Abraham Lincoln
There once was a man known as one of the most influential leaders to ever live. He became known for coming to an end and abolishing slavery once and for all. This man was a hero to millions of African Americans and other citizens of the United States. He became known as one of the greatest presidents to ever live.
This man’s name was Abraham Lincoln. He was the 16th president of the United States and became known as one of the best there ever was. Abraham was born on February 12, 1809 in Hodgenville, Kentucky. He was very pure and himself. Many said he was very gentle, sincere, and that his conscious was his strongest element of his nature. As a young boy, Lincoln always thrived to be smarter than most his peers, so most
…show more content…
Lincoln became very interested in debates that took place in Kentucky about the slavery issue. He always believed that slavery was inhuman and that it needed to come to an end. His interest in slavery pulled him back into politics which led to the creation of the Republican Party. He believed it was his duty to fight for the rights of equality for the citizens of the United States, and that one was not different from the other. He became involved in many debates with his opponent, Stephen A. Douglas, who saw him as a traitor to the U.S. Many of Lincoln’s debates dealt with how he wanted to stop the expansion of slavery, but in the end lost to his overwhelming opponent. Lincoln always saw himself as someone who wanted the better right, but many others did not agree with any of his policies. He believed he was doing the better good, but many others saw him as an adversary. Much of Lincoln’s life he had to deal with the hatred and disgust from slave owners and many southern …show more content…
It used the U.S. Army to protect escaped slaves, encouraged the border states to outlaw slavery, and pushed through Congress the thirteenth amendment , which permanently outlawed slavery. Abraham was very happy with the results of the United States he rebuilt, and reformed it into something greater. On April 14, 1865, a couple days after the surrender of Confederate leader Robert E. Lee, Lincoln had been assassinated by John Wilkes Booth and there led the end to one of the greatest American presidents to ever
The election of President Abraham Lincoln became the catalyst for the events leading to the Civil War. Lincoln represented the Republican Party who believed that all men should be free and that it was wrong to maintain people as slaves, ...
Disapproval, the Confederacy, and slavery were amongst the many crises Abraham Lincoln faced when addressing his First Inaugural speech (Lincoln, First Inaugural, p.37). Above all, Lincoln’s speech was stepping on the boundaries of the southern slave states. Once states began to secede, new territories formed and the disapproval of Lincoln grew. Despite Lincoln’s attempts of unifying the antislavery and confederate views, many whites refused to follow his untraditional beliefs. Lincoln encountered hostile and admirable emotions from the people of the Union and the Confederacy. However, despite his representation of the Union, not everyone agreed with his views.
Abraham Lincoln was born in February 12, 1809 three miles south of Hodgenville, Kentucky. Born of humble origins in a farmer family, he lost his mother at a young age and received minimum education during his younger years. Nevertheless, according to stories from his family and friends he loved to read and spent long periods of time reading. His cousin, Denis Hanks onc...
Without a doubt, Abraham Lincoln is one of the most celebrated people in American history. Between time span of the years 1800-1900, Abraham Lincoln is a man that stands out from the rest because of his accomplishments during life and presidency. Lincoln most definitely helped shape the United States into what it is today, with lasting benefits of equality for all, regardless of skin color. During presidency, Lincoln carried on doing what he wanted to get done despite the lack of support from many and endless death threats. When there was conflict among advisors and himself, his leadership style often involved telling a story that displayed his point. Most of the time this method worked, and many people admired and respected him for it. He
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.
Lincoln an outspoken challenger against expansion of slavery, defied and articulated in his campaign issues that supported and encouraged slavery and this made him rise up the political ladder to become one of most powerful president that the American has ever had. According to Angle, et al, 1992, Lincoln has consistently been voted by scholars as the greatest Presidents of the time and history.
Abraham Lincoln has gone down as one of the most prominent presidents in American History.
