Misplaced Pages

Latest revision as of 01:03, 24 December 2024

Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln in 1863
16th President of the United States
In office March 4, 1861 – April 15, 1865
Vice President	Hannibal Hamlin (1861–1865) Andrew Johnson (Mar–Apr. 1865)
Preceded by	James Buchanan
Succeeded by	Andrew Johnson
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 7th district
In office March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1849
Preceded by	John Henry
Succeeded by	Thomas L. Harris
Member of the Illinois House of Representatives from Sangamon County
In office December 1, 1834 – December 4, 1842
Preceded by	Achilles Morris
Personal details
Born	(1809-02-12)February 12, 1809 Hodgenville, Hardin County (now LaRue County), Kentucky, U.S.
Died	April 15, 1865(1865-04-15) (aged 56) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Manner of death	Assassination by gunshot
Resting place	Lincoln Tomb
Political party	Whig (before 1856) Republican (after 1856)
Other political affiliations	National Union (1864–1865)
Height	6 ft 4 in (193 cm)
Spouse	Mary Todd ​(m. 1842)​
Children	Robert Edward Willie Tad
Parents	Thomas Lincoln Nancy Hanks
Relatives	Lincoln family
Occupation	Politician lawyer
Signature
Military service
Branch/service	Illinois Militia
Years of service	April–July 1832
Rank	Captain Private
Unit	31st (Sangamon) Regiment of Illinois Militia 4th Mounted Volunteer Regiment Iles Mounted Volunteers
Battles/wars	American Indian Wars Black Hawk War Battle of Stillman's Run (non-combatant) Battle of Kellogg's Grove (non-combatant)

Abraham Lincoln (/ˈlɪŋkən/ LINK-ən; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War, defending the nation as a constitutional union, defeating the Confederacy, playing a major role in the abolition of slavery, expanding the power of the federal government, and modernizing the U.S. economy.

Lincoln was born into poverty in a log cabin in Kentucky and was raised on the frontier, mainly in Indiana. He was self-educated and became a lawyer, Whig Party leader, Illinois state legislator, and U.S. representative from Illinois. In 1849, he returned to his successful law practice in Springfield, Illinois. In 1854, angered by the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which opened the territories to slavery, he re-entered politics. He soon became a leader of the new Republican Party. He reached a national audience in the 1858 Senate campaign debates against Stephen A. Douglas. Lincoln ran for president in 1860, sweeping the North to gain victory. Pro-slavery elements in the South viewed his election as a threat to slavery, and Southern states began seceding from the nation. They formed the Confederate States of America, which began seizing federal military bases in the South. A little over one month after Lincoln assumed the presidency, Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter, a U.S. fort in South Carolina. Following the bombardment, Lincoln mobilized forces to suppress the rebellion and restore the union.

Lincoln, a moderate Republican, had to navigate a contentious array of factions with friends and opponents from both the Democratic and Republican parties. His allies, the War Democrats and the Radical Republicans, demanded harsh treatment of the Southern Confederates. He managed the factions by exploiting their mutual enmity, carefully distributing political patronage, and by appealing to the American people. Anti-war Democrats (called "Copperheads") despised Lincoln, and some irreconcilable pro-Confederate elements went so far as to plot his assassination. His Gettysburg Address became one of the most famous speeches in American history. Lincoln closely supervised the strategy and tactics in the war effort, including the selection of generals, and implemented a naval blockade of the South's trade. He suspended habeas corpus in Maryland and elsewhere, and he averted war with Britain by defusing the Trent Affair. In 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared the slaves in the states "in rebellion" to be free. It also directed the Army and Navy to "recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons" and to receive them "into the armed service of the United States." Lincoln pressured border states to outlaw slavery, and he promoted the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery, except as punishment for a crime. Lincoln managed his own successful re-election campaign. He sought to heal the war-torn nation through reconciliation. On April 14, 1865, just five days after the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, he was attending a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Mary, when he was fatally shot by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth.

Lincoln is remembered as a martyr and a national hero for his wartime leadership and for his efforts to preserve the Union and abolish slavery. He is often ranked in both popular and scholarly polls as the greatest president in American history.

This article is part of a series aboutAbraham Lincoln
Personal Early life and career Family Health Sexuality Patent Political Spot Resolutions Political career, 1849–1861 Lincoln–Douglas debates Views on slavery Views on religion Electoral history 16th President of the United States Presidency First term Transition 1st inauguration Hannibal Hamlin American Civil War The Union Emancipation Proclamation Ten percent plan 13th Amendment Second term 2nd inauguration Andrew Johnson Reconstruction Presidential elections 1860 Convention 1864 Convention Speeches and works Inaugural speeches First Second State of the Union 1861 1862 1863 1864 Lyceum Peoria Lost Speech House Divided Cooper Union Farewell address Gettysburg Poetry "The Suicide's Soliloquy" Bixby letter McCullough letter Assassination and legacy Assassination State funeral Historical reputation Memorials Depictions Bibliography Topical guide
v t e

Family and childhood

Early life

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, the second child of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, in a log cabin on Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky. He was a descendant of Samuel Lincoln, an Englishman who migrated from Hingham, Norfolk, to its namesake, Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1638. The family through subsequent generations migrated west, passing through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Lincoln was also a descendant of the Harrison family of Virginia; his paternal grandfather and namesake, Captain Abraham Lincoln and wife Bathsheba (née Herring) moved the family from Virginia to Jefferson County, Kentucky. The captain was killed in an Indian raid in 1786. His children, including eight-year-old Thomas, Abraham's father, witnessed the attack. Thomas then worked at odd jobs in Kentucky and Tennessee before the family settled in Hardin County, Kentucky, in the early 1800s.

Lincoln's mother Nancy Lincoln is widely assumed to be the daughter of Lucy Hanks. Thomas and Nancy married on June 12, 1806, in Washington County, and moved to Elizabethtown, Kentucky. They had three children: Sarah, Abraham, and Thomas, who died as an infant.

Thomas Lincoln bought multiple farms in Kentucky, but could not get clear property titles to any, losing hundreds of acres of land in property disputes. In 1816, the family moved to Indiana, where the land surveys and titles were more reliable. They settled in an "unbroken forest" in Hurricane Township, Perry County, Indiana. When the Lincolns moved to Indiana it had just been admitted to the Union as a "free" (non-slaveholding) state, except that, though "no new enslaved people were allowed, ... currently enslaved individuals remained so". In 1860, Lincoln noted that the family's move to Indiana was "partly on account of slavery", but mainly due to land title difficulties. In Kentucky and Indiana, Thomas worked as a farmer, cabinetmaker, and carpenter. At various times he owned farms, livestock, and town lots, paid taxes, sat on juries, appraised estates, and served on county patrols. Thomas and Nancy were members of a Separate Baptist Church, which "condemned profanity, intoxication, gossip, horse racing, and dancing." Most of its members opposed slavery.

Overcoming financial challenges, Thomas in 1827 obtained clear title to 80 acres (32 ha) in Indiana, an area that became known as Little Pigeon Creek Community.

Mother's death

On October 5, 1818, Nancy Lincoln died from milk sickness, leaving 11-year-old Sarah in charge of a household including her father, nine-year-old Abraham, and Nancy's 19-year-old orphan cousin, Dennis Hanks. Ten years later, on January 20, 1828, Sarah died while giving birth to a stillborn son, devastating Lincoln.

On December 2, 1819, Thomas married Sarah Bush Johnston, a widow from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, with three children of her own. Abraham became close to his stepmother and called her "Mother". Dennis Hanks said he was lazy, for all his "reading—scribbling—writing—ciphering—writing poetry". His stepmother acknowledged he did not enjoy "physical labor" but loved to read.

Education and move to Illinois

Lincoln was largely self-educated. His formal schooling was from itinerant teachers. It included two short stints in Kentucky, where he learned to read, but probably not to write. In Indiana at age seven, due to farm chores, he attended school only sporadically, for a total of fewer than 12 months in aggregate by age 15. Nonetheless, he remained an avid reader and retained a lifelong interest in learning. Family, neighbors, and schoolmates recalled that his readings included the King James Bible, Aesop's Fables, John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, and The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Despite being self-educated, Lincoln was the recipient of honorary degrees later in life, including an honorary Doctor of Laws from Columbia University in June 1861.

When Lincoln was a teen, his "father grew more and more to depend on him for the 'farming, grubbing, hoeing, making fences' necessary to keep the family afloat. He also regularly hired his son out to work ... and by law, he was entitled to everything the boy earned until he came of age". Lincoln was tall, strong, and athletic, and became adept at using an ax. He was an active wrestler during his youth and trained in the rough catch-as-catch-can style (also known as catch wrestling). He became county wrestling champion at the age of 21. He gained a reputation for his strength and audacity after winning a wrestling match with the renowned leader of ruffians known as the Clary's Grove boys.

In March 1830, fearing another milk sickness outbreak, several members of the extended Lincoln family, including Abraham, moved west to Illinois, a free state, and settled in Macon County. Abraham then became increasingly distant from Thomas, in part, due to his father's lack of interest in education. In 1831, as Thomas and other family members prepared to move to a new homestead in Coles County, Illinois, Abraham struck out on his own. He made his home in New Salem, Illinois, for six years. Lincoln and some friends took goods, including live hogs, by flatboat to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he first witnessed slavery.

Marriage and children

Speculation persists that Lincoln's first romantic interest was Ann Rutledge, whom he met when he moved to New Salem. However, witness testimony, given decades afterward, showed a lack of any specific recollection of a romance between the two. Rutledge died on August 25, 1835, most likely of typhoid fever; Lincoln took the death very hard, saying that he could not bear the idea of rain falling on Ann's grave. Lincoln sank into a serious episode of depression, and this gave rise to speculation that he had been in love with her.

In the early 1830s, he met Mary Owens from Kentucky. Late in 1836, Lincoln agreed to a match with Owens if she returned to New Salem. Owens arrived that November and he courted her; however, they both had second thoughts. On August 16, 1837, he wrote Owens a letter saying he would not blame her if she ended the relationship, and she never replied.

In 1839, Lincoln met Mary Todd in Springfield, Illinois, and the following year they became engaged. She was the daughter of Robert Smith Todd, a wealthy lawyer and businessman in Lexington, Kentucky. Their wedding, which was set for January 1, 1841, was canceled because Lincoln did not appear, but they reconciled and married on November 4, 1842, in the Springfield home of Mary's sister. While anxiously preparing for the nuptials, he was asked where he was going and replied, "To hell, I suppose". In 1844, the couple bought a house in Springfield near his law office. Mary kept house with the help of a hired servant and a relative.

Lincoln was an affectionate husband and father of four sons, though his work regularly kept him away from home. The eldest, Robert Todd Lincoln, was born in 1843, and was the only child to live to maturity. Edward Baker Lincoln (Eddie), born in 1846, died February 1, 1850, probably of tuberculosis. Lincoln's third son, "Willie" Lincoln was born on December 21, 1850, and died of a fever at the White House on February 20, 1862. The youngest, Thomas "Tad" Lincoln, was born on April 4, 1853, and survived his father, but died of heart failure at age 18 on July 16, 1871.

Lincoln "was remarkably fond of children" and the Lincolns were not considered to be strict with their own. In fact, Lincoln's law partner William H. Herndon would grow irritated when Lincoln brought his children to the law office. Their father, it seemed, was often too absorbed in his work to notice his children's behavior. Herndon recounted, "I have felt many and many a time that I wanted to wring their little necks, and yet out of respect for Lincoln I kept my mouth shut. Lincoln did not note what his children were doing or had done."

The deaths of their sons Eddie and Willie had profound effects on both parents. Lincoln suffered from "melancholy", a condition now thought to be clinical depression. Later in life, Mary struggled with the stresses of losing her husband and sons, and in 1875 Robert committed her to an asylum.

Early career and militia service

During 1831 and 1832, Lincoln worked at a general store in New Salem, Illinois. In 1832, he declared his candidacy for the Illinois House of Representatives, but interrupted his campaign to serve as a captain in the Illinois Militia during the Black Hawk War. When Lincoln returned home from the Black Hawk War, he planned to become a blacksmith, but instead formed a partnership with 21-year-old William Berry, with whom he purchased a New Salem general store on credit. Because a license was required to sell customers beverages, Berry obtained bartending licenses for $7 each for Lincoln and himself, and in 1833 the Lincoln-Berry General Store became a tavern as well.

As licensed bartenders, Lincoln and Berry were able to sell spirits, including liquor, for 12 cents a pint. They offered a wide range of alcoholic beverages as well as food, including takeout dinners. But Berry became an alcoholic, was often too drunk to work, and Lincoln ended up running the store by himself. Although the economy was booming, the business struggled and went into debt, causing Lincoln to sell his share.

In his first campaign speech after returning from his military service, Lincoln observed a supporter in the crowd under attack, grabbed the assailant by his "neck and the seat of his trousers", and tossed him. In the campaign, Lincoln advocated for navigational improvements on the Sangamon River. He could draw crowds as a raconteur, but lacked the requisite formal education, powerful friends, and money, and lost the election. Lincoln finished eighth out of 13 candidates (the top four were elected), though he received 277 of the 300 votes cast in the New Salem precinct.

Lincoln served as New Salem's postmaster and later as county surveyor, but continued his voracious reading and decided to become a lawyer. Rather than studying in the office of an established attorney, as was the custom, Lincoln borrowed legal texts from attorneys John Todd Stuart and Thomas Drummond, purchased books including Blackstone's Commentaries and Chitty's Pleadings, and read law on his own. He later said of his legal education that "I studied with nobody."

Illinois state legislature (1834–1842)

Lincoln's second state house campaign in 1834, this time as a Whig, was a success over a powerful Whig opponent. Then followed his four terms in the Illinois House of Representatives for Sangamon County. He championed construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and later was a Canal Commissioner. He voted to expand suffrage beyond white landowners to all white males, but adopted a "free soil" stance opposing both slavery and abolition. In 1837, he declared, " Institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy, but the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its evils." He echoed Henry Clay's support for the American Colonization Society which advocated a program of abolition in conjunction with settling freed slaves in Liberia.

He was admitted to the Illinois bar on September 9, 1836, and moved to Springfield and began to practice law under John T. Stuart, Mary Todd's cousin. Lincoln emerged as a formidable trial combatant during cross-examinations and closing arguments. He partnered several years with Stephen T. Logan, and in 1844, began his practice with William Herndon, "a studious young man".

On January 27, 1838, Abraham Lincoln, then 28 years old, delivered his first major speech at the Lyceum in Springfield, Illinois, after the murder of newspaper editor Elijah Parish Lovejoy in Alton. Lincoln warned that no trans-Atlantic military giant could ever crush the U.S. as a nation. "It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher", said Lincoln. Prior to that, on April 28, 1836, a black man, Francis McIntosh, was burned alive in St. Louis, Missouri. Zann Gill describes how these two murders set off a chain reaction that ultimately prompted Abraham Lincoln to run for President.

U.S. House of Representatives (1847–1849)

True to his record, Lincoln professed to friends in 1861 to be "an old line Whig, a disciple of Henry Clay". Their party favored economic modernization in banking, tariffs to fund internal improvements including railroads, and urbanization.

In 1843, Lincoln sought the Whig nomination for Illinois's 7th district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives; he was defeated by John J. Hardin, though he prevailed with the party in limiting Hardin to one term. Lincoln not only pulled off his strategy of gaining the nomination in 1846, but also won the election. He was the only Whig in the Illinois delegation, but as dutiful as any participated in almost all votes and made speeches that toed the party line. He was assigned to the Committee on Post Office and Post Roads and the Committee on Expenditures in the War Department. Lincoln teamed with Joshua R. Giddings on a bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia with compensation for the owners, enforcement to capture fugitive slaves, and a popular vote on the matter. He dropped the bill when it eluded Whig support.

