Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809 in Kentucky. His parents were natives of Virginia. The father, Thomas, was a wealthy landowner, but due to a legal error, he went bankrupt by 1816, and the entire family was forced to move to Indiana.
Soon after the move, Abraham's mother died and his father remarried a widow with three children.
Abraham is the only one of the children who was able to receive an education, although not a systematic one (he attended school for only one year). We can say that the future American president himself learned to read and write. He especially loved to read and read almost every book available in the area.
Start of independent life
According to short biography Abraham Lincoln, in 1830 he decided to leave the family. He traveled around the country, visited slave markets in the South (after which he began to speak extremely negatively about the slave system) and eventually settled in Illinois, in the city of New Salem.
Lincoln devoted all his free time to self-education, and in 1832 he even tried to run for the State Legislative Assembly, but was unsuccessful. In 1833 he began working as a postmaster. This work gave him the opportunity to continue his self-education. Of all the sciences, he intensively studied law.
Beginning of a political career
In 1835, Abraham made a second attempt to get into the state Legislative Assembly. The attempt was successful, he passed and began to actively engage in politics. It was he who contributed to the transfer of the state capital to the city of Springfield. In this city he opened a law office (in 1836 he successfully passed the exam and received a lawyer's license).
Lincoln the lawyer had an impeccable reputation and, thanks to his oratorical abilities, often won cases in court. It is interesting that he did not take money from insolvent citizens. In his public speeches, he constantly spoke about the values of democracy, the importance of the constitution and the need to preserve intact the legacy of the “Founding Fathers”.
Political career before presidency
In 1847, Lincoln became a member of the House of Representatives from the Whig Party. In 1856 he became a member of the Republican Party (like most Whigs), and in 1858 he ran for the US Senate.
During the election campaign, he again advocated the gradual abolition of slavery. Such moderate views led to his election as a candidate for the presidency of the United States from the Republican Party in 1860.
Lincoln won the election, but his election as president was the reason for the split in the Union and the basis for the outbreak of the Civil War.
Presidency and Civil War
1861 is considered the year the American Civil War began. Lincoln was in a difficult position: he needed to solve the problem of creating and providing an army, as well as leading the country out of the agrarian crisis. It was precisely because of the internal problems of the North American states that the first year and a half of the war were not very successful for the North.
In 1862, Lincoln managed to create and arm an army, passed the Homestead Act (land distributions from the state) through the Senate, and finally decided on the issue of abolishing slavery. Lincoln changed his views from compromise to radical, and this led to the writing of the Emancipation Proclamation (which became the basis for the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution). All of these events marked the end of the South and the end of the Civil War. By 1865, the Confederate forces were completely defeated, Lincoln immediately proclaimed a course for the “restoration of the South” and the restoration of the Union.
Re-election to a second presidential term and death
In 1865, Abraham Lincoln was re-elected to a second presidential term. That same year, he was assassinated by Confederate sympathizer John Booth. The 16th American president was buried in Springfield.
Family
In 1842, Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd from Kentucky. The marriage was successful. The couple loved each other. They had four sons, three of whom died in childhood and adolescence.
Other biography options
- It is known that while living in New Salem, the future president was in desperate need. He often had to borrow, but he always repaid his debts on time, for which he earned the nickname “Honest Abe.” Another, no less famous nickname for the American president was “Uncle Abe.”
- Abraham Lincoln was physically well-developed and excellent with an ax, since in his youth his duty was to chop wood for the home.
- Lincoln's biography is very vivid. This man managed to destroy the stereotypes that had developed in the extremely conservative American society XIX century.
“Character is like a tree, and reputation is its shadow. We care about the shadow, but what we really need to think about is the tree.” Abraham Lincoln
On February 12, 1809, in the state of Kentucky, a child was born into a very poor family, who was named Abraham. From an early age the boy helped his parents and did heavy physical labor. He cut down forest, cleared land for arable land, was a good carpenter and carpenter, took care of livestock, did not refuse any work, and helped his neighbors. Despite the hard work and the terrible workload of the workday, the boy found time to study. More precisely, he hardly studied at school, but he drew all his knowledge from books, which he loved madly. He was very inquisitive and absorbed new things like a sponge. Fate was cruel to the boy from childhood. As a child, he lost his grandparents, mother, and sister.
At the age of 20, the son left home and moved to Illinois. There he worked as a Mississippi raft operator. One day, he needed to deliver cargo along the Mississippi to New Orleans. When Abraham arrived in this city and was making a tour of it, he wandered into a slave auction. Lincoln saw people there shackled. The picture was terrifying: men, women, children - everyone was in chains. They were sold one by one. One elderly black man's hand was cut off (he was punished by his owners). This sight deeply affected Abraham. He couldn't look at it and immediately wanted to leave the place. As he left, he said, “If I ever have to hit this thing (meaning black slavery), I will crush it.”
Lincoln grew up in a simple family, so until the end of his life it was working people who were close to him. He was not shy about expressing his position on slavery. It must also be said that this man never stopped educating himself. He constantly learned new things, read a lot, studied various sciences. In 1834, the people of New Salem (the town in which he lived) elected Lincoln to the Illinois State Legislature. Two years later, he was able to pass the exams and become a lawyer (he had wanted to be one since childhood, but his level of education was lacking). Having started his legal practice, he often took on the most difficult situations, protecting disadvantaged, poor people completely free of charge. In 1846 he was elected to the US Congress from Illinois.
In the United States, meanwhile, the wave of indignation against slavery grew more and more. In those years, the first Republican Party was created (it demanded the limitation of slavery), which Lincoln soon joined and became its most ardent supporter. Abraham's strong position glorifies him. He becomes the protector of the disadvantaged in the eyes of many people. Lincoln's opponent was a certain Douglas. The latter managed to justify slavery, allegedly the owners give the slaves “protection”. Douglas was an experienced speaker, deftly finding the right words, elegantly constructing phrases, emotional in speeches and cunning. Abraham was quite quiet, calm, even somewhat slow in conversation. The tone of his voice was never loud or expressive. But he knew how to truly convince people, and in addition, he had an excellent and subtle sense of humor. And he could fight back against anyone. In 1858, Lincoln was nominated for the Senate, but the election was lost. It was a lost battle for Douglas, but that does not mean the war was lost. It should be noted that after these elections, Abraham’s popularity is growing more and more, he is gathering more and more supporters. In 1860, Lincoln ran for president of the United States, he put forward his program: the abolition of slavery, the provision of public land to citizens, the construction railway and so on. And finally, on November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became President of the United States of America, beating all his rivals by a great advantage.
