Essay/Term paper: Abraham lincoln

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Biography

Abraham Lincoln


Lincoln, Abraham (1809-65), 16th president of the United States (1861-65), who
steered the Union to victory in the American Civil War and abolished slavery.

Early Life

Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, near Hodgenville, Kentucky, the son of
Nancy Hanks and Thomas Lincoln, pioneer farmers. At the age of two he was taken
by his parents to nearby Knob Creek and at eight to Spencer County, Indiana. The
following year his mother died. In 1819 his father married Sarah Bush Johnston,
a kindly widow, who soon gained the boy's affection. Lincoln grew up a tall,
gangling youth, who could hold his own in physical contests and also showed
great intellectual promise, although he had little formal education. In 1831,
after moving with his family to Macon County, Illinois, he struck out on his own,
taking cargo on a flatboat to New Orleans, Louisiana. He then returned to
Illinois and settled in New Salem, a short-lived community on the Sangamon River,
where he split rails and clerked in a store. He gained the respect of his fellow
townspeople, including the so-called Clary Grove boys, who had challenged him to
physical combat, and was elected captain of his company in the Black Hawk War
(1832). Returning from the war, he began an unsuccessful venture in shopkeeping
that ended when his partner died. In 1833 he was appointed postmaster but had to
supplement his income with surveying and various other jobs. At the same time he
began to study law. That he gradually paid off his and his deceased partner's
debts firmly established his reputation for honesty. The story of his romance
with Ann Rutledge, a local young woman whom he knew briefly before her untimely
death, is unsubstantiated.

Illinois Politician and Lawyer

Defeated in 1832 in a race for the state legislature, Lincoln was elected on the
Whig ticket two years later and served in the lower house from 1834 to 1841. He
quickly emerged as one of the leaders of the party and was one of the authors of
the removal of the capital to Springfield, where he settled in 1837. After his
admission to the bar (1836), he entered into successive partnerships with John T.
Stuart, Stephen T. Logan, and William Herndon, and soon won recognition as an
effective and resourceful attorney. In 1842 Lincoln married Mary Todd, the
daughter of a prominent Kentucky banker, and despite her somewhat difficult
disposition, the marriage seems to have been reasonably successful. The Lincolns
had four children, only one of whom reached adulthood. His birth in a slave
state notwithstanding, Lincoln had long opposed slavery. In the legislature he
voted against resolutions favorable to the "peculiar institution" and in 1837
was one of two members who signed a protest against it. Elected to Congress in
1846, he attracted attention because of his outspoken criticism of the war with
Mexico and formulated a plan for gradual emancipation in the District of
Columbia. He was not an abolitionist, however. Conceding the right of the states
to manage their own affairs, he merely sought to prevent the spread of human
bondage.

National Recognition Disappointed in a quest for federal office at the end of
his one term in Congress (1847-49), Lincoln returned to Springfield to pursue
his profession. In 1854, however, because of his alarm at Senator Stephen A.
Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska Act, he became politically active again. Clearly
setting forth his opposition to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, he argued
that the measure was wrong because slavery was wrong and that Congress should
keep the territories free for actual settlers (as opposed to those who traveled
there mainly to vote for or against slavery). The following year he ran for the
U.S. Senate, but seeing that he could not win, he yielded to Lyman Trumbull, a
Democrat who opposed Douglas's bill. He campaigned for the newly founded
Republican party in 1856, and in 1858 he became its senatorial candidate against
Douglas. In a speech to the party's state convention that year he warned that "a
house divided against itself cannot stand" and predicted the eventual triumph of
freedom. Meeting Douglas in a series of debates, he challenged his opponent in
effect to explain how he could reconcile his principles of popular sovereignty
with the Dred Scott decision (see Dred Scott Case). In his reply, Douglas
reaffirmed his belief in the practical ability of settlers to keep slavery out
of the territories despite the Supreme Court's denial of their right to do so.
Although Lincoln lost the election to Douglas, the debates won him national
recognition.