Political views

On foreign and military policy, Lincoln spoke against the Mexican–American War, which he imputed President James K. Polk's desire for "military glory — that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood". He supported the Wilmot Proviso, a failed proposal to ban slavery in any U.S. territory won from Mexico.

Lincoln emphasized his opposition to Polk by drafting and introducing his Spot Resolutions. The war had begun with a killing of American soldiers by Mexican cavalry patrol in disputed territory, and Polk insisted that Mexican soldiers had "invaded our territory and shed the blood of our fellow-citizens on our own soil". Lincoln demanded that Polk show Congress the exact spot on which blood had been shed and prove that the spot was on American soil. The resolution was ignored in both Congress and the national papers, and it cost Lincoln political support in his district. One Illinois newspaper derisively nicknamed him "spotty Lincoln". Lincoln later regretted some of his statements, especially his attack on presidential war-making powers.

Lincoln had pledged in 1846 to serve only one term in the House. Realizing Clay was unlikely to win the presidency, he supported General Zachary Taylor for the Whig nomination in the 1848 presidential election. Taylor won and Lincoln hoped in vain to be appointed Commissioner of the United States General Land Office. The administration offered to appoint him secretary or governor of the Oregon Territory as consolation. This distant territory was a Democratic stronghold, and acceptance of the post would have disrupted his legal and political career in Illinois, so he declined and resumed his law practice.

Prairie lawyer

In his Springfield practice, Lincoln handled "every kind of business that could come before a prairie lawyer". Twice a year he appeared for 10 consecutive weeks in county seats in the Midstate county courts; this continued for 16 years. Lincoln handled transportation cases in the midst of the nation's western expansion, particularly river barge conflicts under the many new railroad bridges. As a riverboat man, Lincoln initially favored those interests, but ultimately represented whoever hired him. He later represented a bridge company against a riverboat company in Hurd v. Rock Island Bridge Company, a landmark case involving a canal boat that sank after hitting a bridge. In 1849 he received a patent for a flotation device for the movement of boats in shallow water. The idea was never commercialized, but it made Lincoln the only president to hold a patent.

Lincoln appeared before the Illinois Supreme Court in 175 cases; he was sole counsel in 51 cases, of which 31 were decided in his favor. From 1853 to 1860, one of his largest clients was the Illinois Central Railroad. His legal reputation gave rise to the nickname "Honest Abe".

In an 1858 criminal trial, Lincoln represented 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 to challenge the credibility of an eyewitness. After an opposing witness testified to seeing the crime in the moonlight, Lincoln produced a Farmers' Almanac showing the Moon was at a low angle, drastically reducing visibility. Armstrong was acquitted.

In an 1859 murder case, leading up to his presidential campaign, Lincoln elevated his profile with his defense of Simeon Quinn "Peachy" Harrison, who was a third cousin; Harrison was also the grandson of Lincoln's political opponent, Rev. Peter Cartwright. Harrison was charged with the murder of Greek Crafton who, as he lay dying of his wounds, confessed to Cartwright that he had provoked Harrison. Lincoln angrily protested the judge's initial decision to exclude Cartwright's testimony about the confession as inadmissible hearsay. Lincoln argued that the testimony involved a dying declaration and was not subject to the hearsay rule. Instead of holding Lincoln in contempt of court as expected, the judge, a Democrat, reversed his ruling and admitted the testimony into evidence, resulting in Harrison's acquittal.

Republican politics (1854–1860)

Emergence as Republican leader

The debate over the status of slavery in the territories failed to alleviate tensions between the slave-holding South and the free North, with the failure of the Compromise of 1850, a legislative package designed to address the issue. In his 1852 eulogy for Clay, Lincoln highlighted the latter's support for gradual emancipation and opposition to "both extremes" on the slavery issue. As the slavery debate in the Nebraska and Kansas territories became particularly acrimonious, Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas proposed popular sovereignty as a compromise; the measure would allow the electorate of each territory to decide the status of slavery. The legislation alarmed many Northerners, who sought to prevent the spread of slavery that could result, but Douglas's Kansas–Nebraska Act narrowly passed Congress in May 1854.

Lincoln did not comment on the act until months later in his "Peoria Speech" of October 1854. Lincoln then declared his opposition to slavery, which he repeated en route to the presidency. He said the Kansas Act had a "declared indifference, but as I must think, a covert real zeal for the spread of slavery. I cannot but hate it. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world...." Lincoln's attacks on the Kansas–Nebraska Act marked his return to political life.

Nationally the Whigs were irreparably split by the Kansas–Nebraska Act and other efforts to compromise on the slavery issue. Reflecting on the demise of his party, Lincoln wrote in 1855, "I think I am a Whig, but others say there are no Whigs, and that I am an abolitionist. ... I do no more than oppose the extension of slavery." The new Republican Party was formed as a northern party dedicated to antislavery, drawing from the antislavery wing of the Whig Party and combining Free Soil, Liberty, and antislavery Democratic Party members, Lincoln resisted early Republican entreaties, fearing that the new party would become a platform for extreme abolitionists. Lincoln held out hope for rejuvenating the Whigs, though he lamented his party's growing closeness with the nativist Know Nothing movement.

In 1854, Lincoln was elected to the Illinois legislature, but before the term began in January he declined to take his seat so that he would be eligible to be a candidate in the upcoming U.S. Senate election. The year's elections showed the strong opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, and in the aftermath Lincoln sought election to the U.S. Senate. At that time, senators were elected by state legislatures. After leading in the first six rounds of voting, he was unable to obtain a majority. Lincoln instructed his backers to vote for Lyman Trumbull. Trumbull was an antislavery Democrat and had received few votes in the earlier ballots; his supporters, also antislavery Democrats, had vowed not to support any Whig. Lincoln's decision to withdraw enabled his Whig supporters and Trumbull's antislavery Democrats to combine and defeat the mainstream Democratic candidate, Joel Aldrich Matteson.

1856 campaign

Violent political confrontations in Kansas continued, and opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act remained strong throughout the North. As the 1856 elections approached, Lincoln joined the Republicans and attended the Bloomington Convention, which formally established the Illinois Republican Party. The convention platform endorsed Congress's right to regulate slavery in the territories and backed the admission of Kansas as a free state. Lincoln gave the final speech of the convention supporting the party platform and called for the preservation of the Union. At the June 1856 Republican National Convention, though Lincoln received support to run as vice president, John C. Frémont and William Dayton were on the ticket, which Lincoln supported throughout Illinois. The Democrats nominated former Secretary of State James Buchanan and the Know-Nothings nominated former Whig President Millard Fillmore. Buchanan prevailed, while Republican William Henry Bissell won election as Governor of Illinois, and Lincoln became a leading Republican in Illinois.

Dred Scott v. Sandford

Dred Scott was a slave whose master took him from a slave state to a territory that was free as a result of the Missouri Compromise. After Scott was returned to the slave state, he petitioned a federal court for his freedom. His petition was denied in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857). In his opinion, Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote that black people were not citizens and derived no rights from the Constitution, and that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional for infringing upon slave owners' "property" rights. While many Democrats hoped that Dred Scott would end the dispute over slavery in the territories, the decision sparked further outrage in the North. Lincoln denounced it as the product of a conspiracy of Democrats to support the Slave Power. He argued the decision was at variance with the Declaration of Independence; he said that while the founding fathers did not believe all men equal in every respect, they believed all men were equal "in certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness".

Lincoln–Douglas debates and Cooper Union speech

In 1858, Douglas was up for re-election in the U.S. Senate, and Lincoln hoped to defeat him. Many in the party felt that a former Whig should be nominated in 1858, and Lincoln's 1856 campaigning and support of Trumbull had earned him a favor. Some eastern Republicans supported Douglas for his opposition to the Lecompton Constitution and admission of Kansas as a slave state. Many Illinois Republicans resented this eastern interference. For the first time, Illinois Republicans held a convention to agree upon a Senate candidate, and Lincoln won the nomination with little opposition.

Lincoln accepted the nomination with great enthusiasm and zeal. After his nomination he delivered his House Divided Speech, with the biblical reference Mark 3:25, "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe 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. It will become all one thing, or all the other." The speech created a stark image of the danger of disunion. The stage was then set for the election of the Illinois legislature which would, in turn, select Lincoln or Douglas. When informed of Lincoln's nomination, Douglas stated, " is the strong man of the party ... and if I beat him, my victory will be hardly won."

The Senate campaign featured seven debates between Lincoln and Douglas. These were the most famous political debates in American history; they had an atmosphere akin to a prizefight and drew crowds in the thousands. The principals stood in stark contrast both physically and politically. Lincoln warned that the Slave Power was threatening the values of republicanism, and he accused Douglas of distorting the Founding Fathers' premise that all men are created equal. In his Freeport Doctrine, Douglas argued that, despite the Dred Scott decision, which he claimed to support, local settlers, under the doctrine of popular sovereignty, should be free to choose whether to allow slavery within their territory, and he accused Lincoln of having joined the abolitionists. Lincoln's argument assumed a moral tone, as he claimed that Douglas represented a conspiracy to promote slavery. Douglas's argument was more legal in nature, claiming that Lincoln was defying the authority of the U.S. Supreme Court as exercised in the Dred Scott decision.

Though the Republican legislative candidates won more popular votes, the Democrats won more seats, and the legislature re-elected Douglas. However, Lincoln's articulation of the issues had given him a national political presence. In May 1859, Lincoln purchased the Illinois Staats-Anzeiger, a German-language newspaper that was consistently supportive; most of the state's 130,000 German Americans voted for Democrats, but the German-language paper mobilized Republican support. In the aftermath of the 1858 election, newspapers frequently mentioned Lincoln as a potential Republican presidential candidate, rivaled by William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, and Simon Cameron. While Lincoln was popular in the Midwest, he lacked support in the Northeast and was unsure whether to seek the office. In January 1860, Lincoln told a group of political allies that he would accept the presidential nomination if offered and, in the following months, several local papers endorsed his candidacy.

Over the coming months Lincoln was tireless, making nearly fifty speeches along the campaign trail. By the quality and simplicity of his rhetoric, he quickly became the champion of the Republican party. However, despite his overwhelming support in the Midwestern United States, he was less appreciated in the east. Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, at that time wrote up an unflattering account of Lincoln's compromising position on slavery and his reluctance to challenge the court's Dred Scott ruling, which was promptly used against him by his political rivals.

On February 27, 1860, powerful New York Republicans invited Lincoln to give a speech at Cooper Union, in which he argued that the Founding Fathers of the United States had little use for popular sovereignty and had repeatedly sought to restrict slavery. He insisted that morality required opposition to slavery and rejected any "groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong". Many in the audience thought he appeared awkward and even ugly. But Lincoln demonstrated intellectual leadership, which brought him into contention. Journalist Noah Brooks reported, "No man ever before made such an impression on his first appeal to a New York audience".

Historian David Herbert Donald described the speech as "a superb political move for an unannounced presidential aspirant. Appearing in Seward's home state, sponsored by a group largely loyal to Chase, Lincoln shrewdly made no reference to either of these Republican rivals for the nomination." In response to an inquiry about his ambitions, Lincoln said, "The taste is in my mouth a little".

1860 presidential election

On May 9–10, 1860, the Illinois Republican State Convention was held in Decatur. Lincoln's followers organized a campaign team led by David Davis, Norman Judd, Leonard Swett, and Jesse DuBois, and Lincoln received his first endorsement. Exploiting his embellished frontier legend (clearing land and splitting fence rails), Lincoln's supporters adopted the label of "The Rail Candidate". In 1860, Lincoln described himself: "I am in height, six feet, four inches, nearly; lean in flesh, weighing, on an average, one hundred and eighty pounds; dark complexion, with coarse black hair, and gray eyes." Michael Martinez wrote about the effective imaging of Lincoln by his campaign. At times he was presented as the plain-talking "Rail Splitter" and at other times he was "Honest Abe", unpolished but trustworthy.

On May 18 at the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Lincoln won the nomination on the third ballot, beating candidates such as Seward and Chase. A former Democrat, Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, was nominated for vice president to balance the ticket. Lincoln's success depended on his campaign team, his reputation as a moderate on the slavery issue, and his strong support for internal improvements and the tariff. Pennsylvania put him over the top, led by the state's iron interests who were reassured by his tariff support. Lincoln's managers had focused on this delegation while honoring Lincoln's dictate to "Make no contracts that will bind me".

As the Slave Power tightened its grip on the national government, most Republicans agreed with Lincoln that the North was the aggrieved party. Throughout the 1850s, Lincoln had doubted the prospects of civil war, and his supporters rejected claims that his election would incite secession. When Douglas was selected as the candidate of the Northern Democrats, delegates from eleven slave states walked out of the Democratic convention; they opposed Douglas's position on popular sovereignty, and selected incumbent Vice President John C. Breckinridge as their candidate. A group of former Whigs and Know Nothings formed the Constitutional Union Party and nominated John Bell of Tennessee. Lincoln and Douglas competed for votes in the North, while Bell and Breckinridge primarily found support in the South.

Before the Republican convention, the Lincoln campaign began cultivating a nationwide youth organization, the Wide Awakes, which it used to generate popular support throughout the country to spearhead voter registration drives, thinking that new voters and young voters tended to embrace new parties. People of the Northern states knew the Southern states would vote against Lincoln and rallied supporters for Lincoln.

As Douglas and the other candidates campaigned, Lincoln gave no speeches, relying on the enthusiasm of the Republican Party. The party did the leg work that produced majorities across the North and produced an abundance of campaign posters, leaflets, and newspaper editorials. Republican speakers focused first on the party platform, and second on Lincoln's life story, emphasizing his childhood poverty. The goal was to demonstrate the power of "free labor", which allowed a common farm boy to work his way to the top by his own efforts. The Republican Party's production of campaign literature dwarfed the combined opposition; a Chicago Tribune writer produced a pamphlet that detailed Lincoln's life and sold 100,000–200,000 copies. Though he did not give public appearances, many sought to visit him and write him. In the runup to the election, he took an office in the Illinois state capitol to deal with the influx of attention. He also hired John George Nicolay as his personal secretary, who would remain in that role during the presidency.

On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected the 16th president. He was the first Republican president and his victory was entirely due to his support in the North and West. No ballots were cast for him in 10 of the 15 Southern slave states, and he won only two of 996 counties in all the Southern states, an omen of the impending Civil War. Lincoln received 1,866,452 votes, or 39.8% of the total in a four-way race, carrying the free Northern states, as well as California and Oregon. His victory in the Electoral College was decisive: Lincoln had 180 votes to 123 for his opponents.

Presidency (1861–1865)

Secession and inauguration

The South was outraged by Lincoln's election, and in response secessionists implemented plans to leave the Union before he took office in March 1861. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina took the lead by adopting an ordinance of secession; by February 1, 1861, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed. Six of these states declared themselves to be a sovereign nation, the Confederate States of America, and adopted a constitution. The upper South and border states (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Arkansas) initially rejected the secessionist appeal. President Buchanan and President-elect Lincoln refused to recognize the Confederacy, declaring secession illegal. The Confederacy selected Jefferson Davis as its provisional president on February 9, 1861.

Attempts at compromise followed but Lincoln and the Republicans rejected the proposed Crittenden Compromise as contrary to the Party's platform of free-soil in the territories. Lincoln said, "I will suffer death before I consent ... to any concession or compromise which looks like buying the privilege to take possession of this government to which we have a constitutional right".

Lincoln supported the Corwin Amendment to the Constitution, which passed Congress and was awaiting ratification by the states when Lincoln took office. That doomed amendment would have protected slavery in states where it already existed. On March 4, 1861, in his first inaugural address, Lincoln said that, because he holds "such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable". A few weeks before the war, Lincoln sent a letter to every governor informing them Congress had passed a joint resolution to amend the Constitution.