Lincoln's years in power coincided with difficult times for the country. After the elections, the states split into North and South. The civil war began. A huge number of people died in it. Lincoln, together with his assistants, planned military operations and himself went to the battlefields. But the forces of the armies were approximately equal, and the war dragged on. And then Abraham made one of the most powerful decisions in history: the Emancipation Proclamation. All slaves were declared free. Lincoln had finally achieved what he had been fighting for for many, many years. But besides his dream, this act also had strategic significance. The freed slaves of the South switched sides and the war finally ended in victory for the North.
Five days after the final surrender of the South, on April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln went to a play at the theater. During the performance, the door to the box quietly opened and a man entered. A shot rang out. The bullet hit the president in the head. He died the next morning without regaining consciousness.
It should be noted that as president, Lincoln skillfully selected his staff. He surrounded himself only with efficient people, and even took on his opponents as assistants. In order to objectively consider issues, we need different points vision. He created an amazing atmosphere of trust in the government. No one there was afraid to express their opinion openly. At the same time, he knew when to stop discussions, after listening to everyone in order to make a final decision. Only a truly strong person can be both a dictator and a democrat at the same time. A democrat at the discussion level and a dictator at the decision-making level. He could openly admit his mistakes and learn from them. Lincoln always had an open reception of citizens. Regardless of his own time and fatigue, he received and listened to everyone who came to an audience with him. The President never took out his negative emotions on others. If someone upset him, he would simply sit down and write a letter to that person. And when I finished it, the anger had already subsided. But Lincoln never sent the letter...
This man had a colossally determined spirit, which helped him reach the top of the world and remain in the fond memory of millions of people.
Abraham Lincoln. Quotes:“You can’t give up not only after one, but after a hundred defeats”
"Who wants, looks for opportunities. Who doesn't want, looks for reasons"
"I defeat my enemies by turning them into friends"
“Whoever waits passively eventually receives what he expected, but only what is left after those who acted energetically.”
“I know disappointment too well to be upset about it.”
“Many are able to withstand the blows of fate, but if you want to truly test a person’s character, give him power.”
"Most people are only as happy as they decide to be."
Abraham Lincoln (Abraham Lincoln, February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) is one of the most famous presidents United States of America. He was the sixteenth in this post. Famous for his fight for the abolition of slavery and the rights of black people.
Childhood and youth
Abraham was born in 1809 into a family of poor and illiterate farmers. Their Sinking Spring farm brought in very little income, and the housing for people and animals was little different from each other. It is noteworthy that at one time Lincoln’s father was one of the wealthiest people in the area, but due to a legal error in paperwork, he lost all his property.
No one in those days thought about the happy and carefree childhood of their offspring. Everyone worked together to the best of their ability on the land. Abraham himself rarely had the opportunity to attend school. And after his mother died and the family began to move frequently, he had to give up his studies altogether.
However, this only pushed the boy to self-education. He enjoyed learning to read and write and constantly read books. At a very young age, he mastered the Bible, as well as Aesop's fables and The History of Benjamin Washington. To improve his writing and earn extra money at the same time, he regularly wrote letters for his illiterate neighbors.
After another move, the Lincoln family ended up in New Orleans. Here, Abraham, who had already matured, saw something that could not be found in the northern states in which he had previously lived. A slave market with all the nightmares and mockeries of human nature opened before his eyes. This sight struck him so much that it stuck in his brain. long years.
Thanks to his education, Lincoln could apply for a clean and well-paid job far from cattle and fields. He changed many occupations, was a clerk, a postmaster, and was a member of the militia.
Carier start
At just 26 years old, Abraham Lincoln had already become a member of the Illinois Legislature. In this position, he had the opportunity to study the political world from the inside. A lot of things did not suit him and even seemed wrong. Therefore, the young man began to study law with renewed energy. He mastered the discipline perfectly, which he proved in 1836 by passing the exam brilliantly and receiving the title of lawyer.
Together with his like-minded person, Lincoln founded a law office. He quickly formed a whole line of wealthy clients. At the same time, he helped low-income people for free.
In 1856, Abraham Lincoln became a member of the newly formed Republican Party. Already in this role in 1856, he ran for the Senate. Despite the loss, it was this election campaign opened him and his ideas to the citizens of the country. Lincoln's brilliant speech conveyed the message that America could no longer turn a blind eye to the existence of slavery.
President Lincoln
In 1860, Lincoln beat all his rivals and took the post of President of America. This event led to the start of the Civil War. However, it also became a powerful impetus for the development of the country.
The southern states, which had long prospered from the labor of slaves, came out sharply against the newly elected leader. They announced their separation. However, the President did not recognize their independence. On the contrary, he declared all slaves free. The southern states could not resist the power regular army. They lost the war.
New presidential term
In 1864, Lincoln was re-elected President. He understood perfectly well that the country after the Civil War needed restoration. The law on allocating land to all citizens was a significant step in this, but much more remained to be done.
The President made bold plans for the future. He was convinced that a country that had thrown off the shackles of slavery would develop rapidly. Lincoln promised pardon to all participants in the rebellion, with the exception of particularly distinguished leaders.
Death
Unfortunately, he was not destined to make all this come true. In 1865, Lincoln went to Ford's Theater for his last performance.
One of the actors, J. W. Booth, fanatically loyal to the Southerners and hating the Northerners with all his heart, snuck into his box. No one expected that he brought a gun with him.
A shot to the head killed the great President. However, his ideas had already taken root on fertile soil, and there was no possibility of returning to the past.
The 16th President of the United States is buried in Oak Rog Cemetery.
