Abraham Lincoln
16th U.S. President
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th
President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination
in April 1865.
Born: February 12, 1809, Hodgenville, Kentucky, United States
Died: April 15, 1865 (aged 56)
Petersen House
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Height: 1.93 m
Assassinated: April 15, 1865,
Penn Quarter, Washington, D.C., United States
Children: William Wallace
Lincoln, Robert Todd Lincoln, Edward Baker Lincoln, Tad Lincoln
EARLY LIFE OF LINCOLN:
Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809, the second
child of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Lincoln (née Hanks), in a one-room log cabin
on the Sinking Spring Farm in Hardin County, Kentucky (now LaRue County). He is
descended from Samuel Lincoln, who arrived in Hingham, Massachusetts, from
Norfolk, England, in the 17th century. Lincoln's paternal grandfather and
namesake, Abraham, had moved his family from Virginia.
EDUCATION:
Abraham Lincoln, who attended school for less than a year,
became a lawyer under an Illinois law enacted in 1833. This law stated that to
be a lawyer someone had to "obtain a certificate procured from the court
of an Illinois county certifying to the applicant's good moral character."
Lincoln actually went to the Illinois Supreme Court to get his certificate. On
September 9, 1836, a license to practice law was issued to Abraham Lincoln by
two of the justices of the Illinois Supreme Court. Later, in a more formal session,
on March 1, 1837, Lincoln appeared before the clerk of the Illinois Supreme
Court and took an oath to support the Constitution of the United States and of
Illinois.
Marriage:
Abraham Lincoln’s
Military Service During the Black Hawk War, 1832:
During the Black Hawk War, Abraham Lincoln of New Salem,
Illinois served three enlistments. Each enrollment lasted for approximately 30
days.
His first enlistment was as elected captain of a company in
the 4th Regiment of Mounted Volunteers, of Gen. Samuel Whiteside's Brigade.
Lincoln enrolled on April 21, 1832, and mustered out with his company at Fort
Johnson (Ottawa) on May 27, 1832. The company served at Beardstown, and
reportedly Lincoln's company helped bury the dead of "Stillman's
Run"— although this occurrence is still under investigation. Along with
the muster-out of Lincoln’s company was the general muster-out of what became known
as the “First Army” of Illinois. While a new army was being raised and
organized, Illinois enlisted and mustered in a 20-day interim regiment (the
so-called “Second Army”) and the only defense the State of Illinois had until
the so-called “Third Army” could be brought into the field.Lincoln re-enlisted
on the same day he mustered out of his old company, and was mustered in on May
29 as a private in Captain Elijah Ises' Company, Twenty-Day Interim Regiment.
He actively served with the company when General Henry Atkinson detached
Captain Iles' command to ride north from Ottawa along the Kellogg Trail and
reopen communications with Galena-- which had been out of touch with the rest
of the world since the Felix St. Vrain Massacre. As part of this movement, Iles’
company (including Lincoln) spent an overnight at Apple River Fort... about a
week before Black Hawk's attack against that strongpoint later in June. Once
this ride was completed, the service of Iles’ company was essentially at an
end. On June 16, Lincoln was mustered out.Lincoln's third enlistment was as a
private in Captain Jacob M. Early's "Spy Company." This unit mustered
in approximately June 20, 1832.
Congressman Lincoln
1847-1849:
The first session of the 30th Congress was to convene on December
6, 1847. In October the Lincolns rented their house for $90 a year to Cornelius
Ludlum, and they left for Washington via Lexington.
Though Lincoln was active as a new member of Congress, his
colleagues generally appraised him as a droll Westerner of average talents. Lincoln's
opposition to the Mexican War which had broken out in May 1846 soon made him
unpopular with his constituents. In Illinois the patriotic fervor and hunger
for new lands disspelled any doubts that the people may have had about the
American cause. Lincoln's "spot" resolutions asking President James
Polk to admit that the "spot" where American blood was first shed was
Mexican territory and his anti-administration speeches created surprised
resentment at home and earned him the nickname "Spotty Lincoln."
Illinois Democrats called Lincoln a disgrace. May 1849, the second session of
the 30th Congress ended and Lincoln returned home, happy to be reunited with
his friends and family, who had stayed in Washington only a short time. Feeling
that he had no future in politics, Lincoln took to the dusty roads of the
Eighth Circuit to regain the friends and clients who had slipped away while he
was in Congress. Lincoln was offered the governorship of the new Oregon
Territory, but he declined it.
LINCOLN'S LEGAL
CAREER:
Lincoln
returned to practicing law in Springfield, handling "every kind of
business that could come before a prairie lawyer". Twice a year for 16
years, 10 weeks at a time, he appeared in county seats in the midstate region
when the county courts were in session. Lincoln handled many transportation
cases in the midst of the nation's western.Lincoln always had a law partner. In
order his partners were: (1) John T. Stuart; (2) Stephen T. Logan; (3) William
Herndon. Lincoln's offices with all his partners were always located in
Springfield.
