Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln(/’lɪŋkənLINK-ən; February 12, 1809– April 15, 1865) was an

American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of
the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the
United States through the American Civil War, defending the nation as a
constitutional union, defeating the insurgent Confederacy,abolishing slavery,
expanding the power of the federal government, and modernizing the U.S.
economy.
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 successful law practice in Springfield, Illinois. In
1854, he was angered by the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which opened the territories
to slavery, causing him to re-enter politics. He soon became a leader of the
new Republican Party. He reached a national audience in the 1858 Senate
campaign debates against Stephen A. 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 nation. During this time, the newly formed Confederate States of America
began seizing federal military bases in the South. A little over one month
after Lincoln assumed the presidency, Confederate forces 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, a moderate Republican, had to navigate a contentious array of factions
with friends and opponents from both the Democratic and Republican parties. His
allies, the War Democrats and the Radical Republicans, demanded harsh treatment
of the Southern Confederates. He managed the factions by exploiting their
mutual enmity, carefully distributing political patronage, and by appealing to
the American people. Anti-war Democrats (called "Copperheads") despised
Lincoln, and some irreconcilable pro-Confederate elements went so far as to
plot his assassination. His Gettysburg Address came to be seen as one of the
greatest and most influential statements of American national purpose. Lincoln
closely supervised the strategy and tactics in the war effort, including the
selection of generals, and implemented a naval blockade of the South's trade.
He suspended habeas corpus in Maryland and elsewhere, and averted British
intervention by defusing the Trent Affair. In 1863, he issued the Emancipation
Proclamation, which declared the slaves in the states "in rebellion" to be
free. It also directed the Army and Navy to "recognize and maintain the freedom
of such persons", and to receive them "into the armed service of the United
States." Lincoln pressured border states to outlaw slavery, and he promoted the
Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery, except
as punishment for a crime.
Lincoln managed his own successful re-election campaign. He sought to heal the
war-torn nation through reconciliation. On April 14, 1865, just five days after
the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, he was attending a play at Ford's
Theatre in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Mary, when he was fatally shot by
Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln is remembered as a martyr
and a national hero for his wartime leadership and for his efforts to preserve
the Union and abolish slavery. Lincoln is often ranked in both popular and
scholarly polls as the greatest president in American history.
Family and childhood

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, the second child of Thomas
Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, in a log cabin on Sinking Spring Farm near
Hodgenville, Kentucky. He was a descendant of Samuel Lincoln, an Englishman who
migrated from Hingham, Norfolk, to its namesake, Hingham, Massachusetts, in
1638. The family then migrated west, passing through New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
and Virginia. Lincoln was also a descendant of the Harrison family of Virginia;
his paternal grandfather and namesake, Captain Abraham Lincoln and wife
Bathsheba (née Herring) moved the family from Virginia to Jefferson County,
Kentucky. The captain was killed in an Indian raid in 1786. His children,
including eight-year-old Thomas, Abraham's father, witnessed the attack. Thomas
then worked at odd jobs in Kentucky and Tennessee before the family settled in
Hardin County, Kentucky, in the early 1800s.
Lincoln's mother Nancy Lincoln is widely assumed to be the daughter of Lucy
Hanks. Thomas and Nancy married on June 12, 1806, in Washington County, and
moved to Elizabethtown, Kentucky. They had three children: Sarah, Abraham, and
Thomas, who died as an infant.
Thomas Lincoln bought or leased farms in Kentucky before losing all but 200
acres (81ha) of his land in court disputes over property titles. In 1816, the
family moved to Indiana where the land surveys and titles were more reliable.
Indiana was a "free" (non-slaveholding) territory, and they settled in an
"unbroken forest" in Hurricane Township, Perry County, Indiana. In 1860,
Lincoln noted that the family's move to Indiana was "partly on account of
slavery", but mainly due to land title difficulties.[16]
In Kentucky and Indiana, Thomas worked as a farmer, cabinetmaker, and
carpenter. At various times, he owned farms, livestock, and town lots, paid
taxes, sat on juries, appraised estates, and served on county patrols. Thomas
and Nancy were members of a Separate Baptists church, which forbade alcohol,
dancing, and slavery.
Overcoming financial challenges, Thomas in 1827 obtained clear title to 80
acres in Indiana, an area which became the Little Pigeon Creek Community.