On February 11, 1861, Lincoln gave a particularly emotional farewell address upon leaving Springfield; he would never again return to Springfield alive. Lincoln traveled east in a special train. Due to secessionist plots, a then-unprecedented attention to security was given to him and his train. En route to his inauguration, Lincoln addressed crowds and legislatures across the North. The president-elect evaded suspected assassins in Baltimore. He traveled in disguise, wearing a soft felt hat instead of his customary stovepipe hat and draping an overcoat over his shoulders while hunching slightly to conceal his height. His friend Congressman Elihu B. Washburne recognized him on the platform upon arrival and loudly called out to him. On February 23, 1861, he arrived in Washington, D.C., which was placed under substantial military guard. Lincoln directed his inaugural address to the South, proclaiming once again that he had no inclination to abolish slavery in the Southern states:

Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States, that by the accession of a Republican Administration, their property, and their peace, and personal security, are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed, and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that "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, and I have no inclination to do so."

— First inaugural address, 4 March 1861

Lincoln cited his plans for banning the expansion of slavery as the key source of conflict between North and South, stating "One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong and ought not to be extended. This is the only substantial dispute." 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." The failure of the Peace Conference of 1861 signaled that legislative compromise was impossible. By March 1861, no leaders of the insurrection had proposed rejoining the Union on any terms. Meanwhile, Lincoln and the Republican leadership agreed that the dismantling of the Union could not be tolerated. In his second inaugural address, Lincoln looked back on the situation at the time and said: "Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the Nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came."

Civil War

Major Robert Anderson, commander of the Union's Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, sent a request for provisions to Washington, and 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 and began the fight. Historian Allan Nevins argued that the newly inaugurated Lincoln made three miscalculations: underestimating the gravity of the crisis, exaggerating the strength of Unionist sentiment in the South, and overlooking Southern Unionist opposition to an invasion.

William Tecumseh Sherman talked to Lincoln during inauguration week and was "sadly disappointed" at his failure to realize that "the country was sleeping on a volcano" and that the South was preparing for war. Donald concludes, "His repeated efforts to avoid collision in the months between inauguration and the firing on Fort Sumter showed he adhered to his vow not to be the first to shed fraternal blood. But he had also vowed not to surrender the forts.... The only resolution of these contradictory positions was for the Confederates to fire the first shot". They did just that.

On April 15, Lincoln called on the states to send a total of 75,000 volunteer troops to recapture forts, protect Washington, and "preserve the Union", which, in his view, remained intact despite the seceding states. This call forced states to choose sides. Virginia seceded and was rewarded with the designation of Richmond as the Confederate capital, despite its exposure to Union lines. North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas followed over the following two months. Secession sentiment was strong in Missouri and Maryland, but did not prevail; Kentucky remained neutral. The Fort Sumter attack rallied Americans north of the Mason-Dixon line to defend the nation.

As states sent Union regiments south, on April 19 Baltimore mobs in control of the rail links attacked Union troops who were changing trains. Local leaders' groups later burned critical rail bridges to the capital and the Army responded by arresting local Maryland officials. Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus in an effort to protect the troops trying to reach Washington. John Merryman, one Maryland official hindering the U.S. troop movements, petitioned Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney to issue a writ of habeas corpus. In June, in Ex parte Merryman, Taney, not ruling on behalf of the Supreme Court, issued the writ, believing that Article I, section 9 of the Constitution authorized only Congress and not the president to suspend it. But Lincoln invoked nonacquiescence and persisted with the policy of suspension in select areas.

Union military strategy

Lincoln took executive control of the war and shaped the Union military strategy. He responded to the unprecedented political and military crisis as commander-in-chief by exercising unprecedented authority. He expanded his war powers, imposed a blockade on Confederate ports, disbursed funds before appropriation by Congress, suspended habeas corpus, and arrested and imprisoned thousands of suspected Confederate sympathizers. Lincoln gained the support of Congress and the northern public for these actions. Lincoln also had to reinforce Union sympathies in the border slave states and keep the war from becoming an international conflict.

It was clear from the outset that bipartisan support was essential to success, and that any compromise alienated factions on both sides of the aisle, such as the appointment of Republicans and Democrats to command positions. Copperheads criticized Lincoln for refusing to compromise on slavery. The Radical Republicans criticized him for moving too slowly in abolishing slavery. On August 6, 1861, Lincoln signed the Confiscation Act of 1861, which authorized judicial proceedings to confiscate and free slaves who were used to support the Confederates. The law had little practical effect, but it signaled political support for abolishing slavery.

In August 1861, General John C. Frémont, the 1856 Republican presidential nominee, without consulting Washington, issued a martial edict freeing slaves of the rebels. Lincoln canceled the proclamation as violating the Confiscation Act of 1861 and beyond Frémont's authority to issue. As a result, Union enlistments from Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri increased by over 40,000.

Internationally, Lincoln wanted to forestall foreign military aid to the Confederacy. He relied on his combative Secretary of State William Seward while working closely with Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Charles Sumner. In the 1861 Trent Affair, which threatened war with Great Britain, the U.S. Navy illegally intercepted a British mail ship, the Trent, on the high seas and seized two Confederate envoys; Britain protested vehemently while the U.S. cheered. Lincoln ended the crisis by releasing the two diplomats. Biographer James G. Randall dissected Lincoln's successful techniques:

his restraint, his avoidance of any outward expression of truculence, his early softening of State Department's attitude toward Britain, his deference toward Seward and Sumner, his withholding of his paper prepared for the occasion, his readiness to arbitrate, his golden silence in addressing Congress, his shrewdness in recognizing that war must be averted, and his clear perception that a point could be clinched for America's true position at the same time that full satisfaction was given to a friendly country.

Lincoln painstakingly monitored the telegraph reports coming into the War Department. He tracked all phases of the effort, consulting with governors and selecting generals based on their success, their state, and their party. In January 1862, after complaints of inefficiency and profiteering in the War Department, Lincoln replaced War Secretary Simon Cameron with Edwin Stanton. Stanton centralized the War Department's activities, auditing and canceling contracts, saving the federal government $17,000,000. Stanton was a staunch Unionist, pro-business, conservative Democrat who gravitated toward the Radical Republican faction. He worked more often and more closely with Lincoln than did any other senior official. "Stanton and Lincoln virtually conducted the war together", say Thomas and Hyman.

Lincoln's war strategy had two priorities: ensuring that Washington was well-defended and conducting an aggressive war effort for a prompt, decisive victory. Twice a week, Lincoln met with his cabinet in the afternoon. Occasionally Mary prevailed on him to take a carriage ride, concerned that he was working too hard. For his edification Lincoln relied upon a book by his chief of staff General Henry Halleck entitled Elements of Military Art and Science; Halleck was a disciple of the European strategist Antoine-Henri Jomini. Lincoln began to appreciate the critical need to control strategic points, such as the Mississippi River. Lincoln saw the importance of Vicksburg and understood the necessity of defeating the enemy's army, rather than merely capturing territory.

In directing the Union's war strategy, Lincoln valued the advice of Gen. Winfield Scott, even after his retirement as Commanding General of the United States Army. On June 23–24, 1862, Lincoln made an unannounced visit to West Point, where he spent five hours consulting with Scott regarding the handling of the Civil War and the staffing of the War Department.

General McClellan

After the Union rout at Bull Run and Winfield Scott's retirement, Lincoln appointed Major General George B. McClellan general-in-chief. McClellan then took months to plan his Virginia Peninsula Campaign. McClellan's slow progress frustrated Lincoln, as did his position that no troops were needed to defend Washington. McClellan, in turn, blamed the failure of the campaign on Lincoln's reservation of troops for the capital.

In 1862, Lincoln removed McClellan for the general's continued inaction. He elevated Henry Halleck in July and appointed John Pope as head of the new Army of Virginia. Pope satisfied Lincoln's desire to advance on Richmond from the north, thereby protecting Washington from counterattack. But in the summer of 1862 Pope was soundly defeated at the Second Battle of Bull Run, forcing the Army of the Potomac back to defend Washington.

Despite his dissatisfaction with McClellan's failure to reinforce Pope, Lincoln restored him to command of all forces around Washington. 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. That battle, a Union victory, was among the bloodiest in American history; it facilitated Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in January.

McClellan then resisted the president's demand that he pursue Lee's withdrawing army, while General Don Carlos Buell likewise refused orders to move the Army of the Ohio against rebel forces in eastern Tennessee. Lincoln replaced Buell with William Rosecrans; and after the 1862 midterm elections he replaced McClellan with Ambrose Burnside. The appointments were both politically neutral and adroit on Lincoln's part.

Against presidential advice Burnside launched an offensive across the Rappahannock River and was defeated by Lee at Fredericksburg in December. Desertions during 1863 came in the thousands and only increased after Fredericksburg, so Lincoln replaced Burnside with Joseph Hooker.

In the 1862 midterm elections, the Republicans suffered severe losses due to rising inflation, high taxes, rumors of corruption, suspension of habeas corpus, military draft law, and fears that freed slaves would come North and undermine the labor market. The Emancipation Proclamation gained votes for Republicans in rural New England and the upper Midwest, but cost votes in the Irish and German strongholds and in the lower Midwest, where many Southerners had lived for generations.

In the spring of 1863, Lincoln was sufficiently optimistic about upcoming military campaigns to think the end of the war could be near; the plans included attacks by Hooker on Lee north of Richmond, Rosecrans on Chattanooga, Grant on Vicksburg, and a naval assault on Charleston.

Hooker was routed by Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May, then resigned and was replaced by George Meade. Meade followed Lee north into Pennsylvania and beat him in the Gettysburg Campaign, but then failed to follow up despite Lincoln's demands. At the same time, Grant captured Vicksburg and gained control of the Mississippi River, splitting the far western rebel states.

Emancipation Proclamation

The federal government's power to end slavery was limited by the Constitution, which before 1865, was understood to reserve the issue to the individual states. Lincoln believed that slavery would be rendered obsolete if its expansion into new territories were prevented, because these territories would be admitted to the Union as free states, and free states would come to outnumber slave states. He sought to persuade the states to agree to compensation for emancipating their slaves. Lincoln rejected Major General John C. Frémont's August 1861 emancipation attempt, as well as one by Major General David Hunter in May 1862, on the grounds that it was not within their power and might upset loyal border states enough for them to secede.

In June 1862, Congress passed an act banning slavery on all federal territory, which Lincoln signed. In July, the Confiscation Act of 1862 was enacted, providing court procedures to free the slaves of those convicted of aiding the rebellion; Lincoln approved the bill despite his belief that it was unconstitutional. He felt such action could be taken only within the war powers of the commander-in-chief, which he planned to exercise. On July 22, 1862, Lincoln reviewed a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation with his cabinet.

Peace Democrats (Copperheads) argued that emancipation was a stumbling block to peace and reunification, but Republican editor Horace Greeley of the New-York Tribune, in his public letter, "The Prayer of Twenty Millions", implored Lincoln to embrace emancipation. In a public letter of August 22, 1862, Lincoln replied to Greeley, writing that while he personally wished all men could be free, his first obligation as president was to preserve the Union:

My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to 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. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union ... I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.

When Lincoln published his reply to Greeley, he had already decided to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation and therefore had already chosen the third option he mentioned in his letter to Greeley: to free some of the slaves, namely those in the states in rebellion. Some scholars, therefore, believe that his reply to Greeley was disingenuous and was intended to reassure white people who would have opposed a war for emancipation that emancipation was merely a means to preserve the Union. On September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which announced that, in states still in rebellion on January 1, 1863, the slaves would be freed. He spent the next 100 days, between September 22 and January 1, preparing the army and the nation for emancipation, while Democrats rallied their voters by warning of the threat that freed slaves posed to northern whites. At the same time, during those 100 days, Lincoln made efforts to end the war with slavery intact, suggesting that he still took seriously the first option he mentioned in his letter to Greeley: saving the Union without freeing any slave. But, on January 1, 1863, keeping his word, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves in 10 states not then under Union control, with exemptions specified for areas under such control. Lincoln's comment on signing the Proclamation was: "I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper."

With the abolition of slavery in the rebel states now a military objective, Union armies advancing south "enable thousands of slaves to escape to freedom". The Emancipation Proclamation having stated that freedmen would be "received into the armed service of the United States," enlisting these freedmen became official policy. By the spring of 1863, Lincoln was ready to recruit black troops in more than token numbers. In a letter to Tennessee military governor Andrew Johnson encouraging him to lead the way in raising black troops, Lincoln wrote, "The bare sight of fifty thousand armed, and drilled black soldiers on the banks of the Mississippi would end the rebellion at once". By the end of 1863, at Lincoln's direction, General Lorenzo Thomas "had enrolled twenty regiments of African Americans" from the Mississippi Valley.

Gettysburg Address (1863)

Lincoln spoke at the dedication of the Gettysburg battlefield cemetery on November 19, 1863. In 272 words, and three minutes, Lincoln asserted that the nation was born not in 1789, but in 1776, "conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal". He defined the war as dedicated to the principles of liberty and equality for all. He declared that the deaths of so many brave soldiers would not be in vain, that the future of democracy would be assured, and that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth".

Defying his prediction that "the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here", the Address became the most quoted speech in American history.

Promoting General Grant

General Ulysses Grant's victories at the Battle of Shiloh and in the Vicksburg campaign impressed Lincoln. Responding to criticism of Grant after Shiloh, Lincoln had said, "I can't spare this man. He fights." With Grant in command, Lincoln felt the Union Army could advance in multiple theaters, while also including black troops. Meade's failure to capture Lee's army after Gettysburg and the continued passivity of the Army of the Potomac persuaded Lincoln to promote Grant to supreme commander. Grant then assumed command of Meade's army.

Lincoln was concerned that Grant might be considering a presidential candidacy in 1864. He arranged for an intermediary to inquire into Grant's political intentions, and once assured that he had none, Lincoln promoted Grant to the newly revived rank of Lieutenant General, a rank which had been unoccupied since George Washington. Authorization for such a promotion "with the advice and consent of the Senate" was provided by a new bill which Lincoln signed the same day he submitted Grant's name to the Senate. His nomination was confirmed by the Senate on March 2, 1864.

Grant in 1864 waged the bloody Overland Campaign, which exacted heavy losses on both sides. When Lincoln asked what Grant's plans were, the persistent general replied, "I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer." Grant's army moved steadily south. Lincoln traveled to Grant's headquarters at City Point, Virginia, to confer with Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman. Lincoln reacted to Union losses by mobilizing support throughout the North. Lincoln authorized Grant to target infrastructure—plantations, railroads, and bridges—hoping to weaken the South's morale and fighting ability. He emphasized defeat of the Confederate armies over destruction (which was considerable) for its own sake. Lincoln's engagement became distinctly personal on one occasion in 1864 when Confederate general Jubal Early raided Washington, D.C. Legend has it that while Lincoln watched from an exposed position, Union Captain (and future Supreme Court Justice) Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. shouted at him, "Get down, you damn fool, before you get shot!" But this story is commonly regarded as apocryphal.

As Grant continued to weaken Lee's forces, efforts to discuss peace began. Confederate Vice President Stephens led a group meeting with Lincoln, Seward, and others at Hampton Roads. Lincoln refused to negotiate with the Confederacy as a coequal; his objective to end the fighting was not realized. On April 1, 1865, Grant nearly encircled Petersburg in a siege. The Confederate government evacuated Richmond and Lincoln visited the conquered capital. On April 9, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, officially ending the war.

Reelection

Lincoln ran for reelection in 1864, while uniting the main Republican factions along with War Democrats Edwin M. Stanton and Andrew Johnson. Lincoln used conversation and his patronage powers—greatly expanded from peacetime—to build support and fend off the Radicals' efforts to replace him. At its convention, the Republican Party selected Johnson as his running mate. To broaden his coalition to include War Democrats as well as Republicans, Lincoln ran under the label of the new Union Party.

