Abraham Lincoln as a past president

Abraham Lincoln past president of United States of America, played a significant role during the American Civil War. He was recognized for his leadership and determination by many historians and laymen not only as American President but also the greatest American of all time. He started with little formal education but this never regarded him to be inferior among his fellowmen. His determination and perseverance put him to be a frontier lawyer and held the nation together through the worst crisis in its history (Abraham Lincoln, 2006a). There is no other president in American history faced the kind of problems that Abraham Lincoln faced upon taking his term. Immediately after his election, Southern states seceded from the Union to form the Confederate States of America followed by Civil War (Abraham Lincoln, 2006b). However, this circumstance does not put him in dispute this challenged him more to preserve the Union. He guided the nation through the danger of war to peace and reunion. He fought for slavery and he reaffirmed freedom (Fehrenbacher, 2006).

A leader of weaker will or fainter vision might have failed this kind of challenge or either win the Civil War or end the institution of slavery (Abraham Lincoln, 2006a). The kind of leadership Abraham Lincoln dedicated brought the terrible slavery into end. Today, Lincoln is regarded as America's greatest president (Abraham Lincoln, 2006b).

EARLY YEARS

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a log cabin in Hardin County,

Kentucky. He was the eldest son of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, and was named after his paternal grandfather (Norton, 1998). His grandfather got killed by Indians in 1786 and left his father, Thomas Lincoln, poor and no education. However, with Thomas will and determination he became a skilled carpenter and farmer. As for the mother of Abraham Lincoln, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, there is not much writing about her (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006). His parents were both hardworking yet uneducated pioneers. His family experienced a lot of hardships and trials in life and few pleasures (Fehrenbacher, 2006). Both of his parents were members of a Baptist congregation, which had separated from another church due to opposition to slavery (Norton, 1998) and this connection may account for Abraham Lincoln's belief of anti-slavery (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006).

In December 1816, the Lincolns moved about 100 miles to southwestern Indiana (Fehrenbacher, 2006) because of slavery issues and difficulty in land titles in Kentucky. Land ownership was more secure in Indiana because the Land Ordinance of 1785 provided for surveys by the federal government; furthermore, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 forbade slavery in the area (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006).

Indiana was described as a wild region with many bears and other wild animals in the woods. Living in Indiana the Lincoln's life was not easy. Lincoln was raised to farm work with trees, logs and grubs (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006). They spent winter in a rough shelter with an open side. In the spring, Lincoln began to help his father in the hard daily labor of pioneering. Pioneering entailed clearing the land of trees, planting crops, building a permanent cabin, and splitting rails for fences. This hard work put Lincoln skillful in the use of the ax but never cared much for hunting and fishing. However, after days of manual work he acquired no love for the life of a farmer. For Lincoln the life of a farmer seemed to be all heavy toil and no reward (Fehrenbacher, 2006).

Lincoln had gone to school briefly in Kentucky and did so again in Indiana (Norton, 1998). Life is so poor that he rarely attended school, largely self-educated. Lincoln had an older sister, Sarah, and a younger brother, Thomas, who died in infancy (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006). Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, died when Lincoln was only nine years old (Abraham Lincoln, 2005). She died from milk sickness, a disease obtained from drinking the milk of cows, which had grazed on poisonous white snakeroot (Norton, 1998).

The year after his father, Thomas Lincoln, married a Kentucky widow, Sarah Bush Johnston. Sarah made a good influence on the boy (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006). She is described a bright woman, who believed in Lincoln's education, and defended in the frequent arguments the Lincoln had with his father (Abraham Lincoln, 2005). Though he has a scant education to a few months in a 1-teacher school, Lincoln does not stop from learning he passionately read books such as the Bible, Pilgrim's Progress and Weemss Life of Washington (Abraham Lincoln, 2006a). In the process, Lincoln not only educated himself but became a master of English language (Fehrenbacher, 2006). As Lincoln mature, he preferred learning than working in the fields. This led to a complicated relationship with his father who does not believe in education (Norton, 1998).

During the early 1800s, life was difficult for Lincoln. Poverty, farm chores, hard work, and reading by the light of the fireplace dominated young Lincoln's life until he was seventeen, when he found work on a ferryboat. Two years later, enjoying the river he built a flatboat and ran a load of farm produce down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. Selling the boat for its timber, he then walked home via the Natchez Trace. As a dutiful son, but resentfully gave his full earnings to his father (Abraham Lincoln, 2005).