Lincoln's most notable criminal trial
occurred in 1858 when he defended William "Duff" Armstrong, who was
on trial for the murder of James Preston Metzker. The case is famous for
Lincoln's use of a fact established by judicial notice in order to challenge
the credibility of an eyewitness. After an opposing witness testified seeing
the crime in the moonlight, Lincoln produced a Farmers' Almanac showing the
moon was at a low angle, drastically reducing visibility. Based on this evidence,
Armstrong was acquitted. Lincoln rarely raised objections in the courtroom; but
in an 1859 case, where he defended a cousin, Peachy Harrison, who was accused
of stabbing another to death, Lincoln angrily protested the judge's decision to
exclude evidence favorable to his client. Instead of holding Lincoln in
contempt of court as was expected, the judge, a Democrat, reversed his ruling,
allowing the evidence and acquitting Harrison.
Politics
& Politicians:
The
Republican Party "Birth of an
Antislavery Party" February 1854:As the 1850's progressed, the nation's politicians increasingly were becoming divided more along geographical lines than party lines. The two major U.S. political parties were the Democratic party and the Whig party, both of which had Southern and Northern factions. The issues of slavery and the expansion of slavery into new territories and states were causing the national parties to crumble and break into many splinter groups. Politicians who supported the party line would find themselves not being re-elected; those who split with party policy were losing their influence in the party. New parties such as the People's party, the American "Know-Nothing" party, the Free-Soil party, and others were springing up around the country in an effort to unite disillusioned Whigs and Democrats.It was in February 1854, at a political rally in Ripon, Wis., that the label "Republican" was first decided upon by a small group supporting an antislavery position. The Republican party rapidly absorbed other splinter parties under the platform of the nonexpansion of slavery, a strong central government, high tariffs, federally funded internal improvements, and other measures repugnant to Southerners. The area of the country from which the Republican party drew its support was the most densely populated and industrializes; it had most of the railroads and controlled much of the country's commerce. The Republicans were capable of making an immediate impact in national elections. In the presidential election of 1856, the Republican party, labeled "Black Republicans" for their stand against slavery, nominated the western explorer John C. Fremont. He received less than 1 percent of the Southern vote; however, he carried 11 Northern states outright. For the first time a purely Northern major political party had positioned itself squarely against the Southern slave power.
Fascinating Fact: Abraham
Lincoln, a former Whig, joined the Republican party in 1856. In 1858, he lost
the race for U.S. Senate to Stephen A. Douglass, author of the Nebraska-Kansas
Act.
1860
Presidential nomination and campaign:
Despite his electoral setback, Lincoln
remained a leading Republican spokesman, and he continued to maintain
"that slavery is wrong and ought to be dealt with as wrong" as a
bedrock Republican principle. For his part, the victorious Stephen A. Douglas
continued to present popular sovereignty as the best solution to the slavery
question in American politics. Lincoln's dramatic
performance in 1858, and the positive reaction to his 1859 efforts, sparked
speculation on his prospects as a presidential nominee in 1860. Lincoln was
well aware of his limitations and initially was inclined to dismiss talk of his
candidacy. His qualifications seemed dubious - he had failed to be elected
senator twice of late, had never held a significant government administrative
post, had served only a single term in the House of Representatives, had scant
formal education and no web of national political contacts. East to begin
thinking seriously of Lincoln as a potential president. On May 10, 1860, a
united Illinois Republican Party chose Lincoln as its presidential candidate,
dubbing him the "Rail Splitter," a nickname that harkened to
Lincoln's humble frontier origins. Lincoln focused his campaign on the northern
and western states, and rightly considered himself persona non grata in the
slaveholding South.
Presidency:
On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected
the 16th president of the United States. Lincoln received 1,866,452 votes,
Douglas 1,376,957 votes, Breckinridge 849,781 votes, and Bell 588,789 votes.
Turnout was 82.2 percent, with Lincoln winning the free Northern states, as
well as California and Oregon. Douglas won Missouri, and split New Jersey with
Lincoln. Bell won Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, and Breckinridge won the
rest of the South. Although Lincoln won only a plurality of the popular vote,
The President ended his address
with an appeal to the people of the South: "We are not enemies, but
friends. We must not be enemies ... 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."[141] The failure of the Peace Conference of 1861 signaled that
legislative compromise was implausible. By March 1861, no leaders of the
insurrection had proposed rejoining the Union on any terms. Meanwhile, Lincoln
and nearly every Republican leader agreed that the dismantling of the Union
could not be tolerated.