In a speech that Lincoln gave prior to his presidency, we can see how ambiguous his stance on slavery truly was. This speech, known as the ‘House Divided’ speech, was given on the 16th of June, 1858, and outlined his beliefs regarding secession, but did not solidify the abolition of slavery as his main goal. Lincoln states that the nation “could not endure, permanently half slave and half free,” and that the slavery will either cease to exist, or will encompass all states lawfully (Lincoln). At this point in his life, Lincoln’s primary concern is clearly with the preservation of the nation.
Abraham Lincoln’s greatest challenge during his presidency was preserving the Union during the Civil War after the Southern states seceded from the Union. There were many dividing issues in the U.S. before his election in 1860, and his presidential victory was the final straw that led to the Civil War. The North and the South were already separating due to regional differences, socially, politically, culturally, and economically. Slavery was one of the biggest factors that led to the division between the North and the South. Preserving the Union while half of the country refused to regard federal law while in secession was extremely challenging, yet Abraham Lincoln decided to fight war against the South not only for the sake of abolishing slavery, but most importantly for the sake of preserving the Union. He was dedicated to fighting for the equality of all men in the U.S., as mentioned in his famous Gettysburg Address: "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." He used this to argue a basic point: if all men are created equal, then all men are free. His House Divided speech showed his determination to keep the...
President Lincoln was elected into presidency at a horrible time for the country but he still fought to do the best he could. After the civil war the main focus of Lincoln was to rebuild the North but still keep the South happy. His plans consisted of making the North's reconstruction a main focal point and distributing 10% of the damages done to the south to aid their reconstruction. President Lincoln thought that the states that seceded last should be given less guilt than the ones who seceded first. He gave more money to Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Virginia and he treated them better because they were the last to secede. Along with his plans for reconstruction came the Radical Republicans who were a small minority in congress. They were very strict on giving all rights to African Americans and wanted to punish the south. All of these ideas and plans for Lincoln were all good ideas and could have been successful but they came to an abrupt end when Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in 1865.
While Abraham Lincoln detested slavery and personally believed that the coloured people of America deserved full legal status, he was a politician and his priority was always keeping America unified. Lincoln abhorred slavery, and thought it a great evil both morally and from the standpoint of what it had done to the country; he considered it the biggest problem with America. While he did believe that African Americans were an inferior race and did not want to grant them full equality, he was absolutely determined that the constitution should apply to them just as much as any white citizen of America. In his time as a senator and Presidential nominee, and for a while after becoming President, his priority was simply to stop the spread of slavery and keep it within its current boundaries. Over the long term, Lincoln did not believe the two races could live together and as a Senator considered shipping African Americans to Liberia, which he abandoned after realizing it was extremely impractical and a death sentence to those it was supposed to free.
To start Lincoln's views on slavery were formed by the times, places and people he was surrounded by in his childhood. In which he was raised and when he served his country. Stated in “Lincoln's Changing Views on Slavery”. “Lincoln's personal feelings about blacks and about slavery actually were quite constant over time.” Lincoln never truly liked having slaves at his home. “Lincoln's family owned no slaves, and they attended churches that were against slavery.” stated in “Lincoln's changing views on Emancipation”. Also stated in the previous text stated, “Lincoln's beliefs began to change as he evolved into an even more prominent politician.” During this time he would begin to speak more and more about how bad slavery was. “Lincoln wrote, "If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel."” stated in...”Views of Emancipation”.Therefore before the war had begun Lincoln was already trying to end slavery.
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 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 a 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.
In addition, Lincoln felt bad about slavery and wanted it to end “because it prevented the Negro from eating the bread which his own hands earns” according to author Stephen B. Oates as noted in “Lincoln’s Journey to Emancipation”. But after he lost the 1858 Senate contest to Douglas. He realized that his way of thinking is not going to help him with presidency so he put the thought of freeing the slaves out of his head. According to article “Lincoln’s Journey to Emancipation” Lincoln “ he repeated