When Abraham turned twenty-one in 1830, the family moved again to Illinois just west of Decatur. The father and son built another log cabin not much bigger than the one they had lived in before. Following this move, Lincoln built a second flatboat and made another run down river, but this time he is alone. After that haul, he lived on his own, moving to the town of New Salem, Illinois in 1831 where he lived until 1837 (Abraham Lincoln, 2005). This separation from his father have been made easier by Lincoln's estrangement from his father of whom he spoke little in his adulthood life (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006).

Abraham Lincoln at the age of 22 years stood 6 feet 4 inches or 163 centimeters tall, thin but physically strong (Fehrenbacher, 2006). As a young man, Lincoln opened a general store but failed. He was also a surveyor, a postmaster and did various jobs to earn money for a living (Abraham Lincoln, 2006b). Subsequently, Lincoln started to make a name for him, successfully wrestled the town bully and earned the nickname "Honest Abe." Most of his neighbors loved him for his strength and ability to split rails and fell trees, a survival skill that he developed as a child of the American frontier.

He pleased people with his wit, intelligence, and integrity. His qualities made him popular member of the town, engaging himself to the locals as a good-natured and learned young man (Abraham Lincoln, 2005).

Moreover, Lincoln served for a time as a soldier in the Black Hawk War (Norton, 1998). This military interlude was uneventful but was elected captain of his volunteer company, a distinction that gave him much satisfaction and opened new avenues for his life (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006). He decided to enter politics, and in March 1832 announced his candidacy for the state legislature (Fehrenbacher, 2006).

STATE LEGISLATOR

Lincoln ran unsuccessfully for the Illinois legislature in 1832 (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006). In 1834, this 24-year-old man ran once again for the state legislature and this time he was able to make the position, and Illinois voters re-elected him for three more terms in 1834, 1836, 1838, and 1840, and won all 4 times (Fehrenbacher, 2006).

Lincoln was a member of the Whig Party and remained a Whig until 1856 when he became a Republican (Norton, 1998). As a Whig, Lincoln supported the Second Bank of the United States, the Illinois State Bank. This bank is government-sponsored where internal improvements such as roads, canals, railroads, harbors and protective tariffs implemented (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006).

It was also in 1834 that Lincoln began to study law. This time again he educated himself by reading and studying borrowed law books in his spare time, and earned his law license in 1836 (Norton, 1998). There were stories running that Lincoln had a romance with a pretty girl named

Ann Rutledge however she died young in 1835 (Norton, 1998).

LAWYER and U.S. REPRESENTATIVES

Whig legislator, John Todd Stuart, encouraged Lincoln to study law where it earned his license in 1836, and in 1837 moved to Springfield, as he became Stuart's law partner. Following Stuart he also had partners with Stephen T. Logan and William H. Herndon where Lincoln built a successful practice (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006). In Springfield in 1839 Lincoln met

Mary Todd, got married on Nov. 4, 1842 and over the next 11 years had 4 sons namely

Robert (1843-1926),

Edward ("Eddie") 1846-1850,

William ("Willie") 1850-1862, and Thomas ("Tad") 1853-1871. In 1844, Lincoln became a successful attorney, and the family bought a home at the corner of Eighth and Jackson (Norton, 1998). Lincoln was described as a loving and indulgent parent, but his frequent absences from home due to his law practice placed the upbringing of the boys largely in Mary's hands (Fehrenbacher, 2006).

In 1837, Lincoln took highly controversial position that foreshadowed his future political path. He joined with five other legislators out of eighty-three to oppose a resolution condemning abolitionists. In 1838, he responded to the death of the Illinois abolitionist and newspaper editor, Elijah Parish Lovejoy, who was killed while defending his printing presses from a mob of pro-slavery citizens in Alton, Illinois. In a statesmanlike manner, Lincoln gave a cautious speech at the Springfield Young Men's Lyceum, pointing out the violence done where democracy and the rule of law should be in place (Abraham Lincoln, 2005).

In 1840, with a keen political eye, Lincoln campaigned for the populist war hero and Whig candidate William Henry Harrison. Lincoln denounced Democratic candidate Martin Van Buren for having once voted to give free blacks the vote in New York. In taking this position, Lincoln clearly appealed to the racism of the overwhelming majority of Illinois voters. Like many other opponents of slavery, Lincoln at this point did not favor citizenship rights for blacks (Abraham Lincoln, 2005).

In 1844, Lincoln began his partnership with William H. Herndon. Although ten years younger than Lincoln, Herndon proved to be an exceptional and outstanding partner making the two of them worked well together in both law and politics. Herndon's biography of his famous partner known as Herndon's Lincoln is one of the classics of Lincoln literature (Fehrenbacher, 2006).

