Reaction & Commentary
Dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal we have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live it is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this it is rather for us to
Be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion that we here highly resolve 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 Before we begin a quick word from our sponsor Linkous do you wish you were better read and informed about the deeds ideas and writings of some of history’s greatest figures but don’t have the time to read lengthy books if the answer is yes then blink astiz the mobile app for
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Access as well as 25% off full membership bling kissed and the heat profiles bring nonfiction and history to you the man known to history as Abraham Lincoln was born on the 12th of February 1809 in Sinking Spring Farm a backwoods log cabin consisting of one room near
Hodgenville in the state of Kentucky in the United States his father was Thomas Lincoln a skilled carpenter as well as a farmer and although illiterate like most pioneer frontiersman he was well respected amongst his community as an honest churchgoer and was the descendant of a Weaver’s apprentice who had migrated from him
In mid Norfolk England to Massachusetts in 1637 his mother Nancy Hanks is a somewhat mysterious figure believed to be of illegitimate birth and originating from a line of modest Virginia farmers and after bearing three children Sara Abraham and Thomas who died in infancy Nancy herself died in the autumn of 1818
When Abraham her youngest child was just nine years old Thomas Lincoln had married Nancy Hanks on the 12th of June 1806 in Washington County and the family then moved to Elizabethtown in Kentucky where the young Lincoln’s father leased or bought farms but losing all but 200
Acres of its property in a dispute over property titles his father moved his family to the neighboring state of Indiana in 1816 when Abraham was 7 which was a free or non-slaveholding territory where the rules over property ownership and title were more reliable Abraham’s father opposed slavery on religious and
Moral grounds as a member of the separate Baptist Church whose members held a strict code of morality and these views was shared by Abraham who remarked in 1864 that he could not remember a time when he was not opposed to the practice of slavery and he is later
Abraham Lincoln would state that his father left Kentucky partly an account of slavery but chiefly on account of the difficulty in land titles although Abraham and Thomas enjoyed a good relationship during Lincoln’s childhood as he grew up Lincoln came to feel resentment towards his father’s intellectual limitations and after
Leaving his father’s world at the aid twenty-one lincoln would never see him again and as he grew older abraham lincoln did not care to discuss his ancestry as in his mind he was a self-made man and as he grew into political prominence he became somewhat embarrassed about his frontier origins
Rarely publicly reminiscing on his youth and upbringing life in Indiana was hard for the Lincoln’s he lived in a remote forest in hurricane Township Perry County and had to hunt for their food and the hardships of the family face was worsen after the death of Abraham’s
Mother on the 5th of October 1818 from milk sickness and recognizing that his family could not go on alone Thomas Lincoln married Sarah Sally Bush Johnston in December 1819 a widow from Elizabethtown with three children of her own and she moved to Indiana with the Lincoln family and would come to be
Loved by young Abraham who would call her mother Lincoln’s sister Sarah Lincoln became a caring and loving mother to him on his mother’s death and Abraham adored her and spoke of her in the most affectionate terms throughout his life and when on the 20th of January 1828
Sarah died giving birth to a stillborn son Lincoln was traumatized and distraught over the death of his beloved sister from an early age Abraham loved to read he would always prefer more cerebral pursuits to the hard labor involved with farm work which is 6 foot 4 inch stature as a teenager would have
Made him more than capable of and so his reluctance to carry out his chores would gain him a reputation for laziness yet he was never lazy when it came to poetry reading writing and musing his time away by the age of 15 Lincoln had been sporadically educated for a total of one
Year as his farm chores and remote location meant he could not attend school regularly however Lincoln’s educational grounding was enough for him to be able to teach himself through reading whatever volumes he could find by his late teens Lincoln was desperate to leave his isolated home
And after helping his family move to the state of Illinois in 1830 where Abraham would spend the bulk of his adult years he departed for the town of New Salem in July 1831 leaving his family the final time less than a year after moving to New Salem several residents of
The frontier town including the president of the local debating Club which Lincoln regularly attended impressed by Abraham’s intellect in oratory skills suggested that he run for the Illinois State Legislature Lincoln announced himself as a candidate for the state legislature in March 1832 a demonstration of the 23 year-old supreme
Self-confidence and as candidates for the Illinois State Legislature at this time did not need the backing of political parties or powerful patrons he was able to apply independently but nevertheless Lincoln’s lack of a formal education or of any government experience and being barely known outside of his small community did put
Him at a disadvantage in the election consequently on the 6th of August Lincoln lost his bid for the state legislature and was truly disappointed noting years later that this election was the only time he was quote ever beaten on a direct vote of the people Lincoln spent the next two years in various forms of employment including serving as a militia captain in the Blackhawk war with a local Native American tribe and working as the postmaster for New Salem and he also continued to read avidly at this time taking a particular interest in poetry
And grammar two years later he ran again for the Illinois State Legislature and after an extensive handshaking campaign was elected on the 4th of August 1834 and although not a very active participate or in his first term in the legislature Lincoln made numerous political acquaintances at the Illinois Capitol including his future rival