Grant's bloody stalemates damaged Lincoln's re-election prospects, and many Republicans feared defeat. Lincoln confidentially pledged in writing that if he should lose the election, he would still defeat the Confederacy before turning over the White House; Lincoln did not show the pledge to his cabinet, but asked them to sign the sealed envelope. The pledge read as follows:

This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterward.

The Democratic platform followed the "Peace wing" of the party and called the war a "failure"; but their candidate, McClellan, supported the war and repudiated the platform. Meanwhile, Lincoln emboldened Grant with more troops and Republican party support. Sherman's capture of Atlanta in September and David Farragut's capture of Mobile ended defeatism. The Democratic Party was deeply split, with some leaders and most soldiers openly for Lincoln. The National Union Party was united by Lincoln's support for emancipation. State Republican parties stressed the perfidy of the Copperheads. On November 8, Lincoln carried all but three states, including 78 percent of Union soldiers.

On March 4, 1865, Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address. In it, he deemed the war casualties to be God's will. Historian Mark Noll places the speech "among the small handful of semi-sacred texts by which Americans conceive their place in the world;" it is inscribed in the Lincoln Memorial. Lincoln said:

Fondly do we hope—fervently do we pray—that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether". With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.

Among those present for this speech was actor John Wilkes Booth, who, on April 14, 1865, just over a month after Lincoln’s second inauguration, assassinated him.

Reconstruction

Reconstruction preceded the war's end, as Lincoln and his associates considered the reintegration of the nation, and the fates of Confederate leaders and freed slaves. When a general asked Lincoln how the defeated Confederates were to be treated, Lincoln replied, "Let 'em up easy." Lincoln was determined to find meaning in the war in its aftermath, and did not want to continue to outcast the southern states. His main goal was to keep the union together, so he proceeded by focusing not on whom to blame, but on how to rebuild the nation as one. Lincoln led the moderates in Reconstruction policy and was opposed by the Radicals, under Rep. Thaddeus Stevens, Sen. Charles Sumner and Sen. Benjamin Wade, who otherwise remained Lincoln's allies. Determined to reunite the nation and not alienate the South, Lincoln urged that speedy elections under generous terms be held. His Amnesty Proclamation of December 8, 1863, offered pardons to those who had not held a Confederate civil office and had not mistreated Union prisoners, if they were willing to sign an oath of allegiance.

As Southern states fell, they needed leaders while their administrations were restored. In Tennessee and Arkansas, Lincoln respectively appointed Johnson and Frederick Steele as military governors. In Louisiana, Lincoln ordered General Nathaniel P. Banks to promote a plan that would reestablish statehood when 10 percent of the voters agreed, and only if the reconstructed states abolished slavery. Democratic opponents accused Lincoln of using the military to ensure his and the Republicans' political aspirations. The Radicals denounced his policy as too lenient, and passed their own plan, the 1864 Wade–Davis Bill, which Lincoln vetoed. The Radicals retaliated by refusing to seat elected representatives from Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee.

Lincoln's appointments were designed to harness both moderates and Radicals. To fill Chief Justice Taney's seat on the Supreme Court, he named the Radicals' choice, Salmon P. Chase, whom Lincoln believed would uphold his emancipation and paper money policies.

After implementing the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln increased pressure on Congress to outlaw slavery throughout the nation with a constitutional amendment. He declared that such an amendment would "clinch the whole subject" and by December 1863 an amendment was brought to Congress. The Senate passed it on April 8, 1864, but the first vote in the House of Representatives fell short of the required two-thirds majority. Passage became part of Lincoln's reelection platform, and after his successful reelection, the second attempt in the House passed on January 31, 1865. With ratification, it became the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on December 6, 1865.

Lincoln believed the federal government had limited responsibility to the millions of freedmen. He signed Senator Charles Sumner's Freedmen's Bureau bill that set up a temporary federal agency designed to meet the immediate needs of former slaves. The law opened land for a lease of three years with the ability to purchase title for the freedmen. Lincoln announced a Reconstruction plan that involved short-term military control, pending readmission under the control of southern Unionists.

Historians agree that it is impossible to predict how Reconstruction would have proceeded had Lincoln lived. Biographers James G. Randall and Richard Current, according to David Lincove, argue that:

It is likely that had he lived, Lincoln would have followed a policy similar to Johnson's, that he would have clashed with congressional Radicals, that he would have produced a better result for the freedmen than occurred, and that his political skills would have helped him avoid Johnson's mistakes.

Eric Foner argues that:

Unlike Sumner and other Radicals, Lincoln did not see Reconstruction as an opportunity for a sweeping political and social revolution beyond emancipation. He had long made clear his opposition to the confiscation and redistribution of land. He believed, as most Republicans did in April 1865, that voting requirements should be determined by the states. He assumed that political control in the South would pass to white Unionists, reluctant secessionists, and forward-looking former Confederates. But time and again during the war, Lincoln, after initial opposition, had come to embrace positions first advanced by abolitionists and Radical Republicans. ... Lincoln undoubtedly would have listened carefully to the outcry for further protection for the former slaves. ... It is entirely plausible to imagine Lincoln and Congress agreeing on a Reconstruction policy that encompassed federal protection for basic civil rights plus limited black suffrage, along the lines Lincoln proposed just before his death.

Native Americans

Lincoln's relationship with Native Americans started before he was born, with their killing of his grandfather in front of his sons, including Lincoln's father Thomas. Lincoln himself served as a captain in the state militia during the Black Hawk War but saw no combat. Lincoln used appointments to the Indian Bureau as a reward to supporters from Minnesota and Wisconsin. While in office his administration faced difficulties guarding Western settlers, railroads, and telegraphs, from Indian attacks.

On August 17, 1862, the Dakota War broke out in Minnesota. Hundreds of settlers were killed, 30,000 were displaced from their homes, and Washington was deeply alarmed. Some feared incorrectly that it might represent a Confederate conspiracy to start a war on the Northwestern frontier. Lincoln ordered thousands of Confederate prisoners of war sent by railroad to put down the uprising. When the Confederates protested forcing Confederate prisoners to fight Indians, Lincoln revoked the policy and none arrived in Minnesota. Lincoln sent General John Pope as commander of the new Department of the Northwest two weeks into the hostilities. Before he arrived, the Fond Du Lac band of Chippewa sent Lincoln a letter asking to go to war for the United States against the Sioux, so Lincoln could send Minnesota's troops to fight the South. Shortly after, a Mille Lacs Band Chief offered the same at St. Cloud, Minnesota. In it the Chippewa specified they wanted to use the indigenous rules of warfare. That meant there would be no prisoners of war, no surrender, no peace agreement. Lincoln did not accept the Chippewa offer, as he could not control the Chippewa, and women and children were considered legitimate casualties in native American warfare.

Serving under Gen. Pope was Minnesota Congressman Henry H. Sibley. Minnesota's Governor had made Sibley a Colonel United States Volunteers to command the U.S. force tasked with fighting the war and that eventually defeated Little Crow's forces at the Battle of Wood Lake. The day the Mdewakanton force surrendered at Camp Release, a Chippewa war council met at Minnesota's capitol with another Chippewa offer to Lincoln, to fight the Sioux. Sibley ordered a military commission to review the actions of the captured, to try those that had committed war crimes. The legitimacy of military commissions trying opposing combatants had been established during the Mexican War. Sibley thought he had 16-20 of the men he wanted for trial, while Gen. Pope ordered all detained be tried. 303 were given death sentences that were subject to Presidential review. Lincoln ordered Pope send all trial transcripts to Washington, where Lincoln and two of his staff examined them. Lincoln realized the trials could be divided into two groups: combat between combatants and combat against civilians. The groups could be identified by their transcripts, the first group all had three pages in length while the second group had more, some up to twelve pages. He placed 263 cases into the first group and commuted their sentences. In the second group were forty cases. One he commuted for becoming a state's witness. Sibley dismissed another when proof surfaced exonerating the defendant. The remaining 38 were executed in the largest mass execution in U.S. history. Questions arose concerning three executions that have not been answered. Less than 4 months afterwards, Lincoln issued the Lieber Code, which governed wartime conduct of the Union Army, by defining command responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Congressman Alexander Ramsey told Lincoln in 1864, he would have gotten more re-election support in Minnesota had he executed all 303 of the Mdewakanton. Lincoln responded, "I could not afford to hang men for votes." The men whose sentences he commuted were sent to a military prison at Davenport, Iowa. Some he released due to the efforts of Bishop Henry Whipple.

Whig theory of a presidency

Lincoln adhered to the Whig theory of a presidency focused on executing laws while deferring to Congress' responsibility for legislating. Under this philosophy, Lincoln vetoed only four bills during his presidency, including the Wade-Davis Bill with its harsh Reconstruction program. The 1862 Homestead Act made millions of acres of Western government-held land available for purchase at low cost. The 1862 Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act provided government grants for agricultural colleges in each state. The Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 and 1864 granted federal support for the construction of the United States' first transcontinental railroad, which was completed in 1869. The passage of the Homestead Act and the Pacific Railway Acts was enabled by the absence of Southern congressmen and senators who had opposed the measures in the 1850s.

In the selection and use of his cabinet Lincoln employed the strengths of his opponents in a manner that emboldened his presidency. Lincoln commented on his thought process, "We need the strongest men of the party in the Cabinet. We needed to hold our own people together. I had looked the party over and concluded that these were the very strongest men. Then I had no right to deprive the country of their services." Goodwin described the group in her biography as a Team of Rivals.

There were two measures passed to raise revenues for the federal government: tariffs (a policy with long precedent), and a federal income tax. In 1861, Lincoln signed the second and third Morrill Tariffs, following the first enacted by Buchanan. He also signed the Revenue Act of 1861, creating the first U.S. income tax—a flat tax of 3 percent on incomes above $800 (equivalent to $27,129 in 2023). The Revenue Act of 1862 adopted rates that increased with income.

The Lincoln Administration presided over the expansion of the federal government's economic influence in other areas. The National Banking Act created the system of national banks. The U.S. issued paper currency for the first time, known as greenbacks—printed in green on the reverse side. In 1862, Congress created the Department of Agriculture.

In response to rumors of a renewed draft, the editors of the New York World and the Journal of Commerce published a false draft proclamation that created an opportunity for the editors and others to corner the gold market. Lincoln attacked the media for such behavior, and ordered a military seizure of the two papers which lasted for two days.

Lincoln is largely responsible for the Thanksgiving holiday. Thanksgiving had become a regional holiday in New England in the 17th century. It had been sporadically proclaimed by the federal government on irregular dates. The prior proclamation had been during James Madison's presidency 50 years earlier. In 1863, Lincoln declared the final Thursday in November of that year to be a day of Thanksgiving.

In June 1864 Lincoln approved the Yosemite Grant enacted by Congress, which provided unprecedented federal protection for the area now known as Yosemite National Park.

Supreme Court appointments

Lincoln's philosophy on court nominations was that "we cannot ask a man what he will do, and if we should, and he should answer us, we should despise him for it. Therefore we must take a man whose opinions are known." Lincoln made five appointments to the Supreme Court. Noah Haynes Swayne was an anti-slavery lawyer who was committed to the Union. Samuel Freeman Miller supported Lincoln in the 1860 election and was an avowed abolitionist. David Davis was Lincoln's campaign manager in 1860 and had served as a judge in the Illinois court circuit where Lincoln practiced. Democrat Stephen Johnson Field, a previous California Supreme Court justice, provided geographic and political balance. Finally, Lincoln's Treasury Secretary, Salmon P. Chase, became Chief Justice. Lincoln believed Chase was an able jurist, would support Reconstruction legislation, and that his appointment united the Republican Party.

Foreign policy

Lincoln named his main political rival, William H. Seward, as Secretary of State and left most diplomatic issues in Seward's portfolio. However, Lincoln did select some top diplomats as part of his patronage policy. He also closely watched the handling of the Trent Affair in late 1861 to make sure the situation did not escalate into war with Britain. Seward's main role was to keep Britain and France from supporting the Confederacy. He was successful after indicating to Britain and France that the Union would declare war on them if they supported the South.

Assassination

John Wilkes Booth was a well-known actor and a Confederate spy from Maryland; though he never joined the Confederate army, he had contacts with the Confederate secret service. After attending Lincoln's last public address, on April 11, 1865, in which Lincoln stated his preference that the franchise be conferred on some black men, specifically "on the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers", Booth hatched a plot to assassinate the President. When Booth learned of the Lincolns' intent to attend a play with General Grant, he planned to assassinate Lincoln and Grant at Ford's Theatre. "Booth had attended a dress rehearsal the day before to better rehearse his scheme for shooting Lincoln ... and then escaping." Lincoln and his wife attended the play Our American Cousin on the evening of April 14, just five days after the Union victory at the Battle of Appomattox Courthouse. At the last minute, Grant decided to go to New Jersey to visit his children instead of attending the play.

At 10:15 in the evening Booth entered the back of Lincoln's theater box, crept up from behind, and fired at the back of Lincoln's head, mortally wounding him. Lincoln's guest, Major Henry Rathbone, momentarily grappled with Booth, but Booth stabbed him and escaped. After being attended by Doctor Charles Leale and two other doctors, Lincoln was taken across the street to Petersen House. After remaining in a coma for nine hours, Lincoln died at 7:22 in the morning on April 15. Stanton saluted and said, "Now he belongs to the ages." Lincoln's body was placed in a flag-wrapped coffin, which was loaded into a hearse and escorted to the White House by Union soldiers. President Johnson was sworn in later that same day.

Two weeks later, Booth, refusing to surrender, was tracked to a farm in Virginia. He was mortally shot by Sergeant Boston Corbett and died on April 26. Secretary of War Stanton had issued orders that Booth be taken alive, so Corbett was initially arrested to be court martialed. After a brief interview, Stanton declared him a patriot and dismissed the charge.

Funeral and burial

The late President lay in state, first in the East Room of the White House, and then in the Capitol Rotunda from April 19 to 21. The caskets containing Lincoln's body and the body of his son Willie traveled for three weeks on the Lincoln Special funeral train. The train followed a circuitous route from Washington D.C. to Springfield, Illinois, stopping at many cities for memorials attended by hundreds of thousands. Many others gathered along the tracks as the train passed with bands, bonfires, and hymn singing or in silent grief. Poet Walt Whitman composed "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" to eulogize him, one of four poems he wrote about Lincoln. African Americans were especially moved; they had lost their "Moses". In a larger sense, the reaction was in response to the deaths of so many men in the war. Historians emphasized the widespread shock and sorrow, but noted that some Lincoln haters celebrated his death. Lincoln's body was buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield and now lies within the Lincoln Tomb.