In 1846 Lincoln ran for the United States House of Representatives and remarkably won the election. He became known for his opposition to the Mexican War and to slavery (Norton, 1998). Lincoln served one term from 1847-1849 as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006). Meanwhile, ten days after the nomination America went to war with Mexico. During the months of the campaign, Lincoln said nothing about the Mexican-American War, which allowed him to win the district by a large majority. Once in office, however, Lincoln voiced his opinion regarding the war. Lincoln boldly challenged President James Polk's assertion that the Mexicans had started the war by attacking American soldiers on American soil. In a speech on the House floor, Lincoln scornfully denounced the Polk administration for taking the country to war. This misrepresentation regarding the war to the nation claimed that the conflict had begun on territory contested by the two sides. This was a blatant and public attack on a popular President by a young unknown congressman from a state that was solidly behind the war (Abraham Lincoln, 2005).

This opposition was not a function of internationalist sympathy for Mexico but the feeling that the Democratic president, James Polk, had violated the Constitution. Lincoln had been indifferent about the invasion of Texas, already a slave territory, but he opposed any expansion that would allow slavery into new areas (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006). After his opposition, he decided not to run for Congress again instead he returned to Springfield where he practiced law from 1849 to 1854, becoming one of the more successful lawyers in the state, representing all kinds of clients, including railroad interests. Although elected in 1854 again to the state legislature, he promptly resigned to run for the U.S. Senate, losing on the ninth ballot in the state legislature (Abraham Lincoln, 2005).

KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT

Lincoln lost his interest in politics when the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by Congress in 1854. This legislation opened lands previously closed to slavery to the possibility of its spread by local option (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006). The measure created the two new federal territories of Kansas and Nebraska and left it up to the people to decide whether to permit or exclude slavery, a doctrine known as popular sovereignty. This measure set aside the Missouri Compromise, which had limited the expansion of slavery (Fehrenbacher, 2006). Thus, this act opens more doors to slavery.

Democrats, Whigs and Lincoln protested against the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Lincoln believed that slavery is morally wrong, yet he respected the constitutional rights of slaveholders. He believed that if slavery could just be prevented from expanding, it might eventually die away in the Southern states. In this regard, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was a wrong move (Fehrenbacher, 2006).

Although Lincoln was not an abolitionist and thought slavery unassailably protected by the Constitution in states where it already existed, Lincoln also thought that America's founders had put slavery in such a way to ultimate extinction by preventing its spread or expansion to new territories. He saw Kansas-Nebraska Act, which had been sponsored by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas, as a new and alarming movement (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006).

Those opposed or do not believe in slavery's expansion began to form a political alliance against slavery. Lincoln became a leader of this anti-Nebraska movement in Illinois. In 1856, with the Whig Party breaking up, he helped organize the various anti-Nebraska groups into the Republican Party of Illinois. At the Republican National Convention in June 1856, Lincoln received strong support for the vice presidency. Although he did not win the nomination, he campaigned vigorously for the new party's presidential candidate, John C. Fremont, who was later defeated by Democrat James Buchanan (Fehrenbacher, 2006).

LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES

Two years after Fremont's defeat, Illinois Republicans nominated Lincoln to run for the U.S. Senate (Fehrenbacher, 2006). In his speech at Springfield in acceptance of the Republican senatorial nomination, Lincoln stated that Douglas, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, and Democratic presidents Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan had connived to nationalize slavery. In the same speech he expressed the view that the nation would become either all slave or all free. His unwavering belief of anti-slavery brought more people believing in abolishing slavery. Lincoln joined the Republicans, a new political party that was opposed to slavery (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006). The Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln for the U.S. Senate in 1858, and in his acceptance speech, he stated:

house divided against itself cannot stand... This government cannot endure, permanently half-slave and half-free... I do not expect the Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall but I do expect it will cease to be divided" (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006).

This head on collision with the powerful senator Stephen A. Douglas, one of Lincoln's rivals from his days in the Illinois state capital, who was running for a third term as a Democrat (Abraham Lincoln, 2005). Being the underdog in the senatorial campaign, Lincoln wished to share Douglas's fame by appearing with him in debates. There followed a series of seven debates between Lincoln and Douglas in towns across Illinois over the next seventy days. Lincoln knew that Douglas now fighting the Democratic Buchanan administration over the constitution to be adopted by Kansas had alienated his Southern support; and he feared Douglas's new appeal to eastern Republicans now that Douglas was battling the South. Lincoln's strategy, therefore, was to stress the gulf of principle that separated Republican opposition to slavery as a moral wrong from the moral indifference of the Democrats, embodied in legislation allowing popular sovereignty to decide the fate of each territory. His vigorous showing against the famous Douglas, Lincoln won the debates and his first considerable national fame (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006). This strategy made him recognized by people.