Mother's death
On October 5, 1818, Nancy Lincoln died from milk sickness, leaving 11-year-old
Sarah in charge of a household including her father, 9-year-old Abraham, and
Nancy's 19-year-old orphan cousin, Dennis Hanks. Ten years later, on January
20, 1828, Sarah died while giving birth to a stillborn son, devastating
Lincoln.
On December 2, 1819, Thomas married Sarah Bush Johnston, a widow from
Elizabethtown, Kentucky, with three children of her own. Abraham became close
to his stepmother and called her "Mother". Lincoln disliked the hard labor
associated with farm life. His family even said he was lazy, for all his
"reading, scribbling, writing, ciphering, writing Poetry, etc.". His stepmother
acknowledged he did not enjoy "physical labor", but loved to read.
Education and move to Illinois
Lincoln was largely self-educated. His formal schooling was from itinerant
teachers. It included two short stints in Kentucky, where he learned to read
but probably not to write, at age seven, and in Indiana, where he went to
school sporadically due to farm chores, for a total of fewer than 12 months in
aggregate by the age of 15. He persisted as an avid reader and retained a
lifelong interest in learning. Family, neighbors, and schoolmates recalled that
his reading included the King James Bible, Aesop's Fables, John Bunyan's The
Pilgrim's Progress, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, and The Autobiography of
Benjamin Franklin. Despite being self-educated, Lincoln was the recipient of
honorary degrees later in life, including an honorary Doctor of Laws from
Columbia University in June 1861.
As a teen, Lincoln took responsibility for chores and customarily gave his
father all earnings from work outside the home until he was 21. Lincoln was
tall, strong, and athletic, and became adept at using an ax. He was an active
wrestler during his youth and trained in the rough catch-as-catch-can style
(also known as catch wrestling). He became county wrestling champion at the age
of 21. He gained a reputation for strength and audacity after winning a
wrestling match with the renowned leader of ruffians known as "the Clary's
Grove Boys". In March 1830, fearing another milk sickness outbreak, several
members of the extended Lincoln family, including Abraham, moved west to
Illinois, a free state, and settled in Macon County. Abraham then became
increasingly distant from Thomas, in part due to his father's lack of
education. In 1831, as Thomas and other family members prepared to move to a
new homestead in Coles County, Illinois, Abraham struck out on his own. He made
his home in New Salem, Illinois, for six years. Lincoln and some friends took
goods, including live hogs, by flatboat to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he
first witnessed slavery.

Marriage and children

Speculation persists that Lincoln's first romantic interest was Ann Rutledge,
whom he met when he moved to New Salem. Witness testimony, given decades
afterward, showed a lack of any specific recollection of a romance between the
two.[42] Rutledge died on August 25, 1835, most likely of typhoid fever; saying
that he could not bear the idea of rain falling on Ann's grave, Lincoln sunk
into a serious episode of depression, and this gave rise to speculation that he
had been in love with her.[43][44][45]
In the early 1830s, he met Mary Owens from Kentucky.[46] Late in 1836, Lincoln
agreed to a match with Owens if she returned to New Salem. Owens arrived that
November and he courted her for a time; however, they both had second thoughts.
On August 16, 1837, he wrote Owens a letter saying he would not blame her if
she ended the relationship, and she never replied.[47]
In 1839, Lincoln met Mary Todd in Springfield, Illinois, and the following year
they became engaged.[48] She was the daughter of Robert Smith Todd, a wealthy
lawyer and businessman in Lexington, Kentucky.[49] A wedding set for January 1,
1841, was canceled at Lincoln's request, but they reconciled and married on
November 4, 1842, in the Springfield mansion of Mary's sister.[50] While
anxiously preparing for the nuptials, he was asked where he was going and
replied, "To hell, I suppose."[51] In 1844, the couple bought a house in
Springfield near his law office. Mary kept house with the help of a hired
servant and a relative.[52]
Lincoln was an affectionate husband and father of four sons, though his work
regularly kept him away from home. The oldest, Robert Todd Lincoln, was born in
1843 and was the only child to live to maturity. Edward Baker Lincoln (Eddie),
born in 1846, died February 1, 1850, probably of tuberculosis. Lincoln's third
son, "Willie" Lincoln was born on December 21, 1850, and died of a fever at
the White House on February 20, 1862. The youngest, Thomas "Tad" Lincoln, was
born on April 4, 1853, and survived his father but died of heart failure at age
18 on July 16, 1871.[53][f] Lincoln "was remarkably fond of children"[55] and the
Lincolns were not considered to be strict with their own.[56] In fact, Lincoln's
law partner William H. Herndon would grow irritated when Lincoln brought his
children to the law office. Their father, it seemed, was often too absorbed in
his work to notice his children's behavior. Herndon recounted, "I have felt
many and many a time that I wanted to wring their little necks, and yet out of
respect for Lincoln I kept my mouth shut. Lincoln did not note what his
children were doing or had done."[57]
The deaths of their sons, Eddie and Willie, had profound effects on both
parents. Lincoln suffered from "melancholy", a condition now thought to
be clinical depression.[44] Later in life, Mary struggled with the stresses of
losing her husband and sons, and in 1875 Robert committed her to an asylum.[58]

