Abraham Lincoln\'s Presidency Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln's Presidency

Abraham Lincoln is considered to be one of the most important American presidents of its history. He has been portrayed as a symbol of liberty, national unity, and political transformation. His contribution in all these areas is important for the overall development of the country and for its emergence on the international arena.

Lincoln was well-known even before the Civil War as an important political man especially in discussing the issue of slavery and national unity inside the Confederation. However, his qualities as a strategist, political figure, and symbol of the nation were revealed during the Civil War and through his acts that offered the Constitution the true power of its provisions. One of his most important actions was the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 which made all slaves free.

The personality of Abraham Lincoln must be analyzed from the perspectives offered by the actions he underwent throughout his presidency, including the Civil War and its aftermath. In this sense, his career must be looked at from a military point-of-view, from the perspective offered by the national strategy he conducted during the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation initiative, as well as from the point-of-view of its effects, reasons, and outcomes.

The historical background of his presidency was greatly marked by the issue of slavery and the controversy surrounding it. The Constitution provided that all men are created equal and that every human being should enjoy certain inalienable rights conferred to them by the nature of the human being. However, the "peculiar institution" placed in question this issue and denied African-Americans the right to be free and to determine their future on their own. Form this point-of-view the discussions on this issue affected both the history of the states at that time and the structure of the society, especially the relationship between the white and the black population.

The Civil War had numerous causes; however, they were related to the increasing tensions existing between the northern and the southern states. These revolved around the idea of the acceptance of slavery as a useful institution and a necessary one. However, the issue of the Civil War also gave birth to a series of issues that came to question the unity of the nation because there was the matter of each state being able to decide for itself in the matter of slavery. Nonetheless, while states in the north questioned the morality and necessity of slave workers, the south considered it to be the cornerstone of their economic prosperity at this point the split had been created. In this sense, after the end of the war, Lincoln underlined the actual reason for going to war in the first place "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" (the White House, n.d.).

Abraham Lincoln saw the Civil War to be a necessary evil destined to give back the unity of the American nation. At the same time, the Civil War was a war fought for the equality among men. During the Gettysburg Address, he pointed out that "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. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure." Therefore, it can be said that the main reason for the Civil War according to Lincoln was to keep united the country. The same idea was expressed in the "House Divided" speech part of the Lincoln- Douglas debate in which he pointed out the fact that the issue of slavery would lead to the destruction of the unity of the nation.

His military and strategic qualities enabled him to achieve a relative sense of unity among the population that survived the Civil War. However, in order to assess his achievements, it is important to consider his actions during this time.

Although he had a rather good political visibility, he could not manage the front stage in the republican political life. However he became president in 1861. However the times were turbulent and at the time of his arrival in Washington, "the Confederate States of America had been formed. In his first inaugural address, Lincoln tried to woo the South back into the Union, but after the bombardment of Fort Sumter, April 12, he called for 75,000 volunteers to suppress "the insurrection," declared a blockade of Southern ports, and authorized the suspension of Habeas Corpus in areas threatened by pro-secessionist elements." This attitude represented an important step in his approach concerning the Civil War because it represented the approval of the use of force in order to bring back the order and unity in the country. Many of the politicians of the time considered him to be a tyrant precisely because he intervened in the exercise of their Constitutional rights. However, he considered that a more important role must be played by the desire for unity rather than the respect for socially enabled rights.

His belief came from a rather well developed sense of rationality. He pointed out the role this element plays in choosing the actual priorities of the political leaders. In this sense, "Lincoln warned that the pillars of the republic must fall "unless we, their descendants, supply their places with other pillars, hewn from the solid quarry of sober reason. Passion has helped us; but can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy. Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and defense." Therefore, from this perspective it can be said that the most important reason for which he actually considered the solution of the civil war between the northern and the southern states was the rationale behind all possible solutions. Thus, his choice was calculated and discussed in terms of benefits and advantages, as opposed to disadvantages and more importantly to the eventual total dissolution of the national unity.

The choice of military use can also be justified by the fact that he trusted the forces at his disposal. From the point-of-view of the human potential, the North had a larger power than the South. Therefore, the advantage was obvious. Moreover, the fact that the worst alternative to a war was the dissolution of the state, the President assumed responsibility and decided that the best response to the resupply attempt in Charleston was to call for troops to put down the rebellion. The first spark of the war was Lincoln's decision to retaliate and to command its forces against the Confederation.

Despite the fact that the president had a military advantage over the South, the South had a better strategic position, an element which made Lincoln's task increasingly harder. However there are voices that considered the issue of the war in terms of military failure by the Confederation rather the success of the Union. In this sense, in relation to the military aspects, "Historians have often attributed the failure of the Southern Confederacy to win its independence to its inferiority in available manpower and to other equally tangible factors such as inadequate industrial support, weak internal transportation, and a dearth of naval facilities. Indeed, for more than a generation after the end of the war, Union numerical and material superiority seemed, to Southern observers at least, to constitute a full explanation for Confederate defeat." However, the actual military task of the Union was to conquer more than 750,000 square miles of enemy territory and not a mere defensive war. In this sense, the technique applied involved a more active military technique and additional resources.