Religious and philosophical beliefs

Part of the Politics series
Republicanism
Concepts Anti-monarchism Anti-corruption Civil society Civic virtue Consent of the governed Democracy Democratization Liberty as non-domination Mixed government Political representation Popular sovereignty Public participation Republic Res publica Rule of law Self-governance Separation of powers Social contract Social equality
Schools Classical Modern Federal Kemalism Khomeinism Nasserism Neo-republicanism Venizelism
Types Autonomous Capitalist Christian Democratic Federal Federal parliamentary Imperial Islamic Parliamentary People's Revolutionary Secular Sister Soviet
Philosophers Arendt Baggini Bello Bentham Bodin Cattaneo Chappell Cicero Condorcet Crick Franklin Harrington Honderich Jefferson Kant Locke Machiavelli Madison Mazzini Mill Montesquieu Paine Pettit Polybius Rousseau Sandel Sidney Sunstein Tocqueville Warburton Wollstonecraft
Politicians Adams (Gerry) Adams (John) Atatürk Azaña Bartley Benn (Tony) Bennett Bolívar Chapman Clark (Katy) Clarke (Tom) Connolly Cromwell Davidson Drakeford Etherington Fabiani Ferguson Flynn (Stephen) Gambetta Garibaldi de Gaulle Grévy Griffith Griffiths Harvie Hatton Hébert Hopkins Huppert Iorwerth Jackson Jay Jefferson Jones (Elin) Jones (Lynne) Juárez Kane Khomeini La Malfa Lewis Lincoln Lucas Mackay Mackenzie Madison Magid McKechin Mullin Naysmith Mannin McDonnell Nandy Nehru Pound Prescott Ritchie Robespierre Sayed Skates Skinner Slater Slaughter Smith Spadolini Sun Taverne Venizelos Wilson Wood
Theoretical works Republic (c. 375 BC) De re publica (54–51 BC) Discourses on Livy (1531) The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649) The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656) Discourses Concerning Government (1698) The Spirit of Law (1748) Discourse on Inequality (1755) The Social Contract (1762) The Federalist Papers (1787–1788) Rights of Man (1791) Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch (1794) Democracy in America (1835–1840) On Revolution (1963)
History Roman Republic Gaṇasaṅgha Classical Athens Republic of Venice Republic of Genoa Republic of Florence Dutch Republic American Revolution French Revolution Spanish American wars of independence Trienio Liberal French Revolution of 1848 5 October 1910 revolution Chinese Revolution Russian Revolution German Revolution of 1918–1919 Turkish War of Independence Mongolian Revolution of 1921 11 September 1922 Revolution 1935 Greek coup d'état attempt Spanish Civil War 1946 Italian institutional referendum 1952 Egyptian revolution 14 July Revolution North Yemen Civil War Zanzibar Revolution 1969 Libyan coup d'état 1970 Cambodian coup d'état Metapolitefsi Iranian Revolution 1987 Fijian coups d'état Nepalese Civil War Barbadian Republic Proclamation
National variants Antigua and Barbuda Australia Bahamas Barbados Canada Ireland Jamaica Japan Morocco Netherlands New Zealand Norway Spain Sweden United Kingdom Scotland Wales United States
Related topics Classical radicalism Common good Communitarianism Criticism of monarchy Egalitarianism The Emperor's New Clothes Jacobinism Liberalism List of republics Monarchism Peasant republic Primus inter pares Republic without republicans Republican empire Republican Party
Politics portal
v t e

As a young man Lincoln was a religious skeptic. He was deeply familiar with the Bible, quoting and praising it. He was private about his position on organized religion and respected the beliefs of others. He never made a clear profession of Christian beliefs. Throughout his public career, Lincoln often quoted Scripture. His three most famous speeches—the House Divided Speech, the Gettysburg Address, and his second inaugural—all contain direct allusions to Providence and quote from Scripture.

In the 1840s Lincoln subscribed to the Doctrine of Necessity, a belief that the human mind was controlled by a higher power. With the death of his son Edward in 1850 he more frequently expressed a dependence on God. He never joined a church, although he frequently attended First Presbyterian Church with his wife beginning in 1852.

In the 1850s Lincoln asserted his belief in "providence" in a general way and rarely used the language or imagery of the evangelicals; instead, he regarded the republicanism of the Founding Fathers with an almost religious reverence. The death of his son Willie in February 1862 may have caused him to look toward religion for solace. After Willie's death, he questioned the divine necessity of the war's severity. He wrote at this time that God "could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And having begun He could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds."

Lincoln did believe in an all-powerful God that shaped events and by 1865 was expressing that belief in major speeches. By the end of the war, he increasingly appealed to the Almighty for solace and to explain events, writing on April 4, 1864, to a newspaper editor in Kentucky:

I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me. Now, at the end of three years struggle the nation's condition is not what either party, or any man devised, or expected. God alone can claim it. Whither it is tending seems plain. If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that we of the North as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein new cause to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God.

This spirituality can best be seen in his second inaugural address, considered by some scholars as the greatest such address in American history, and by Lincoln himself as his own greatest speech, or one of them at the very least. Lincoln explains therein that the cause, purpose, and result of the war was God's will. Lincoln's frequent use of religious imagery and language toward the end of his life may have reflected his own personal beliefs or might have been a device to reach his audiences, who were mostly evangelical Protestants. On the day Lincoln was assassinated, he reportedly told his wife he desired to visit the Holy Land.

Health

Lincoln is believed to have had depression, smallpox, and malaria. He took blue mass pills, which contained mercury, to treat constipation. It is unknown to what extent this may have resulted in mercury poisoning.

Several claims have been made that Lincoln's health was declining before the assassination. These are often based on photographs of Lincoln appearing to show weight loss and muscle wasting. It is also suspected that he might have had a rare genetic disease such as Marfan syndrome or multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2B.

Legacy

Republican values

Lincoln's redefinition of republican values has been stressed by historians such as John Patrick Diggins, Harry V. Jaffa, Vernon Burton, Eric Foner, and Herman J. Belz. Lincoln called the Declaration of Independence—which emphasized freedom and equality for all—the "sheet anchor" of republicanism beginning in the 1850s. He did this at a time when the Constitution, which "tolerated slavery", was the focus of most political discourse. Diggins notes, "Lincoln presented Americans a theory of history that offers a profound contribution to the theory and destiny of republicanism itself" in the 1860 Cooper Union speech. Instead of focusing on the legality of an argument, he focused on the moral basis of republicanism.

His position on war was founded on a legal argument regarding the Constitution as essentially a contract among the states, and all parties must agree to pull out of the contract. Furthermore, it was a national duty to ensure the republic stands in every state. Many soldiers and religious leaders from the north, though, felt the fight for liberty and freedom of slaves was ordained by their moral and religious beliefs.

As a Whig activist Lincoln was a spokesman for business interests, favoring high tariffs, banks, infrastructure improvements, and railroads, in opposition to Jacksonian democrats. Lincoln shared the sympathies that the Jacksonians professed for the common man, but he disagreed with the Jacksonian view that the government should be divorced from economic enterprise. Nevertheless, Lincoln admired Andrew Jackson's steeliness as well as his patriotism. According to historian Sean Wilentz:

Just as the Republican Party of the 1850s absorbed certain elements of Jacksonianism, so Lincoln, whose Whiggery had always been more egalitarian than that of other Whigs, found himself absorbing some of them as well. And some of the Jacksonian spirit resided inside the Lincoln White House.

William C. Harris found that Lincoln's "reverence for the Founding Fathers, the Constitution, the laws under it, and the preservation of the Republic and its institutions strengthened his conservatism." James G. Randall emphasizes his tolerance and moderation "in his preference for orderly progress, his distrust of dangerous agitation, and his reluctance toward ill digested schemes of reform." Randall concludes that "he was conservative in his complete avoidance of that type of so-called 'radicalism' which involved abuse of the South, hatred for the slaveholder, thirst for vengeance, partisan plotting, and ungenerous demands that Southern institutions be transformed overnight by outsiders."

Reunification of the states

In Lincoln's first inaugural address, he explored the nature of democracy. He denounced secession as anarchy, and he explained that majority rule had to be balanced by constitutional restraints. He said, "A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people."

The successful reunification of the states had consequences for how people viewed the country. The term "the United States" has historically been used sometimes in the plural ("these United States") and other times in the singular. The Civil War was a significant force in the eventual dominance of the singular usage by the end of the 19th century.

Historical reputation

In his company, I was never reminded of my humble origin, or of my unpopular color.

— Frederick Douglass

In surveys of U.S. scholars ranking presidents conducted since 1948, the top three presidents are generally Lincoln, Washington, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, although the order varies. Between 1999 and 2011, Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan were the top-ranked presidents in eight public opinion surveys, according to Gallup. A 2004 study found that scholars in the fields of history and politics ranked Lincoln number one, while legal scholars placed him second after George Washington.

Lincoln's assassination left him a national martyr. He was viewed by abolitionists as a champion of human liberty. Republicans linked Lincoln's name to their party. Many, though not all, in the South considered Lincoln as a man of outstanding ability. Historians have said he was "a classical liberal" in the 19th-century sense. Allen C. Guelzo states that Lincoln was a "classical liberal democrat—an enemy of artificial hierarchy, a friend to trade and business as ennobling and enabling, and an American counterpart to Mill, Cobden, and Bright", whose portrait Lincoln hung in his White House office.

Sociologist Barry Schwartz argues that Lincoln's American reputation grew slowly from the late 19th century until the Progressive Era (1900–1920s), when he emerged as one of America's most venerated heroes, even among white Southerners. The high point came in 1922 with the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Union nationalism, as envisioned by Lincoln, "helped lead America to the nationalism of Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt." In the New Deal era, liberals honored Lincoln not so much as the self-made man or the great war president, but as the advocate of the common man who they claimed would have supported the welfare state.

Schwartz argues that in the 1930s and 1940s the memory of Abraham Lincoln was practically sacred and provided the nation with "a moral symbol inspiring and guiding American life." During the Great Depression, he argues, Lincoln served "as a means for seeing the world's disappointments, for making its sufferings not so much explicable as meaningful." Franklin D. Roosevelt, preparing America for war, used the words of the Civil War president to clarify the threat posed by Germany and Japan. Americans asked, "What would Lincoln do?" However, Schwartz also finds that since World War II Lincoln's symbolic power has lost relevance, and this "fading hero is symptomatic of fading confidence in national greatness." He suggested that postmodernism and multiculturalism have diluted greatness as a concept.

In the Cold War years Lincoln's image shifted to a symbol of freedom who brought hope to those oppressed by Communist regimes. He had long been known as the Great Emancipator, but, by the late 1960s, some African American intellectuals, led by Lerone Bennett Jr., denied that Lincoln deserved that title. Bennett won wide attention when he called Lincoln a white supremacist in 1968. He noted that Lincoln used ethnic slurs and told jokes that ridiculed blacks. Bennett argued that Lincoln opposed social equality and proposed that freed slaves voluntarily move to another country. The emphasis shifted away from Lincoln the emancipator to an argument that blacks had freed themselves from slavery, or at least were responsible for pressuring the government to emancipate them. Defenders of Lincoln retorted that he was a "moral visionary" who deftly advanced the abolitionist cause, as fast as politically possible. Brian Dirck stated that few Civil War scholars take Bennett (or Thomas DiLorenzo) seriously, pointing to their "narrow political agendas and faulty research".

By the 1970s Lincoln had become a hero to political conservatives—apart from neo-Confederates such as Mel Bradford, who denounced his treatment of the white South—for his intense nationalism, his support for business, his insistence on stopping the spread of slavery, his acting on Lockean and Burkean principles on behalf of both liberty and tradition, and his devotion to the principles of the Founding Fathers. Lincoln became a favorite of liberal intellectuals across the world.

Barry Schwartz wrote in 2009 that Lincoln's image suffered "erosion, fading prestige, benign ridicule" in the late 20th century. By contrast, David Herbert Donald opined in his 1996 biography that Lincoln was distinctly endowed with the personality trait of negative capability, defined by the poet John Keats and attributed to extraordinary leaders who were "capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason".

In the 21st century President Barack Obama named Lincoln his favorite president and insisted on using the Lincoln Bible for his inaugural ceremonies.

Lincoln has often been portrayed by Hollywood, almost always in a flattering light.

Lincoln has also been admired by political figures outside the U.S., including German political theorist Karl Marx, Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, leader of the Italian Risorgimento, Giuseppe Garibaldi, and Libyan revolutionary Muammar Gaddafi.

Memory and memorials

Lincoln's portrait appears on two denominations of United States currency, the penny and the $5 bill. He appears on postage stamps across the world. While he is usually portrayed bearded, he did not grow a beard until 1860 at the suggestion of 11-year-old Grace Bedell. He was the first of five presidents to do so.

He has been memorialized in many town, city, and county names, including the capital of Nebraska. The United States Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) is named after Lincoln, the second Navy ship to bear his name. The Lincoln Memorial is one of the most visited monuments in the nation's capital and is one of the most visited National Park Service sites in the country. Ford's Theatre, among the most visited sites in Washington, D.C., is across the street from Petersen House, where Lincoln died. Memorials in Springfield, Illinois, include the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Lincoln's home, and his tomb. A portrait carving of Lincoln appears with those of three other presidents on Mount Rushmore, which receives about 3 million visitors a year. An influential statue of Lincoln stands in Lincoln Park, Chicago, with recastings given as diplomatic gifts standing in Parliament Square, London, and Parque Lincoln, Mexico City.

In 2019, Congress officially dedicated room H-226 in the United States Capitol to Abraham Lincoln. The room is located off National Statuary Hall and served as the post office of the House while then-Representative Abraham Lincoln served in Congress from 1847 to 1849.

• Lincoln's image carved into the stone of Mount Rushmore
• Abraham Lincoln, a 1909 bronze statue by Adolph Weinman, sits before a historic church in Hodgenville, Kentucky.
• The Lincoln memorial postage stamp of 1866 was issued by the U.S. Post Office exactly one year after Lincoln's assassination.
• Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
• The Lincoln cent, an American coin portraying Lincoln

See also

• Lincoln (film), directed by Steven Spielberg (2012)
• Linconia, proposed colony in Central America named for Lincoln
• List of civil rights leaders
• List of presidents of the United States
• List of presidents of the United States by previous experience
• Outline of Abraham Lincoln
• The Towers (Ohio State), Lincoln Tower

Notes

1. ^ Discharged from command-rank of Captain and re-enlisted at rank of Private.
2. The identity of Lincoln's grandmother Bathsheba Herring, though without certainty, is the consensus of multiple Lincoln biographers. She was the daughter of Alexander and Abigail Herring (née Harrison).
3. Thomas, born January 1778, would have been 8 at the attack, May 1786. Older sources use six.
4. Later, this land became part of a separate county in 1818.
5. Historians disagree on who initiated the move; Thomas Lincoln had no obvious reason to do so. One possibility is that other members of the family, including Dennis Hanks, may not have matched Thomas's stability and steady income.
6. The Lincolns' last descendant, great-grandson Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, died in 1985.
7. Lincoln was a descendant of the Harrisons through his grandmother, Bathsheba Herring.
8. Eric Foner contrasts the abolitionists and anti-slavery Radical Republicans of the Northeast, who saw slavery as a sin, with the conservative Republicans, who thought it was bad because it hurt white people and blocked progress. Foner argues that Lincoln was in the middle, opposing slavery primarily because it violated the republicanism principles of the Founding Fathers, especially the equality of all men and democratic self-government as expressed in the Declaration of Independence.
9. Although the name of the Supreme Court case is Dred Scott v. Sandford, the respondent's surname was actually "Sanford". A clerk misspelled the name, and the court never corrected the error.
10. Major Northern newspapers, however, demanded more—they expected victory within 90 days.
11. At the moment of death some observers said his face seemed to relax into a smile.
12. Other versions of the quotation have been offered, including "He now belongs to the ages," "He is a man for the ages," and "Now he belongs to the angels." Gopnik, Adam, "Angels and Ages: Lincoln's language and its legacy," The New Yorker, May 21, 2007.
13. On claims that Lincoln was baptized by an associate of Alexander Campbell, see Martin, Jim (1996). "The secret baptism of Abraham Lincoln". Restoration Quarterly. 38 (2). Archived from the original on October 19, 2012. Retrieved May 27, 2012.
14. Lincoln wrote to Thurlow Weed on March 4, 1865, "on the recent Inaugeral Address. I expect the latter to wear as well as—perhaps better than—any thing I have produced...."
15. While the book Rating The Presidents: A Ranking of U.S. Leaders, From the Great and Honorable to the Dishonest and Incompetent acknowledges that polls have rated Lincoln among the top presidents since 1948, the authors find him to be among the two best presidents, along with Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

