The book Abraham Lincoln, written by James M. McPherson, constitutes not only Abraham Lincoln’s life, but also his remarkable presidency. Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the United States. He also was considered a peacemaker because his passion was to follow God’s law and create every man to be equal. During Lincoln’s first term of presidency in 1860-1864, he followed his passion by abolishing slavery, otherwise known as the Thirteenth Amendment. Following his first term, his second term’s goal is now known as the Fifteenth Amendment. To say the least, McPherson argues the brilliancy of Abraham Lincoln’s ideas and the colossal contribution Lincoln had regarding the United States of America.…
Lincoln entered the Presidency rooted in the beliefs that the executive branch’s power came second to the legislative, as stated in the Constitution. His “immediate predecessors—Democrats Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan—had set the pattern for a weak executive, conceiving their roles as little more than clerks...who either approved or disapproved legislation developed from Congress’s agenda,” (Brinkley and Dyer, 2004, 175). However, following the secession of seven southern states immediately after Lincoln’s election, his focus became reuniting the union: “he sought to reassure his fellow countrymen and to prevent more states from seceding,” (Brinkley and Dyer, 2004, 175). To accomplish this, Lincoln was headfast in his decisions, often reaching beyond traditional executive power and, in effect, overriding the other branches of government. These decisions were extremely controversial: Groiler Encyclopedia says, “As a commander in chief Lincoln was soon noted for vigorous…
The Advent of emancipation added the number of free Americans by a great deal. This transformation of status weakened the south, strengthening the North. The slaves in the south were a possible force in aiding the Confederates against the North, which would have been a grand blow to the Union government. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was a genius step of weakening south, economically, socially and force wise. The European colonists and slave masters who completely depended on slave labor and slave trade would never join hands with the Union government and so were a possible force together with the Confederates. Gradual emancipation and the abolishing of the slave trade and forced labor was a stealth weapon of weakening the possible force and the South. Many freed slaves began running to Union lines, and this provided the Union with more soldiers (Howell, 2006).…
Abraham Lincoln’s star shined when his administration took place during the Civil War proving excellency in both politically and rhetorically. From that war the 16th president got his most famous nick name as the Great Emancipator that dwells between Americans till the present day. However, history doesn’t say quit the same about the complete representation of Abraham Lincoln’s attitude towards the war and even the issue of slavery. Such a title proposes an acceptance that the civil war was a war for abolishing slavery and freeing the slaves under the lead of a free man who is motivated by the moral code of equality between blacks and whites. The sentiment about slavery was totally different than today’s. Slaves were private property and not even considered as human beings who have lost rights as Americans. Actually, slaves were a joker in the pack to both Northerners and Southerners. Saying all this make the slavery issue seems the cover of the civil war. Therefore, the goal of this chapter’s second section is to examine whether slavery was used only as a front image to fulfil a higher aim and securing the country from the danger that disturbed it with the threat of dissolving the union.…
slaves. He is hailed as the hero of black freedom who supported social equality of the races and…
“You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.¨ -Abraham Lincoln. This is an ironic quote from Lincoln. When he said this he himself had proven you could fool people some of the time. He could not fool us. Abraham Lincoln tried to fool us by making us think that he actually tried to free slaves by using the Emancipation Proclamation to further increase his popularity.In the text 5 Things You May Not Know About Lincoln,Slavery And Emancipation it says ¨Lincoln presented more clearly than ever his moral,legal and economic opposition to slavery¨This Great Emancipator” isn't very great. Abraham Lincoln was a great president, but he doesn't deserve the name the “Great Emancipator”…
Source B states that Lincoln “challenged the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which was essentially a pro-slavery bill… Ultimately he lost the nomination as its Vice Presidential candidate in 1856. However, he continued his campaigning against slavery.” This citation shows how though Lincoln lost all hope of getting power to stop slavery, he still encouraged the fight against slavery. During Abraham Lincoln’s youth, he strived to understand the talk of politics and what they are Source C depicts, “As a boy he listened to his father and friends talk about the issues of the day, and then worked the idea in his mind until he understood it… he would repeat things over and over until it was fixed in his mind.” Abraham Lincoln wanted to preserve the Union even though he knew other people disagreed with him. “He put in long hours attending to the countless details of running the country, including spending the entire night, sometimes, at the telegraph office, waiting for the latest news from his generals.” Source C portrays. Abraham Lincoln’s success shows us that determination leads to…
Abraham Lincoln won the election of 1860. As a president of the United States, Lincoln’s goal was to keep the Union together. The problem of slavery and the secession by the South are mainly the two issues that lead to the dissolve of the Union, in which Lincoln put all his efforts to deal with during his presidency. “He believes this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. He does not expect the Union to be dissolved; He does not expect the house to fall; but he does expect it will cease to be divided.” Lincoln claimed that it is either all free or all slaves in the Union, the Union cannot tolerate half free and half slaves. Lincoln viewed slavery as “a moral, social, and political wrong”. He “does not believe it is a constitutional right to hold slaves in a territory of the United States” (Paul Boyer 360). Lincoln’s dream was to free all the slaves, but this dream can only go by gradually, he cannot end slavery immediately because it will further the dissolve of the Union. However, Southerners viewed his victory of being a president of the United States as a victory for abolition. Here the problem raised, southern states decided to begin the process of secession from the Union. Lincoln’s hard time began from now on. How was he going to solve this problem? Lincoln help preserved the Union in three different aspects which are economic, military and political policies. His economic strategy was to use capital, weapon and trade; his military strategy was the war of attrition and the three-part strategy to take over the control of Mississippi River and Richmond; his political strategy was to promise he will not end slavery immediately but gradually and establish the Emancipation of Proclamation to claim that every slaves in South will be free so that they will…