The Civil War was an epochal turning point in the history of the United States, and Abraham Lincoln, who led the affairs of the White House during these years, remains a central historical figure in the consciousness of the American people. During the crisis of the union, Lincoln's every thought and action was directed toward salvaging and once again fully demonstrating the legacy of the Founding Fathers—the values and principles of the republic as set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. His personality, which has become a myth, focuses on the main features of American democracy, which his presidency strengthened for a long time. The Civil War once again set Americans' sights on a unified nation and a free society purged of slavery, the Cain stamp of the great democratic experiment. Lincoln believed that by preserving the United States, he had preserved, as he once put it, “the last hope on earth,” if only for his own era.
Slavery was undoubtedly at the center of the struggle between North and South, but it was not the only reason war. Economic, political-ideological and cultural factors were tied into a knot of problems that could no longer be untied through agreements and compromises. Since the 1920s, the United States has been in the grip of a “market revolution” that transformed all areas of life, but had different consequences in the South and in the North. The Northeast and Northwest were soon linked by a complex and diversified economy in which the agricultural sector gradually gave way to industrialization and trade. The growing demand for labor was met primarily by resettlement from Europe, and the number of people living in cities in 1850 was approaching the 5 million mark.
Expansion and commercialization also defined the South, especially the forward-moving Southwest. Cotton growing, which dominated here as a monoculture, contributed to the fact that the character of the entire region remained agrarian. Planters thought and acted as entrepreneurs on the principles of supply, demand and profit. For them, slaves were both labor and capital, a “resource” that became more and more expensive and scarce during the cotton boom. Since cotton production can only increase by increasing the cultivated area, plantation owners regarded all attempts to territorially limit slavery as a mortal danger to their economic and social system. They even pressured Washington to allow the importation of slaves, which had been banned in 1808, again. Culturally, the South remained in the grip of the past, and so a peculiar mixture of paternalistic and democratic elements emerged. Southern whites, poor and rich, rallied ever closer to defend their traditional values and ideals, the Southern way of life, from being threatened by what they perceived as the individualistic and egalitarian society of the North. Slavery was also considered a positive value in the South, which was contrasted with the exploitative “wage slavery” of the North as a humane institution. The religious reform zeal that began in the North, with which many people responded to rapid social transformation, was increasingly directed toward the evil of slavery in the Southern states. At the end of the 1950s, two different societies, two cultures and two visions of the future were confronted within the union, which could no longer be contained by the constitution and party system that had long served as a connecting link. In this fateful situation, which could not be handled by any individual, Abraham Lincoln took upon himself responsibility for an American nation that did not yet, or no longer, exist.
Relatively little is known about Lincoln's childhood and youth. He was born February 12, 1809, on a small farm in Gardin County, Kentucky, the second child and first son of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. In 1816 the family moved to southwestern Indiana, which had recently been admitted to the union. Cultivation of the land and meager life on the border between the advance of settlers to the West between wilderness and civilization required great physical and spiritual strength from the pioneers. The lack of medical care led to victims in the Lincoln family: his younger brother died in early age, at the age of 9 he lost his mother, and a few years later his older sister died of childbed fever. The father soon married again. The stepmother, who herself had three children from her first marriage, encouraged the children to read. In total, Abraham attended school for one year. He was mostly self-taught. The Bible, which in many pioneer families was the only book in the house, and several other works that he was able to obtain - among them "Robinson Crusoe", "The Pilgrim's Progress" and Aesop's fables - he studied with particular thoroughness. His speeches subsequently testified to a deep knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, which was not surprising then. His quotes from the Bible, aptly applied to everyday events, were stunning.
Slavery took significant place in Lincoln's mind. His uncle and uncle's father owned slaves. His father, a staunch Baptist, on the contrary, resolutely rejected slavery, although not only for ethical and moral reasons; as a simple worker, he experienced first-hand what it meant to compete with the labor of slaves. The family moved many times, built a log house and cultivated the land. In 1830 they again moved further west to Illinois, which twelve years earlier had become, as a slave-free state, part of the union. Meanwhile, the grown Abraham worked for some period for his father, at which time his nickname arose “chip picker”, given to him for his skillful and dexterous ability to work with an ax. Then he left his family, found a temporary job, and during one of his boat trips down the Mississippi down to New Orleans, he became acquainted not only with the expanses of the then United States, but also saw the lack of infrastructure, which did not yet sufficiently connect individual regions with each other. The impressions from this trip, as well as a visit to a slave market with groups of chained and singing slaves, deeply shocked him. Upon his return, he settled in the small village of Salem, Illinois, where he worked as a postmaster, merchant and surveyor.
When the governor of Illinois called for volunteers for the Black Falcons' Indian War, Lincoln, whose paternal grandparents had been killed by Indians, enlisted and was chosen as a captain by his fellows. His military service was short and uneventful for his unit. The position of captain so strengthened his self-confidence that that same year he tried to win a seat in the Illinois House of Representatives. During the election campaign he advocated the expansion and improvement of infrastructure and the development of education. After failing in his first attempt, Lincoln was elected two years later and established his mandate as a member of the Whig Party until 1842. During this period he was active as the leader of his party and chairman of the finance committee.
Professionally, he was unlucky at first, and he often had debts, which he always repaid to the last penny. After " Honest Abe" buried his plans to become a blacksmith, he managed to meet a justice of the peace and began to independently, but purposefully and persistently study the legal sciences. In 1836 he received admission to the Illinois Bar. A year later he moved to Springfield, the new capital of his native state of Illinois, where became the partner of a lawyer known far beyond the region. Considering his origins, Lincoln went through an impressive path: almost as in the saying “from rags to riches,” the poor son of a pioneer settler, before reaching the age of thirty, became a lawyer with his own practice. , and a politician in the public spotlight. He was already the embodiment of a “self-made” man, and thus his marriage in 1842 to Mary Todd, the daughter of a Southern planter, only complemented the picture of the social. They had four sons, but only one, Robert Todd, lived to adulthood.