Steven a Douglas and during this time Lincoln became determined to pursue a career in law in March 1836 Lincoln was admitted as a practitioner of law and after leading a bill through the legislature which moved the capital of Illinois to the town of Springfield he was here that Lincoln moved in April
1837 opening a law office with a senior partner that same year in Illinois an act of violence occurred that was to highlight the growing tensions that were simmering beneath the surface of the American nation when in November a mob in Alton Illinois murdered Elijah Lovejoy the editor of an abolitionist newspaper
Which had campaigned relentlessly for an end to slavery understandably this brutal killing an infringement of the freedom of the press enraged the northern states and foreshadowed the violent divisions that would erupt in American society over the issue of slavery as well as following a career in law Lincoln’s involvement and influence
In Illinois politics continued to grow as he became the leader of the Whig party in the legislature opposing the Democratic Party’s plans to destroy the state bank of Illinois and then in 1841 Lincoln’s law career took a dramatic leap forward when he was offered a partnership with Stephen Logan one of
The most prominent lawyers in Illinois and under Logan’s tutelage Lincoln grew into one of the foremost lawyers in the state and was for the first time in his life able to earn a comfortable living the year before Lincoln became engaged to a young woman by the name of Mary
Todd the daughter of Robert Smith Todd a wealthy Kentuckian merchant and slave owner who had ensured that Mary had grown up in luxury educated at best private schools and waited on by family slaves and so when they met Lincoln was quite enchanted by her beauty and intelligence and so unsurprisingly
Abraham and Mary were married on the 4th of November 1842 despite Lincoln having temporarily broken off their engagement the previous year out of the fear that he was not financially or emotionally prepared for marriage and once they did marry the following year on the 1st of August 1843
Mary gave birth to Lincoln’s first child a son whom they called Robert although often absent from the family home Lincoln when present was an affectionate husband and father to four children as after Robert came Eddie and Willie who both died in childhood and Thomas or tad
Lincoln who died of heart failure at the age of 18 and the loss of their children had long lasting effects on both parents as Lincoln was said to have suffered from clinic depression or melancholy as it was known at the time a Mary was temporarily admitted in later life to a mental
Asylum by her own remaining child Robert in 1875 once married Lincoln’s law career went from strength to strength as he entered a new partnership in which he was the senior member and began to appear frequently in cases before the Illinois Supreme Court moreover Lincoln also continued to involve himself in weak politics and
Unsuccessfully ran for the Whig nomination to the US House of Representatives in 1843 but he ran again in 1846 and obtained the nomination going on to defeat his Democratic opponent in the election for the Illinois 7th District on the 3rd of August by an unprecedented majority from the humblest of beginnings Abraham
Lincoln had forged a successful political and legal career for himself using his incessant love of reading and learning to pull himself out of the physical toil of his youth and into the intellectual professional world he had always aspired to enter and so on the 25th of October 1847 the Lincoln set off
For Washington and Lincoln entered Congress shortly after the Americans declared war against Mexico the background to the troubles began in 1840 when Texas had revolted against Mexico and obtained a treaty that gave territory to an independent Texan republic but when this treaty was repudiated by Mexico hostilities were
Resumed and Texas applied for admission to the Union with his boundary line still in dispute this war was controversial however as it was intertwined with the most dominant issue in American politics for the previous two decades which was the issue of slavery and specifically whether the institution would be permitted to expand
West into the newest states admitted to the Union this debate revolved around not just the morality of slavery but also the balance of power in America between free and slave states and to ensure that there remained a balancing congressional representation between these states and so in 1820 the Missouri
Compromise was created that prohibited slavery in all territories west of the Mississippi a north of the 36-degree 30 parallel all the circle of lat thirty-six point five degrees north of the Equator with those states to the South able to permit slavery with a notable exception of Missouri
Which lay mostly North the parallel but remained a slave state the Missouri Compromise was a stopgap measure intended to temporarily suppress the fierce debates about the extension of slavery to the west and the balance of power in Congress and as Lincoln entered Congress nearly 27 years later these
Debates were beginning to re-emerge with ferocity abolitionists as well as Lincoln in the majority of his Whig Party regarded the war with Mexico and Texas his admittance into the Union with deep suspicion as the territory that Texas was able to gain from Mexico in the war would be divided into any number
Of states or south of the Missouri line allowing them all to practice slavery Lincoln spoke out against the war in Congress but for primarily political reasons decrying the war mongering actions of Democratic President Polk in getting the u.s. involved in the conflict in an attempt to boost the Whig
Prospects at the upcoming election as his term was only two years and Lincoln had promised not to run for a second term his experience in Washington was to be a little consequence to his reputation and stature and so when his term ended later that year Lincoln returned to Springfield determined to
Focus on his legal career and his life of public service was seemingly over between 18-49 and 1850 for Lincoln dedicated himself totally to the legal profession touring the h2d shield circuits for six months of every year however in 1854 Lincoln was awoken from his political slumber by a law passed by