Election and Secession Crisis In 1860 the Republicans, anxious to attract as
many different factions as possible, nominated Lincoln for the presidency on a
platform of slavery restriction, internal improvements, homesteads, and tariff
reform. In a campaign against Douglas and John C. Breckinridge, two rival
Democrats, and John Bell, of the Constitutional Union party, Lincoln won a
majority of the electoral votes and was elected president. Immediately after the
election, South Carolina, followed by six other Southern states, took steps to
secede from the Union. Declaring that secession was illegal but that he had no
power to oppose it, President James Buchanan preferred to rely on Congress to
find a compromise. The success of this effort, however, depended on Lincoln, the
president-elect, who was open to concessions but refused to countenance any
possible extension of slavery. Thus, the Crittenden Compromise, the most
promising scheme of adjustment, failed, and a new Southern government was
inaugurated in February 1861. See Confederate States of America.

Lincoln as President When Lincoln took the oath of office on March 4, 1861, he
was confronted with a hostile Confederacy determined to expand and threatening
the remaining federal forts in the South, the most important of which was Fort
Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. Anxious not to offend the
upper South, which had not yet seceded, Lincoln at first refused to take
decisive action. After the failure of an expedition to Fort Pickens, Florida,
however, he decided to relieve Fort Sumter and informed the governor of South
Carolina of his intention to send food to the beleaguered garrison. The
Confederates, unwilling to permit continued federal occupation of their soil,
opened fire to reduce the fort, thus starting the Civil War. When Lincoln
countered with a call for 75,000 volunteers, the North responded with enthusiasm,
but the upper South seceded.

Military Leadership As commander in chief, Lincoln encountered great
difficulties in the search for capable generals. After the defeat of Irvin
McDowell at the First Battle of Bull Run, the president appointed George B.
McClellan to lead the eastern army but found him excessively cautious. His
Peninsular campaign against Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital, failed,
and Lincoln, whose own strategy had not succeeded in trapping Stonewall Jackson
in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, virtually superseded McClellan with John
Pope. When Pope was defeated at the Second Battle of Bull Run, the president
turned once more to McClellan, only to be disappointed again. Despite his
victory at Antietam, Maryland, the general was so hesitant that Lincoln finally
had to remove him. The president's next choice, Ambrose Burnside, was also
unfortunate. Decisively beaten at Fredericksburg, Virginia, Burnside gave way to
Joseph Hooker, who in turn was routed at Chancellorsville, Virginia. Then
Lincoln appointed George G. Meade, who triumphed at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania,
but failed to follow up his victory. Persisting in his determination to discover
a general who could defeat the Confederates, the president in 1864 entrusted
overall command to Ulysses S. Grant, the victor at Fort Donelson, Tennessee,
Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Chattanooga, Tennessee. This choice was a good one.
Grant, in a series of coordinated campaigns, finally brought the war to a
successful conclusion.

Emancipation

In dealing with the problem of emancipation, Lincoln proved himself a masterful
statesman. Carefully maneuvering to take advantage of radical pressure to move
forward and conservative entreaties to hold back, he was able to retain the
loyalty of the Democrats and the border states while still bringing about the
final abolition of slavery. Lincoln pleased the radicals in 1861, when he signed
the first Confiscation Act, freeing slaves used by the Confederates for military
purposes. He deferred to the conservatives when he countermanded emancipation
orders of the Union generals John C. Frémont and David Hunter, but again courted
the radicals by reverting to a cautious antislavery program. Thus, he exerted
pressure on the border states to inaugurate compensated emancipation, signed the
bill for abolition in the District of Columbia, and consented to the second
Confiscation Act. On July 22, 1862, in response to radical demands and
diplomatic necessity, he told his cabinet that he intended to issue an
emancipation proclamation but took care to soften the blow to the border states
by specifically exempting them. Advised to await some federal victory, he did
not make his proclamation public until September 22, following the Battle of
Antietam, when he announced that all slaves in areas still in rebellion within
100 days would be "then, thenceforward, and forever, free." The final
Emancipation Proclamation followed on January 1, 1863. Promulgated by the
president in his capacity as commander in chief in times of actual armed
rebellion, it freed slaves in regions held by the insurgents and authorized the
creation of black military units. Lincoln was determined to place emancipation
on a more permanent basis, however, and in 1864 he advocated the adoption of an
antislavery amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment was passed after
Lincoln's reelection, when he made use of all the powers of his office to ensure
its success in the House of Representatives (January 31, 1865).