When Lincoln entered the political arena, Andrew Jackson was president. Lincoln shared Jackson's sympathies to the common man, but not his understanding of the philosophy of public rights, that the federal government should, for the sake of the common good, refrain from all economic initiatives and settlements. His political models were Daniel Webster and Henry Clay, who promoted the economic consolidation of the union through Congressional and federal government activities. Under the slogan “the American system,” they demanded the unification of banking and currencies, improved infrastructure, and the development of American industry through protective tariffs. Like most Whig politicians, Lincoln was reticent on the issue of slavery: he rejected the “special institution” emotionally and morally, but did not want to be counted among the abolitionists, whose inflammatory rhetoric he sharply criticized.
The assassination of abolitionist newspaper publisher Elijah Lovejoy in 1837, reluctantly condemned by the Illinois Congress, marked a turning point in Lincoln's political development. This incident prompted him to make his first principled speech at the Young Men's Lyceum in Springfield. Using motifs and elements of romance in his speech, he emphasized the core values of American democracy and the legacy of the nation's Founding Fathers. The Constitution and laws should be revered as a kind of “political religion”. Rampant mob rule - as in the case of lynching - must never threaten national unity. At the same time, abolitionism did not seem to him the right way to solve the problem of slavery.
After his term in the Illinois House of Representatives expired in 1842, Lincoln devoted himself, along with his legal practice, to further political causes within the Whig party, and his outstanding activity in supporting candidate Henry Clay in the 1844 election was nominated by the Whigs in 1846. year to Congress. He passed with an overwhelming majority, but his service as a member of Congress in Washington from 1847 to 1849 passed without sensation. Through his popular opposition to the Mexican War, Lincoln made more enemies than friends. He supported the so-called Wilmaud Proviso, which would have prohibited slavery in all newly acquired territories, but it failed to pass in the Senate. In 1848, he actively supported the presidency of General Zachary Taylor and after his victory was clearly disappointed, not receiving the expected post in the government. After these two rather depressing years, he remained aloof from politics for a long time and devoted himself to his thriving law practice in Springfield.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 increased political polarization and contributed to the dissolution of the old party system and the emergence of a new political situation. The Whigs, whose northern wing insisted on an unequivocal rejection of slavery, lost support in the South, and the party disintegrated. The political vacuum was filled by the newly formed Republican Party, which organized resistance to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The conflicts awakened Lincoln politically and spurred him to activism. In 1856, he joined the Republicans and assumed leadership in Illinois. The composition of the party could not have been more heterogeneous: anti-slavery Democrats, former Whigs, abolitionists, temperanceists and nativists formed a conglomerate, the basis of which was the goal of preventing the further spread of slavery. With the exception of the abolitionists, these groups did not advocate the abolition of slavery in areas where it already existed. For them, what was important, first of all, was new territories, still “free land.” The Republican program boiled down to the well-known formula “Free soil, free labor, free speech, free man.”
With growing concern, Lincoln watched the events of "Bloody Kansas," where pro-slavery and anti-slavery parties engaged in guerrilla warfare. He was deeply indignant that the Supreme Court, in the Dreyde-Scott verdict of 1857, clearly vindicated slavery and thereby effectively overturned the Missouri Compromise. When the famous Democratic Senator of Illinois, Stephen E. Douglas, the chief responsible for the Kansas-Nebraska Act, wanted to run against the Republicans in 1858, the public debates of both politicians attracted tens of thousands of people, in part. even special trains to listen to verbal duels staged in seven Illinois cities between "Little Giant" Douglas (1.62 m) and "Tall Baby" Lincoln (1.9 m) Lincoln lost the election, however, thanks to the verbal battles that revolved. centered around slavery, attracted national attention and gained important political advantages for his later career. Lincoln's speech, the slogan of which was taken from the New Testament (Matthew 12:25): “And every house divided against itself cannot stand,” penetrated especially deeply into the public consciousness. Its main thesis was that the United States could not permanently tolerate slavery and a free society and that Americans were therefore forced to choose one system or the other. When Douglas accused his rival of abolitionism. Lincoln countered with a conspiracy theory that powerful Democrats, including President Buchanan, wanted to extend slavery first to new territories and then throughout the union. Lincoln knew that there was no exact evidence for this, but he deliberately made the accusation part of his election strategy, which even then, as he himself admitted, had long-term prospects. Douglas was able to secure the senatorial seat from Lincoln due to his experience and advocacy of the principle of "sovereignty of the people", which left the decision to allow or prohibit slavery to the discretion of the states and territories. On some points he went so far as to accommodate his president that his popularity in the South plummeted. The debate, however, made clear what divided both men: unlike Douglas, Lincoln considered slavery an evil that he rejected out of moral conviction.
In October 1859, public unrest reached a new high point due to the action of the fanatical, religious opponent of slavery John Brown, who had previously held political Act of terrorism. He, along with his sons and several followers, attacked an armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown, who secretly received support from wealthy abolitionists in New York, wanted to signal a slave uprising in the South. But the attempt failed, and Brown was soon hanged along with his men. Lincoln was among those who condemned Brown's action because of its violence. At the same time, he warned the southerners that secession would be no less unlawful and punishable than the actions of an underground fighter.
At the Republican Party Convention in Chicago in May 1860, Lincoln was nominated for the presidency in the third round. As a compromise candidate with relatively few enemies, he handily outmaneuvered his well-known rivals, William Seward and Salmon Chase. His ally and candidate for the post of vice president was the staunch opponent of slavery, Hannibal Hamlin from Maine. The Republican election platform rejected slavery in the new territories, but did not demand its elimination in the southern states. She denounced the Buchanan administration's "sale of interests" to the South, sharply criticized the Supreme Court decision in the Dreyd-Scott case, promised legislation for the rapid settlement of the western regions in the future, advocated for looser citizenship provisions and improved infrastructure. Lincoln did not speak publicly during the campaign, but from Springfield he exercised well-thought-out leadership.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party split over the issue of slavery: its northern wing voted for Douglas, its southern wing for John Breckinridge. And she actually entered the election with two candidates - a circumstance beneficial to Lincoln. Both parties fought their election battles not for specific content, but for the more general values that the candidates personified. “Honest Abe” Lincoln identified himself with the qualities that still make up his myth today: the industriousness and work ethic, the honest modesty of a pioneer who rose from poverty and, without forgetting his origins and connections with the people, became a candidate for the highest office . It represented not only social mobility, but also honesty and the ability to remain true to oneself. These properties contrasted with the scandals and corruption of the Buchanan administration. The election campaign mobilized the American population to a degree unprecedented before that time. On November 6, 1860, participation in the elections exceeded 80 percent for the first time. It is not surprising that Lincoln, who was attacked by Southern Democrats as an abolitionist and "black Republican", owed his election solely to Northern votes, although he received 40% of the votes cast nationwide, all of them, with a few exceptions, from the densely populated Northern states, so that with his 180 electoral college votes, even with the unity of the Democrats, he had an unattainable lead.