Early career and militia service

During 1831 and 1832, Lincoln worked at a general store in New Salem, Illinois.
In 1832, he declared his candidacy for the Illinois House of Representatives,
but interrupted his campaign to serve as a captain in the Illinois
Militia during the Black Hawk War.[59] When Lincoln returned home from the Black
Hawk War, he planned to become a blacksmith, but instead formed a partnership
with 21-year-old William Berry, with whom he purchased a New Salem general
store on credit. Because a license was required to sell customers single
beverages, Berry obtained bartending licenses for $7 each for Lincoln and
himself, and in 1833 the Lincoln-Berry General Store became a tavern as well.
As licensed bartenders, Lincoln and Berry were able to sell spirits, including
liquor, for 12 cents a pint. They offered a wide range of alcoholic beverages
as well as food, including takeout dinners. But Berry became an alcoholic, was
often too drunk to work, and Lincoln ended up running the store by himself.
[60] Although the economy was booming, the business struggled and went into
debt, causing Lincoln to sell his share.
In his first campaign speech after returning from his military service, Lincoln
observed a supporter in the crowd under attack, grabbed the assailant by his
"neck and the seat of his trousers", and tossed him.[36] In the campaign,
Lincoln advocated for navigational improvements on the Sangamon River. He could
draw crowds as a raconteur, but lacked the requisite formal education, powerful
friends, and money, and lost the election.[61] Lincoln finished eighth out of 13
candidates (the top four were elected), though he received 277 of the 300 votes
cast in the New Salem precinct.[62]
Lincoln served as New Salem's postmaster and later as county surveyor, but
continued his voracious reading and decided to become a lawyer.[63] Rather than
studying in the office of an established attorney, as was the custom, Lincoln
borrowed legal texts from attorneys John Todd Stuart and Thomas Drummond,
purchased books including Blackstone's Commentaries and Chitty's Pleadings,
and read law on his own.[63] He later said of his legal education that "I
studied with nobody."[64]
Illinois state legislature (1834–1842)

Lincoln's second state house campaign in 1834, this time as a Whig, was a
success over a powerful Whig opponent.[65] Then followed his four terms in
the Illinois House of Representatives for Sangamon County.[66] He championed
construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and later was a Canal
Commissioner.[67] He voted to expand suffrage beyond white landowners to all
white males, but adopted a "free soil" stance opposing both slavery
and abolition.[68] In 1837, he declared, "[The] Institution of slavery is
founded on both injustice and bad policy, but the promulgation of abolition
doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its evils."[69] He echoed Henry
Clay's support for the American Colonization Society which advocated a program
of abolition in conjunction with settling freed slaves in Liberia.[70]
He was admitted to the Illinois bar on September 9, 1836,[71][72] and moved to
Springfield and began to practice law under John T. Stuart, Mary Todd's cousin.
[73] Lincoln emerged as a formidable trial combatant during cross-examinations
and closing arguments. He partnered several years with Stephen T. Logan, and in
1844 began his practice with William Herndon, "a studious young man".[74]
On January 27, 1838, Abraham Lincoln, then twenty-eight years old, delivered
his first major speech at the Lyceum in Springfield, Illinois, after the murder
of newspaper editor Elijah Parish Lovejoy in Alton. Lincoln warned that no
trans-Atlantic military giant could ever crush us as a nation. "It cannot come
from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and
finisher", said Lincoln.[75][76] Prior to that, on April 28, 1836, an innocent
black man, Francis McIntosh, was burned alive in St. Louis, Missouri. Zann Gill
describes how these two murders set off a chain reaction that ultimately
prompted Abraham Lincoln to run for President.[77]
Republican politics (1854–1860)

