When it comes to writing literature authors sometimes use the same information regarding the topic, however they use it in a completely different way. A great example for this situation would be Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln vs. Seth Grahame-Smith’s Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. Both of these great books discuss the topic on Abraham Lincoln, however the author’s demonstrate his role in two different genres. Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter discuses Lincoln’s secret life as a vampire hunter, this is clearly a fiction genre and Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln discuss the political life of Lincoln’s presidency, this is clearly non-fiction. Disregarding that both of these …show more content…
In the book Team of Rivals, Abraham Lincoln strongly opposes slavery, he states that slavery needs to be confined to the places where it existed. Lincoln first want to stop slavery from progressing more, then he will deal with how to abolish it completely (Goodwin 9-111). In the book Lincoln Vampire Hunter the author also explains how Lincoln hates slavery, Lincoln states that slavery is a sin. However, in the vampire hunter Lincoln tries to make a connection between slavery and vampires, which is obviously inaccurate. In the vampire hunter Lincoln lets his angry get over the issue of slavery and he creates a speech that will take a national significance among the opponents of slavery (Grahame-Smith 17-132). That is how the authors showed Lincoln’s view on slavery, now the real view that Lincoln had on slavery was that he really did oppose slavery, however he still didn’t think that African American’s should have the same rights as a white person. Apparently Lincoln did not see slaves as a part of the American society, rather he saw them as an alien who were uprooted from their own society and brought overseas to America (Foner). Both of the authors used the historical facts were accurate to the real facts on slavery, however both the authors incorporated the information in two different …show more content…
In the book Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, Lincoln is running for president as part of the Republican Party. Lincoln had a natural for storytelling, his ability to communicate, boil complex ideas down to simple and colorful parables, would be a powerful asset in his political life later on (Grahame-Smith 18). Lincoln was also the most intellectual leader of the Republican Part as well as the most gifted speaker (Grahame-Smith 145). In the story Team of Rivals Lincoln is also represented as a member of the Republic Party. Lincoln as a Republican wants to abolish slavery because he thinks that slavery is morally, socially and political wrong (Goodwin 203). In reality the political views of Abraham Lincoln as a Republican; he really was against the use of slaves. Lincoln was also the first Republican president and he was also the founder of the Republican Party. As a president he had to make many political decisions and it was really tough to make judgements such as a “liberal” or “conservative” given the different culture that America was in the 1860s (Kersaw). The two authors really tried to get the information on point when it came to the political views of
“Chasing Lincoln’s Killer” was a true story about the assassination attempts of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States. Lincoln was president during the Civil War, which was a war between the Union and Confederate. Most everybody got to choose a side to root for either the Northern policies or the Southern cause. Although John Wilkes Booth worked in the north, Booth was an unyielding supporter of the Confederate cause. Booth execrated President Lincoln and what he stood for. John Wilkes Booth was a famous actor, and could have had many assassination chances, including Lincoln’s second inauguration. Wanting the south to win the war, he never wanted the punishment of assassinating the president of the United States. Being
This is supported by Document I which stated, “...I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong...” This quote shows Lincoln’s true state of mind and how he is really the Great Emancipator. Yet in Document B he clearly states, “...I am not nor never have been in favor of bringing about in any way, the social and political equality of the white and black races...” This quote counters the fact that Lincoln actually wanted to free the slaves. If he was truly anti-slavery he would have never said such a thing about leaving slavery the way it is. By saying he didn’t want to free the slaves, it tells us that Lincoln isn’t really the Great Emancipator.
In the beginning, Lincoln and Douglass were extremely different people in nearly every aspect. Douglass was raised a slave, while Lincoln grew up as a free yet very poor man. Lincoln’s primary commitment was to American politics. Douglass’ life work almost solely revolved around abolition and voting rights for African-Americans. Their personalities were also extremely different (Oakes 92-93). Douglass’ impulsive and emotional inclinations were opposite of Lincoln’s logical and calm personality. Douglass supported every approach against slavery, including more violent ones like the John Brown affair (Oakes 94). Lincoln, on the other hand, called Brown a
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.
