries the following day, on April 15, 1865. His death marked the first assassination of a sitting U.S. President and plunged the nation into mourning. The loss of Lincoln, who had steered the nation through its most perilous period, left a profound impact on the collective consciousness of the American people.

The assassination of Lincoln was not an isolated act; it was part of a broader conspiracy that aimed to decapitate the Union government. Booth, along with several co-conspirators, sought to assassinate not only the President but also Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William H. Seward. While the attempts on Johnson and Seward were unsuccessful, Lincoln’s death left an indelible mark on the nation’s history.

Booth’s motives for assassinating Lincoln were rooted in his fervent support for the Confederacy and his belief in white supremacy. As the Union forces secured victory, Booth saw the President’s vision for reconstruction, which included civil rights for freed slaves, as a threat to the Southern way of life. In Booth’s distorted view, assassinating Lincoln was a desperate attempt to preserve the Confederacy’s ideals.

The aftermath of Lincoln’s assassination saw a swift and intense manhunt for Booth and his co-conspirators. On April 26, 1865, Booth was located in a barn in Virginia. Refusing to surrender, he was shot and killed by Union soldiers. The remaining conspirators faced trial, with several receiving harsh sentences, including four who were executed by hanging.

The nation grappled with the loss of Lincoln, mourning a leader who had become a symbol of hope, unity, and moral purpose. As the first U.S. President to be assassinated, Lincoln’s death left an indelible imprint on the American psyche. His funeral procession, which spanned multiple cities and states, became a solemn journey of mourning and reflection.

Lincoln’s legacy, however, extended far beyond the immediate aftermath of his assassination. His leadership during the Civil War and his unwavering commitment to the principles of freedom and equality left an enduring impact on the nation. As the country entered the challenging era of reconstruction, Lincoln’s vision for a united and reconciled nation continued to guide policymakers.

The Gettysburg Address, delivered by Lincoln on November 19, 1863, during the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg, remains one of the most iconic speeches in American history. In just over two minutes, Lincoln articulated a vision for a nation “conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” This concise and powerful statement encapsulates the essence of American democracy and became a touchstone for the nation’s identity.

Another pivotal aspect of Lincoln’s legacy was the Emancipation Proclamation, issued on January 1, 1863. While it did not immediately free all slaves, it transformed the character and purpose of the Civil War by aligning the Union cause with the abolition of slavery. The proclamation laid the groundwork for the eventual passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which officially abolished slavery in the United States.

Lincoln’s commitment to preserving the Union while simultaneously addressing the moral issue of slavery demonstrated a nuanced and visionary approach to leadership. His ability to navigate the complexities of a nation torn apart by war and ideological divisions showcased his pragmatism, empathy, and unwavering dedication to the principles of democracy.

In the years following Lincoln’s death, the process of reconstruction unfolded. His vision for a reconciled nation faced significant challenges as policymakers grappled with the complexities of integrating the Southern states back into the Union and establishing civil rights for newly emancipated slaves. Despite the difficulties, Lincoln’s legacy continued to guide those who sought to build a more just and inclusive society.

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln left an enduring impact on the American presidency and the nation’s history. The subsequent presidents faced the daunting task of navigating the complexities of reconstruction and healing a fractured nation. Lincoln’s absence loomed large, and his successors grappled with the formidable challenges of implementing his vision in a post-war America.

Over time, Lincoln’s image evolved into that of a revered figure, an American hero whose leadership transcended the turbulent times in which he lived. His humble origins, marked by poverty and frontier hardship, endeared him to the American people as a symbol of the possibility of upward mobility and success through hard work and perseverance.

The mourning and reverence for Lincoln continued to shape the nation’s collective memory. Memorials, monuments, and institutions dedicated to his legacy proliferated across the country. The Lincoln Memorial, situated on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., became a symbol of national unity and a place of reflection for millions of visitors.

The legacy of Abraham Lincoln extended beyond the United States. His commitment to the principles of freedom and equality resonated on the global stage, influencing leaders and movements around the world. The enduring appeal of Lincoln’s vision for a nation dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal transcended time and borders.

In the realm of literature and popular culture, Abraham Lincoln became an iconic figure. Countless books, films, and artistic representations explored his life, leadership, and the enduring impact of his presidency. The Lincoln mythos became a powerful narrative thread woven into the fabric of American identity.

Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, while a tragic and abrupt end to his life, did not diminish his legacy. Instead, it elevated him to the status of a martyr for the cause of democracy and equality. The nation’s collective memory of Lincoln focused on his role as the Great Emancipator, the leader who guided the United States through its greatest trial and paved the way for a more inclusive and just society.

As the United States continued to grapple with issues of civil rights and equality in the decades that followed, Lincoln’s legacy remained a touchstone. The struggles for civil rights in the 20th century found inspiration in the principles articulated by Lincoln during the Civil War. His vision for a nation committed to the proposition that all people are entitled to the same fundamental rights and opportunities reverberated through the ongoing quest for justice.

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln left an indelible mark on the nation, forever intertwining his legacy with the tumultuous period of the Civil War and reconstruction. Lincoln’s enduring impact lies not only in the policies he championed but also in the ideals and

principles that continue to shape the American experiment. The legacy of Abraham Lincoln serves as a beacon, reminding the nation of the enduring struggle for freedom, equality, and unity.

The enduring resonance of Lincoln’s legacy is evident in the continued study and reverence afforded to his life and presidency. Historians, scholars, and educators delve into the complexities of his leadership, examining the nuanced decisions he made and the profound impact they had on the trajectory of the nation. The lessons drawn from Lincoln’s presidency extend beyond the pages of history books, providing insights into the challenges of leadership during times of crisis.

One aspect of Lincoln’s legacy that stands out is his ability to bridge the gap between competing ideals and forge a common national identity. He confronted the profound contradiction of a nation conceived in liberty yet entangled in the institution of slavery. Lincoln’s unwavering commitment to preserving the Union while addressing the moral stain of slavery demonstrated a pragmatic and visionary approach to leadership.

The principles articulated by Lincoln during his presidency, encapsulated in iconic speeches like the Gettysburg Address, transcended the specific context of the Civil War. They became foundational elements of the American creed, guiding subsequent generations in their pursuit of a more perfect union. The notion that a nation, dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, must strive for unity, justice, and freedom resonates through the annals of American history.

The challenges faced by the nation in the aftermath of the Civil War, as it sought to heal its wounds and redefine its identity, mirrored the personal struggles of individuals and communities. The legacy of Lincoln provided a moral compass during Reconstruction, encouraging a path toward reconciliation and a commitment to civil rights. While the journey toward justice was fraught with setbacks, Lincoln’s vision continued to inspire those who sought to build a more inclusive and egalitarian society.

The evolution of Abraham Lincoln from a self-educated prairie lawyer to the revered leader of a divided nation underscores the transformative power of leadership. His ability to navigate the complexities of his time, adapt to changing circumstances, and remain steadfast in his commitment to core principles serves as a model for leaders across various domains.

In the realm of civil rights, Lincoln’s legacy intersected with the ongoing struggles for equality in the 20th century. The Civil Rights Movement drew inspiration from the principles espoused by Lincoln, particularly the idea that the nation should aspire to live up to its foundational commitment to equality. Figures like Martin Luther King Jr. invoked Lincoln’s words and vision in their quest for justice and civil rights, recognizing the enduring relevance of his moral compass.

The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., dedicated in 1922, became a symbolic space for gatherings and reflections on civil rights. It was at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. The juxtaposition of Lincoln’s legacy with the contemporary struggle for civil rights underscored the enduring impact of his vision on the quest for racial equality.

In literature and popular culture, Abraham Lincoln continued to capture the imagination of artists, writers, and filmmakers. His life and presidency became the subject of countless works, each contributing to the rich tapestry of Lincoln’s legacy. The nuanced exploration of his character, the challenges he faced, and the moral dilemmas he confronted added depth to the understanding of his leadership.

While the assassination of Abraham Lincoln remains a somber chapter in American history, it did not overshadow the enduring impact of his presidency. The tragedy of his death served to elevate his status to that of a national martyr, reinforcing the resonance of his legacy. The collective mourning that followed his assassination reflected not only the grief over the loss of a leader but also a recognition of the profound contributions he made to the nation.

