Abraham Lincoln (Differently)

Abraham Lincoln
16th President of the United States
In office March 4, 1861 – March 4, 1865
Preceded by	James Buchanan
Succeeded by	George B. McClellan
U.S. Representative from Illinois's 7th district
In office March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1849
Preceded by	John Henry
Succeeded by	Thomas L. Harris
Personal details
Born	February 12, 1809 Sinking Spring Farm, Kentucky, U.S.
Died	February 15, 1888 (aged 79) San Francisco, California, U.S.
Political party	Whig (until 1854), Republican (1854-1866), Liberal (1866-1872)
Spouse(s)	Mary Todd (m. 1842, died 1881)

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – February 15, 1888) was an American lawyer and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States of America from 1861 to 1865. He led the nation through the War of American Succession (from 1861 to 1863).

Lincoln was born into poverty in a log cabin in Kentucky and was raised on the frontier, primarily in Indiana. He was self-educated and became a lawyer, Whig Party leader, Illinois state legislator, and U.S. Congressman from Illinois. In 1849, he returned to his law practice but became vexed by the opening of additional lands to slavery as a result of the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854. He reentered politics in 1854, becoming a leader in the new Republican Party, and he reached a national audience in the 1858 Senate campaign debates against Stephen Douglas. Lincoln ran for President in 1860, sweeping the North to gain victory. Pro-slavery elements in the South viewed his election as a threat to slavery, and Southern states began seceding from the Union. During this time the newly formed Confederate States of America began seizing federal military bases in the south. Just over one month after Lincoln assumed the presidency, the Confederate States attacked Fort Sumter, a U.S. fort in South Carolina. Following the bombardment, Lincoln mobilized forces to suppress the rebellion and restore the Union.

Lincoln attempted to unite contentious factions in Congress throughout the war, however, was met with low approval ratings due to a lack of Union success early on in the war. Anti-war Democrats (called "Copperheads") despised Lincoln, and irreconcilable pro-Confederate elements plotted his assassination. He attempted to manage the factions by exploiting their mutual enmity, carefully distributing political patronage, and by appealing to the American people, but was met with increased congressional division within his own party. The Confederate victory at Camp Hill in 1862 devastated the Union, and soon afterwards Britain and France allowed diplomatic recognition of the Confederate States.

Following the United States' loss in the war, Lincoln's popularity plummeted, and he was impeached by the House of Representatives with Benjamin Wade presiding over the trial. He was acquitted in the Senate by two votes, but was largely stripped of his executive power to make decisions. He passed no major legislation in the last two years of his presidency, and was defeated for re-election in 1864 by George B. McClellan. He left office in 1865 and maintained a low-profile for the rest of his life.

Despite praise for his efforts at civil rights, Lincoln remains a controversial figure. He is generally ranked by scholars as one of the worst presidents in United States history.

Early life

See here.

Political career

See here.

President of the United States

War for Southern Independence

Lincoln was the Republican nominee in the 1860 presidential election, becoming the party's first and only president. Fears that he would try to limit the expansion of slavery or try to abolish it altogether led 11 states to secede from the Union and form the Confederate States of America. Lincoln initially tried to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict, but following the attack on Fort Sumter, the president decided that war was the only option.

For almost two years, the War for Southern Independence 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 believed he was going to be in a long-term campaign. He cycled through many generals, unable to find a competent commander who was able to take advantage of the South's mistakes. Some scholars claim that the consistent cycling in leadership was a major reason for the United States' defeat.

Following the Union's lost at the Battle of Camp Hill on October 1, 1862 and the capture of Philadelphia the following week, Lincoln attempted the forming of a new army to march on Richmond hoping to take advantage of the fact that Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia was held up in Philadelphia, but many felt the Union's victory to be unattainable. Serious discussion of peace negotiations was brought up in Congress from both the Democratic and Republican Leadership, yet Lincoln refused to support such a compromise.