Congress that would ignite the nation and fan the flames of a divisive issue which had been stirring the tensions in the country for decades the kansas-nebraska act proposed by Lincoln’s long-term political rival the Illinois Democrat Stephen Douglas was proposed to allow settlers of any new United States territory to decide
Through popular vote whether or not slavery would be permitted in the state a proposal which would repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 that was so treasured by the free states and so the proposal was seen as a potential substantial victory for the slave states upon hearing the details of the Act
Lincoln announced to his fellow lawyers quote I tell you this nation cannot exist half-slave and half-free a statement which reflected the guiding principle of Lincoln’s future years the life of the nation and with every problem that came before him Abraham never lost sight of this fundamental premise provoked back into political
Action Lincoln campaigned fiercely against the kansas-nebraska Act and Senator Douglas returned to Illinois to make a series of speeches defending the act to his severely divided home state but Lincoln spoke in opposition replying to Douglass speeches with supreme oratory skill honed by his years in the courts of law and in these speeches
Lincoln did not just attack Douglas as law but rather the whole institution of slavery itself insisting that slavery was immoral unjust and contrary to the Declaration of Independence and the wishes of the American founders meanwhile the debates that had erupted over the kansas-nebraska act since 1854 ignited a reshaping of the American
Party system as the Democratic Party became the party promoting the extension of slavery and whilst the Whig Party was disappearing into political obscurity his members from the northern states joined the anti-slavery Democrats to form the Republican Party Lincoln took an active role in the formation of this new anti-slavery party delivering a
Speech at the party’s first Illinois convention on the 29th of May 1856 where he so mesmerised his audience the no record of this speech exists so absorbed were the reporters who were listening that November the Democrats James Buchanan was elected president however the new Republican Party secured an impressive result gaining 1.3 million
Votes much to the alarm of the slave states who insisted that should the Republican Party win a presidential election the union would be dissolved the tensions over slavery and his existence in the United States were already high but they began to reach crescendo in 1857 with the stunning
Intervention of the Supreme Court in the now infamous case of Dred Scott versus Sanford this case concerned a Missouri slave Dred Scott who’ve been taken by his owner to the free states of Illinois and Minnesota and then returned to the slave state of Missouri where his master
Died following which Scott sued for his freedom on the grounds that he had previously been a resident of the free States the case reached the Supreme Court where Chief Justice Roger Taney spoke for the majority in declaring that this case was void because as a black
Man Scott was not a citizen of the United States and indeed the court went further declaring that all congressional laws excluding slavery from the western territories were unconstitutional and void effectively permitting the extension of slavery into new American territories but the northern states reacted furiously and Lincoln spoke out against the decision
Taking particular issue with Tani’s claim that the Declaration of Independence did not include black Americans in its assertion that all men are born equal Lincoln by now fully reinvested in politics set his sights on the upcoming 1858 elections where Illinois voters would elect members of the state legislature who would in turn
Select the next senator and on the 16th of June 1858 the Illinois Republican Party nominated Lincoln to take on his great rival the Democrat Stephen Douglas who had defended the Dred Scott decision and Lincoln’s acceptance speech is one of the best-known a house divided against itself cannot stand he told his
Republican colleagues the nation must be all slave or all free to ensure he would gain an equal footing with his famous and popular opponent Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of public debates in seven towns around the state which Douglass reluctantly accepted and today the lincoln-douglas debate are amongst the most famous and
Significant political debates in American history with these two master aura tools dueling one another in a contest that though only for the Illinois Senate seat reflected the political divisions that were tearing the entire nation apart indeed the eyes of Republicans and Democrats across the country were fixed on this contest and the debates
Attracted such large audiences they had to be held outside with audiences regularly in the tens of thousands and during these verbal feuds Douglass accused Lincoln and his party of being radical abolitionists while Lincoln posed incredibly awkward questions for Douglass forcing him to break with his party over the issue of whether settlers
In new states could choose to exclude slavery and Douglass’s affirmation that they could went down well with the Illinois electorate and helped him to attain reelection yet it estranged him from his party preventing him from ever becoming president despite ultimately losing the Senate race in November 1858 Lincoln’s Republicans gained substantial
Votes in what was ordinarily a firmly democratic state and Abraham had forged a national reputation for his eloquent opposition to the expansion of slavery yet Lincoln was stung by his defeat and once again turned his focus back to his law practice being desperately short of income however Lincoln had no intention
Of retiring from politics indeed his eyes were set on presidential election of 1860 where an increasingly popular Republican Party was without a leader to take them into the election in late 1859 and early 1860 winkin made moves to expand his reputation in the east and states publishing a book of the
Lincoln-douglas debates which immediately became a best-seller and furthermore in February 1869 Kahn was invited to speak to a Republican union in New York where he gave one of his finest addresses that captivated the crowd and gained acclaim from major New York newspapers following this Lincoln then traveled to New England speaking and gaining