Abraham Lincoln is by far our most revered president in the history of the United States. He had a strong moral vision of where his country must go to preserve and enlarge the rights of all her people, but he was also a good man with a strong sense of character and a great discipline in the art of law; and he sought to continue the great and mighty legacy of the Constitution. He believed that the Founding Fathers had drawn up the Constitution without the mention of slavery because they felt that it would later die of a natural death. He would soon learn that that would not be the case.…
Lincoln’s election of 1860 was possibly the greatest sectional divider. The American nation, he said, was in a crisis and building toward a worse one. “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free,” Lincoln said he did not expect the Union to be dissolved or the house to fall but rather that it will become all one thing or all the other. He believed in white superiority, opposed granting specific equal civil rights to free blacks and said that differences between whites and blacks would forever forbid the two races from living together on terms of social and political equality, colonization was the best solution. He also believed that blacks were entitled to the natural rights in the Declaration of Independence. These statements enraged differing ideas of slavery and the rights of blacks.…
Instead of starting from slavery the conflict started from the difference in economic policies of the Northern and Southern states, some of them related to slavery but others were independent of it. Slavery, however, had been planted in both sections of the Union and had proved unprofitable in the North and profitable in the South. The South sought to expand the influence of the slavery; the North sought to contract it. For Lincoln his top priority was dealing with preserving the Union. There is no doubt that Abraham Lincoln despised segregation and desired equality. However Lincoln refused to make a bad situation, with the Union, worse by any ill-judged or ill-timed effort to make freedom for all men reign, as he spoke of in the Gettysburg Address, unless it was necessary. His fear that any public abolitionist moves might drive slave states into confederacy caused him to refrain from helping the slaves willingly.…
Abraham Lincoln is considered today, to be one of the best presidents of the United States. However he was despised by many at the time of his election. When he was elected a number of states in the south insisted that they would not be governed by him and wanted to secede. By the time he of his inauguration seven states had already seceded with four more following shortly after. The Confederates seceded because they feared that slavery would be ended, and they felt it was too important to their economy. Their actions are still considered to be too severe because although Lincoln was against slavery, he was not prepared to take any direct action to stop it. He believed that if he stopped to spread of slavery then it would die out in the far future. He also believed the slaves did not believe to become American citizen and should be shipped back to Africa after they gained freedom.…
Abraham Lincoln’s view on slavery was segregated in itself, between how he perceived the issue on a political level and as a moral dilemma facing the United States. Without the understanding of Lincoln’s differentiated objections to the institution that created such a split in the American people, it is difficult to fully grasp how and why Lincoln acted as he did throughout his political career. Lincoln’s first documented objection to slavery began in the Illinois State Legislature, in which he and Dan Stone protested a piece of legislation that disapproved of abolitionism and affirmed…
Stephen Douglas made a remark about compromise in his speech in Alton, Illinois,”… Our fathers knew, when they made the government, that the laws and institutions which were well adapted to the green mountains of Vermont, were unsuited to the rice plantations of South Carolina.” In order for those laws of Vermont to be suite to South Carolina, Vermont has to give up something and South Carolina has to give something back, like obeying those laws for instant. The government was built upon compromise. Before the Civil War and in Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address, Lincoln repeatedly said, “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so…” Lincoln was being persuasive in getting the South states to stay in the Union. He knew that slavery will be abolished soon but it was not the time yet. Lincoln went about winning the Congressmen seat by figuratively trapping Douglas; he cornered him with questions during the Lincoln-Douglas Debates on slavery. Lincoln thought it was wrong but wanted to leave it alone, but Douglas had been tied to the Kansas-Nebraska Act which almost allowed slavery in an anti-slavery North but didn’t thanks to popular sovereignty, which is a decision that is decided by its people. Lincoln claimed he was going against the North by letting slaves in the Northern Territories, Lincoln (Republican) went on to lose the Congress seat to Douglas but later beat him for the Presidency of 1860. Again, in an attempt to save the Union, this time by Lincoln, failed because the South knew Lincoln would abolish slavery one way or another. They knew he would do so because of his speech given at the Republican state convention in Springfield, Illinois. He said, “…I believe this Government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free…It will become all one thing, or all…
Lincoln was a strong, confident president who remained steadfast in his principles. At a time of crisis he led the nation into an unpopular civil war. He could have gone the easy route, and ignored the Confederate States of America, ergo avoiding conflict. However, he felt that the union was something exceptional, and was worth preserving. Lincoln was less concerned about his own personal life and what people thought of him. He remained strong and he fought for our country and his principles. President Lincoln gave his life and sacrificed the lives of his fellow American so the union would be preserved.…