Beginning
of the war:
The commander of Fort Sumter, South
Carolina, Major Robert Anderson, sent a request for provisions to Washington,
and the execution of Lincoln's order to meet that request was seen by the
secessionists as an act of war. On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces fired on
Union troops at Fort Sumter, forcing them to surrender, and began the war.
On April 15, Lincoln called on all the states to send detachments
totaling 75,000 troops to recapture forts, protect Washington, and "preserve
the Union", which, in his view, still existed intact despite the actions
of the seceding states. This call forced the states to choose sides. Virginia
declared its secession and was rewarded with the Confederate capital, despite
the exposed position of Richmond so close to Union lines. North Carolina,
Tennessee, and Arkansas also voted for secession over the next two months.
Secession sentiment was strong in Missouri and Maryland, but did not prevail;
Kentucky tried to be neutral.
Troops headed south towards Washington to
protect the capital in response to Lincoln's call. On April 19 Lincoln came
under heavy attack from antiwar Democrats, called Copperheads.
General McClellan: After the Union
defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run and the retirement of the aged Winfield
Scott in late 1861, Lincoln appointed Major General George B. McClellan
general-in-chief of all the Union armies.[162] McClellan, a young West Point
graduate, railroad executive, and Pennsylvania Democrat, took several months to
plan and attempt his Peninsula Campaign, longer than Lincoln wanted.
Lincoln
removed McClellan as general-in-chief and appointed Henry Wager Halleck in
March 1862, after McClellan's "Harrison's Landing Letter", in which
he offered unsolicited political advice to Lincoln urging caution in the war
effort.[164] McClellan's letter incensed Radical Republicans, who successfully
pressured Lincoln to appoint John Pope, a Republican, as head of the new Army
of Virginia. Pope complied with Lincoln's strategic desire to move toward
Richmond from the north, thus protecting the capital from attack. However,
lacking requested reinforcements from McClellan, now commanding the Army of the
Potomac, Pope was soundly defeated at the Second Battle of Bull Run in the
summer of 1862, forcing the Army of the Potomac to defend Washington for a
second time. The war also expanded with naval operations in 1862 when the CSS
Virginia, formerly the USS Merrimack, damaged or destroyed three Union vessels
in Norfolk, Virginia, before being engaged and damaged by the USS Monitor.
Lincoln closely reviewed the dispatches and interrogated naval officers during
their clash in the Battle of Hampton Roads. Despite his dissatisfaction with McClellan's failure
to reinforce Pope, Lincoln was desperate, and restored him to command of all
forces around Washington, to the dismay of all in his cabinet but Seward. Two
days after McClellan's return to command, General Robert E. Lee's forces
crossed the Potomac River into Maryland, leading to the Battle of Antietam in
September 1862. McClellan then resisted the President's demand that he pursue
Lee's retreating and exposed army, while his counterpart General Don Carlos
Buell likewise refused orders to move the Army of the Ohio against rebel forces
in eastern Tennessee. As a result, Lincoln replaced Buell with William
Rosecrans; and, after the 1862 midterm elections, he replaced McClellan with
Republican Ambrose Burnside. Both of these replacements were political
moderates and prospectively more supportive of the Commander-in-Chief Hooker was routed
by Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May,[175] but continued to command
his troops for some weeks. He ignored Lincoln's order to divide his troops, and
possibly force Lee to do the same in Harper's Ferry, and tendered his
resignation, which Lincoln accepted. He was replaced by George Meade, who
followed Lee into Pennsylvania for the Gettysburg Campaign, which was a victory
for the Union, though Lee's army avoided capture. At the same time, after
initial setbacks, Grant laid siege to Vicksburg and the Union navy attained
some success in Charleston harbor.[176] After the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln
clearly understood that his military decisions would be more effectively
carried out by conveying his orders through his War Secretary or his
general-in-chief on to his generals, who resented his civilian interference
with their own plans. Even so, he often continued to give detailed directions
to his generals as Commander-in-Chief.
The Emancipation Proclamation:
Whereas,
on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the
United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:
"That
on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
and sixty-three, 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.
"That the Executive will, on the first
day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of
States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in
rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people
thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of
the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of
the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the
absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that
such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the
United States."
General Grant:
Through
the winter and spring after Abraham Lincoln's election sectional tensions
heightened culminating with the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter on April 12,
1861. With the beginning of the Civil War, Grant aided in recruiting a company
of volunteers and led it to Springfield, IL. Once there, Governor Richard Yates
seized on Grant's military experience and set him to training newly arriving
recruits. Proving highly effective in this role, Grant used his connections to
Congressman Elihu B. Washburne to secure a promotion to colonel on June 14. Given
command of the unruly 21st Illinois Infantry, he reformed the unit and made it
an effective fighting force. On July 31, Grant was appointed a brigadier
general of volunteers by Lincoln. This promotion led to Major General John C.
Frémont giving him command of the District of Southeast Missouri at the end of
August.