The legacy of Abraham Lincoln extends beyond the borders of the United States, influencing global perceptions of democracy, leadership, and the pursuit of human rights. His journey from a log cabin on the American frontier to the presidency became a symbol of the transformative potential embedded in the democratic experiment. Leaders and movements around the world found inspiration in Lincoln’s commitment to liberty and equality, recognizing the enduring relevance of his principles.

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U.S. Presidents

Abraham lincoln.

16th president of the United States

Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin in Kentucky on February 12, 1809, to parents who could neither read nor write. He went to school on and off for a total of about a year, but he educated himself by reading borrowed books. When Lincoln was nine years old, his mother died. His father—a carpenter and farmer—remarried and moved his family farther west, eventually settling in Illinois .

As a young adult, Lincoln worked as a flatboat navigator, storekeeper, soldier, surveyor, and postmaster. At age 25 he was elected to the local government in Springfield, Illinois. Once there, he taught himself law, opened a law practice, and earned the nickname "Honest Abe."

He served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives but lost two U.S. Senate races. But the debates he had about the enslavement of people with his 1858 senatorial opponent, Stephen Douglas, helped him win the presidential nomination two years later. (Lincoln opposed the spread of slavery in the United States .) In the four-way presidential race of 1860, Lincoln got more votes than any other candidate.

A NATION DIVIDED

When Lincoln first took office in 1861, the United States was not truly united. The nation had been arguing for years about enslaving people and each state’s right to allow it. Now Northerners and Southerners were close to war. When he became president, Lincoln allowed the enslavement of people to continue in southern states but he outlawed its spread to other existing states and states that might later join the Union.

Southern leaders didn’t agree with this plan and decided to secede, or withdraw, from the nation. Eventually, 11 southern states formed the Confederate States of America to oppose the 23 northern states that remained in the Union. The Civil War officially began on April 12, 1861, at Fort Sumter, South Carolina , when troops from the Confederacy attacked the U.S. fort.

WARTIME PRESIDENCY

Lincoln’s primary goal as president was to hold the country together. For a long time, it didn’t look as if he would succeed. During the early years, the South was winning the war. It wasn’t until the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania during July 1863 that the war turned in favor of the Union.

Through speeches such as the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln encouraged Northerners to keep fighting. In this famous dedication of the battlefield cemetery, he urged citizens to ensure "that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Earlier that same year Lincoln called for the end of the enslavement of people in his Emancipation Proclamation speech.

When the war was nearly over, Lincoln was re-elected in 1864. Civil War victory came on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. Some 750,000 soldiers had died during the four-year conflict.

OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Seeing the Union successfully through the Civil War was Lincoln’s greatest responsibility, but it wasn’t his only triumph during his presidential years. Together with Congress, he established the Department of Agriculture; supported the development of a transcontinental railroad; enacted the Homestead Act, which opened up land to settlers; and crafted the 13th Amendment, which ended the enslavement of people.

TRAGIC FATE

Less than a week after people celebrated the end the Civil War, the country was mourning yet again. Lincoln became the first president to be assassinated when he was shot on April 14, 1865.

The night he was shot, he and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, were watching a play in Washington, D.C. The entrance to their box seats was poorly guarded, allowing actor John Wilkes Booth to enter. Booth hoped to revive the Confederate cause by killing Lincoln. He shot Lincoln in the back of the head, then fled the theater. He wasn’t caught until two weeks later. He was shot during his eventual capture and died from his wounds.

The wounded and unconscious president was carried to a boardinghouse across the street, where he died the next morning, April 15, 1865. Lincoln’s presidency was tragically cut short, but his contributions to the United States ensured that he would be remembered as one of its most influential presidents.

• The Lincoln family ate at the White House dinner table with their cat.

• Lincoln sometimes kept important documents under the tall black hats he wore.

• Lincoln was taller (at six feet four inches) than any other president.

From the Nat Geo Kids books Our Country's Presidents by Ann Bausum and Weird But True Know-It-All: U.S. Presidents by Brianna Dumont, revised for digital by Avery Hurt 

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A Short Biography of Abraham Lincoln (Short Biographies) Hardcover – December 19, 2017

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• Print length 32 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Applewood Books
• Publication date December 19, 2017
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Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Applewood Books (December 19, 2017)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 32 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1944038256
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1944038250
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.2 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.25 x 0.25 x 6.75 inches
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