Abraham Lincoln (Overview)

• 16^th President of the United States
  • In office: March 4, 1861 – April 15, 1865
    • Vice President Hannibal Hamlin (1861 – 1865) Andrew Johnson (1865)
• Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 7th district
  • In office: March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1849
• Born: February 12, 1809 (1809-02-12) Hardin County, Kentucky
• Died: April 15, 1865 (aged 56) Washington, D.C.
• Political party: Whig (1832-1854), Republican (1854-1864), National Union (1864-1865) Spouse: Mary Todd Lincoln
• Children: Robert Todd Lincoln, Edward Lincoln, Willie Lincoln, Tad Lincoln
• Occupation: Lawyer
• Religion: attended churches, but never officially acquired membership in a church.

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the sixteenth President of the United States, serving from March 4, 1861 until his assassination. As an outspoken opponent of the expansion of slavery in the United States, [1][2] Lincoln won the Republican Party nomination in 1860 and was elected president later that year. 

During his term, he helped preserve the United States by leading the defeat of the secessionist Confederate States of America in the American Civil War. He introduced measures that resulted in the abolition of slavery, issuing his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and promoting the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1865.

Lincoln closely supervised the victorious war effort, especially the selection of top generals, including Ulysses S. Grant. Historians have concluded that he handled the factions of the Republican Party well, bringing leaders of each faction into his cabinet and forcing them to cooperate. 

Lincoln successfully defused a war scare with the United Kingdom in 1861. Under his leadership, the Union took control of the border slave states at the start of the war. Additionally, he managed his own reelection in the 1864 presidential election.

Opponents of the war (also known as "Copperheads") criticized him for refusing to compromise on the slavery issue. Conversely, the Radical Republicans, an abolitionist faction of the Republican Party, criticized him for moving too slowly in abolishing slavery. Even with these problems, Lincoln successfully rallied public opinion through his rhetoric and speeches; his Gettysburg Address is but one example of this. 

At the close of the war, Lincoln held a moderate view of Reconstruction, seeking to speedily reunite the nation through a policy of generous reconciliation. His assassination in 1865 was the first presidential assassination in U.S. history and made him a martyr for the ideal of national unity.

Scholars now rank Lincoln among the top three U.S. Presidents, with the majority of those surveyed placing him first. He is noted for his lasting influence on U.S. politics, including a redefinition of republicanism. [3]

Contents

• Overview
• Lincoln 1809 to 1854
  • Early Life
  • Early political career
  • Family
  • Legislative activity
  • Prairie lawyer
• Republican Politics 1854–1860
• Election of 1860
• Civil War
  • Secession winter 1860–1861
  • Fighting begins: 1861–1862
  • Emancipation Proclamation
  • 1864 election and second inauguration
  • Conducting the war effort
  • Reconstruction
• Home front
  • Redefining Republicanism
  • Civil liberties suspended
  • Domestic measures
• Assassination
• Presidential Appointments and Acts
  • Administration and cabinet
  • Supreme Court
  • Major presidential acts
    • Signed as President
    • States admitted to the Union
• Religious and Philosophical Beliefs
• Legacy and memorials
• Bibliography
  • Biographies
  • Specialty topics

Notes

[1.] ^ "[I]n his short autobiography written for the 1860 presidential campaign, Lincoln would describe his protest in the Illinois legislature as one that 'briefly defined his position on the slavery question, and so far as it goes, it was then the same that it is now." This was in reference to the anti-expansion sentiments he had then expressed. Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (2005) p. 91.

[2.] ^ Holzer pg. 232. Writing of the Cooper Union speech, Holzer notes, "Cooper Union proved a unique confluence of political culture, rhetorical opportunity, technological innovation, and human genius, and it brought Abraham Lincoln to the center stage of American politics at precisely the right time and place, and with precisely the right message: that slavery was wrong, and ought to be confined to the areas where it already existed, and placed on the 'course of ultimate extinction... .'"

[3.] ^ As Diggins explains, "Lincoln presented Americans a theory of history that offers a profound contribution to the theory and destiny of republicanism itself." John Patrick Diggins, The Lost Soul of American Politics: Virtue, Self-interest, and the Foundations of Liberalism (1986) p. 307. Foner (1970) p. 215 noted that, "Lincoln stressed the moral basis of Republicanism." Jaffa (2000) p. 399, stresses Lincoln's emphasis on the Declaration of Independence as what Lincoln called the "sheet anchor" of republicanism. See also McPherson (1992) pp.61-64.