Political Skill A consummate politician, Lincoln sought to maintain harmony
among the disparate elements of his party by giving them representation in his
cabinet. Recognizing former Whigs by the appointment of William H. Seward as
secretary of state and Edward Bates as attorney general, he also extended
invitations to such former Democrats as Montgomery Blair, who became postmaster
general, and Gideon Welles, who became secretary of the navy. He honored local
factions by appointing Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania secretary of war and Caleb
B. Smith of Indiana secretary of the interior, while satisfying the border
states with Bates and Blair. At the same time, he offset the conservative Bates
with the radical Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase and later with
Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Although Lincoln was much closer to the
radicals and gradually moved toward ever more radical measures, he did not
needlessly offend the conservatives and often collaborated with them. His
careful handling of the slavery issue is a case in point, as is his appointment
of Democratic generals and his deference to the sensibilities of the border
states. In December 1862 he foiled critics demanding the dismissal of the
conservative Seward. Refusing to accept Seward's resignation and inducing the
radical Chase to offer to step down as well, he maintained the balance of his
cabinet by retaining both secretaries. Lincoln's political influence was
enhanced by his great gifts as an orator. Able to stress essentials in simple
terms, he effectively appealed to the nation in such classical short speeches as
the Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address. Moreover, he was a
capable diplomat. Firmly rejecting Seward's proposal in April 1861 that the
country be united by means of a foreign war, he sought to maintain friendly
relations with the nations of Europe, used the Emancipation Proclamation to win
friends for the Union, and effectively countered Confederate efforts to gain
foreign recognition.

Reelection and Reconstruction In 1864 a number of disgruntled Republicans sought
to prevent Lincoln's renomination. Adroitly outmaneuvering his opponents,
especially the ambitious Chase, he succeeded in obtaining his party's
endorsement at Baltimore, Maryland, even though a few extremists nominated Fré
mont. Lincoln's renomination did not end his political problems, however.
Unhappy with his Proclamation of Amnesty (December 1863), which called for the
restoration of insurgent states if 10 percent of the electorate took an oath of
loyalty, Congress in July 1864 passed the Wade-Davis Bill, which provided for
more onerous conditions and their acceptance by 50 percent of the voters. When
Lincoln used the pocket veto to kill it, some radicals sought to displace him
and in the so-called Wade-Davis Manifesto passionately attacked the
administration. The president, nevertheless, prevailed again. His poor prospects
in August 1864 improved when the Democrats nominated General McClellan on a
peace platform. Subsequent federal victories and the withrawal of Frémont,
coupled with the resignation of the conservative Blair, reunited the party, and
in November 1864 Lincoln was triumphantly reelected. The president's success at
the polls enabled him to seek to establish his own Reconstruction policies. To
blunt conservative criticism, he met with leading Confederates at Hampton Roads,
Virginia, and demonstrated the impossibility of a negotiated peace. The radicals,
however, were also dissatisfied. Because of their demand for black suffrage,
Lincoln was unable to induce Congress to accept the members-elect of the free
state government of Louisiana, which he had organized. In addition, after the
fall of Richmond, he alarmed his critics by inviting the Confederate legislature
of Virginia to repeal the secession ordinance. His Reconstruction policies,
however, had been determined by military necessity. As soon as the Confederate
general Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, Lincoln
withdrew the invitation to the Virginians. He again proved how close he was to
the radicals by endorsing a limited black franchise.

The Assassination At his second inaugural, Lincoln, attributing the war to the
evil consequences of slavery, summed up his attitude in the famous phrase "with
malice toward none, with charity for all." A few weeks later, he publicly
announced his support for limited black suffrage in Louisiana. This open
defiance of conservative opinion could only have strengthened the resolve of one
in his audience, John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor who had long been
plotting against the president. Aroused by the prospect of votes for blacks, he
determined to carry out his assassination scheme and on April 14, 1865, shot
Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. The president died the next day.
The subject of numerous myths, Lincoln ranks with the greatest of American
statesmen. His humanitarian instincts, brilliant speeches, and unusual political
skill ensured his hold on the electorate and his success in saving the Union.
That he also gained fame as the Great Emancipator was due to a large degree to
his excellent sense of timing and his open-mindedness. Thus, he was able to
bring about the abolition of slavery and to advocate a policy of Reconstruction
that envisaged the gradual enfranchisement of the freedmen. It was a disaster
for the country that he did not live to carry it out.

Contributed by: Hans L. Trefousse