Emergence as Republican leader

The debate over the status of slavery in the territories failed to alleviate
tensions between the slave-holding South and the free North, with the failure
of the Compromise of 1850, a legislative package designed to address the issue.
[106] In his 1852 eulogy for Clay, Lincoln highlighted the latter's support for
gradual emancipation and opposition to "both extremes" on the slavery issue.
[107] As the slavery debate in the Nebraska and Kansas territories became
particularly acrimonious, Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas proposed popular
sovereignty as a compromise; the measure would allow the electorate of each
territory to decide the status of slavery. The legislation alarmed many
Northerners, who sought to prevent the spread of slavery that could result, but
Douglas's Kansas–Nebraska Act narrowly passed Congress in May 1854.[108]
Lincoln did not comment on the act until months later in his "Peoria Speech" of
October 1854. Lincoln then declared his opposition to slavery, which he
repeated en route to the presidency.[109] He said the Kansas Act had a
"declared indifference, but as I must think, a covert real zeal for the spread
of slavery. I cannot but hate it. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice
of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its
just influence in the world...."[110] Lincoln's attacks on the Kansas–Nebraska
Act marked his return to political life.[111]
Nationally, the Whigs were irreparably split by the Kansas–Nebraska Act and
other efforts to compromise on the slavery issue. Reflecting on the demise of
his party, Lincoln wrote in 1855, "I think I am a Whig, but others say there
are no Whigs, and that I am an abolitionist. ... I do no more than oppose
the extension of slavery."[112] The new Republican Party was formed as a
northern party dedicated to antislavery, drawing from the antislavery wing of
the Whig Party and combining Free Soil, Liberty, and antislavery Democratic
Party members,[113] Lincoln resisted early Republican entreaties, fearing that
the new party would become a platform for extreme abolitionists.[114] Lincoln
held out hope for rejuvenating the Whigs, though he lamented his party's
growing closeness with the nativist Know Nothing movement.[115]
In 1854, Lincoln was elected to the Illinois legislature but declined to take
his seat. The year's elections showed the strong opposition to the Kansas–
Nebraska Act, and in the aftermath, Lincoln sought election to the United
States Senate.[111] At that time, senators were elected by the state
legislature.[116] After leading in the first six rounds of voting, he was unable
to obtain a majority. Lincoln instructed his backers to vote for Lyman
Trumbull. Trumbull was an antislavery Democrat, and had received few votes in
the earlier ballots; his supporters, also antislavery Democrats, had vowed not
to support any Whig. Lincoln's decision to withdraw enabled his Whig supporters
and Trumbull's antislavery Democrats to combine and defeat the mainstream
Democratic candidate, Joel Aldrich Matteson.[117]
1856 campaign
Violent political confrontations in Kansas continued, and opposition to the
Kansas–Nebraska Act remained strong throughout the North. As the 1856
elections approached, Lincoln joined the Republicans and attended
the Bloomington Convention, which formally established the Illinois Republican
Party. The convention platform endorsed Congress's right to regulate slavery in
the territories and backed the admission of Kansas as a free state. Lincoln
gave the final speech of the convention supporting the party platform and
called for the preservation of the Union.[118] At the June 1856 Republican
National Convention, though Lincoln received support to run as vice
president, John C. Frémont and William Dayton were on the ticket, which Lincoln
supported throughout Illinois. The Democrats nominated former Secretary of
State James Buchanan and the Know-Nothings nominated former Whig
President Millard Fillmore.[119] Buchanan prevailed, while Republican William
Henry Bissell won election as Governor of Illinois, and Lincoln became a
leading Republican in Illinois.[120][h]
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott was a slave whose master took him from a slave state to a territory
that was free as a result of the Missouri Compromise. After Scott was returned
to the slave state, he petitioned a federal court for his freedom. His petition
was denied in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857).[i] In his opinion, Supreme Court
Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote that black people were not citizens and
derived no rights from the Constitution, and that the Missouri Compromise was
unconstitutional for infringing upon slave owners' "property" rights. While
many Democrats hoped that Dred Scott would end the dispute over slavery in the
territories, the decision sparked further outrage in the North.[123] Lincoln
denounced it as the product of a conspiracy of Democrats to support the Slave
Power.[124] He argued the decision was at variance with the Declaration of
Independence; he said that while the founding fathers did not believe all men
equal in every respect, they believed all men were equal "in certain
inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness".[125]
Lincoln–Douglas debates and Cooper Union speech
Further information: Lincoln–Douglas debates and Cooper Union speech
In 1858, Douglas was up for re-election in the U.S. Senate, and Lincoln hoped
to defeat him. Many in the party felt that a former Whig should be nominated in
1858, and Lincoln's 1856 campaigning and support of Trumbull had earned him a
favor.[126] Some eastern Republicans supported Douglas for his opposition to
the Lecompton Constitution and admission of Kansas as a slave state.[127] Many
Illinois Republicans resented this eastern interference. For the first time,
Illinois Republicans held a convention to agree upon a Senate candidate, and
Lincoln won the nomination with little opposition.[128]
Lincoln accepted the nomination with great enthusiasm and zeal. After his
nomination he delivered his House Divided Speech, with the biblical
reference Mark 3:25, "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe
this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not
expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do
expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the
other."[129] The speech created a stark image of the danger of disunion.[130] The
stage was then set for the election of the Illinois legislature which would, in
turn, select Lincoln or Douglas.[131] When informed of Lincoln's nomination,
Douglas stated, "[Lincoln] is the strong man of the party ... and if I beat
him, my victory will be hardly won."[132]
The Senate campaign featured seven debates between Lincoln and Douglas. These
were the most famous political debates in American history; they had an
atmosphere akin to a prizefight and drew crowds in the thousands.[133] The
principals stood in stark contrast both physically and politically. Lincoln
warned that the Slave Power was threatening the values of republicanism, and he
accused Douglas of distorting the Founding Fathers' premise that all men are
created equal. In his Freeport Doctrine, Douglas argued that, despite the Dred
Scott decision, which he claimed to support,[134] local settlers, under the
doctrine of popular sovereignty, should be free to choose whether to allow
slavery within their territory, and he accused Lincoln of having joined the
abolitionists.[135] Lincoln's argument assumed a moral tone, as he claimed that
Douglas represented a conspiracy to promote slavery. Douglas's argument was
more legal in nature, claiming that Lincoln was defying the authority of the
U.S. Supreme Court as exercised in the Dred Scott decision.[136]
Though the Republican legislative candidates won more popular votes, the
Democrats won more seats, and the legislature re-elected Douglas. However,
Lincoln's articulation of the issues had given him a national political
presence.[137] In May 1859, Lincoln purchased the Illinois Staats-Anzeiger, a
German-language newspaper that was consistently supportive; most of the state's
130,000 German Americans voted for Democrats, but the German-language paper
mobilized Republican support.[138] In the aftermath of the 1858 election,
newspapers frequently mentioned Lincoln as a potential Republican presidential
candidate, rivaled by William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates,
and Simon Cameron. While Lincoln was popular in the Midwest, he lacked support
in the Northeast and was unsure whether to seek the office.[139] In January
1860, Lincoln told a group of political allies that he would accept the
presidential nomination if offered and, in the following months, several local
papers endorsed his candidacy.[140]
Over the coming months, Lincoln was tireless, making nearly fifty speeches
along the campaign trail. By the quality and simplicity of his rhetoric, he
quickly became the champion of the Republican party. However, despite his
overwhelming support in the Midwestern United States, he was less appreciated
in the east. Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, at that time wrote
up an unflattering account of Lincoln's compromising position on slavery and
his reluctance to challenge the court's Dred Scott ruling, which was promptly
used against him by his political rivals.[141][142]
On February 27, 1860, powerful New York Republicans invited Lincoln to give
a speech at Cooper Union, in which he argued that the Founding Fathers of the
United States had little use for popular sovereignty and had repeatedly sought
to restrict slavery. He insisted that morality required opposition to slavery
and rejected any "groping for some middle ground between the right and the
wrong".[143] Many in the audience thought he appeared awkward and even ugly.
[144] But Lincoln demonstrated intellectual leadership, which brought him into
contention. Journalist Noah Brooks reported, "No man ever before made such an
impression on his first appeal to a New York audience".[145]
Historian David Herbert Donald described the speech as "a superb political move
for an unannounced presidential aspirant. Appearing in Seward's home state,
sponsored by a group largely loyal to Chase, Lincoln shrewdly made no reference
to either of these Republican rivals for the nomination."[146] In response to an
inquiry about his ambitions, Lincoln said, "The taste is in my mouth a little".
[147]