Republican allies far from his Illinois home on the 16th of May 1864 candela gates met in Chicago for the Republican National Convention and nominated Lincoln as their presidential nominee narrowly edging senator Williams seaward of New York who would become Lincoln’s Secretary of State and although SeaWorld was better known with more experience
Lincoln it was believed with his less radical views on slavery was better placed to carry the swing states where voters did not love slavery but loathe abolitionism Lincoln was firmly against the expansion of slavery into the western territories but at the same time he was against abolishing the practice
Where he already existed and meanwhile and the Democratic convention held in Charleston South Carolina on the 23rd of April there were severe divisions between northern Democrats in favor of senator Stephen Douglas and Southern Democrats who were angered at Douglass’s remarks during his 1858 Senate campaign that people in the western territories
Could vote to exclude slavery from the new states the convention failed to come to a consensus and so in a reconvened convention held in Baltimore the Democratic Party split with the northern wing nominating Douglas whilst the southern wing nominated John Breckinridge of Kentucky on a fiercely pro-slavery platform but based on advice
From Republicans Lincoln ran a stay at home campaign replying to the immense amount of letters he was receiving and attempting to damage control false rumors about his record with the Democratic Party split it seemed that a Republican victory was likely and indeed on the night of the
6th of November 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected as the 16th president of the United States winning less than 40% of the popular vote but 180 out of 303 electoral college votes the president-elect though elated at his victory read some worrying signs from the election results namely that in ten
States not a single ballot was cast in his favor and it was in these southern states whose politicians were fierce defenders of slavery that threats of secession had emanated throughout the election campaign Lincoln had assumed this to be simply an electioneering rhetoric however even as he was planning to move to Washington
South Carolina was planning a move of his own one that would tear the United States apart and so the process of secession began on the 10th of November when South Carolina authorized the election of a state convention to consider the future relations between the state and the Union and within a
Month every state in the deep south and followed suit Lincoln believed the south to be bluffing about secession as they had done during the Missouri Compromise and the Mexican War in order to extract concessions from the north and as such he failed to recognize the strengths of secessionist sentiment in
The cotton growing States who believe that their right to practice slavery was severely threatened by the new Republican Party those from South Carolina voted for an overwhelmingly secessionist state convention which on the 20th of December 1860 declared that the state would withdraw from the Union and as a wave of secessionist zeal swept
Through the south by February 1861 South Carolina was joined by Mississippi Alabama Florida Texas Georgia and Louisiana who met in Montgomery Alabama to draw up a constitution for the new Confederate States of America of which Mississippi senator Jefferson Davis was made president though secession occurred rapidly it was by no means a reactionary
Response to the presidential election and the South’s attachment to slavery had caused growing estrangement from the north decades in the making as the southern economy remained agricultural and its Society rural and hierarchical was the North industrialized and expanded its urban population when this growing catchman reached its climax at
The result of the 1860 election an idea that had been discussed and debated for decades among southern politicians was finally put into action and the speed with which the deep south seceded from the Union and the immense support secession had in these states is a testament to the primacy of state
Loyalties over national loyalties at this time when abraham lincoln rose to deliver his inaugural address on the 4th of March 1861 the young American nation was in the midst of the worst crisis it had ever known and the president appealed to the nation’s better nature stating we
Are not enemies but friends we must not be enemies though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection the mystic chords of memory stretching from every battlefield and Patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land will yet swell the chorus of the Union
When again touched as surely they will be by the better angels of our nature his words urging reconciliation rather than conflict no president has assumed office facing the difficulties the Lincoln did in March 1861 unexperienced an unpopular facing an unprecedented crisis which daunted even the most experienced of men in Lincoln’s cabinet
Including his Secretary of State William seaward Lincoln entered the White House cleaned to one belief above all others that the Union must be preserved at all costs the most pressing matter for the president was that of Fort Sumter where a Union Army under Major Robert Anderson at garrison the fort located in the
Middle of Charleston Harbor and surrounded on three sides by Confederate batteries Lincoln did not want to withdraw the army to maintain Union prestige however he could not send reinforcements into the hostile Harbor either and when on the 12th of April 1861 the Confederate batteries began a bombardment of Fort Sumter after 34
Hours Anderson’s garrison was forced to surrender and so the American Civil War had begun the fall of Sumpter revived the Lincoln administration and the northern states galvanizing them under a clear objective which was to preserve the Union by putting down the southern rebellion and on the 15th of April
President Lincoln called for the states to supply a militia of 75,000 men and this was received with a wave of approval across the north as nationalist feeling caused a surge of support for war with the Confederacy however this call for troops disgruntled the states of the upper South consisting of North
Carolina Virginia Tennessee and Arkansas who finally decided to seed from the Union on the 17th of April with the Confederacy then moving its capital to Richmond Virginia and the following day Lincoln offered the command of the Union armies to the Virginian Colonel robert e lee who declined stating that he would not draw