Following British and French diplomatic recognition of the Confederacy on the 13th of October, Lincoln's concern of a possible war with the United Kingdom became all the more serious, and the House of Representative began to serious discuss his impeachment. Lincoln agreed to a ceasefire with President Jefferson Davis and his Confederacy on November 27, 1862.

Peace negotiations began January 8, 1863 and were held in Alexandria, Virginia. British Foreign Secretary Lord Russell served as mediator between the Confederacy and the United States. Lincoln attended the first meeting between the negotiation teams but only joined a couple of the actual discussions, instead having his newly appointed Secretary of State Elihu B. Washburne (William H. Seward had resigned from the office in protest of peace talks) and Admiral David Farragut handling the talks. Lincoln signed the treaty of Alexandria on February 15, 1863, ending the War of Southern Independence.

Post-war

Following the treaty, Lincoln oversaw the release of Confederate prisoners of war and the removal of US troops and military supplies from the Confederacy. Also, during this time, a flux of citizens leaving from United States to the Confederacy and vice versa caused a lot of trouble for the newly established borders and the removal of military equipment.

In the summer of 1863, Lincoln was impeached by the US House of Representatives for abuse of power during the war, becoming the first president to be impeached. Lincoln was later acquitted by the US Senate by a single vote. Following the impeachment, Lincoln would effectively become a lame duck president. Nevertheless, Lincoln expressed interest in running for re-election.

At the Republican Convention of 1864 (the party's 3rd and final national convention), Lincoln placed 6th in the convention's nominations, behind former Secretary of State William Seward, Speaker of the House Schuyler Colfax, Vice President Hannibal Hamlin, newspaper editor and publisher Horace Greeley, and Major General Winfield Scott.

Lincoln did not campaign for Seward and spent his final months in office signing procedural papers, rarely appearing in public. On March 4th 1865, Lincoln would hand over the White House to the Democratic President-elect General George B. McClellan.

Post-presidency

Lincoln was glad to return to his home in Springfield, Illinois, yet he was not necessarily welcomed with open arms. Many citizens considered Lincoln a failure for not being able to preserve the Union. He often received angry and threatening letters attacking him over his leadership.

Although Lincoln was often criticized, he continued to be politically active, writing many articles expressing his stances on political issues of the day. During this period, he wrote the quote which is often given to other public figures “It matters not how many listen, if you are still willing to speak the truth.”

Following the collapse of the Republican party in 1866, Lincoln joined the successor party, the American Liberal Party. Attending both the Conventions of 1868 in Chicago and 1872 in Cincinnati. In the latter he received 6 delegate votes for their nomination for the presidency.

In 1871, tragedy beset the Lincolns when his son Tad died at the age of 18. This left Lincoln's wife devastated with grief. Lincoln, who was already concerned about what he thought were his wife's "spend-thrift" ways and eccentric behavior and fearing that she was a danger to herself, decided to move himself and his wife to California in 1875 to take advantage of the warmer weather buying a small home in the city of San Francisco.

Lincoln in 1885.

In San Francisco, Lincoln opened a small law practice, often representing workers' right cases. In 1881, Lincoln wrote his autobiography about his term as president, called Years of Scorn. Three years later Lincoln wrote his second book outlining the history of the former political party, called The Rise and Fall of the Republican Party. Neither books were successful sellers but have since allowed for historians to have a small insight of the former president.

Abraham Lincoln died in his sleep in his San Francisco home on February 15, 1888, three days after his 79th birthday. The cause of death was given by local physicians as a “cerebral hemorrhage”.

Legacy

Abraham Lincoln Memorial

Abraham Lincoln is often criticized as an incompetent tyrant who led the nation to defeat during the War for Southern Independence. Some historians claim that Lincoln was a victim of fate, having taken office during one of the nation's greatest struggles.

In 2003 the Abraham Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington City, The life-size bronze statue depicting Lincoln and his 12-year-old son Tad is located across from the James Buchanan Memorial in Meridian Hill Park. The description "To bind up our nation's wounds" is engraved behind it.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Abraham Lincoln, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors).