The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States of America. He was elected into presidency on November 6, 1860. Many of the southern states were unsupportive of Lincoln becoming president because he had run on an anti-slavery platform. Lincoln being elected into presidency caused states such as South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas to split from the Union. In his inaugural address Lincoln proclaimed it was his duty to maintain the Union; a month later the Civil War began. Although Lincoln did many great things for our country, his vital role in the Civil War is what most likely lead to his assassination.
Many people believe that the main reason for the Civil War was to end slavery. However, it is known that Lincoln proclaimed that the reason for the Civil War was to maintain the Union and that he had no intension of ending slavery where it had existed. While Lincoln was trying to maintain the Union the start of the Civil War caused four more states (Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee) to leave the Union. In order to keep the remaining states loyal to the Union, Lincoln assured them that the war was not about slavery or black rights but to maintain the Union.
Although Lincoln had insisted that the purpose of the Civil War was to save the Union, since the South was using their slaves to aid in the war, he was considering freeing them as a necessary step toward winning the war. In July of 1862 Lincoln presented his first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation to members of his cabinet. It warned the Confederate states to surrender by January 1, 1863 or their slaves would be freed. The proclamation declared, “all persons held as slaves within any States, or designa...

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...he West. He also signed the Morrill Act which aided in the establishment of agriculture in each state, and many other Acts. His most famous speech was the Gettysburg Address. In his speech, Lincoln explained that our nation was fighting the Civil War to see if we would survive as a country. Although his initial intensions of the Civil War were to maintain the Union of our country, in the end the Civil War focused on ending slavery. It is this focus that is believed to have been the reason for his assassination.

Works Cited

http://www.history.com/topics/abraham-lincoln-assassination

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/john-wilkes-booth-shoots-abraham-lincoln

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2967.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h1549.html

http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln87.html

http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/24242