Several factors helped to attract national attention to the campaign battles. Primarily, Douglas, one of the key figures behind the Compromise of 1850, enjoyed a reputation as the "Little Giant" of the Democratic Party and its best stump speaker. Second, the national debate over slavery was reaching a boiling point. During the four years leading up to these historic debates, Americans had witnessed some incredibly violent and explosive events that were sharply dividing the nation. Responding to the fervor, journalists accompanied the candidates, writing articles detailing the debates and offering editorial commentary that was unprecedented in American political history making the whole country interested to watch this debates (Abraham Lincoln, 2005).

Underlying the debates was the momentous issue of slavery. Both men emphasized their basic principles. For Lincoln slavery was wrong because it denied to the slaves the rights stated in the Declaration of Independence. He stressed the point, but he did not intend to interfere with slavery in the states where it legally existed but he only opposed its expansion (Fehrenbacher, 2006). Therefore, Lincoln was against the spread of slavery into the territories but was not an abolitionist (Norton, 1998). On the other hand, Douglas' position was that democratic self-government, as expressed in his policy of popular sovereignty was more important than slavery (Fehrenbacher, 2006).

In those days, U.S. senators were elected by their state legislatures, not by a direct popular vote. The debates were designed to appeal to voters and help them decide who would be best elect of the state legislature, who would in turn elect the U.S. senator from Illinois. When the votes were counted, although Republican candidates won a slight plurality of the popular vote, the difference in proportion of legislative districts favored southern Illinois, where the Democrats were strongest. As a result, the Democrats retained their majority in the legislature and elected Douglas over Lincoln by fifty-four votes to forty-six. Nevertheless, the campaign had given Lincoln a national reputation and recognition for his anti-slavery views which made him a leader of the Republican Party (Abraham Lincoln, 2005).

ELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY

The debates with Douglas had brought Lincoln national attention, and before long he was being recognized as a presidential prospect. During the next two years he gained further recognition by making speeches in many states. The climax of his efforts was an address delivered in February 1860, at Cooper Union in New York City. When the Republican National Convention met in Chicago in May 1860, William H. Seward of New York was the leading candidate.

Seward took the lead in the first round of balloting, but then Lincoln pulled almost even, and on the third ballot he was nominated for the presidency (Fehrenbacher, 2006).

Meanwhile, the Democrats were split over the slavery issue. The Northern Democrats nominated Douglas. The Southerners chose John C. Breckinridge. Still another candidate, John Bell, was put forward by a remnant of the Whigs called the Constitutional Union Party. Thus, Lincoln had three opponents in the race (Fehrenbacher, 2006). Lincoln selected a strong cabinet that included all of his major rivals for the Republican nomination; Seward as secretary of state, Salmon P. Chase as secretary of the treasury, and Edward Bates as attorney general (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006). Following the custom of the time, he did no active campaigning himself but directed strategy quietly from Springfield. Out of the South came ominous warnings that his election would mean the end of the Union. At the polls on November 6, only about 40% of the ballots were cast for Lincoln. But since most of them were concentrated in the heavily populated free states, he won a clear majority of the electoral votes (Fehrenbacher, 2006). With Hannibal Hamlin as his running mate, Lincoln was elected the 16th President on November 6, 1860, defeating Douglas,

John Bell, and John C. Breckinridge (Norton, 1998).

SECESSION

Lincoln nominated by the Republican Party in 1860 as its candidate for the Presidency of the United States, he won by a small margin. But with his election, the country began the process of "dividing against itself" (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006). 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 (Abraham Lincoln, 2005).

South Carolina had seceded from the Union in December 1860. When efforts at compromise failed, six other Southern states followed formed the Confederate States of America (Fehrenbacher, 2006). The North and South were divided. The war was not only over the abolition of slavery, but also the rights of individual states to make their own choices on other issues (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006). Southern states also believed they should not be dictated to by the federal government (Abraham Lincoln, 2006b). All this happened before Lincoln became president on March 4, 1861. In his inaugural address he pleaded for harmony and insisted that the Union could not be dissolved. He hoped for a peaceful solution but was prepared to risk war rather than see the nation permanently divided (Fehrenbacher, 2006).