Even more consistently than his predecessors, Lincoln applied a protectionist system when distributing positions. Already in the spring of 1861, 80 percent of political posts previously controlled by Democrats were occupied by Republicans. In distributing cabinet posts, Lincoln showed great political dexterity: he gave the most important posts, such as Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Secretary of Justice and Secretary of the Treasury, to his former competitors - Republicans William Seward, Edward Bates and Salmon Chase.
Lincoln's election caused extreme anxiety among Southerners, and the time leading up to his inauguration in early March proved difficult for himself and the nation. Even before this, some slave states had threatened to secede if the Republicans won, and that is exactly what happened before Christmas. South Carolina was the first state to dissolve its union with other states. Before February 1, 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed in the first wave. Decisions were made accordingly by state conventions chosen by the people. While still in office, Buchanan allowed the seceding southern states to take possession of the federal fortifications, forts and weapons arsenals located on their territories. Only two fortresses, one of them Fort Sumter, located on an island in front of the port of Charleston, remained in the possession of the union. In early February 1861, the seceding states proclaimed the "Confederate States of America" and installed former senator and Secretary of War Jefferson Davis as its president.
In an effort to restore national unity and aware that the states of the "upper South" had so far behaved loyally, Lincoln avoided harsh tones in his inaugural address on March 4. He compared the demand for secession to anarchy, but again emphasized that he did not think of threatening slavery where it already existed. The President made it clear that he was not thinking about a military conflict, that the fate of the nation was in the hands of the southerners. They did not vow to forcibly destroy the union, while he himself swore to preserve, protect and defend it.
The Confederalists did not convert special attention to Lincoln's call, and the last reluctant attempts at mediation in Congress remained unsuccessful. When the President refused to give Fort Sumter to the South, South Carolina troops responded on April 12 by shelling the fort. The civil war has begun. The following four states quickly seceded: Tennessee, Arkansas, North Carolina and Virginia, whose capital Richmond also became the capital of the Confederacy. The border states of Kentucky, Missouri, Delaware, and Maryland—all slave states—were at first hesitant, but after hesitation and internal dissensions remained in the union. So, the 23 states of the union with approximately 22 million inhabitants were opposed by 11 confederate states, in which 5.5 million whites lived and exactly 3.5 million slaves.
Like the president. Lincoln was the commander-in-chief of all armed forces, a function that required a lot of his time and energy. Apart from a brief stint as a captain in the Black Falcon War, he had no military experience. However, during the war he very quickly developed the ability to assess the strategic position and the necessary operational actions. As a first measure, he called on all states of the union to mobilize 75,000 volunteers with whom he wanted to suppress the “rebellion.” The population in the North responded to this call with great enthusiasm. On April 19, Lincoln ordered a naval blockade to paralyze Confederate trade and stop the entry of military supplies from Europe. On the battlefields, the better trained and led troops of the southern states inflicted painful blows on the Union. After the defeat at Bull Run in Virginia, where Northern troops were routed by the Confederates in July, Lincoln demanded an increase in troops to 500,000 men. The hope of quickly forcing the rebels to capitulate gave way to the reality that a long and brutal war lay ahead. Lincoln called General McClellan to Washington to reorganize the demoralized troops, and in November made "a new Napoleon his commander - a choice that proved problematic. Thanks to the general's cautious wait-and-see actions, Lincoln came under political pressure from within his own ranks. The population wanted to finally see victory , and besides, McClellan belonged to the Democratic Party, which further strengthened the skepticism of primarily radical Republicans.
Naturally, military operations were crucial to the advancement of the war. From Lincoln's point of view, it was very important to find a cohesive political concept that would give meaning to this struggle. The Confederate government had a relatively simple matter in this regard: the southern states fought for their independence, the preservation of their slavery-based social system, and the protection of their own territory. The North fought for the principle: for the unity of the nation - and only later, and secondarily, for the abolition of slavery.
Only if the president manages to convince political idea, for which it was worth making great sacrifices, there was a prospect of success. At the same time, Lincoln had to obtain the consent of the Republican faction, the political spectrum of which extended from conservatives to radicals. Thus, radical Republicans immediately after the outbreak of the war advocated the abolition of slavery and demanded that the president make the liberation of blacks the central goal of the war. The majority wing of the party, like Lincoln himself, favored, on the contrary, gradual emancipation combined with financial compensation for slaveholders and put the struggle for the unity of the nation at the forefront. Recognizing that only by uniting would it be possible to withstand the Democratic Party, Lincoln was able to amazingly connect the various factions through compromises. It was also his merit that during his presidency a normal political process took place and a historically unusual situation arose for wartime, in which not only the military, but also the voters could decide the fate of the nation. Lincoln was deeply convinced that democracy must adhere to the orderly course of political events even in wartime. Indeed, the two-party system in the North remained unscathed during the Civil War and even strengthened the president's rear, since disagreements and protests could be channeled into party-political channels, which was not the case in the South.
After the incident at Fort Sumter, part of the Democratic Party in the North formed a “loyal opposition” to the Republicans and promised the administration their full support. Stephen Douglas, until recently an ardent opponent of the president, now belonged to his allies and quickly recruited volunteers. When he died unexpectedly two months later in June, the Democratic Party was initially left without leadership. However, at the first meeting of the new Congress in July 1861, the faction continued Douglas's policies and supported Lincoln's war-related legislation.