References

1. Carpenter, Francis B. (1866). Six Months in the White House: The Story of a Picture. Hurd and Houghton. p. 217.
2. Donald 1996, pp. 20–22.
3. Warren 2017, pp. 3–4.
4. Harrison 1935, p. 276.
5. Warren 2017, p. 4.
6. ^ Donald 1996, p. 21.
7. Wilson et al. 1998, pp. 35–36.
8. Bartelt 2008, p. 79.
9. Warren 2017, p. 9.
10. Warren 2017, pp. 9–10.
11. Donald 1996, pp. 22–24.
12. Warren 2017, p. 13.
13. Warren 2017, p. 26.
14. Warren 2017, pp. 16, 43.
15. Burlingame, Michael, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, vol. 1, p. 22
16. "The Underground Railroad in Indiana", National Geographic
17. Bartelt 2008, pp. 3, 5, 16.
18. Donald 1996, pp. 23–24.
19. Lincoln, Abraham (March 8, 2001). Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 4. pp. 61–62.
20. Bartelt 2008, pp. 34, 156.
21. Donald 1996, p. 24.
22. Bartelt 2008, pp. 24, 104.
23. Bartelt 2008, pp. 22–23, 77.
24. Donald 1996, pp. 34, 116.
25. Bartelt 2008, pp. 23, 83.
26. Donald 1996, pp. 26–27.
27. Blumenthal, Sidney, A Self-Made Man: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1849. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016, p. 29.
28. Bartelt 2008, p. 66.
29. White 2009, p. 30.
30. Bartelt 2008, pp. 10, 33.
31. Donald 1996, p. 23.
32. Donald 1996, p. 29.
33. Madison 2014, p. 110.
34. Donald 1996, pp. 29–31, 38–43.
35. "Columbia University Libraries Online Exhibitions | Jewels in Her Crown: Treasures of Columbia University Libraries Special Collections". exhibitions.library.columbia.edu. Retrieved August 7, 2023.
36. Donald 1996, p. 32.
37. Warren 2017, pp. 134–135.
38. Dellinger, Bob. "Wrestling in the USA". National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Retrieved April 9, 2021.
39. Donald 1996, pp. 40–41.
40. ^ Donald 1996, p. 36.
41. Bartelt 2008, pp. 38–40.
42. Bartelt 2008, p. 71.
43. Oates 1974, pp. 15–17.
44. Thomas 2008, pp. 23–53.
45. Sandburg 1926, p. 202; Donald 1996, p. 38.
46. Gannett, Lewis (Winter 2005). "'Overwhelming Evidence' of a Lincoln-Ann Rutledge Romance?: Reexamining Rutledge Family Reminiscences". Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association. Springfield, IL: The Abraham Lincoln Association. pp. 28–41. Archived from the original on April 3, 2017.
47. Donald 1996, pp. 55–58.
48. ^ Shenk, Joshua Wolf (October 2005). "Lincoln's Great Depression". The Atlantic. The Atlantic Monthly Group. Archived from the original on October 9, 2011. Retrieved October 8, 2009.
49. Siegel, Robert (October 26, 2005). "Exploring Abraham Lincoln's 'Melancholy'". Retrieved February 17, 2023.
50. Thomas 2008, pp. 56–57, 69–70.
51. Donald 1996, p. 67.
52. Donald 1996, pp. 80–86.
53. Lamb & Swain 2008, p. 3.
54. Sandburg 1926, pp. 260, 290–291.
55. Donald 1996, p. 93.
56. Baker 1989, p. 142.
57. White 2009, pp. 179–181, 476.
58. Emerson, Jason (2012). Giant in the Shadows: The Life of Robert T. Lincoln. SIU Press. p. 420. ISBN 978-0-8093-3055-3. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
59. White 2009, p. 126.
60. Baker 1989, p. 120.
61. Hertz, Emanuel (1938). The Hidden Lincoln. The Viking Press. p. 105.
62. Steers 2010, p. 341.
63. Winkle 2001, pp. 86–95.
64. Blazeski, Goran (October 15, 2016). "Abraham Lincoln was the only President who was also a licensed bartender". The Vintage News. Retrieved March 4, 2022.
65. Lincoln, Abraham (1832). "The Improvement of Sangamon River". In Miller, Marion Mills (ed.). Life and Works of Abraham Lincoln Volume 3. Wildside Press. ISBN 978-1-4344-2497-6. WP article
66. Winkle 2001, pp. 114–116.
67. ^ Stone, Zofia (2016). Abraham Lincoln: A Biography. Alpha Editions. p. 16. ISBN 978-9-3863-6727-3 – via Google Books.
68. Donald 1996, pp. 53–55.
69. White 2009, p. 59.
70. Simon 1990, p. 283.
71. Weik, Jesse William. "Abraham Lincoln and Internal Improvements". Abraham Lincoln's Classroom. Archived from the original on February 12, 2015. Retrieved February 12, 2015.
72. Simon 1990, p. 130.
73. Donald 1996, p. 134.
74. Foner 2010, p. 17–19, 67.
75. Donald 1996, p. 64.
76. "Abraham Lincoln". Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC), the Supreme Court of Illinois. Archived from the original on July 2, 2023. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
77. White 2009, pp. 71, 79, 108.
78. Donald 1996, p. 17.
79. Lincoln, Abraham (November 18, 2001). Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 1. p. 109.
80. "POW FORUM".
81. Gill, Zann (2023). ALTON – campaign to end free speech: Two murders that provoked Lincoln to run for President. Berkeley, CA: MetaVu Books. ISBN 979-8-9852417-0-9.
82. Donald 1996, p. 222.
83. Boritt & Pinsker 2002, pp. 137–153.
84. Oates 1974, p. 79.
85. "US Congressman Lincoln – Abraham Lincoln Historical Society". Abraham-lincoln-history.org. Archived from the original on December 15, 2018. Retrieved February 2, 2019.
86. Harris 2007, p. 54; Foner 2010, p. 57.
87. "LINCOLN, Abraham | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives". history.house.gov. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
88. Heidler & Heidler 2006, pp. 181–183.
89. Holzer 2004, p. 63.
90. Oates 1974, pp. 79–80.
91. Graebner 1959, pp. 199–202.
92. "Lincoln's Spot Resolutions". National Archives. Archived from the original on September 20, 2011. Retrieved March 12, 2009.
93. Donald 1996, p. 128.
94. Donald 1996, pp. 124–126.
95. Donald 1996, p. 140.
96. Arnold, Isaac Newton (1885). The Life of Abraham Lincoln. Vol. 2. Chicago, IL: Janses, McClurg, & Company. p. 81.
97. Harris 2007, pp. 55–57.
98. Donald 1996, p. 96.
99. Donald 1996, pp. 105–106, 158.
100. Donald 1996, pp. 142–143.
101. McGinty, Brian (February 9, 2015). Lincoln's Greatest Case: The River, the Bridge, and the Making of America. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-87140-785-6.
102. "Abraham Lincoln's Patent Model: Improvement for Buoying Vessels Over Shoals". Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original on August 25, 2017. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
103. Richards 2015, p. 440.
104. Donald 1996, pp. 155–156, 196–197.
105. Library, Philosophical (November 9, 2010). The Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln. Open Road Media. ISBN 978-1-4532-0281-4.
106. ^ Donald 1996, pp. 150–151.
107. Harrison 1935, pp. 280–286, 350–351.
108. Harrison 1935.
109. Mitgang, Herbert (February 10, 1989). "THE LAW; Lincoln as Lawyer: Transcript Tells Murder Story". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
110. White 2009, pp. 175–176.
111. White 2009, pp. 182–185.
112. White 2009, pp. 188–190.
113. Thomas 2008, pp. 148–152.
114. Graebner 1959, p. 255.
115. ^ White 2009, pp. 203–205.
116. White 2009, pp. 215–216.
117. McGovern 2009, pp. 38–39.
118. White 2009, pp. 203–204.
119. White 2009, pp. 191–194.
120. "Notice that Abraham Lincoln declines to serve in the General Assembly (1854)". Office of the Illinois Secretary of State.
121. Oates, Stephen (1977). With Malice Toward None: A Biography of Abraham Lincoln. pp. 118–120.
122. Oates 1974, p. 119.
123. White 2009, pp. 205–208.
124. White 2009, pp. 216–221.
125. White 2009, pp. 224–228.
126. White 2009, pp. 229–230.
127. Foner 2010, pp. 84–88.
128. Vishneski, John (1988). "What the Court Decided in Dred Scott v. Sandford". The American Journal of Legal History. 32 (4). Temple University: 373–390. doi:10.2307/845743. ISSN 0002-9319. JSTOR 845743.
129. White 2009, pp. 236–238.
130. Zarefsky 1993, pp. 69–110.
131. Jaffa 2000, pp. 299–300.
132. ^ White 2009, pp. 247–248.
133. Oates 1974, pp. 138–139.
134. White 2009, pp. 247–250.
135. White 2009, p. 251.
136. Harris 2007, p. 98.
137. Donald 1996, p. 209.
138. White 2009, pp. 257–258.
139. Donald 1996, pp. 214–218.
140. Donald 1996, pp. 202, 219, 232.
141. Donald 1996, pp. 214–224.
142. Donald 1996, p. 223.
143. Carwardine 2003, pp. 89–90.
144. Donald 1996, pp. 242, 412.
145. White 2009, pp. 291–293.
146. White 2009, pp. 307–308.
147. Donald 1996, p. 200.
148. Morse 1893, p. 112.
149. Jaffa 2000, p. 473.
150. Holzer 2004, pp. 108–111.
151. Carwardine 2003, p. 97; Holzer 2004, p. 157.
152. Donald 1996, p. 240.
153. Donald 1996, p. 241.
154. Donald 1996, p. 244.
155. Oates 1974, pp. 175–176.
156. Donald 1996, p. 245.
157. Lincoln, Abraham (December 20, 1859). "Herewith is a little sketch, as you requested". Letter to Jesse W. Fell. Archived from the original on November 7, 2017. Retrieved November 6, 2017.
158. Martinez, J. Michael (2011). Coming for to Carry Me Home: Race in America from Abolitionism to Jim Crow. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 59. ISBN 978-1-4422-1500-9.
159. Luthin 1944, pp. 609–629.
160. Hofstadter 1938, pp. 50–55.
161. Donald 1996, pp. 247–250.
162. Boritt & Pinsker 2002, pp. 10, 13, 18.
163. Donald 1996, p. 253.
164. Chadwick, Bruce (2009). Lincoln for President: An Unlikely Candidate, An Audacious Strategy, and the Victory No One Saw Coming. Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks. pp. 147–149. ISBN 978-1-4022-4756-9. Retrieved April 1, 2017.
165. Murrin, John (2006). Liberty, Equality, Power: A History of the American People. Belmont: Clark Baxter. p. 464. ISBN 978-0-495-91588-1
166. Donald 1996, pp. 254–256.
167. Donald 1996, p. 254.
168. Donald 1996, pp. 251–252.
169. Mansch 2005, p. 61.
170. Donald 1996, p. 256.
171. White 2009, p. 350.
172. Nevins 1947, p. 4:312.
173. "Affairs of the Nation / The Change of Administration To-Day". The New York Times. March 4, 1861. p. 1.
174. Edgar 1998, p. 350.
175. Donald 1996, p. 267; Potter 1977.
176. Donald 1996, p. 267.
177. White 2009, p. 362.
178. Potter 1977, pp. 520, 569–570.
179. White 2009, p. 369.
180. White 2009, pp. 360–361.
181. Donald 1996, p. 268.
182. Vorenberg 2001, p. 22; Vile 2003, pp. 280–281.
183. "Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States : from George Washington 1789 to George Bush 1989". avalon.law.yale.edu.
184. Lupton 2006, p. 34.
185. "Broadside, "President Lincoln's Farewell Address to His Old Neighbors, Springfield, February 12, 1861" – The Henry Ford". www.thehenryford.org. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
186. "Lincoln's Farewell Address – Illinois History & Lincoln Collections". January 27, 2018. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
187. Donald 1996, pp. 273–277.
188. "Abraham Lincoln arrives in Washington, D.C. | February 23, 1861".
189. Donald 1996, pp. 277–279.
190. Lincoln, Abraham (March 8, 2001). Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 4. p. 333.
191. Sandburg 2002, p. 212.
192. Donald 1996, pp. 283–284.
193. Donald 1996, pp. 268, 279.
194. Nevins 1959, p. 5:29.
195. Sherman 1990, pp. 185–186.
196. Donald 1996, p. 293.
197. Oates 1974, p. 226.
198. Heidler, Heidler & Coles 2002, p. 174.
199. "One significant point of disagreement among historians and political scientists is whether Roger Taney heard Ex parte Merryman as a U.S. circuit judge or as a Supreme Court justice in chambers." White, Jonathan W., Abraham Lincoln and Treason in the Civil War: The Trials of John Merryman, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2011, pp. 38–39.
200. Harris 2011, pp. 59–71.
201. Neely 1992, pp. 3–31.
202. Donald 1996, pp. 303–304; Carwardine 2003, pp. 163–164.
203. Donald 1996, pp. 315–339, 417.
204. Donald 1996, p. 314; Carwardine 2003, p. 178.
205. Donald 1996, pp. 314–317.
206. Carwardine 2003, p. 181.
207. Boritt & Pinsker 2002, pp. 213–214.
208. Donald 1996, p. 322.
209. Randall, James Garfield (1946). Lincoln the President: Springfield to Gettysburg. p. 50. ISBN 978-0-306-80754-1. quoted in Peraino, Kevin (2013) Lincoln in the World: The Making of a Statesman and the Dawn of American Power. pp. 160–61. ISBN 978-0-307-88720-7
210. Oates 1974, p. 115.
211. Thomas, Benjamin Platt; Hyman, Harold Melvin (1962). Stanton: The Life and Times of Lincoln's Secretary of War. Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 71, 87, 229–30, 385 (quote).
212. Donald 1996, pp. 295–296.
213. Donald 1996, pp. 391–392.
214. Ambrose 1996, pp. 7, 66, 159.
215. Donald 1996, pp. 432–436.
216. "The President at West Point". The New York Times. New York. June 26, 1862. p. 8. Archived from the original on October 8, 2024. Retrieved October 8, 2024 – via Newspapers.com. the President and Gen. Scott spent several hours in discussing the state of military affairs, the doings and misdoings of certain Generals, the desirability of continuing the existing Departmental divisions, the necessity of further enlistments, the prospect of the armies of the Potomac and of the Virginia valleys . . . .
217. "The President at West Point". Brooklyn Evening Star. New York. Copy from N.Y. Express. June 25, 1862. p. 3. Archived from the original on October 8, 2024. Retrieved October 8, 2024 – via Newspapers.com. they were in earnest conversation for five hours.
218. Donald 1996, pp. 318–319.
219. Donald 1996, pp. 349–352.
220. "Henry W. Halleck". American Battlefield Trust. June 15, 2011. Archived from the original on October 8, 2018. Retrieved October 7, 2018.
221. Nevins 1947, pp. 159–162.
222. Nevins 1959, pp. 159–162.
223. Goodwin 2005, pp. 478–479.
224. Goodwin 2005, pp. 478–480.
225. Goodwin 2005, p. 481.
226. Donald 1996, pp. 389–390.
227. Nevins 1947, pp. 433–444; Donald 1996, pp. 429–431.
228. Nevins 1947, p. 322.
229. Donald 1996, pp. 422–423.
230. Nevins 1947, pp. 432–450.
231. Donald 1996, pp. 444–447.
232. Mackubin, Thomas Owens (March 25, 2004). "The Liberator". National Review. Archived from the original on February 16, 2012. Retrieved December 12, 2008.
233. Guelzo 1999, pp. 290–291.
234. Donald 1996, pp. 364–365.
235. McPherson 1992, p. 124.
236. Lundberg, James M. (2019). Horace Greeley: Print, Politics, and the Failure of American Nationhood, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, p. 116.
237. Guelzo 2004, pp. 147–153.
238. Graebner 1959, p. 388.
239. Cohen, Henry. "Was Lincoln Disingenuous in His Greeley Letter?", The Lincoln Forum Bulletin, Issue 54, Fall 2023.
240. "The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, 1862". www.archives.gov.
241. Louis P. Masur (2012). Lincoln's Hundred Days: The Emancipation Proclamation and the War for the Union. Harvard University Press. Review
242. Freehling, William W. (2001). The South vs. the South : How Anti-Confederate Southerners Shaped the Course of the Civil War. Oxford University Press. p. 111. ISBN 978-0-19-802990-8. Retrieved June 5, 2024.
243. "Transcript of the Proclamation". National Archives. October 6, 2015.
244. "Andrew Johnson and Emancipation in Tennessee – Andrew Johnson National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov.
245. Donald 1996, p. 379.
246. Donald 1996, p. 407.
247. McPherson, James M. (March 1995). "Who Freed the Slaves?". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 139 (1): 9. ISSN 0003-049X. JSTOR 986716. Retrieved June 5, 2024.
248. ^ Donald 1996, p. 431.
249. Conant, Sean (2015). The Gettysburg Address: Perspectives on Lincoln's Greatest Speech. New York: Oxford University Press. p. ix. ISBN 978-0-19-022745-6.
250. Holsinger, M. Paul (1999). War and American Popular Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-313-29908-7.
251. Donald 1996, pp. 453–460.
252. Donald 1996, pp. 460–466; Wills 2012, pp. 20, 27, 105, 146.
253. Bulla & Borchard 2010, p. 222.
254. Thomas 2008, p. 315.
255. Nevins 1947, pp. 4:6–17.
256. Donald 1996, pp. 490–492.
257. "Message of President Abraham Lincoln Nominating Ulysses S. Grant to Be Lieutenant General of the Army". National Archives. August 15, 2016.
258. McPherson 2009, p. 113.
259. Donald 1996, p. 501.
260. "The Peacemakers". The White House Historical Association. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved May 3, 2009.
261. Thomas 2008, pp. 422–424.
262. Neely 2004, pp. 434–458.
263. James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom. (New York, 1988) 757.