His conciliatory inaugural address had no effect on the South, and, against the advice of a majority of his cabinet, Lincoln decided to send provisions to Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. The fort was a symbol of federal authority conspicuous in the state that had led secession. On Apr. 12, 1861, South Carolina fired on the fort (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006 and Abraham Lincoln, 2006b). Lincoln immediately proclaimed a blockade of the Confederacy and issued a call for volunteers to suppress the rebellion. This provoked the secession of four more Southern states and the Civil War began (Fehrenbacher, 2006). Lincoln faced the greatest internal crisis of any U.S. President (Norton, 1998).

CIVIL WAR

Lincoln understood the essential nature of the Civil War better than most of his generals. The Confederacy could gain independence merely by defending itself successfully. However, the Union forces had to conquer the enemy in order to win. Most of the material advantages were with the North. It had greater manpower, wealth, and industrial strength. Lincoln's task was to mobilize Northern superiority and make it effective on the battlefield. He favored pressing forward on several fronts to prevent the Confederates from concentrating their defenses. He also believed that the primary aim of Union strategy should be the destruction of Southern armies rather than the capture of Southern cities like Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital. In the early part of the war, however, Lincoln was unable to find a general capable of maintaining an offensive against the great Confederate general Robert E. Lee (Fehrenbacher, 2006).

As a commander in chief Lincoln was recognized for forceful measures, sometimes at odds with the Constitution and often at odds with the ideas of his military commanders. After a period of initial support and enthusiasm for George B. McClellan, Lincoln's conflicts with that Democratic general helped to turn the latter into his presidential rival in 1864. Famed for his clemency for court-martialed soldiers, Lincoln nevertheless took a realistic view of war as best prosecuted by killing the enemy. Above all, he always sought a general, no matter what his politics is he would fight for the Union. He found such a general in Ulysses S. Grant, to whom he gave overall command in 1864. Thereafter, Lincoln took a less direct role in military planning, but his interest never wavered (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006).

Politics vied with war as Lincoln's major preoccupation in the presidency. The war required the deployment of huge numbers of men and quantities of materiel for administrative assistance. Hence, Lincoln turned to the only large organization available for his use, the Republican Party. With some rare but important exceptions, Republicans received the bulk of the civilian appointments from the cabinet to the local post offices. Lincoln tried throughout the war to keep the Republican Party together and never consistently favored one faction in the party over another. Military appointments were divided between Republicans and Democrats (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006).

Democrats accused Lincoln of being a tyrant because he proscribed civil liberties. For instance, he suspended the writ of habeas corpus in some areas as early as Apr. 27, 1861, and throughout the nation on Sept. 24, 1862, and the administration made over 13,000 arbitrary arrests. On the other hand, Lincoln tolerated virulent criticism from the press and politicians, often restrained his commanders from overzealous arrests, and showed no real tendencies toward becoming a dictator. There was never a hint that Lincoln might postpone the election of 1864, although he feared in August of that year that he would surely lose to McClellan. Democrats exaggerated Lincoln's suppression of civil liberties, in part because wartime prosperity robbed them of economic issues and in part because Lincoln handled the slavery issue so skillfully (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006).

Lincoln vowed to preserve the Union even if it meant war. He raised an army and navy of nearly 3 million northern men to face a southern army of over 2 million soldiers. In battles fought from Virginia to California 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 the spectacular victory of Union troops in General Sherman's capture of Atlanta, Lincoln was decisively reelected (Abraham Lincoln, 2005).

From the letter of Abraham Lincoln dated August 1858, he stated

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy" (Stewart-Zimmerman, 2006).

These words expressed Lincoln's character towards democracy. Despite his power and authority to postpone the election process, he remained his just nature as a leader.

EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION

Lincoln stuck with this pro-Union policy for 4 long years of Civil War. At first, the war did not go well for the Union. The South won several major battles. But the tide began to turn, and the Union won notable victories at Antietam, Shiloh, and Mobile Bay. Lincoln then issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 (Abraham Lincoln, 2006b). This was Lincoln's declaration of freedom for all slaves in the areas of the Confederacy not under Union control (Norton, 1998).

What started as a war to preserve the Union and vindicate democracy became a battle for freedom and a war to end slavery. 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 (Abraham Lincoln, 2005). On November 19, 1863, Lincoln gave his famous

Gettysburg Address which dedicated the battlefield there to the soldiers who had perished. He called on the living to finish the task the dead soldiers had begun (Norton, 1998).