1860 presidential election

In 1860, northern and western electoral votes

(shown in red) put Lincoln into the White
The Rail Candidate—Lincoln's 1860 House.
platform, portrayed as being held up by a
slave and his party

On May 9–10, 1860, the Illinois Republican State Convention was held in
Decatur.[148] Lincoln's followers organized a campaign team led by David
Davis, Norman Judd, Leonard Swett, and Jesse DuBois, and Lincoln received his
first endorsement.[149] Exploiting his embellished frontier legend (clearing
land and splitting fence rails), Lincoln's supporters adopted the label of "The
Rail Candidate".[150] In 1860, Lincoln described himself: "I am in height, six
feet, four inches, nearly; lean in flesh, weighing, on an average, one hundred
and eighty pounds; dark complexion, with coarse black hair, and gray
eyes."[151] Michael Martinez wrote about the effective imaging of Lincoln by his
campaign. At times he was presented as the plain-talking "Rail Splitter" and at
other times he was "Honest Abe", unpolished but trustworthy.[152]
On May 18, at the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Lincoln won the
nomination on the third ballot, beating candidates such as Seward and Chase. A
former Democrat, Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, was nominated for vice president
to balance the ticket. Lincoln's success depended on his campaign team, his
reputation as a moderate on the slavery issue, and his strong support for
internal improvements and the tariff.[153] Pennsylvania put him over the top,
led by the state's iron interests who were reassured by his tariff support.
[154] Lincoln's managers had focused on this delegation while honoring Lincoln's
dictate to "Make no contracts that will bind me".[155]
As the Slave Power tightened its grip on the national government, most
Republicans agreed with Lincoln that the North was the aggrieved party.
Throughout the 1850s, Lincoln had doubted the prospects of civil war, and his
supporters rejected claims that his election would incite secession.[156] When
Douglas was selected as the candidate of the Northern Democrats, delegates from
eleven slave states walked out of the Democratic convention; they opposed
Douglas's position on popular sovereignty, and selected incumbent Vice
President John C. Breckinridge as their candidate.[157] A group of former Whigs
and Know Nothings formed the Constitutional Union Party and nominated John
Bell of Tennessee. Lincoln and Douglas competed for votes in the North, while
Bell and Breckinridge primarily found support in the South.[126]
Prior to the Republican convention, the Lincoln campaign began cultivating a
nationwide youth organization, the Wide Awakes, which it used to generate
popular support throughout the country to spearhead voter registration drives,
thinking that new voters and young voters tended to embrace new parties.
[158] People of the Northern states knew the Southern states would vote against
Lincoln and rallied supporters for Lincoln.[159]
As Douglas and the other candidates campaigned, Lincoln gave no speeches,
relying on the enthusiasm of the Republican Party. The party did the leg work
that produced majorities across the North and produced an abundance of campaign
posters, leaflets, and newspaper editorials. Republican speakers focused first
on the party platform, and second on Lincoln's life story, emphasizing his
childhood poverty. The goal was to demonstrate the power of "free labor", which
allowed a common farm boy to work his way to the top by his own efforts.
[160] The Republican Party's production of campaign literature dwarfed the
combined opposition; a Chicago Tribune writer produced a pamphlet that detailed
Lincoln's life and sold 100,000–200,000 copies.[161] Though he did not give
public appearances, many sought to visit him and write him. In the runup to the
election, he took an office in the Illinois state capitol to deal with the
influx of attention. He also hired John George Nicolay as his personal
secretary, who would remain in that role during the presidency.[162]
On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected the 16th president. He was the first
Republican president and his victory was entirely due to his support in the
North and West. No ballots were cast for him in 10 of the 15 Southern slave
states, and he won only two of 996 counties in all the Southern states, an omen
of the impending Civil War.[163][164] Lincoln received 1,866,452 votes, or 39.8%
of the total in a four-way race, carrying the free Northern states, as well as
California and Oregon.[165] His victory in the Electoral College was decisive:
Lincoln had 180 votes to 123 for his opponents.[166]
Presidency (1861–1865)

Secession and inauguration

Lincoln's first inaugural at the United States New York Times headlines for Lincoln's first
Capitol, March 4, 1861. The Capitol inauguration portended imminent hostilities: less than
dome above the rotunda was still under six weeks later, the South attacked Fort Sumter,
launching the American Civil War.[167]
construction.

The South was outraged by Lincoln's election, and in response secessionists

implemented plans to leave the Union before he took office in March 1861.
[168] On December 20, 1860, South Carolina took the lead by adopting an
ordinance of secession; by February 1, 1861, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama,
Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed.[169] Six of these states declared
themselves to be a sovereign nation, the Confederate States of America, and
adopted a constitution.[170] The upper South and border states (Delaware,
Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and
Arkansas) initially rejected the secessionist appeal.[171] President Buchanan
and President-elect Lincoln refused to recognize the Confederacy, declaring
secession illegal.[172] The Confederacy selected Jefferson Davis as its
provisional president on February 9, 1861.[173]
Attempts at compromise followed but Lincoln and the Republicans rejected the
proposed Crittenden Compromise as contrary to the Party's platform of free-soil
in the territories.[174] Lincoln said, "I will suffer death before I consent ...
to any concession or compromise which looks like buying the privilege to take
possession of this government to which we have a constitutional right".[175]
Lincoln supported the Corwin Amendment to the Constitution, which passed
Congress and was awaiting ratification by the states when Lincoln took office.
That doomed amendment would have protected slavery in states where it already
existed.[176] On March 4, 1861, in his first inaugural address, Lincoln said
that, because he holds "such a provision to now be implied constitutional law,
I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable".[177] A few weeks
before the war, Lincoln sent a letter to every governor informing them Congress
had passed a joint resolution to amend the Constitution.[178]
On February 11, 1861, Lincoln gave a particularly emotional farewell
address upon leaving Springfield; he would never again return to Springfield
alive.[179][180] Lincoln traveled east in a special train. Due to secessionist
plots, a then-unprecedented attention to security was given to him and his
train. En route to his inauguration, Lincoln addressed crowds and legislatures
across the North.[181] The president-elect evaded suspected assassins in
Baltimore. On February 23, 1861, he arrived in disguise in Washington, D.C.,
which was placed under substantial military guard.[182] Lincoln directed his
inaugural address to the South, proclaiming once again that he had no
inclination to abolish slavery in the Southern states:
Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States,
that by the accession of a Republican Administration, their property,
and their peace, and personal security, are to be endangered. There
has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the
most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed, and
been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published
speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of
those speeches when I declare that "I have no purpose, directly or
indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States
where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have
no inclination to do so."

Lincoln cited his plans for banning the expansion of slavery as the key source
of conflict between North and South, stating "One section of our country
believes slavery is right and ought to be extended, while the other believes it
is wrong and ought not to be extended. This is the only substantial dispute."
The president ended his address with an appeal to the people of the South: "We
are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.... The mystic chords of
memory, stretching from every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living
heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of
the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of
our nature."[185] The failure of the Peace Conference of 1861 signaled that
legislative compromise was impossible. By March 1861, no leaders of the
insurrection had proposed rejoining the Union on any terms. Meanwhile, Lincoln
and the Republican leadership agreed that the dismantling of the Union could
not be tolerated.[186] In his second inaugural address, Lincoln looked back on
the situation at the time and said: "Both parties deprecated war, but one of
them would make war rather than let the Nation survive, and the other would
accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came."
Civil War