In
November, Grant received orders from Frémont to demonstrate against the
Confederate positions at Columbus, KY. Moving down the Mississippi River, he
landed 3,114 men on the opposite shore and attacked a Confederate force near
Belmont, MO. In the resulting Battle of Belmont, Grant had initial success
before Confederate reinforcements pushed him back to his boats. Despite this
setback, the engagement greatly boosted Grant's confidence and that of his men.
The RE - Election of 1864:
It is hard
for modern Americans to believe that Abraham Lincoln, one of history's most
beloved Presidents, was nearly defeated in his reelection attempt in 1864. Yet
by that summer, Lincoln himself feared he would lose. How could this happen?
First, the country had not elected an incumbent President for a second term
since Andrew Jackson in 1832 — nine Presidents in a row had served just one
term. Also, his embrace of emancipation was still a problem for many Northern
voters. Despite Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg a year earlier, the
Southern armies came back fighting with a vengeance. During three months in the
summer of 1864, over 65,000 Union soldiers were killed, wounded, or
missing-in-action. In comparison, there had been 108,000 Union casualties in
the first three years. General Ulysses S.Grant was being called The Butcher. At
one time during the summer, Confederate soldiers under JUBAL EARLY came within
five miles of the White House.
Lincoln
had much to contend with. He had staunch opponents in the Congress. Underground
Confederate activities brought rebellion to parts of Maryland. Lincoln's
suspension of the WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS was ruled unconstitutional by Supreme
Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney — an order Lincoln refused to obey. But
worst of all, the war was not going well. Meanwhile the DEMOCRATIC PARTY SPLIT, with major
opposition from Peace Democrats, who wanted a negotiated peace at any cost.
They chose as their nominee George B. McClellan, Lincoln's former commander of
the Army of the Potomac. Even Lincoln expected that McClellan would win.The
South was well aware of Union discontent. Many felt that if the Southern armies
could hold out until the election, negotiations for Northern recognition of
Confederate independence might begin. Everything changed on September 6, 1864,
when General Sherman seized Atlanta. The war effort had turned decidedly in the
North's favor and even McClellan now sought military victory.
Two months
later, Lincoln won the popular vote that eluded him in his first election. He
won the electoral college by 212 to 21 and the Republicans had won
three-fourths of Congress. A second term and the power to conclude the war were
now in his hands.
RECONSTRUCTION (1865–1877):
Plans
for Reconstruction: After major Union victories at the battles of
Gettysburg and Vicksburg in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln began preparing his
plan for Reconstruction to reunify the North and South after the war’s end.
Because Lincoln believed that the South had never legally seceded from the
Union, his plan for Reconstruction was based on forgiveness. He thus issued the
Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction in 1863 to announce his intention to
reunite the once-united states. Lincoln hoped that the proclamation would rally
northern support for the war and persuade weary Confederate soldiers to
surrender.
Lincoln’s
Vision for Reconstruction: President Lincoln seemed to favor self-Reconstruction
by the states with little assistance from Washington. To appeal to poorer
whites, he offered to pardon all Confederates; to appeal to former plantation
owners and southern aristocrats, he pledged to protect private property. Unlike
Radical Republicans in Congress, Lincoln did not want to punish southerners or
reorganize southern society. His actions indicate that he wanted Reconstruction
to be a short process in which secessionist states could draft new
constitutions as swiftly as possible so that the United States could exist as
it had before. But historians can only speculate that Lincoln desired a swift
reunification, for his assassination in 1865 cut his plans for Reconstruction
short.
The Radical
Republicans:
Many leading Republicans in Congress feared that Lincoln’s
plan for Reconstruction was not harsh enough, believing that the South needed
to be punished for causing the war. These Radical Republicans hoped to control
the Reconstruction process, transform southern society, disband the planter
aristocracy, redistribute land, develop industry, and guarantee civil liberties
for former slaves. Although the Radical Republicans were the minority party in
Congress, they managed to sway many moderates in the postwar years and came to
dominate Congress in later sessions.
judicial appointments:
Lincoln appointed 32 federal judges, including four
Associate Justices and one Chief Justice to the Supreme Court of the United
States, and 27 judges to the United States district courts. Lincoln appointed
no judges to the United States circuit courts during his time in office.
States admitted to the
Union:
West Virginia, admitted to the Union June 20, 1863,
contained the former north-westernmost counties of Virginia that seceded from
Virginia after that commonwealth declared its secession from the Union. As a
condition for its admission, West Virginia's constitution was required to
provide for the gradual abolition of slavery. Nevada, which became the third
State in the far-west of the continent, was admitted as a free state on October
31, 1864
Lincoln’s
Assassination:
LINCOLN MEMORIALS:
Abraham Lincoln Quotes:
We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the
courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert
the Constitution.
BY Abraham Lincoln
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