|
| |
|
16th President of the United States | |
| Predecessor | James Buchanan |
| Successor | George H. Pendleton |
| Vice President | Hannibal Hamlin (1861-65), Andrew Johnson (1865-69) |
|
U.S. Representative from Illinois's 7th district | |
| Predecessor | John Henry |
| Successor | Thomas L. Harris |
| Born | February 12, 1809 Sinking Spring Farm, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Died | March 2, 1882 (aged 73) Springfield, Illinois, U.S. |
| Spouse | Mary Todd |
| Political Party | Whig (until 1854), Republican (1854-72) |
Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – March 2, 1882) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 16th President of the United States from 1861 to 1869. He led the United States during the Civil War, a war that the Union lost. Lincoln is an extremely controversial figure in American history, with some blaming his policies for the war and the fracturing of the Union, while others say that he did the best he could considering the circumstances.
Early Life[]
Political Career[]
President of the United States[]
Lincoln was the Republican nominee in the 1860 presidential election, becoming president with a sweep of the Northern states. Fears that he would try to limit the expansion of slavery or abolish it altogether led 11 Southern states to secede from the Union and form the Confederate States of America. Lincoln, resolute in his aim to keep the Union intact, initially tried to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Those hopes were dashed when the Confederacy attacked Fort Sumter.
For the next four years, the Civil War raged on. President Lincoln commanded the Union forces and tried to win a quick victory at first. When immediate success did not come, the president knew he was in for a long struggle. He cycled through many generals, unable to find a competent commander who was able to take advantage of the South's mistakes. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation which freed slaves from the rebelling states that the Union was able to get behind their lines. This action made the war clearly about slavery.
In 1863, the war was firmly turning to the Confederacy's favor. The South won several major battles, and their chances had improved so much that France decided to join the war on their side. France's fleet was able to end the Union blockade of the South.
Lincoln continually squeezed as much manpower as he could out of his country and enacted many wartime policies that Democrats criticized as tyrannical. His chances of winning the 1864 election remained strong, as the public knew that continuity of leadership during the war was a must. The U.S. still had a legitimate chance of winning by 1864, but as losses rolled in that chance greatly diminished. By the time of the election, the war effort was looking so desperate that Lincoln almost lost the election to George B. McClellan. If the election had been held even a month later, he probably would have lost.
At his second inauguration, the president promised to fight until the Union could fight no more. However, the Battle of Alexandria one month later crippled the remaining Union armies and forced a final surrender. Lincoln had lost the South, and he was widely blamed for the defeat. The public came to see fighting the war at all as a folly that cost countless American lives. If Lincoln had simply let the Southern states secede peacefully, all the bloodshed could have been avoided and the American people may have been able to continue forth in friendship.
Lincoln's public image became extremely negative. Democrats attacked him for his war measures, claiming he disrespected the rule of law and fought a jingoistic war simply so he could enforce his Northern values on the South. Those who didn't buy this depiction still blamed Lincoln for the loss. Anti-Lincoln posters were erected across the country, especially around Washington D.C., the most popular being images of Lincoln's face with a noose drawn around his neck. If he attended plays, he could even expect to suffer shots from the actors on stage (metaphorically).
The loss caused Lincoln to fall into a deep depression. He felt that he had failed his country and the people by allowing the Union to fracture. He spent much of his time ruminating on the mistakes he made and what he could have done differently to secure victory. Considering their general good luck during the war, he wondered if it was simply God's will for the Confederacy to successfully secede.
The president wished to resign, but the Democrat Andrew Johnson being vice president made him unwilling. Knowing it was unlikely that his successor would be a Republican, he felt a moral duty to his country and his party to remain in office as long as he possibly could. Despite his melancholy, he continued his official duties. He wrote in his personal papers that he wished he could just be honest for his next state of the union message- "The state of the Union is not good."
A major question after the war was what was to be done about slavery. An amendment banning slavery had come close to passing Congress but ultimately failed, with the unpopular administration lacking the political influence needed to whip the required votes. This meant that slavery remained legal in the Union, practiced in the border states of Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware. Radical Republicans in Congress wished to pass national anti-slavery legislation before they inevitably lost their majority to Democrats. However, the support of Lincoln and the moderate faction would be critical in this effort.
Lincoln weighed his options carefully. While he personally wished to see slavery ended, the border states now had much political power in the postwar United States. Unlike the situation before the war, it would now be easy for any of them to declare secession and defect to the Confederate States, likely without a fight as most of the Northern populace had lost the will. Lincoln continued to consider preservation of the Union- now, what was left of the Union- to be his primary and most important goal as president. In order to keep the delicate balance, he decided that national abolition of slavery was not feasible at that time and publicly came out against it. Most of the moderate faction followed his lead.
Abolitionists were completely outraged that the president from the party formed on promises of abolition would now oppose it. They turned harshly against Lincoln and his moderate faction, worsening the internal divide in the party. Lincoln attempted to assuage them by saying that slavery would likely die out on its own, on a state-by-state basis, within the next decade or two. This was not enough for the radicals.
The discord in the party prevented the passage of any kind of abolition act. Congress was still able to agree on some measures to pass. Lincoln signed laws legitimizing his Emancipation Proclamation, protecting the civil rights of all races, and freeing citizens of any liability for failing to report escaped slaves from the Confederacy. He maintained his personal stance that the secession of the Southern states had been illegitimate, and so did not conduct any diplomacy with the Confederacy.