Lincoln skillfully doled out important military posts to leading Democrats such as Benjamin Butler of Massachusetts and John Logan of Illinois. His second Secretary of War, sworn in early in 1862, Edwin Stanton, ran the Justice Department in Buchanan's Democratic administration. His initially harsh criticism of Lincoln soon gave way to deep admiration. By constantly invoking the principles of loyalty and patriotism during the war, Lincoln managed to win over part of the Democratic Party to his side. These so-called "War Democrats" entered into a formal coalition with the "Union Party," as the organized Republicans called themselves after 1862, for tactical reasons. The conservative Peace Democrats, on the contrary, were still willing to negotiate with the South for a peaceful resolution of the conflict and constituted a majority within their party.
The only acceptable solution for the president was for the seceding southern states to revoke their declaration of independence and return to the union - this would open, as Lincoln explicitly put it, room for negotiations on the issue of slavery. First of all, the preservation of the nation was important to him, although he had a natural dislike for the southern social system. On August 22, 1862, he responded to the radical Republican editor of the New York Tribune, Horace Grill, when asked why he was delaying the emancipation of the slaves: “My highest object in this struggle is the preservation of the union, not the preservation or abolition of slavery. If I could save the union without freeing a single 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 slaves and not freeing others, I would did this. What I do in the matter of slavery and for the colored race, I do because I believe it will help to preserve the union... By this I have explained my intention, which I consider as an official duty, and do not intend to change my often expressed personal desire. that all people everywhere should be free."
A few weeks after this letter, on September 22, 1862, when the Southern troops were forced to withdraw from Maryland after the Battle of Antaytam, Lincoln decided that the moment had come to make public a decision that had long been ripened: he issued a preliminary declaration of freedom, according to which all slaves, those who were in the “rebellious states” after January 1, 1863 were declared free. This geographical limitation was intended to ensure the loyalty of the population in the border states and in already occupied areas. It also meant a concession to moderate voters in the North, for whom the abolition of slavery was not a motive for the war, but who understood that this step could facilitate the victory of the union.
Some radical Republicans criticized the declaration, arguing that it freed slaves where they could not currently be freed, namely in enemy territory, and did not free slaves where this was possible, namely in occupied areas and in border states that joined the union. This certainly apt argument, however, could not disguise the symbolic explosive power of the declaration, which directly or indirectly brought freedom to almost three million slaves.
The Declaration of Freedom truly revolutionized the war, which became a fight to end slavery and completely change the structure of the southern social system. A particularly radical step made possible by the promulgation of the declaration was the recruitment of blacks into the army of the northern states. By the end of the war, nearly 180,000 African-Americans had enlisted in the Union forces. They were mainly employed in work related to fortifications or behind the front line. Some units, such as the 54th Massachusetts, distinguished themselves with bravery in battle.
Foreign policy, Lincoln's Declaration deprived the governments of England and France of any opportunity to enter the war on the side of the Confederacy. Since now it was a question of a war “for” or “against” slavery, the public in both countries, which had long ago abolished slavery in their colonial areas, clearly took the side of the northern states. Lincoln was well aware that the Declaration of Freedom did not have a strong constitutional and legal basis. Only a properly enacted amendment to the Constitution could finally seal the fate of slavery before the end of the war. Without this step, slave owners could legally demand back their "property" - i.e., freed slaves, since the declaration was only valid as a war measure. Therefore, Lincoln did everything in his power to hasten the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, issued by Congress, for the final abolition of slavery by the individual states.
Among the population of the northern states, after widespread support for the war at the beginning, palpable skepticism grew, so that the "peace democrats" slowly gained support. As the midterm elections approached in late 1862, Lincoln's primary concern was to strengthen popular loyalty and spread confidence in victory. In September, shortly before the declaration of freedom, he first began to act against the growing divisions on the "domestic front." He abolished the right of those arrested to a judicial hearing - a measure that legally made it possible to quickly and permanently imprison "troublemakers", especially deserters and collaborators. This corresponded to the deprivation of a fundamental democratic right, to a certain extent - an "emergency law", but it turned out to be an extremely sensitive and controversial means, which the "peaceful democrats" branded as dictatorial. In fact, the "fathers of the constitution" foresaw that such a step would be necessary in the event of a rebellion or military invasion to ensure public safety. But the text of the Constitution did not contain certain data about who should decide: the President or Congress. Lincoln interpreted the provisions in the spirit of "presidential leadership" and achieved his goal despite the objections of the Supreme Court, whose chairman, Taney, had discredited himself by participating in the Dreyde-Scott verdict in 1857. Before 1864, Lincoln appointed four new justices. When Taney died in October 1864, Lincoln replaced him with former Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase, who had previously demanded civil rights for blacks. The Supreme Court then upheld the government's right to arrest civilians if military considerations so warranted. Thus the Civil War—like other great wars in U.S. history—became “the hour of the executive,” and Lincoln provided subsequent presidents with an example of how the full political and military powers of the office could be used without actually overstepping the bounds of the Constitution.
With his actions against war opponents in the North and his temporary declaration of freedom, Lincoln provided Democrats with ample arguments to fight in the upcoming congressional elections. In the meantime, a popular settlement law had already been passed, which made it easier for farmers in the West to acquire land, but the latest defeats of the Union troops, combined with a decline in production and rapidly rising inflation, led to losses in the Republican Party. Democrats protested what they considered Lincoln's arbitrary interpretation of the Constitution, using the campaign slogan "For the Constitution as it is, and for the Union as it was," and demanded the return of the seceded states without abolishing slavery. Although the Republicans' lead in the House of Representatives decreased from 35 to 18 seats, they maintained their majorities in both houses of Congress.
In January 1863, Democrats intensified their attacks on Lincoln and his style of warfare and demanded peace negotiations with the Confederates. Based on such public statements, the leading leader of this movement, Representative Vallandigham from Ohio, was arrested and sentenced to prison by a military tribunal. Lincoln, however, allowed him to leave the union and go to the South. The president's revocation of the Habeas Corpus guarantee in this case even affected politics. Such measures were taken more than once, but this did not lead to the suppression of opposition to the Lincoln administration in the North. Conscription, introduced for the first time in the history of the United States on March 3, 1863, provided a new domestic political spark. Particularly controversial were the provisions that allowed wealthy Americans to put up dummies in their place and pay off their military service. Tension increased in the cities, and in July 1863, riots and street battles began, which were suppressed with the use of military force. More than 100 people died in these protests, many of them blacks, fallen victim Lynch courts.
Only in the summer of 1863 did the North manage to effectively use its enormous material and numerical advantage. The turning point came in July 1863 at the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, where two forces totaling 160,000 soldiers clashed, with more than one-quarter dead three days later. The Union troops were barely able to hold out, and the Confederates, under the leadership of General Robert E. Lee, were forced to retreat to Virginia. Almost simultaneously, Union troops under the command of General Ulysses Grant achieved success on the Western Front and captured the fortified city of Vicksburg on the Mississippi. The entire Mississippi Valley was now in Northern hands, and the Confederacy was cut in two from north to south. On November 19, 1863, in Gettysburg, Lincoln delivered his most famous speech, the Gettysburg Address, which was included in the opening of a large soldiers' cemetery. world literature. The President used the sad occasion to put into words long-cherished thoughts about the meaning of the war. Over the graves of the dead, he defined the meaning of the civil war in ten sentences. Using brilliant language, he focused on the founding phase of the nation and on the basic democratic values for which the United States stands: the equality of all people, their right to freedom and government by the people. He emphasized the common sacrifices made by the northern and southern states, and ended with a solemn promise "that these dead have not died in vain, that this nation, with God's help, will experience a restoration of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, will never perish from the face of the people." land."
In March 1864, Lincoln appointed Grant as commander-in-chief, in whom he finally found a convincing military leader. Together with William Sherman and Philip Sheridan, Grant carried out Lincoln's plan - a large-scale and well-coordinated offensive. Lincoln himself, who usually sat late into the night poring over military books taken from the Library of Congress, developed an entirely new concept of command for the United States, under which his Chief of the General Staff (Halleck), Secretary of War (Stanton replaced Cameron) and Commander in Chief (Grant) ) received coordinating instructions from him himself. Lincoln's military genius, coupled with his non-dogmatic approach to the complex, new problems of modern warfare, was later appreciated many times over.
The presidential election of 1864 has gone down in American history as the most important. The people had to decide whether to continue the war or not - the administration formed by the Democrats had to offer peace to the South. Rivalry within the Republican camp and the emergence of influential contenders for the presidency, most notably Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Chase, made it impossible to say with certainty whether Lincoln would be re-elected. In addition, one term in office has become almost a political tradition; since Andrew Jackson, no president has managed to get into office. The White house second time. In July, Lincoln was chosen as the candidate of the Union Party, but still doubted his re-election. The mood in the North was inclined towards a compromise solution, and therefore the victory of the Democrats, whose candidate was none other than General McClellan, who was fired by Lincoln at the end of 1862, was not excluded.
The victory in the battle was decisive: the capture of Atlanta in Georgia by Union troops under the command of General Sherman on September 2, 1864 sharply changed the public mood, calmed the internal party differences of the Republicans and pushed the Democratic Party with its peace proposal into political impasse. Lincoln's victory could be seen as clear authority to continue the war and completely free the slaves. The President quickly submitted the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, where it was adopted by the required two-thirds majority.
By the time the president was inaugurated again, the civil war was almost won. In his second inaugural address on March 4, 1865, Lincoln again touched upon the themes of the Gettysburg Address and extended a hand of reconciliation to the southern states: “Without malice toward any, and with love for our neighbor, for all, standing firmly in our God-given right, let us continue strive to complete the work we have begun; to bandage the wounds of the nation... to do everything that can give and preserve a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” This is how he outlined his position on the reintegration of the southern states: leniency and reconciliation, rather than punishment and retribution, should determine the post-war phase.
Meanwhile, Grant's attack on Richmond and Sherman's even more notorious "throw to the sea", which left behind traces of devastation, demoralized the Confederacy and marked the beginning of its defeat. At first, Lincoln was skeptical of Sherman's plans because, like Grant, he did not understand the "scorched earth" strategic principle that gave the war its "total" character in the final phase. On April 9, 1865, General Lee surrendered his army in Virginia, and a few weeks later the remnants of the Southern troops stopped fighting.
In his last speech, Lincoln strongly advocated the peaceful restoration of the southern states to the union. Their reconstruction included, in addition to the abolition of slavery, the beginning of a confrontation between American society and the situation of freed blacks. Lincoln understood the fundamental task of legal and political equalization of slaves, but did not yet know how to practically implement this in view of racist attitudes in the South and in the North. Suffrage for black men in the South could only be achieved through coercion, which was contrary to Lincoln's idea of agreement and reconciliation. His successor Andrew Johnson also failed in this dilemma. But Lincoln himself may not have been able to cope with this extraordinary historical demand.
A few days after the end of the war, on April 14, 1865, in a theater box, Lincoln was struck by several shots and died of his wounds that same night. This was the first attempt on the life of an American president. The assassin was a fanatical and possibly mentally ill Southerner, actor John Wilkes Booth, who, along with other conspirators, wanted to kill leading Union politicians.