Major Robert Anderson, commander of the Union's Fort Sumter in Charleston,

South Carolina, sent a request for provisions to Washington, and Lincoln's
order to meet that request was seen by the secessionists as an act of war. On
April 12, 1861, Confederate forces fired on Union troops at Fort Sumter and
began the fight. Historian Allan Nevins argued that the newly inaugurated
Lincoln made three miscalculations: underestimating the gravity of the crisis,
exaggerating the strength of Unionist sentiment in the South, and
overlooking Southern Unionist opposition to an invasion.[187]
William Tecumseh Sherman talked to Lincoln during inauguration week and was
"sadly disappointed" at his failure to realize that "the country was sleeping
on a volcano" and that the South was preparing for war.[188] Donald concludes,
"His repeated efforts to avoid collision in the months between inauguration and
the firing on Ft. Sumter showed he adhered to his vow not to be the first to
shed fraternal blood. But he also vowed not to surrender the forts. The only
resolution of these contradictory positions was for the confederates to fire
the first shot; they did just that."[189]
On April 15, Lincoln called on the states to send a total of 75,000 volunteer
troops to recapture forts, protect Washington, and "preserve the Union", which,
in his view, remained intact despite the seceding states. This call forced
states to choose sides. Virginia seceded and was rewarded with the designation
of Richmond as the Confederate capital, despite its exposure to Union lines.
North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas followed over the following two months.
Secession sentiment was strong in Missouri and Maryland, but did not prevail;
Kentucky remained neutral.[190] The Fort Sumter attack rallied Americans north
of the Mason-Dixon line to defend the nation.
As states sent Union regiments south, on April 19, Baltimore mobs in control of
the rail links attacked Union troops who were changing trains. Local leaders'
groups later burned critical rail bridges to the capital and the Army responded
by arresting local Maryland officials. Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas
corpus in an effort to protect the troops trying to reach Washington.[191] John
Merryman, one Maryland official hindering the U.S. troop movements, petitioned
Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney to issue a writ of habeas corpus. In
June, in Ex parte Merryman, Taney, not ruling on behalf of the Supreme Court,
[192] issued the writ, believing that Article I, section 9 of the Constitution
authorized only Congress and not the president to suspend it. But Lincoln
persisted with the policy of suspension in select areas.[193][194]
Union military strategy
Lincoln took executive control of the war and shaped the Union military
strategy. He responded to the unprecedented political and military crisis
as commander-in-chief by exercising unprecedented authority. He expanded his
war powers, imposed a blockade on Confederate ports, disbursed funds before
appropriation by Congress, suspended habeas corpus, and arrested and imprisoned
thousands of suspected Confederate sympathizers. Lincoln gained the support of
Congress and the northern public for these actions. Lincoln also had to
reinforce Union sympathies in the border slave states and keep the war from
becoming an international conflict.[195]