His sword against his native state growing in confidence in his position Lincoln out took further steps to prepare the Union for war proclaiming a blockade of Confederate ports on the 19th of April and expanding the Union armies and navies and in his fourth of July address to Congress Lincoln set out
His view of the conflict seeing it not as a war between two states as this would imply recognizing the Confederacy but has a rebellion an insurrection of individuals in the southern states who betrayed the Union they were fighting to preserve meanwhile northern clamor for an advance upon the Confederate capital of Richmond
Became irresistible and Lincoln yielded to it authorizing a force of 28,000 to leave Washington on the 16th of July and march into Virginia where the First Battle of Bull Run or Manassas as it is known in the south saw the Union force routed from the field with Union
Soldiers fleeing all the way back to the capital the defeat was a devastating blow to Union morale and Lincoln immediately ordered General George McClellan a graduate of the West Point Military Academy to come to Washington and take command of the newly created Army of the Potomac hoping to instill
Organization and discipline into the young volunteers of the Union Army much to Lincoln’s satisfaction McClellan appeared like the perfect man for the role given to him and McClellan transformed the inexperienced band of eager northern recruits into a disciplined fighting force rigorously training his troops and keeping a watchful eye over their progress and
Well-being moreover McClellan was admired by his troops more so than any other Union commander throughout the war but public opinion soon turned against the Union commander as it became apparent that McClellan was extremely reluctant to use the Army of the Potomac that he had so skillfully crafted and as summer turned
To autumn despite possessing a fighting force far superior to the Confederate Army camped at Manassas McClellan’s forces were infuriating Lee Stagner drawing the anger of Congress Lincoln’s thoughts was soon turned away from the Capitol to across the Atlantic we’re on the 8th of November and American warships stopped the English steamer
Trent and took two Confederate diplomats from her by force and although initially applauded by public opinion and by Lincoln himself the president soon realized Britain was outraged by this violation of international maritime law and there was even talk of anglo-american conflicts over the issue with extreme reluctance Lincoln and his
Cabinet on the 26th of December agreed to release the Confederate prisoners to appease the British and although this disappointed many in the north the decision Lincoln made had averted the greatest threat which was that the American Civil War would become an international conflict the winter of 1861 to 1865 incan and his
Administration as Congress and the public grew ever more irate at the inaction of McClellan who was with his large and costly army still laying idle on the Potomac refusing to launch the autumn campaign that he had promised months earlier and so in January 1862 Lincoln announced to his generals quote
If general McClellan does not want to use the army I would like to borrow it indeed the president’s frustration became evident to all when he published a general war order which commanded all Union forces to make a general advance by the 22nd of February and threatened to hold all commanders to account for
Carrying out the order and although the 22nd of February passed without a general advance Lincoln was chaired by Union victories in the West following the routing of Confederate forces in a battle of Mill Springs in Kentucky on the 19th of January General Ulysses s grant captured Fort Henry and Fort
Donelson on the Tennessee River in early February and with the Confederates abandoning Kentucky and most of Tennessee a union force occupied Nashville on the 15th of February however the positive news from the West was overshadowed by the devastating tragedy in the Lincoln household when other 20th of February after becoming
Ill with typhoid fever Lincoln’s third son William died his son’s death was to take a heavy toll on Abraham he wept for days and turned to religion for solace in addition Lincoln’s despair was not helped by the utter devastation felt by Mary Lincoln who took to her bed
For three weeks of the news and for months to come would weep at the very mention of her dead son’s name meanwhile general McClellan was finally preparing to move his army of the potomac insisting on the plan to capture the rebel capital of Richmond within advance from the east
Despite Lincoln arguing for an assault on the Confederate Army at Manassas and as McClellan had very little respect for the president or the notion that civilian authorities must outweigh military leadership in a democratic society he insisted upon his Richmond plan when McClellan’s army at last took the field in early May the general
Continued to test the president’s patience as his mistaken belief that the Confederates outnumbered him caused him to constantly ask Washington for more reinforcements when in reality the Army of the Potomac outnumbered the rebels by almost three to one the Lincoln administration was now desperate for military success as apart
From some small Western victories the Union had barely dealt any damage to the Confederate forces and in Congress the inexperienced president lacked allies and furthermore many European nations were coming close to recognize in the cotton ground Confederacy as cotton shortages began to cause unemployment in Europe
Lincoln needed a victory to shore up his support at home and convinced the nations of Europe that the Confederate states were a band of rebels that would soon be put down by the United States government however McClellan’s Peninsula campaign was a notable failure being riven by indecision and despair at the imagined
Superiority of the Confederate numbers in reality McClellan was out of his depth when faced with the military genius of the rebel commander robert e lee who launched a series of determined attacks to drive the Union away from Richmond in the seven days battles from
The 25th of June to the 1st of July and although most of his time and energy were consumed by military matters Lincoln had not forgotten the great issue which had been the cause of the war in June and July of 1862 Lincoln began private drafting an emancipation order and