264. James G. Randall and Richard N. Current, Lincoln the President: Last Full Measure (New York, 1955), 200.
265. Thomas 2008, p. 434.
266. G. Edward White, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: Law and the Inner Self. New York, 1993, 64–65.
267. Donald 1996, p. 565.
268. Donald 1996, p. 589.
269. Fish 1902, pp. 53–69; Tegeder 1948, pp. 77–90.
270. Donald 1996, pp. 494–507.
271. Grimsley & Simpson 2001, p. 80.
272. Lincoln, Abraham (2001) . "Memorandum Concerning His Probable Failure of Re-election". Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 7. p. 514.
273. Donald 1996, p. 531.
274. Randall & Current 1955, p. 307.
275. Grimsley & Simpson 2001, p. 80; Paludan 1994, pp. 274–293.
276. Noll 2002, p. 426.
277. Lincoln, Abraham (February 13, 1953). Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 8.
278. Thomas 2008, pp. 509–512.
279. Koehn, Nancy (2017). Forged in Crisis: The Making of Five Legendary Leaders. NY: Scribner. p. 191. ISBN 978-1-5011-7444-5.
280. Donald 1996, pp. 471–472.
281. Donald 1996, pp. 485–486.
282. Nevins 1947, p. 4:206.
283. Donald 1996, p. 554.
284. Donald 1996, pp. 562–563.
285. "Primary Documents in American History: 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on October 10, 2011. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
286. Carwardine 2003, pp. 242–243.
287. Lincove, David A. (2000). Reconstruction in the United States: An Annotated Bibliography. Greenwood. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-313-29199-9.
288. Foner 2010, p. 335.
289. "Lincoln Lore – Abraham Lincoln's Grandfather". apps.legislature.ky.gov.
290. "Captain Abraham Lincoln of the Illinois militia". National Guard.
291. Nichols 1974, pp. 3–4.
292. Bulla & Borchard 2010, p. 480.
293. Nichols 1974, pp. 4–5, 7.
294. Burlingame 2008, p. 481; Nichols 1974, p. 7.
295. Nichols 1974, p. 7.
296. ^ Bulla & Borchard 2010, p. 481.
297. Mille Lacs Band letter, The Weekly Pioneer and Democrat September 19, 1862, in St Paul, p. 3
298. Burlingame 2008, p. 702.
299. Mille Lacs Band offer to fight Sioux, Goodhue Republican Vol. 6 No. 3, September 12, 1863,
300. Carley, Kenneth (2001). The Dakota War of 1862. Minnesota Historical Society Press. p. 209.
301. Carley, Kenneth (1976). The Sioux Uprising of 1862. Minnesota Historical Society Press. p. 175.
302. Perman, Michael; Taylor, Amy Murrell, eds. (2013). The Civil War and Reconstruction: A Documentary Reader. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 105.
303. Nichols, David A. (1978). Lincoln and the Indians: Civil War Policy and Politics. University of Missouri Press. p. 121.
304. Chippewa Chiefs held a war council with Gov. Ramsey to fight the Sioux on September 26, 1862
305. Difference Between Court-Martial and Military Tribunal, Ernesto Gapasin, Military Trial Lawyers, Gapasin Law Group, LLC Blog, 1736 E Sunshine St Suite 713, Springfield, MO., October 26, 2015,
306. Donald 1996, p. 394.
307. Carley, Kenneth (2001). The Dakota War of 1862. Minnesota Historical Society Press.
308. Burlingame, Michael, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press, vol. 2, p. 483.
309. Donald 1996, p. 137.
310. Paludan 1994, p. 116.
311. McPherson 2009, pp. 450–452.
312. Summers, Robert. "Abraham Lincoln". Internet Public Library 2 (IPL2). U. Michigan and Drexel U. Archived from the original on October 2, 2011. Retrieved December 9, 2012.
313. Goodwin 2005, p. 319.
314. Goodwin 2005.
315. 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
316. ^ Donald 1996, p. 424.
317. Paludan 1994, p. 111.
318. Brands, H. W. (2011). Greenback Planet: How the Dollar Conquered the World and Threatened Civilization as We Know It. University of Texas Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-292-73933-8.
319. Donald 1996, pp. 501–502.
320. ^ Donald 1996, p. 471.
321. Schaffer, Jeffrey P. (1999). Yosemite National Park: A Natural History Guide to Yosemite and Its Trails. Berkeley: Wilderness Press. p. 48. ISBN 978-0-89997-244-2.
322. Blue 1987, p. 245.
323. Neill F. Sanders, "'When A House Is on Fire': The English Consulates and Lincoln's Patronage Policy." Lincoln Herald (1981), 83#4, pp. 579–59.
324. Kevin Peraino, Lincoln in the World: The Making of a Statesman and the Dawn of American Power (2014), pp. 138–169.
325. Peraino, Lincoln in the World, pp. 3–16.
326. Donald 1996, pp. 586–587.
327. "Abraham Lincoln's Last Public Address". www.abrahamlincolnonline.org.
328. Harrison 2010, pp. 3–4.
329. Goodwin, Doris Kearns (September 26, 2006). Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-7075-5.
330. Donald 1996, pp. 594–597.
331. Donald 1996, p. 597; Martin 2010.
332. Steers 2010, p. 153.
333. Fox, Richard (2015). Lincoln's Body: A Cultural History. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-24724-4.
334. Abel, E. Lawrence (2015). A Finger in Lincoln's Brain: What Modern Science Reveals about Lincoln, His Assassination, and Its Aftermath. ABC-CLIO. Chapter 14. ISBN 978-1-4408-3118-8.
335. "OUR GREAT LOSS; The Assassination of President Lincoln". The New York Times. April 17, 1865. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on January 13, 2018. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
336. Hay, John (1915). The Life and Letters of John Hay Volume 1. Houghton Mifflin Company. Archived from the original on August 9, 2016. Retrieved July 9, 2018. Quote's original source is Hay's diary which is quoted in "Abraham Lincoln: A History", Volume 10, Page 292 by John G. Nicolay and John Hay
337. Donald 1996, pp. 598–599, 686.
338. Hoch, Bradley R. (September 4, 2001). The Lincoln Trail in Pennsylvania: A History and Guide. Penn State Press. pp. 121–123. ISBN 978-0-271-07222-7.
339. Trefousse, Hans L. (1989). Andrew Johnson: A Biography. W.W. Norton & Company. p. 194.
340. Steers 2010, p. 153; Donald 1996, p. 599.
341. Trostel 2002, pp. 31–58.
342. Trostel 2002, pp. 31–58; Goodrich 2005, pp. 231–238.
343. Peck, Garrett (2015). Walt Whitman in Washington, D.C.: The Civil War and America's Great Poet. Charleston, SC: The History Press. pp. 118–23. ISBN 978-1-62619-973-6.
344. Hodes 2015, p. 164.
345. Hodes 2015, pp. 197–199.
346. Hodes 2015, pp. 84, 86, 96–97.
347. "Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings – Lincoln Tomb, Illinois". National Park Service. Archived from the original on August 30, 2009.
348. Carwardine 2003, p. 4; Wilson 1999, p. 84.
349. Donald 1996, pp. 48–49, 514–515.
350. Lincoln, Abraham (2001) . "Handbill Replying to Charges of Infidelity". Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 1. p. 383.
351. ^ Noll 1992.
352. "Religious Quotations by Abraham Lincoln". www.abrahamlincolnonline.org. Retrieved March 14, 2020.
353. Donald 1996, pp. 48–49.
354. Parrillo 2000, pp. 227–253.
355. White 2009, p. 180.
356. Brodrecht, Grant R. (2008). "Our Country": Northern Evangelicals and the Union During the Civil War and Reconstruction. University of Notre Dame.
357. Wilson 1999, pp. 251–254.
358. Wilson 1999, p. 254, quoting Lincoln, Abraham, "Meditation on the Divine Will", September 2, 1862?.
359. "Letter by Abraham Lincoln to Albert Hodges". www.abrahamlincolnonline.org. Retrieved March 14, 2020.
360. Wills, Garry (September 1, 1999). "Lincoln's Greatest Speech". The Atlantic. Retrieved March 14, 2020.; White Jr., Ronald C., Lincoln's Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002.
361. Lincoln, Abraham (2001) . Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 8.
362. "Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States: from George Washington 1789 to George Bush 1989". avalon.law.yale.edu. Retrieved March 14, 2020.
363. Carwardine 2003, pp. 27–55.
364. Guelzo 1999, p. 434.
365. "What Can Lincoln's DNA Tell Us?". February 13, 2009. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
366. Hirschhorn, Norbert; Feldman, Robert G.; Greaves, Ian (Summer 2001). "Abraham Lincoln's Blue Pills: Did Our 16th President Suffer from Mercury Poisoning?". Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 44 (3). Johns Hopkins University Press: 315–322. doi:10.1353/pbm.2001.0048. PMID 11482002. S2CID 37918186. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
367. Sotos, John G. (2008). The Physical Lincoln Sourcebook. Mt. Vernon Book Systems. ISBN 978-0-9818193-3-4.
368. Mayell, Hillary (July 17, 2001). "Did Mercury in 'Little Blue Pills' Make Abraham Lincoln Erratic?". National Geographic News. Archived from the original on July 20, 2001. Retrieved October 12, 2009.
369. ^ Verghese, Abraham (May 20, 2009). "Was Lincoln Dying Before He Was Shot?". The Atlantic. Palo Alto, California. Archived from the original on April 13, 2014. Retrieved October 8, 2014.
370. Thomas 2008, p. 61.
371. Jaffa 2000, p. 399; Thomas 2008, p. 61.
372. Diggins 1986, p. 307; Thomas 2008, p. 61.
373. Foner 2010, p. 215; Thomas 2008, p. 61.
374. Jaffa 2000, p. 263; Thomas 2008, p. 61.
375. Burton, Orville Vernon (2008). The Age of Lincoln: A History. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-1-4299-3955-3.
376. Boritt & Pinsker 2002, pp. 196–198, 229–231, 301.
377. Current 1999.
378. ^ Wilentz 2012.
379. Harris 2007, p. 2.
380. Randall 1962, p. 175.
381. Belz 1998, p. 86.
382. Burt, Andrew (May 13, 2013). "'These United States': How Obama's Vocal Tic Reveals a Polarized America". The Atlantic. Retrieved February 14, 2020.
383. Douglass 2008, pp. 259–260.
384. Lindgren, James (November 16, 2000). "Rating the Presidents of the United States, 1789–2000". The Federalist Society. Retrieved February 14, 2020.
385. Densen, John V., ed. (2001). Reassessing The Presidency, The Rise of the Executive State and the Decline of Freedom. Auburn, Alabama: Ludwig von Mises Institute. pp. ix, 1–32. ISBN 978-0-945466-29-1.
386. Newport, Frank (February 28, 2011). "Americans Say Reagan Is the Greatest U.S. President". Gallup.com. Archived from the original on March 14, 2012. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
387. Taranto & Leo 2004, p. 264.
388. Chesebrough 1994, pp. 76, 79, 106, 110.
389. Fornieri, Joseph R.; Gabbard, Sara Vaughn (2008). Lincoln's America: 1809–1865. Carbondale, Illinois: SIU Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-8093-8713-7.
390. Randall 1962, pp. 65–87.
391. Schwartz 2000, p. 109.
392. Boritt & Pinsker 2002, p. 222.
393. ^ Schwartz 2008, pp. 23, 91–98.
394. Schwartz 2008, pp. xi, 9, 24.
395. Schwartz 2008, pp. xi, 9.
396. The origin of the nickname is unknown. "A Civil War Mystery: Who Named Lincoln the 'Great Emancipator'?" Wheeler, Linda, The Washington Post, May 17, 2001.
397. Zilversmit, Arthur (1980). "Lincoln and the Problem of Race: A Decade of Interpretations". Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association. 2 (1). Springfield, Illinois: Abraham Lincoln Association: 22–24. Archived from the original on October 25, 2015. Retrieved December 2, 2018.
398. Barr, John M. (Winter 2014). "Holding Up a Flawed Mirror to the American Soul: Abraham Lincoln in the Writings of Lerone Bennett Jr". Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association. 35 (1). Springfield, Illinois: Abraham Lincoln Association: 43–65.
399. Bennett 1968, pp. 35–42.
400. Cashin 2002, p. 61; Kelley & Lewis 2005, p. 228.
401. Striner 2006, p. 1.
402. DiLorenzo, Thomas, The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War, Roseville, California: Prima, 2002.
403. Dirck 2009, p. 382.
404. Havers, Grant N. (November 13, 2009). Lincoln and the Politics of Christian Love. University of Missouri Press. p. 96. ISBN 978-0-8262-1857-5.
405. Belz 2014, pp. 514–518; Graebner 1959, pp. 67–94; Smith 2010, pp. 43–45.
406. Carwardine, Richard; Sexton, Jay, eds. (2011). The Global Lincoln. Oxford, England: Oxford UP. pp. 7, 9–10, 54. ISBN 978-0-19-537911-2.
407. Schwartz 2008, p. 146.
408. Donald 1996, p. 15.
409. Hirschkorn, Phil (January 17, 2009). "The Obama-Lincoln Parallel: A Closer Look". CBS News. New York City: CBS Corporation. Archived from the original on August 22, 2016. Retrieved January 26, 2017.
410. Jackson, David (January 10, 2013). "Obama to be sworn in with Lincoln, King Bibles". USA Today. McLean, Virginia. Archived from the original on March 24, 2015. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
411. Hornick, Ed (January 18, 2009). "For Obama, Lincoln was model president". CNN. Atlanta, Georgia. Archived from the original on July 18, 2018. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
412. Spielberg, Steven; Kushner, Tony; Kearns Goodwin, Doris (2012). "Mr. Lincoln Goes to Hollywood". Smithsonian. Vol. 43, no. 7. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. pp. 46–53.
413. Stokes, Melvyn (2011). "Abraham Lincoln and the Movies". American Nineteenth Century History. 12 (2): 203–231. doi:10.1080/14664658.2011.594651. S2CID 146375501.
414. Samuels, Shirley (2012). The Cambridge Companion to Abraham Lincoln. Cambridge Companions to American Studies. Cambridge University Press. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-521-19316-0.
415. John Avlon (2023). Lincoln and the Fight for Peace. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781982108137.
416. Gaines, Kevin (September 8, 2011). "From Colonization to Anti-colonialism". The Global Lincoln. Oxford University Press. pp. 259–271. doi:10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780195379112.003.0015. ISBN 978-0-19-537911-2.
417. On August 6, 1863, after Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Garibaldi wrote to Lincoln, "Posterity will call you the great emancipator, a more enviable title than any crown could be, and greater than any merely mundane treasure". Ron Field, Garibaldi: Leadership, Strategy, Conflict, Osprey Publishing, 2011, p. 51.
418. Денильханов, И. (2022). Муаммар Каддафи: Падение Джамахирии (in Russian). Litres. p. 93. ISBN 978-5-04-333255-4. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
419. "Chinese Resistance Issue". National Postal Museum. December 31, 2019.
420. Houseman, Donna; Kloetzel, James E.; Snee, Chad (October 2018). Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps & Covers 2019. Amos Media Company. ISBN 978-0-89487-559-5.
421. Collea 2018, pp. 13–14.
422. Dennis 2018, p. 194.
423. Dennis 2018, p. 197.
424. "History of USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72)". United States Department of the Navy. Archived from the original on June 27, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
425. Pearson, Michael (February 16, 2016). "$18.5 million gift to help refurbish Lincoln Memorial". CNN. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
426. ^ Nyce, Caroline Mimbs (May 21, 2015). "15 Most Visited National Landmarks in Washington, D.C." The Atlantic. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
427. "The Petersen House – Ford's Theatre". U.S. National Park Service. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
428. "Abraham Lincoln Historical Tours in Springfield, Illinois". lincolnlibraryandmuseum.com. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
429. "Mount Rushmore National Memorial". U.S. National Park Service. Archived from the original on October 1, 2011. Retrieved November 13, 2010.
430. "Abraham Lincoln in Cornish". nps.gov. April 18, 2016.
431. Katz, Jamie. "Why Abraham Lincoln Was Revered in Mexico". Smithsonian. Retrieved December 24, 2018.
432. Tolles, Thayer (2013). "Abraham Lincoln: The Man (Standing Lincoln): a bronze statuette by Augustus Saint-Gaudens". Metropolitan Museum Journal. 48: 223–37. doi:10.1086/675325. S2CID 192203987.
433. "Congress Dedicates Lincoln Room | U.S. Capitol Historical Society". United States Capitol Historical Society. June 12, 2019. Retrieved June 12, 2022.
434. "Legislation to Name Room in US Capitol "Lincoln Room" Passes House". Congressman Darin LaHood. December 21, 2018. Retrieved June 12, 2022.
435. "LINCOLN, Abraham | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives". history.house.gov. Retrieved June 12, 2022.