The timing of the assassination attempt—almost exactly four years ago when the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter on Good Friday—contributed significantly to the creation of the myth of the martyr Lincoln. The beginning of the apotheosis of his personality began during his lifetime and was supported equally by white compatriots and African Americans, who deified him as a “new messiah.” Funeral procession that passed through many states of the union before his hometown Springfield and watched by millions of people standing along the road, became a manifestation of American "civil religion". Lincoln often appealed to this secular, civic religiosity in his speeches. It had already promoted the social integration of homogeneous populations since Washington's time, and for decades after Lincoln it had helped to heal the wounds of the Civil War. Through Lincoln's example, the idea of the sacrifice that individuals and the American people must make to preserve democratic values and principles became a significant part of this "civil religion." It is no coincidence that after Gettysburg, Lincoln increasingly replaced the concept of “union” with the word “nation.” He wanted to strengthen the internal cohesion of this community, to direct people through the “mystical sounds of memory,” as it was said in the first speech when taking office as president, to a common center. A tall, often seemingly helpless man, sometimes melancholic to the point of depression, but always with a recognizable, albeit restrained, sense of humor, he united in his person the most important American ideals and virtues: Lincoln could rightfully be considered the savior of the nation, then the liberator of slaves, while constantly real man from the people and a brilliant example of a self-made man. In addition, he represented a "supra-regional" American: a Westerner, born in the South and related to it, he was, however, a typical "Yankee".
In all this, it should not be forgotten that Lincoln was subject to harsh criticism during his presidency. "Peace Democrats" called him a tyrant; abolitionists reproached him for using the emancipation of slaves only as a tactical means to weaken the fighting strength of the South. Even among his Republican party friends there were many who yearned for " to a strong man", like Andrew Jackson. There is no doubt that Lincoln was constantly improving in the function of a Civil War president. After his second election, almost all critics fell silent because they realized that no other person would have been able to fulfill the historical task.
Lincoln's presidency coincided with a war that had the greatest casualties in United States history, claiming more than 600,000 killed (360,000 on the Union side, 260,000 in the South). By mobilizing all available reserves of soldiers, materials and technical capabilities, the American Civil War anticipated, in certain structural ways, modern total wars of the 20th century. Constitutionally, it was the engine of centralization, as proven by the creation of a new banking system based on the National Bank Act, the development of education and the participation of the federal government in the construction of the railroad. Economically, the outcome of the war strengthened the superiority of the industrial North, which had entered a stage of accelerated growth, over the agricultural South, which could not maintain this pace.
Already in his first message to Congress in July 1861, Lincoln called the war a “competition of men,” fought for the sake of principles and words, and not for material advantages. The Northern victory under his leadership ensured the unity of the nation and freed four million men, women and children from slavery. In addition, the denial of secession to southern states that defied the will of the voters in 1860 was protected universal principle democracy. In state-legal terms, the principle of permanence and indissolubility of the union prevailed over the philosophy of “state rights,” whose supporters understood the United States as a confederation of sovereign states that could secede at any time. In this sense, the civil war was part national movements unity that crossed the Atlantic and led in Europe at that time to the emergence of nation states in Italy and Germany. The political experiment of the United States, associated from the very beginning with the idea of a special mission, continued, although not without conflict. The international leading role of the United States in later times clearly shows in retrospect the world-historical scale of the Civil War, which its contemporaries repeatedly perceived as the “second American Revolution.” The ideals and goals of this “rebirth” of the American nation still retain in the minds of the American people living memories not only of the man who personified them like no other, but also of his presidency.
Abraham Lincoln is one of the most successful presidents in US history.
The main result of Lincoln's presidency was the abolition of slavery in the United States. The theme of slave relations was central during the Civil War of 1861-1862.
In those years, there was a great threat of the state disintegrating into at least 2 parts. Lincoln's diplomatic efforts kept the country intact.
This president became one of the few leaders of the American state, after the completion of whose activities fundamental results for the state remained.
Biography of Abraham Lincoln
The future 16th President of the United States was born on February 12, 1809 in Kentucky (the village of Hodgenville). His parents were poor and completely illiterate. Parents were engaged in agriculture. Abraham's mother died very early and his father decided to marry a second time.
The stepmother believed that both Abraham and her children should receive an education. Life was difficult for the family, so Lincoln only went to school for a year. As soon as he was able, the son began to help his parents in field work. It took him a lot of energy to do physical work, but he always had time and desire to read books.
Even without attending school, the future president educated himself to the best of his ability. From a young age, Lincoln was used to making money. He was not shy about heavy physical labor, so he even worked as a lumberjack. In 1830 the family moved to a new place. During these years, Abraham was just trying to decide on the solution to the question: “What business should I devote my life to?”
Over time, he begins to practice law. Participated in the Indian Rebellion in Illinois in 1832. Lincoln's political career dates back to 1835, when he was elected to the Illinois State Legislature. Before taking office as president in 1861, he was repeatedly elected to the House of Representatives of Congress.
Domestic policy of the 16th President of the United States
The main feature of President Lincoln's reign was the Civil War, which began a month after he took office. The reason for the war was the position of the Republican Party, which was the need to abolish slavery. This was opposed by 13 slave-holding southern states, which decided to take advantage of the opportunity to secede from the Union.
Lincoln envisioned his mission as President to strengthen the power of the state and abolish the slave-based economic system. A priori, such a position should have had many opponents. The war went on with varying degrees of success. Of course, the army of the North had much more resources to end the fighting quickly, but the intensification of events could lead to huge casualties.
In 1862-1863, several fateful acts were adopted:
- introduction of a tax on large property;
- An Act for the Confiscation of the Property of Confederates Taking Part in the War;
- release act paper money, which cannot be exchanged for gold;
- Homestead Law. The essence of the act was that every American could receive a plot of 65 hectares of land in the Western United States for the development of farming. After 5 years of use, the land became the property of the user;
- act of abolition of slavery. Slaves received free man status absolutely free of charge. These were Lincoln's main actions in domestic politics.
Foreign policy of the President
In this aspect, two stages can be distinguished: before the abolition of slavery and after it. At first, England came out in support of the South, threatening to intervene. A few weeks later, England, France, Spain and Holland adopted declarations of neutrality. These documents recognized the Confederacy as a belligerent party.
Lincoln was constantly supported in his actions by Russia. The policy of black emancipation was an important lever in Lincoln's foreign policy. Such a democratic measure, together with the lifting of the blockade of southern ports, received support in wide public circles in France and England. It is important to note that in war conditions, US foreign policy could not be unrelated to the internal situation in the state.
- Lincoln was assassinated at the theater on April 14, 1865;
- Three of the President's four children did not live to be 20 years old;
- He became the first US President who did not graduate from high school.