Lincoln was a very smart lawyer and politician. During his “House Divided” speech he asked the question, “Can we, as a nation, continue together permanently, forever, half slave, and half free?" When he first asked this question, America was slowly gaining the knowledge and realizing that as a nation, it could not possibly exist as half-slave and half-free. It was either one way or the other. “Slavery was unconstitutional and immoral, but not simply on a practical level.” (Greenfield, 2009) Slave states and free states had significantly different and incompatible interests. In 1858, when Lincoln made his “House Divided” speech, he made people think about this question with views if what the end result in America must be.
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.
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 was the Republican nominee and was supported by the North. Lincoln was anti-slavery and had several points against it in his Republican National Platform.
1860 was a critical year in the history of the United States of America. America's position as a country established on principles of freedom had been weakened by slavery. It was an election year and Abraham Lincoln (b. Feb. 12, 1809 - d. April 15, 1865) was nominated for the presidency of the United States, representing the Republican Party. The Democratic Party was divided into two wings - a Northern Wing with Stephen A. Douglas as its candidate and a Southern Wing with John C. Breckinridge as the other candidate for the presidency of the United States.
Abraham Lincoln is perhaps one of the most interesting characters to have ever graced the American political arena and presidency. He is most noteworthy, obviously, for his role in saving the United States from its own destruction and the eradication of the vile Southern tradition of slavery. However, upon deeper inspection, one finds there was much more to Lincoln than his political achievements. Throughout his years as a politician, there's a noticeable shift in terms of his character, and political persona. He seems to go from ambitious and boisterous to being more solemn and reserved. Also, it should be noted that some remark that Lincoln was, quite ironically, both America’s most democratic and autocratic President to have ever held office. However, it seems that though there is abundant evidence for his democratic values, there are little to suggest his autocratic intentions. As though some lines revealing such intent can be found, many are also directly rebutted by powerful democratic rhetoric. All of this can be found in Lincoln’s four main speeches; “A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand”, his Inaugural Addresses and the Gettysburg Address. Basically, in order to properly analyze Lincoln it may be best to look at Lincoln’s personal and political changes within the terms of his antebellum and Civil War “personalities”, as well as to examine his democratic and autocratic leanings; all through scrutinizing Lincoln’s major speeches.
James Oakes’ The Radical and the Republican narrated the relationship between two of America’s greatest leaders: Frederick Douglass, the “radical” abolitionist, and Abraham Lincoln, the “Republican” politician. He did an astonishing job of demonstrating the commonalities between the views of Douglass and Lincoln, but also their differences on their stance of anti-slavery politics and abolitionism. Despite being on the same side of the argument of slavery, Douglass and Lincoln went about their opinions separately. Lincoln held a more patient and orthodox stance on anti-slavery, while Douglass was proven to be obstinate and direct with
Micheal P. Jhonson Abraham Linclon, Slavery, and the Civil war, Selected Writing and Speeches ( New York. University of Pennsylvania , 2001)
The world views Abraham Lincoln in history as an abolitionist. History tells us that his main goal was to abolish slavery at all cost. That was not the case, although he found it wrong, he
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 in 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. After becoming President Lincoln considered the much closer, safer, and economically viable Central America, but eventually dropped it as freed slaves were unresponsive. While starting his first term as President he attempted to stop the secession of the southern states and ameliorate the citizens by insisting slavery would be allowed to remain as it had been before, prioritizing the Union over the slaves. Later in his first term, and into his early second, Lincoln proposed a compensated emancipation system , believing that if the states that had seceded realized others would not join the Confederacy they would be more inclined to rejoin the Union. After all other solutions failed to gain a...
In fact, he states at one point during the debates between Douglas and himself, “I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races” (Borrit 2002). In regards to forcing Blacks to work for whites under harmful circumstances, he states the people did not deserve to be treated like animals, but at the same time, they had their places. The only concern with his disagreement of slavery was that it went against the foundation of America (i.e. the Constitution). Lincoln believed that colonization was the solution to the problem stripping the nation of its characterizations. In response to the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln’s beliefs of colonization caused uproar among Blacks, who argued their nativity in America. During his presidency, Lincoln was able to make a large amount of progress, or at the very least, push for the development of America as a whole. However, he struggled to get Congress on his side for many of his beliefs; however he had grandiose ideas of domestic policy, which directly influenced his foreign policies, such as the Confederacy as a sovereign state. Lincoln was a Republican, and following his presidency, his party’s success created numerous inside parties in the