McClellan’s defeats in the peninsula the near mutinous state of the Army’s officers the swelling vocal chorus of anti-slavery opinion in the north as well as the growing frustration at president in Congress or acted to convince Lincoln that quote we must change our tactics or lose the game consequently on the 22nd of July
Lincoln presented his cabinet with the first draft of what was to become one of the most renowned documents in the history of the United States which was the Emancipation Proclamation a document that would grant freedom to all slaves within states that were in rebellion from the Union as of the first of
January 1863 though largely approved by his cabinet Lincoln took the advice of Senator William C wood his secretary of state who argued that issuing this proclamation following the Union string of military setbacks would appear as a desperate move by a weak government and so Lincoln therefore set the proclamation aside declaring that quote
We mustn’t issue it until after a victory it was the case however that a victory remained infuriatingly elusive and Lincoln had by this time concluded that McClellan would never attack the enemy as his immense army still lay stationary on the peninsula and the requests for reinforcements continued
And so he informed general Halleck who had overall command of the Union armies that he would keep or remove McClellan as he pleased meanwhile g2 his lack of faith in the Army of the Potomac Lincoln organized a second Union force under General John Polk who advanced from robert e lee’s army of northern
Virginia in August 1862 and at the Second Battle of Bull Run or Manassas from the 28th to the 29th of August the Confederate forces won another victory ultimately driving the Union forces from Eastern Virginia as he often did throughout his life Lincoln fell into a state of depression or melancholy his
Plan to defeat General Lee’s army and capture Richmond had failed utterly and with Pope’s defeat he could not issue his Emancipation Proclamation and furthermore Lee did not rest on his laurels following his great victory rather he launched him Maryland sending a wave of fear across the north as General Lee’s army advanced
Lincoln seriously considered scrapping his proposed Emancipation Proclamation believing that the Union must now fight a defensive war with the defensive policy on slavery and he was encouraged in these thoughts by congressional moderates but the president decided to instead entrust the mask to Providence telling his cabinet that quote if God
Gave us victory in the approaching battle he would consider it an indication of divine will and he would quote move forward in the cause of emancipation this indication arrived on the 17th of September and the Battle of Antietam when McClellan’s forces clashed with Lee’s army in the single bloodiest
Day of the war and although not the overwhelming victory Lincoln had hoped for the invasion was halted and Lee was forced to retreat back into Virginia and then on the 22nd of September when Lincoln and his cabinet agreed to officially publish the Emancipation Proclamation far from to crime the
Immorality and evil of slavery this document cleverly portrayed the president’s action as simply a military necessity to ensure the preservation of the Union nevertheless whatever the motive or wording of the proclamation the final line stated that on the first of January 1863 all persons held as slaves in any state in rebellion against
The United States would be forever free and whilst abolitionists were jubilant helling the proclamation and the president the decree met mostly a hostile reception southern Confederates and unionists alike denounced the measure as did northern Democrats and moderate Republicans who believed that Lincoln’s actions would undermine the loyalty of the border states who had
Remained faithful to the Union and even many abolitionists after their initial euphoria came to dislike the proclamation as it failed to abolish slavery in states that had not seceded such as Kentucky and Maryland meanwhile McClellan once again stagnated failing to pursue Lee’s wounded army and allowing it to slip back across the
Potomac unhindered and when he eventually began his pursuit the army moved at a snail’s pace taking nine days to cross the Potomac River and so by this time the president had reached his breaking point and on the fifth of November McClellan was removed of his command and replaced
By General Ambrose Burnside a 38 year old West Point graduate Ambrose Burnside however was not confident in his own ability to command such a vast army and these self doubts was soon vindicated when the Union Army blundered into a disaster at Fredericksburg on the 11th of December engaging in a frontal
Assault against heavily fortified Confederate positions and sustaining 13,000 casualties Lincoln aware that burns sights immense failure had caused the loss of confidence in government from the officers and troops relieved him of his command on the 25th of January 1863 and replaced him with General Joseph Hooker who is nicknamed
Fighting Joe for his vigorous leadership style in the field amidst the continuing military was endured by Lincoln at this time came a day that was perhaps the most significant of his presidency and one that will be remembered by posterity when on New Year’s Day 1863 the President signed the Emancipation
Proclamation into law and although Lincoln had been hounded by self-doubt over the decree since its conception in the summer of 1862 he announced that quote I never in my life were more certain that I was doing right than I do in signing this paper the final Proclamation as well as declaring the
Slaves at the South free announced that former slaves would be accepted into the union’s armed forces and thus black regiments began to be formed for the first time in the history of the American army with Lincoln actively encouraging the recruitment of African American soldiers believing them to be the union’s
Decisive weapon against the Confederacy and although general worker quickly injected life into the army with a bold plan to attack the Confederate rear he was defeated at Chancellorsville in early May due to the military genius of Lee and Stonewall Jackson and buoyed by the seeming invincibility of the Army of
Northern Virginia Lee launched a second invasion of the north and by this time the president was distraught my god he exclaimed after receiving news of Chancellorsville what will the country say Lincoln and his administration began to come under intense criticism from Congress and public opinion as northern