Bibliography

• Ambrose, Stephen E. (1996). Halleck: Lincoln's Chief of Staff. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: LSU Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-5539-4.
• Baker, Jean H. (1989). Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography. New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-30586-9.
• Bartelt, William E. (2008). There I Grew Up: Remembering Abraham Lincoln's Indiana Youth. Indianapolis, Indiana: Indiana Historical Society Press. ISBN 978-0-87195-263-9.
• Belz, Herman (1998). Abraham Lincoln, Constitutionalism, and Equal Rights in the Civil War era. New York, New York: Fordham University Press. ISBN 978-0-8232-1768-7.
• Belz, Herman (2014). "Lincoln, Abraham". In Frohnen, Bruce; Beer, Jeremy; Nelson, Jeffrey O (eds.). American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia. Open Road Media. ISBN 978-1-932236-43-9.
• Bennett, Lerone Jr. (1968). "Was Abe Lincoln a White Supremacist?". Ebony. Vol. 23, no. 4. ISSN 0012-9011.
• Blue, Frederick J. (1987). Salmon P. Chase: A Life in Politics. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press. ISBN 978-0-87338-340-0.
• Boritt, Gabor S.; Pinsker, Matthew (2002). "Abraham Lincoln". In Graff, Henry (ed.). The Presidents: A Reference History (7th ed.). Macmillan Library Reference USA. ISBN 978-0-684-80551-1.
• Bulla, David W.; Borchard, Gregory A. (2010). Journalism in the Civil War Era. New York, New York: Peter Lang. ISBN 978-1-4331-0722-1.
• Burlingame, Michael (2008). Abraham Lincoln: A Life. (2 vols.) One-volume edition edited and abridged by Jonathan W. White (2023).
• Carpenter, F. B., Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln: The Story of a Picture, New York: Hurd and Houghton (1866); also published as The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln: Six Months at the White House, New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1867, pubdate 1868.
• Carwardine, Richard J. (2003). Lincoln. London, England: Pearson Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-03279-8.
• Cashin, Joan E. (2002). The War was You and Me: Civilians in the American Civil War. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-09174-7.
• Chesebrough, David B. (1994). No Sorrow Like Our Sorrow: Northern Protestant Ministers and the Assassination of Lincoln. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press. ISBN 978-0-87338-491-9.
• Collea, Joseph D. Collea Jr. (September 20, 2018). New York and the Lincoln Specials: The President's Pre-Inaugural and Funeral Trains Cross the Empire State. McFarland. pp. 13–14. ISBN 978-1-4766-3324-4.
• Cox, Hank H. (2005). Lincoln and the Sioux Uprising of 1862. Nashville, Tennessee: Cumberland House. ISBN 978-1-58182-457-5.
• Current, Richard N. (July 28, 1999). "Abraham Lincoln - Early political career". Encyclopedia Britannica.
• Dennis, Matthew (2018). Red, White, and Blue Letter Days: An American Calendar. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-1-5017-2370-4.
• Diggins, John P. (1986). The Lost Soul of American Politics: Virtue, Self-Interest, and the Foundations of Liberalism. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-14877-9.
• Dirck, Brian (September 2009). "Father Abraham: Lincoln's Relentless Struggle to End Slavery, and: Act of Justice: Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and the Law of War, and: Lincoln and Freedom: Slavery, Emancipation, and the Thirteenth Amendment (review)". Civil War History. 55 (3): 382–385. doi:10.1353/cwh.0.0090. S2CID 143986160.
• Dirck, Brian R. (2008). Lincoln the Lawyer. Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-07614-5.
• Donald, David Herbert (1996). Lincoln. New York, New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-684-82535-9.
• Douglass, Frederick (2008). The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. New York, New York: Cosimo Classics. ISBN 978-1-60520-399-7.
• Edgar, Walter B. (1998). South Carolina: A History. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-57003-255-4.
• Ellenberg, Jordan (May 23, 2021). "What Honest Abe Learned from Geometry". The Wall Street Journal. Vol. 278, no. 119. pp. C3. Ellenberg's essay is adapted from his 2021 book, Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else, Penguin Press. ISBN 9781984879059
• Fish, Carl Russell (1902). "Lincoln and the Patronage". The American Historical Review. 8 (1): 53–69. doi:10.2307/1832574. JSTOR 1832574.
• Foner, Eric (2010). The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery. New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-06618-0.
• Goodrich, Thomas (2005). The Darkest Dawn: Lincoln, Booth, and the Great American Tragedy. Indianapolis, Indiana: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-34567-7.
• Goodwin, Doris Kearns (2005). Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. New York, New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-684-82490-1.
• Graebner, Norman (1959). "Abraham Lincoln: Conservative Statesman". In Basler, Roy Prentice (ed.). The enduring Lincoln: Lincoln sesquicentennial lectures at the University of Illinois. Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. OCLC 428674.
• Grimsley, Mark; Simpson, Brooks D. (2001). The Collapse of the Confederacy. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-2170-3.
• Guelzo, Allen C. (1999). Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-8028-3872-8.. Second edition, 2022. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-8028-7858-8
• Guelzo, Allen C. (2004). Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America. New York, New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-2182-5.
• Harrison, J. Houston (1935). Settlers by the Long Grey Trail. Joseph K. Ruebush Co.
• Harrison, Lowell (2010). Lincoln of Kentucky. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-2940-2.
• Harris, William C. (2007). Lincoln's Rise to the Presidency. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-1520-9.
• Harris, William C. (2011). Lincoln and the Border States: Preserving the Union. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas.
• Heidler, David Stephen; Heidler, Jeanne T.; Coles, David J., eds. (2002). Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History. New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-04758-5.
• Heidler, David Stephen; Heidler, Jeanne T. (2006). The Mexican War. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-32792-6.
• Hodes, Martha (2015). Mourning Lincoln. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-21356-0.
• Hofstadter, Richard (1938). "The Tariff Issue on the Eve of the Civil War". The American Historical Review. 44 (1): 50–55. doi:10.2307/1840850. JSTOR 1840850.
• Holzer, Harold (2004). Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President. New York, New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-9964-0.
• Jaffa, Harry V. (2000). A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-8476-9952-0.
• Kelley, Robin D. G.; Lewis, Earl (2005). To Make Our World Anew: Volume I: A History of African Americans to 1880. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-804006-4.
• Lamb, Brian P.; Swain, Susan, eds. (2008). Abraham Lincoln: Great American Historians on Our Sixteenth President. New York, New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1-58648-676-1.
• Lupton, John A. (2006). "Abraham Lincoln and the Corwin Amendment". Illinois Heritage. 9 (5): 34. Archived from the original on August 24, 2016.
• Luthin, Reinhard H. (1944). "Abraham Lincoln and the Tariff". The American Historical Review. 49 (4): 609–629. doi:10.2307/1850218. JSTOR 1850218.
• Madison, James H. (2014). Hoosiers: A New History of Indiana. Indianapolis, Indiana: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-01308-8.
• Mansch, Larry D. (2005). Abraham Lincoln, President-elect: The Four Critical Months from Election to Inauguration. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-2026-1.
• Martin, Paul (April 8, 2010). "Lincoln's Missing Bodyguard". Smithsonian Magazine. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved October 15, 2010.
• McGovern, George S. (2009). Abraham Lincoln: The American Presidents Series: The 16th President, 1861–1865. New York, New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 978-0-8050-8345-3.
• McPherson, James M. (1992). Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 978-0-19-507606-6.
• McPherson, James M. (2009). Abraham Lincoln. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 978-0-19-537452-0.
• Meacham, Jon (2022). And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle. Random House. ISBN 978-0-55-339396-5.
• Morse, John Torrey (1893). Abraham Lincoln. Vol. I. Cambridge, Mass., Riverside Press.
• Morse, John Torrey (1893). Abraham Lincoln. Vol. II. Cambridge, Mass. Riverside Press.
• Neely, Mark E. Jr. (1992). The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, USA. Archived from the original on October 29, 2014.
• Neely, Mark E. Jr. (2004). "Was the Civil War a Total War?". Civil War History. 50 (4): 434–458. doi:10.1353/cwh.2004.0073. S2CID 258106755.
• Nevins, Allan (1959). The War for the Union. New York, New York: Scribner. ISBN 978-0-684-10416-4.
• Nevins, Allan (1947). The War for the Union and Ordeal of the Union, and the Emergence of Lincoln. New York, New York: Scribner.
• Nichols, David Allen (1974). "The Other Civil War: Lincoln and the Indians" (PDF). Minnesota History. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022.
• Noll, Mark A. (1992). A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-0651-2.
• Noll, Mark A. (2002). America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 978-0-19-515111-4.
• Oates, Stephen B. (1974). "Abraham Lincoln 1861–1865". In Woodward, Comer Vann (ed.). Responses of the Presidents to Charges of Misconduct. New York, New York: Dell Publishing. ISBN 978-0-440-05923-3.
• Paludan, Phillip Shaw (1994). The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-0671-9.
• Parrillo, Nicholas (2000). "Lincoln's Calvinist Transformation: Emancipation and War". Civil War History. 46 (3): 227–253. doi:10.1353/cwh.2000.0073. ISSN 1533-6271. S2CID 143755083.
• Potter, David M. (1977). The Impending Crisis: America Before the Civil War, 1848–1861. New York, New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-131929-7.
• Randall, James Garfield (1962). Lincoln: The Liberal Statesman. New York, New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. ASIN B0051VUQXO.
• Randall, James Garfield; Current, Richard Nelson (1955). Lincoln the President: Last Full Measure. Vol. IV. New York, New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. OCLC 950556947.
• Richards, John T. (2015). Abraham Lincoln: The Lawyer-Statesman (Classic Reprint). London, England: Fb&c Limited. ISBN 978-1-331-28158-0.
• Sandburg, Carl (1926). Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years. San Diego, California: Harcourt. OCLC 6579822.
• Sandburg, Carl (2002). Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-15-602752-6.
• Schwartz, Barry (2000). Abraham Lincoln and the Forge of National Memory. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-74197-0.
• Schwartz, Barry (2008). Abraham Lincoln in the Post-Heroic Era: History and Memory in Late Twentieth-Century America. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-74188-8.
• Sherman, William T. (1990). Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman. Charleston, South Carolina: BiblioBazaar. ISBN 978-1-174-63172-6.
• Simon, Paul (1990). Lincoln's Preparation for Greatness: The Legislative Years. Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-00203-8.
• Smith, Robert C. (2010). Conservatism and Racism, and Why in America They Are the Same. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-1-4384-3233-5.
• Steers, Edward Jr. (2010). The Lincoln Assassination Encyclopedia. New York, New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-178775-1.
• Striner, Richard (2006). Father Abraham: Lincoln's Relentless Struggle to End Slavery. England, London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-518306-1.
• Taranto, James; Leo, Leonard, eds. (2004). Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and the Worst in the White House. New York, New York: Free Press. ISBN 978-0-7432-5433-5.
• Tegeder, Vincent G. (1948). "Lincoln and the Territorial Patronage: The Ascendancy of the Radicals in the West". The Mississippi Valley Historical Review. 35 (1): 77–90. doi:10.2307/1895140. JSTOR 1895140.
• Thomas, Benjamin P. (2008). Abraham Lincoln: A Biography. Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 978-0-8093-2887-1.
• Trostel, Scott D. (2002). The Lincoln Funeral Train: The Final Journey and National Funeral for Abraham Lincoln. Fletcher, Ohio: Cam-Tech Publishing. ISBN 978-0-925436-21-4. Archived from the original on July 12, 2013.
• Vile, John R. (2003). "Lincoln, Abraham (1809–1865)". Encyclopedia of Constitutional Amendments: Proposed Amendments, and Amending Issues 1789–2002 (2nd ed.). ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-85109-428-8.
• Vorenberg, Michael (2001). Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-65267-4.
• Warren, Louis A. (2017). Lincoln's Youth: Indiana Years, Seven to Twenty-One, 1816–1830 (Classic Reprint). London, England: Fb&c Limited. ISBN 978-0-282-90830-0.
• White, Ronald C. (2009). A. Lincoln: A Biography. New York, New York: Random House. ISBN 978-1-58836-775-4.
• Wilentz, Sean (2012). "Abraham Lincoln and Jacksonian Democracy". Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Archived from the original on August 18, 2016.
• Wills, Garry (2012). Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America. New York, New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4391-2645-5.
• Wilson, Douglas L. (1997). Lincoln Before Washington: New Perspectives on the Illinois Years. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-02331-5.
• Wilson, Douglas L.; Davis, Rodney O.; Wilson, Terry; Herndon, William Henry; Weik, Jesse William (1998). Herndon's Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements about Abraham Lincoln. Univ of Illinois Press. pp. 35–36. ISBN 978-0-252-02328-6.
• Wilson, Douglas L. (1999). Honor's Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-307-76581-9.
• Wilson, Douglas L. (2007). Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-1-4000-4039-1.
• Winkle, Kenneth J. (2001). The Young Eagle: The Rise of Abraham Lincoln. Lanham, Maryland: Taylor Trade Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4617-3436-9.
• Zarefsky, David (1993). Lincoln, Douglas, and Slavery: In the Crucible of Public Debate. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-97876-5.