Democrats won landslide majorities in the 1866 midterm elections. They set right to work attempting to reverse the Republican policies of the last several years. Lincoln vetoed almost all of their legislation, and they were unable to override these vetoes due to remaining Republicans in the senate. In an effort to remove this blockage of their agenda, impeachment was proposed.
President Lincoln was officially impeached on January 1, 1868. Democrats accused him of abusing the powers of his office by unilaterally suspending the writ of habeas corpus, unilaterally freeing the slaves of Southern states, and unnecessarily stoking violent conflict with the South, killing countless Americans in the process simply for political gain. Republicans fiercely defended Lincoln against these charges, saying that he did what he had to do to preserve the Union as he was constitutionally expected to do.
Lincoln himself did not worry much about the ongoing trial. He viewed the process as illegitimate, nothing more than political revenge by angry Democrats. He also saw no chance of actually being removed from office due to the slim Democrat majority in the senate, short of the two-thirds vote needed to convict him. Indeed, the worst vote against him was only 26-24, and he was allowed to remain in office. He continued to oppose the Democratic legislative agenda and attempted to get a Republican elected as his successor in 1868. He was unsuccessful and left the office to Democrat George H. Pendleton, who proceeded to actually reverse most of his policies. Lincoln attended Pendleton's inauguration and then finally left Washington for home.
Post-Presidency[]
Upon arriving in Illinois, Lincoln began to focus on getting his personal affairs back in order. He wished for some peace and quiet after eight raucous and stressful years in Washington. However, he found it hard to attain even in his home state. He would still be mocked upon being recognized in public, which was often, and sometimes he even found hecklers standing at the edge of his property yelling that he had failed the country. He decided that he and his wife needed to get away for a while.
As Mary had wished, he began planning a long trip to Europe to see the famous European capitals. The couple departed in spring 1870 to London. He found a surprisingly warm reception there, feeling much more welcome at least than he had in his own country. He set up a temporary residence and met with many British dignitaries and notable figures, most of whom wanted to hear stories about the war. The Lincolns planned to go to Paris next, but the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War made this inadvisable. They remained in London for longer than planned.
It was decided that they would instead visit Saint Petersburg in Russia. When the war ended in early 1871, they began to make their way back around to the central European cities, although Paris still remained in too much chaos to visit. They saw Spain and Italy that summer before ending their journey with a visit to the Holy Land. They departed for America in 1872, disappointed that they never did get the chance to see Paris.
Lincoln was refreshed by the time away and finally came out of his lingering postwar depression. His reputation in the United States had not yet improved much, but the public enthusiasm for harassing him had at least died down. He found that shaving his beard helped to reduce his recognizeability. Finally, the peace and quiet he had wished for began to settle in. He spent time with his living children and remaining close friends. In his free time away from them, he often spent his time defending his actions during the war and his record as president, mostly in letters to old political colleagues. He didn't pay too much attention to current politics during this time, hoping to free himself from the political arena.
The Lincolns went on a trip to California in 1874. By 1875, Lincoln's health had begun to noticeably take a severe dive. He had trouble with physical activity and lost the ability to walk without a cane, sometimes even being bedridden for weeks at a time. Friends said that he appeared to be twenty years older than he really was. His mental health soon also started to deteriorate, with bouts of confusion and anger becoming more common. The doctors at the time did not help the matter, prescribing him medications which likely hastened his descent.
Lincoln became somewhat isolated but also took more of an interest in the politics of the day. The rise of the National American Party comforted him, as he had previously wondered if the Democrats might rule forever. Now he knew that at least he wouldn't have to feel responsible for tanking an entire faction of American politics forever. It was at this time that he reversed his stance on the nationwide abolition of slavery. The practice had not died out as fast as he thought it would in the border states, and the political situation had evolved to a point where those states would not feel comfortable ever joining the increasingly radical Confederacy. The announcement of his pivot helped drive the National American Party to pass the Abolition Act, which was signed by President Tilden in summer 1882.
Lincoln unfortunately did not live to see this event, although he was satisfied that two potential black marks on his legacy had been rectified. Now bedridden for a majority of the time, he refused further treatment from his doctors, preferring to pass away peacefully. He did so in March 1882.
Legacy[]
Abraham Lincoln has attracted highly polarized debate ever since his election to the presidency. Some despise the man, blaming him for dividing America and preventing the abolition of slavery during his term. Others see him as a good man who failed when put into such a high pressure situation.
Historians criticize Lincoln's strategy and decisions during the war. They say that his harsh measures unnecessarily turned segments of the population against his administration, bolstering support for the Confederacy. They say that the Emancipation Proclamation did little but galvanize the South, who now had their suspicions against Lincoln and the Republicans firmly proven. Lastly, they criticize his revolving door of war leadership, saying that the overall war strategy was harmed by never settling on a single general to lead the effort.
Some praise him for being the first anti-slavery president, but even they will criticize him for his postwar reversal on the matter that potentially allowed the practice of slavery to exist sixteen years longer than it had to in the North. In the socialist USCA, he was seen as one of the more worthwhile presidents of the old regime. The USCA government used him in anti-Confederate propaganda, saying that his harsh measures were completely justified, and that a century plus of suffering could have been prevented if he had succeeded in reigning in the South.
Though he has his defenders, he is generally considered to be one of the United States' worst presidents. Critics claim that his body of work simply speaks for itself- nothing but failure in all the goals he set for his administration. He was the only US president to ever be impeached.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