Has tied the Lincoln presidency to the extensive pattern of failure and incompetence that had so far to find the United States war effort and indeed there were also sharp divisions within Lincoln’s cabinet and the picture painted by northern newspapers was of an administration rife with division and discord this anger towards the
Administration was heightened by the passage of the conscription act in March 1863 making all able-bodied men between the ages of 20 and 45 subject to a call to national service which many denounced as tyrannical and indeed this tension was most visible in the violent draft riots of July 1863 in New York City
Where anger towards the conscription law and the administration as a whole led to four days of bloody protests to regain public trust and support on the 12th of June Lincoln published a letter to the people of the North defending the administration’s curtailing of freedoms as necessary for the greater goal of
Preserving the Union and with this letter receiving widespread approval for politicians and the press Lincoln was able to somewhat relieve the immense pressure on his administration and so upon withdrawing hooker from command Lincoln was able to ignore the calls from a Kellan’s reinstatement and instead replace fighting Joe whose
Consistent refusal to obey commands had infuriated the president with the experience George Meade and as June turned to July in 1863 the fate of the United States hung in the balance the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia were approaching the bloodiest battle in American history nearest
All towns southern Pennsylvania whilst in the West General Grant had won a series of engagements along the Mississippi River and had a Confederate Army under siege in the strategically important town of Vicksburg and he was now that the weight of this war forget to weigh heavily on Lincoln and his
Health deteriorating due to his anxiety on the 4th of July exactly 87 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence Lincoln received the news that he had so long awaited that the Union had defeated Lee’s army and the Battle of Gettysburg and the Confederates were retreating and
Only three days later a report reached the White House announcing the fall of Vicksburg with the Union capturing a rebel army of 30,000 men and gained control at the Mississippi River Lincoln was jubilant however this jubilation soon turned to fury when Meade’s army failed to pursue and destroy Lee’s shattered force over which
He stated our army held the war in the hollow of their hand and they would not close it the president was beside himself with anger and although he would later praised Meade for his great victory Lincoln felt that the opportunity to end the war had slipped through the union’s grasp during the
Summer of 1863 Lincoln began to feel the need to outline for his fellow Americans the larger significance of the war and what it was the men were really fighting and dying for as after Vicksburg and Gettysburg it appeared that the end of the conflict was in sight and his
Opportunity came on the 19th of November when the president was asked to deliver a speech and the dedication of a cemetery at the site of the great Battle of Gettysburg he address the president delivered that day is remembered as perhaps the most famous piece of oratory in American history and in only 272
Words Lincoln evoked the past the present and the future of the nation broadening the significance of the wall from the restoration of the Union to the extension of equality and the fulfillment of the principles espoused by the Declaration of Independence to all Americans Lincoln opened his speech by reminding
His audience that 87 years previously quote our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal then he further asserted that the soldiers who fell should not have done so unnecessarily and that it was the duty
Of all to ensure that this was the case and he concluded with words that would echo through time that quote this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom and that the government of the people by the people for the people shall not perish from the earth
In late 1863 the President and Congress began to consider plans for terms on which the southern states would be permitted to re-enter the Union and whilst there were sharp divisions between radicals and moderates the former demanding a drastic reorganization of southern social and economic life to ensure a complete
Equality before the law for African Americans Lincoln managed to satisfy both with his plans proposing to maintain the territory integrity and legal structures of the South was promising to use complete emancipation as a requirement for reentering the Union his remarkable political dexterity allowed him to please both functions of
His Republican Party as well as the northern public at large and on the 8th of March 1864 frustrated by the lethargy of Meade on the East Coast and impressed by the successes of the union’s Western armies Lincoln bestowed grant with the rank of lieutenant-general a rank only achieved by George
Washington and Winfield Scott and ordered him to take command of the Union armies ulysses s grant was hugely popular in the north and his appointment also yielded political benefits as Lincoln had with this promotion eliminated a potential rival in the upcoming presidential contest and inground Lincoln had at last found a
Direct businesslike commander who he liked and trusted and with the help of Lincoln’s suggestions grant developed a strategy of simultaneous massive attacks on the Confederate heartlands a sharp break from the maneuvering of previous generals whilst grants Army of the Potomac began to advance Kinsley’s forces on the 4th of May three days later
General William Tecumseh Sherman launched his campaign in the West to capture Atlanta and so with Grant throwing his army against the Confederates losing 32,000 men in two way with Lincoln’s approval the general continued to Presley’s army despite shattering losses meanwhile from the 7th to the 8th of June 1864 the Republican
Convention met in Baltimore and nominated Lincoln as their presidential nominee for the November election the decision in the absence of a serious competitor was near unanimous and the convention also upon Lincoln’s suggestion declared support for the creation of a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery across the entire nation despite this success the summer
