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Slavery in the United States as a political catalyst
Analytical essay on abraham lincoln
Abraham lincoln historical essay
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This investigation will analyze how Abraham Lincoln's view on slavery reflected during and after the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865. To analyze exactly how Lincoln's position on slavery affected the war overall, this investigation looks at Lincoln's moral and religious views as well as his social and political views. Two main sources were used, both dealing with events relevant to his political career and his roots in his career and other important issues including slavery. Lincoln by David Herbert Donald tells a deep and detailed story on all aspects of his life and career. Abraham Lincoln and the Union deals with his struggle towards Union victory. Both Lincoln and Abraham Lincoln and the Union will be evaluated for their values, origins, purposes, and limitations.
This investigation does not directly assess the difference in ideologies of North and South or does it assess the opinions of Lincoln's opponents.
The American Civil War started off as a plea for states' rights. Among those rights was the institution of slavery. Lincoln's roots were very anti-slavery. He and his family were Separate Baptists. The church was against slavery and his father was in fact hostile towards it so Lincoln was “naturally anti-slavery” . Furthermore, during one of Lincoln's political lectures in Chicago during the year of 1859, he states that “slavery is a moral, political and social wrong” . It was clear that Lincoln was against slavery yet Lincoln was not like a hardcore abolitionist who wanted to wholly expel slavery from the United States. While Lincoln did have a strong view against slavery, sudden abolition was not a choice as he didn't have the authority to execute a direct order until during the Civil War itself. As a politici...
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...very, he could not end it immediately and soon, Lincoln was driven by circumstance to end it, not to directly fulfill his main objective of keeping the Union, but instead to win the Civil War to win back the Union since it was too far gone. The true change Lincoln faced was the actual action, and he acted according to necessity.
Works Cited
Donald, David Herbert. Lincoln. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.
Furgurson, Ernest B. Freedom Rising: Washington in the Civil War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.
Handlin, Oscar and Lilian. Abraham Lincoln and the Union. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1980.
Huggins, Nathan Irvin. Slave and Citizen: the Life of Frederick Douglass. Edited by Oscar Handlin. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1980.
Lincoln, Abraham. "A House Divided.” June 17, 1858
Lincoln, Abraham. "Emancipation Proclamation." January 1, 1863
The American Civil War not only proved to be the country’s deadliest war but also precipitated one of the greatest constitutional crises in the history of the United States. President Lincoln is revered by many Americans today as a man of great moral principle who was responsible for both preventing the Union’s dissolution as well as helping to trigger the movement to abolish slavery. In retrospect, modern historians find it difficult to question the legitimacy of Lincoln’s actions as President. A more precise review of President Lincoln’s actions during the Civil War, however, reveals that many, if not the majority, of his actions were far from legitimate on constitutional and legal grounds. Moreover, his true political motives reveal his
In “The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln,” Phillip Shaw Paludan argues that even though Abraham Lincoln faced unparalleled challenges, Lincoln was America’s greatest president as he preserved the Union and freed the slaves. According to Paludan, Lincoln’s greatness exceeds that of all other American presidents as Lincoln’s presidential service was remarkable in both the obstacles he faced as well as the ways in which he overcame them. Before accepting the distinguished chair in Lincoln studies at the University of Illinois, Springfield, Paludan was a professor of history at the University of Kansas for over 30 years. Paludan has authored several books including Victims: A True Story of the Civil War and A People’s Contest: The Union and Civil
James Oakes gave a brilliant and unique perspective to a relationship between two well known historical figures of their time. Abraham Lincoln is a well-admired president for the United States because as Americans culture teaches that he was an honest and well-respected man. He heard about a young African American man, who had high aspirations for his life and the blossoming United States. This man’s name was Frederick Douglass. James Oakes demonstrates how both Douglass and Lincoln worked towards the abolishment of slavery and effectively producing better outcomes within antislavery politics.
This election caused the civil war because of what the southern states, the Confederate, perceived Lincoln to be. He was thought to be an abolitionist, meaning a person who wishes to abolish slavery completely. In fact Lincoln only wished to stop the spread of slavery, not to abolish it completely. He had no intention of changing the established social order in the south.
Abraham Lincoln's position on slavery was the belief that the expansion of it to Free states and new territories should be ceased and that it eventually be abolished completely throughout the country. He believed simply that slavery was morally wrong, along with socially and politically wrong in the eyes of a Republican. Lincoln felt that this was a very important issue during the time period because there was starting to be much controversy between the Republicans and the Democrats regarding this issue. There was also a separation between the north and the south in the union, the north harboring the Free states and the south harboring the slave states. Lincoln refers many times to the Constitution and its relations to slavery. He was convinced that when our founding fathers wrote the Constitution their intentions were to be quite vague surrounding the topic of slavery and African-Americans, for the reason that he believes was because the fathers intended for slavery to come to an end in the distant future, in which Lincoln refers to the "ultimate extinction" of slavery. He also states that the men who wrote the constitution were wiser men, but obviously did not have the experience or technological advances that the men of his day did, hence the reasons of the measures taken by our founding fathers.
. .’, concludes James Oakes’ book with the aftermath of the Civil War and Lincoln’s assassination. Oakes discussed the respect Douglass gathered for Lincoln over the years and the affect his assassination had on both himself and America as a whole. Oakes even brushed over Douglass’ relationship with Andrew Johnson, the president succeeding Lincoln. Analyzing his experience with the new president, it was safe to say that Andrew Johnson had no consideration as to what Douglass and Lincoln previously fought for. Johnson did not have the same political skills as Lincoln did, and he did not retain the same view for America that Lincoln did. It was obvious that Douglass held Lincoln at a higher standard than Andrew Johnson, stating that he was a “progressive man, a humane man, an honorable man, and at heart an anti-slavery man” (p. 269). Oakes even gave his own stance on Andrew Jackson, “It was a legacy that Andrew Johnson could ever match. When all of Lincoln’s attributes were taken into consideration - his ascent from the obscurity to greatness, his congenial temperament, his moral courage - it was easy for Douglass to imagine how much better things would be ‘had Mr. Lincoln been living today’.” (p. 262). It is hard to imagine the pre-war Douglass to have said something like that as opposed to an older, much more reserved Douglass. With the abolishment of slavery, so came much discrimination. Without
Abraham Lincoln and Slavery Many Americans believe that Abraham Lincoln was the “Great Emancipator,” the sole individual who ended slavery, and the man who epitomizes freedom. In his brief presidential term, Lincoln dealt with an unstable nation, with the South seceding from the country and in brink of leaving permanently.
Before the Battle of Shillong the civil war was being fought to keep the Union together. Lincoln knew it was a bad idea to take sides in the slavery issue because alienating with one side could mean succession from the other. Lincoln tried to not act against slavery, but to an extent it lasted. Lincoln tried to prevent the Southern states from seceding from the union. When the Union and the south clashed together, the civil war broke out, and the South became the Confederate States of America. Lincoln saw the Constitution as the root for sharing power. He saw the Constitution mainly as a form for sharing power inside the republican government. In his eyes the republican government was the only party that was able to protect the freedom of the people. Lincoln viewed the Declaration of Independence as the basis of such a government, and the Constitution as an outline to follow. War could have been avoided if President Lincoln would have done nothing about the South’s plans of succession. Abraham Lincoln based his theories on the founding fathers which led him to believe it was his constitutional responsibility to hold the Union together. President Lincoln wanted to avoid the Union from becoming small, weak confederacies that would start arguing and lead the United States back to the hands of Europe. After the Union’s victory in the civil war, the Confederate State
Williams, Frank J. . "Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties in Wartime." The Heritage Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Feb. 2014. .
From the inauguration of Lincoln and the secession of eleven states to the Union to the first exchange of fires at Fort Sumter, the inevitable Civil War began. Ever since America began to expand as an independent country, sectionalism (where the North wanted the abolition of slavery while the South wanted slavery) and growing conflicts between the north and south has always closely revolved around the issue of slavery. This long due problem finally blows up in the “United” States of America’s face as the Civil War. Conflicts relating to African Americans caused the war, changed the course and complications of the war, and shaped the war results in both informal and formal ways.
Abraham Lincoln’s original views on slavery were formed through the way he was raised and the American customs of the period. Throughout Lincoln’s influential years, slavery was a recognized and a legal institution in the United States of America. Even though Lincoln began his career by declaring that he was “anti-slavery,” he was not likely to agree to instant emancipation. However, although Lincoln did not begin as a radical anti-slavery Republican, he eventually issued his Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves and in his last speech, even recommended extending voting to blacks. Although Lincoln’s feeling about blacks and slavery was quite constant over time, the evidence found between his debate with Stephen A. Douglas and his Gettysburg Address, proves that his political position and actions towards slavery have changed profoundly.
Contrary to what today’s society believes about Lincoln, he was not a popular man with the South at this period in time. The South wanted to expand towards the West but Lincoln created a geographical containment rule keeping slavery in the states it currently resided in. Despite his trying to rationalize with the South, Lincoln actually believed something different ”Lincoln claimed that he, like the Founding Fathers, saw slavery in the Old South as regrettable reality whose expansion could and should be arrested, thereby putting it on the long and gradual road ”ultimate extinction” (216). He believed it to be “evil” thus “implying that free southerners were evil for defending it”(275). Lincoln wanted to wipe out slavery for good and the South could sense his secret motives. By trying to trick them, the South rebelled as soon as Lincoln became president and launched what is today known as the Civil war.
His personal beliefs had always been opposed to slavery. He believed that the Founding Fathers had put slavery on the road to extinction, and he wanted to continue it down that path. Lincoln acted very professional; he always put the nation before his personal perspective. It transformed the fight to preserve the nation into a battle for human freedom. According to the history book “A People and a Nation”, the Emancipation Proclamation was legally an ambiguous document, but as a moral and political document it had great meaning.
The American Civil War was the bloodiest military conflict in American history leaving over 500 thousand dead and over 300 thousand wounded (Roark 543-543). One might ask, what caused such internal tension within the most powerful nation in the world? During the nineteenth century, America was an infant nation, but toppling the entire world with its social, political, and economic innovations. In addition, immigrants were migrating from their native land to live the American dream (Roark 405-407). Meanwhile, hundreds of thousand African slaves were being traded in the domestic slave trade throughout the American south. Separated from their family, living in inhumane conditions, and working countless hours for days straight, the issue of slavery was the core of the Civil War (Roark 493-494). The North’s growing dissent for slavery and the South’s dependence on slavery is the reason why the Civil War was an inevitable conflict. Throughout this essay we will discuss the issue of slavery, states’ rights, American expansion into western territories, economic differences and its effect on the inevitable Civil War.
The civil war was possibly the last recourse the nation had, nevertheless Lincoln’s government did try what was possible to prevent the confrontation. Sadly the war was going to happen sooner or later with or without Lincoln; there was a lot of tension in the nation prior Lincolns election.