The strategic initiative of President Lincoln included the use of the military in order to conquer and subject the major cities in the South. The perspective the South had on the actual war revolved around the idea of a defensive war. In this sense, "if the South could keep its army in the field until the North lost the will to fight, the Confederacy would win the war. In contrast, the North needed to attack on a broad front and sustain long avenues of communication and supply. Whereas the South merely had to defend itself, the North needed to destroy the South's capacity to make war and compel total surrender." Therefore, it can be said that the strategy of the North needed to be more aggressive than the South's.

In determining the direction for his action, not necessarily in terms of military action, but in discussing the overall approach of the situation, Lincoln had to face certain challenges. On the one hand, he had to consider a way and means to rally the support of his northern compatriots. In this sense, he used not only the issue of slavery but also the aspect of federal interference in the regional affairs of the state and the issue of human rights of the individual. These were all matters that needed consideration and which attracted the support of the North. His Inaugural Address tried to point them out. In this sense, he considered that the "maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend" Therefore, Lincoln's strategy included the rallying of support based on the idea of unity of the entity which was now the essence of the American society. While for the Northern part, the Union was a much more benefic construction, for the South it did not represent the ultimate structure in terms of economic benefits because the North totally despised slavery and its institution.

Another element Lincoln used to engage support for the cause of the Union was the issue related to the power of the Constitution. In general terms, he argued that in itself the Constitution was stronger and older than the Union or the Confederation; hence the authority of the act should be upheld. Form this point-of-view Lincoln viewed the right of every state to decide on whether it is a free or a slave state to be guaranteed by the Fundamental law. This strategy was a motivational text as well as a political one. He tried to rally support for the war against the South, on the one hand; on the other hand, he tries to oppose the South's initiative to decide in a political manner over the slave and Free states, an element which would have given the former more authority in the Congress.

Abraham Lincoln was not a vivid supporter of the antislavery movement. Moreover, the Civil War in itself was not simply related to slavery. It was also a matter of political battle and interpretation from the two sides. One proof of this dissension was Lincoln's definition of liberty expressed during the Civil War, which could very well characterize the state of affairs: "We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself and the produce of his labor; while with others the same word may mean to do what they please with other men and the produce of other men's labor." The moral rupture between the two sides was thus evident in debates over the slavery issue. While the Northern democrats rarely stated their opinion on the moral character of slavery, trying to maintain an alliance of the Northwest with the South ("this alliance gave each wing of the party the prospect of membership in a majority coalition"), the Republicans in the North wholeheartedly condemned it as "a moral, a social, and a political wrong." Therefore, it can be said that the distinction was in terms political rather than of substance.

As a result of these discussions, the Emancipation Proclamation came as a success of the Lincoln strategy. The act in itself stated that "all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom." In effect, the act declared free the slaves and suggested that the Government would not intervene to go in the pursuit of those who would eventually rebel to gain their freedom.

It can be said that the Proclamation was used by Lincoln with different aims. One of the most important was suggested by the underlying meaning of the act, which could have been interpreted as offering a legitimate right of the slaves to ask, through every means available to them, for their right to be free. In this sense, he indirectly supported slaves to create rebellions in the South and in this way to decrease the power of the Confederation. At the same time, it enabled the Union to have a greater sense of legitimacy and support from the black population.

However, the main goal of the Republican was not to dissolve the institution of slavery. As he stated, "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or 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 save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that." However, the issue of slavery became such an important topic in the economy of the war that the Proclamation became inevitable.

It is rather hard to determine the positive and negative effects of the Proclamation. Firstly, it can be said that there were certain limitations in the actual text, taking into account that there were several states omitted from the phrasing. In this sense, "Immediate practical effect it has none; the slaves remaining in precisely the same condition as before. They still live on the plantations, tenant their accustomed hovels, and obey the command of their master (...), eating the food he furnishes and doing the work he requires precisely as though Mr. Lincoln had not declared them free.... [the state courts] do not recognize the validity of the decree on which he [the slave] rests his claim. So long... As the present... status continues, the freedom declared by this proclamation is a dormant, not an actual, freedom." Therefore it can be said that there were no immediate effects of the Proclamation. This can be justified by the fact that the idea of the proclamation, despite the fact that it was a long awaited piece of legislation, it was somewhat imposed to the South. There was no popular legitimacy for its enactment and therefore no power to impose it on the South.

Another reason for the initial lack of power of the act was the fact that the Proclamation was used more in terms of political gains. More precisely, it can be said that Lincoln used this strategy to offer the population a sense of security over the eventual unity of the Union. In the context of the Civil War, the American society needed a sign of assurance that it will not face the same destruction of the war as it was experiencing at that moment. Therefore, taking into account his most important goal of the war, offering unity to the country, Lincoln marched on the moral issue of slavery in his attempt to give the population the security of a peaceful future under the colors of the Union.