Of 1864 was an immensely difficult one for the president as Union campaigns everywhere was stalling and casualties were rapidly mounting with Lincoln unable to shake the deep feeling of responsibility for the bloodshed and as the bloody conflict drew on with seemingly no end in sight Lincoln’s prospects for re-election appeared grim
Indeed in late August the president was convinced that his defeat was imminent however the situation rapidly changed when the Democratic Party nominated general McClellan as their presidential candidate in the last days of August on a platform dedicated to ending the war but this platform was widely detested as
A surrender and of a trail of the Union calls and Lincoln’s prospects were further boosted on the 4th of September when news reached Washington that General Sherman had captured the vital Confederate stronghold of Atlanta consequently on the 8th of November Lincoln was reelected with an overwhelming majority of the electoral
College votes with McClellan winning just three states the result being hailed as a great victory for the Union and for abolitionism and with Lincoln’s success Confederate politicians realized that the southern rebellion faced certain defeat and this defeat appeared imminent as Sherman embarked on a devastating march through Georgia
Capturing the city of Savannah on the 25th of December shortly afterwards on the 11th of April Lincoln delivered what was to be his last public speech detailing from the White House his plans for the reconstruction of the nation announcing moderate proposals to restore the Union and eradicate slavery and offering an
Amnesty to those resisting National Authority and allowing the immediate readmission of politicians from the seceded states into the national sure the president personally attempted to convince wavering politicians and on the 31st of January the House passed the amendment and submitted it to the states for ratification at this point
Lincoln hailed this amendment as the cure for the root cause of the Civil War conscious of the fact that should the south rejoin the Union before ratification of the amendment it would likely never be passed with desire for peace growing on both sides by early 1865 Jefferson Davis sent three peace
Commissioners to Virginia to hold a conference with Lincoln and seaward and Lincoln attended and made it clear that peace would not be achieved without the restoration of the Union and acceptance of the Thirteenth Amendment and although he offered a payment of indemnity to southern slave owners the Confederate President flatly rejected these terms
And thus the war raged on the Confederate forces were now nearing breaking point as Sherman marched northwards through the Carolinas and grant defeated Lee at the Battle of five Forks and then on the third of April Union forces captured the Confederate capital of Richmond and Lincoln visited
The city the next day where he was greeted by throngs of freed African Americans who hailed the great Emancipator Lincoln returned to Washington on the 9th of April and the next day he received news that General Lee had surrendered to grant at Appomattox and the subsequent firing of
Five hundred cannons gave the news to the jubilant capital who celebrated the end of the most destructive war in American history although Congress had been a bastion of opposition against Lincoln during his first term his triumphant reelection and continued you need victories meant that Lincoln was better able to cooperate with the
Legislative branch and in this spirit Lincoln urged that Congress pass the 13th constitutional amendment prohibiting slavery across the nation Lincoln also asserted that the right of African Americans to vote should be established and protected and many believed that had Lincoln overseen the process of reconstruction the rights of
Southern African Americans will not have been violated in the way they were in the years to come and the process would not have been marred by miss government and political division nevertheless the president was not able to oversee the healing of the country which he had done so much to save as on
The evening on the 14th of April while attending a play at Ford theater Lincoln was shot by a Maryland actor and Confederate sympathizer named John Wilkes Booth the bullet he fired entered the back of President Lincoln’s head and after many hours of unconsciousness the 16th President of the United States died
At 7:22 a.m. on the 15th of April 1865 and Edwin Stanton Lincoln’s Secretary of War who was beside the president upon his death raised his hat now Stanton announced he belongs to the ages Abraham Lincoln is widely regarded as the greatest president in the history of
The United States as he came into office facing the most substantial crisis in the nation’s history and died having saved the Union abolished slavery and inspired the country and as one as this he bestowed on posterity words that have echoed down the ages Lincoln led the United States
With purpose and vision yet was flexible and dynamic always working with an acceptable political means to achieve the aims most important to him but nonetheless there has been criticism of the immense power accumulated within the executive during Lincoln’s presidency as well as the suspension of public liberties during the conflict at
Lincoln’s per hessed furthermore Lincoln’s image is often tainted by the fact he oversaw the most brutal and bloody conflict in American history nevertheless Lincoln is ultimately seen today by most people as the great Emancipator who led the United States through its most terrible crisis all was reminding the nation and indeed future
Generations what it was they were fighting for and of the ideals upon which America was founded indeed Abraham Lincoln just like the soldiers whom he so memorably commemorated the Gettysburg in 1863 gave His life so that the nation might live what do you think of Abraham Lincoln was
He a skilled politician and orator who used slavery as a political maneuvering tool or was he the great Emancipator a giant of a man not only in stature but in foresight achievements and intellect please let us know in the comments section and meanwhile thank you very much for watching Many thanks once again to our sponsor bling kiss the mobile phone app which condenses complex and nonfiction books into easy to understand fly size summaries for you to listen to or read at your leisure to books we particularly recommend cover the leadership and assassination of Abraham Lincoln both of
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