It was clear from the outset that bipartisan support was essential to success,
and that any compromise alienated factions on both sides of the aisle, such as
the appointment of Republicans and Democrats to command positions. Copperheads
criticized Lincoln for refusing to compromise on slavery. The Radical
Republicans criticized him for moving too slowly in abolishing slavery.[196] On
August 6, 1861, Lincoln signed the Confiscation Act, which authorized judicial
proceedings to confiscate and free slaves who were used to support the
Confederates. The law had little practical effect, but it signaled political
support for abolishing slavery.[197]
In August 1861, General John C. Frémont, the 1856 Republican presidential
nominee, without consulting Washington, issued a martial edict freeing slaves
of the rebels. Lincoln canceled the illegal proclamation as politically
motivated and lacking military necessity.[198] As a result, Union enlistments
from Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri increased by over 40,000.[199]
Internationally, Lincoln wanted to forestall foreign military aid to the
Confederacy.[200] He relied on his combative Secretary of State William
Seward while working closely with Senate Foreign Relations
Committee chairman Charles Sumner.[201] In the 1861 Trent Affair, which
threatened war with Great Britain, the U.S. Navy illegally intercepted a
British mail ship, the Trent, on the high seas and seized two Confederate
envoys; Britain protested vehemently while the U.S. cheered. Lincoln ended the
crisis by releasing the two diplomats. Biographer James G. Randall dissected
Lincoln's successful techniques:[202]
his restraint, his avoidance of any outward expression of truculence,
his early softening of State Department's attitude toward Britain, his
deference toward Seward and Sumner, his withholding of his paper
prepared for the occasion, his readiness to arbitrate, his golden
silence in addressing Congress, his shrewdness in recognizing that war
must be averted, and his clear perception that a point could be
 clinched for America's true position at the same time that
satisfaction was given to a friendly country.
Lincoln painstakingly monitored the telegraph reports coming into the War
Department. He tracked all phases of the effort, consulting with governors and
selecting generals based on their success, their state, and their party. In
January 1862, after complaints of inefficiency and profiteering in the War
Department, Lincoln replaced War Secretary Simon Cameron with Edwin Stanton.
Stanton centralized the War Department's activities, auditing and canceling
contracts, thereby saving the federal government $17,000,000.[203] Stanton was a
staunch Unionist, pro-business, conservative Democrat who gravitated toward the
Radical Republican faction. He worked more often and more closely with Lincoln
than did any other senior official. "Stanton and Lincoln virtually conducted
the war together", say Thomas and Hyman.[204]
Lincoln's war strategy had two priorities: ensuring that Washington was well-
defended and conducting an aggressive war effort for a prompt, decisive
victory.[j] Twice a week, Lincoln met with his cabinet in the afternoon.
Occasionally Mary prevailed on him to take a carriage ride, concerned that he
was working too hard.[206] For his edification Lincoln relied upon a book by his
chief of staff General Henry Halleck entitled Elements of Military Art and
Science; Halleck was a disciple of the European strategist Antoine-Henri
Jomini. Lincoln began to appreciate the critical need to control strategic
points, such as the Mississippi River.[207] Lincoln saw the importance
of Vicksburg and understood the necessity of defeating the enemy's army, rather
than merely capturing territory.[208]
In directing the Union's war strategy, Lincoln valued the advice of Gen.
Winfield Scott, even after his retirement as Commanding General of the United
States Army. On June 23–24, 1862, Lincoln made an unannounced visit to West
Point, where he spent five hours consulting with Scott regarding the handling
of the Civil War and the staffing of the War Department.[209][210]
General McClellan
In 1862, Lincoln removed McClellan for the general's continued inaction. He
elevated Henry Halleck in July and appointed John Pope as head of the new Army
of Virginia.[213] Pope satisfied Lincoln's desire to advance on Richmond from
the north, thus protecting Washington from counterattack.[214] But Pope was then
soundly defeated at the Second Battle of Bull Run in the summer of 1862,
forcing the Army of the Potomac back to defend Washington.[215]
Despite his dissatisfaction with McClellan's failure to reinforce Pope, Lincoln
restored him to command of all forces around Washington.[216] Two days after
McClellan's return to command, General Robert E. Lee's forces crossed
the Potomac River into Maryland, leading to the Battle of Antietam.[217] That
battle, a Union victory, was among the bloodiest in American history; it
facilitated Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in January.[218]
McClellan then resisted the president's demand that he pursue Lee's withdrawing
army, while General Don Carlos Buell likewise refused orders to move the Army
of the Ohio against rebel forces in eastern Tennessee. Lincoln replaced Buell
with William Rosecrans; and after the 1862 midterm elections he replaced
McClellan with Ambrose Burnside. The appointments were both politically neutral
and adroit on Lincoln's part.[219]
Burnside, against presidential advice, launched an offensive across
the Rappahannock River and was defeated by Lee at Fredericksburg in December.
Desertions during 1863 came in the thousands and only increased after
Fredericksburg, so Lincoln replaced Burnside with Joseph Hooker.[220]
In the 1862 midterm elections the Republicans suffered severe losses due to
rising inflation, high taxes, rumors of corruption, suspension of habeas
corpus, military draft law, and fears that freed slaves would come North and
undermine the labor market. The Emancipation Proclamation gained votes for
Republicans in rural New England and the upper Midwest, but cost votes in the
Irish and German strongholds and in the lower Midwest, where many Southerners
had lived for generations.[221]
In the spring of 1863 Lincoln was sufficiently optimistic about upcoming
military campaigns to think the end of the war could be near; the plans
included attacks by Hooker on Lee north of Richmond, Rosecrans on
Chattanooga, Grant on Vicksburg, and a naval assault on Charleston.[222]
Hooker was routed by Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May, then
resigned and was replaced by George Meade.[223] Meade followed Lee north into
Pennsylvania and beat him in the Gettysburg Campaign, but then failed to follow
up despite Lincoln's demands. At the same time, Grant captured Vicksburg and
gained control of the Mississippi River, splitting the far western rebel
states.[224]
Emancipation Proclamation

The Federal government's power to end slavery was limited by the Constitution,
which before 1865 was understood to reserve the issue to the individual states.
Lincoln believed that slavery would be rendered obsolete if its expansion into
new territories were prevented, because these territories would be admitted to
the Union as free states, and free states would come to outnumber slave states.
He sought to persuade the states to agree to compensation for emancipating
their slaves.[225] Lincoln rejected Major General John C. Frémont's August
1861 emancipation attempt, as well as one by Major General David Hunter in May
1862, on the grounds that it was not within their power and might upset loyal
border states enough for them to secede.[226]
In June 1862, Congress passed an act banning slavery on all federal territory,
which Lincoln signed. In July, the Confiscation Act of 1862 was enacted,
providing court procedures to free the slaves of those convicted of aiding the
rebellion; Lincoln approved the bill despite his belief that it was
unconstitutional. He felt such action could be taken only within the war powers
of the commander-in-chief, which he planned to exercise. On July 22, 1862,
Lincoln reviewed a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation with his cabinet.[227]
Peace Democrats (Copperheads) argued that emancipation was a stumbling block to
peace and reunification, but Republican editor Horace Greeley of the New-York
Tribune, in his public letter, "The Prayer of Twenty Millions", implored
Lincoln to embrace emancipation.[228][229] In a public letter of August 22, 1862,
Lincoln replied to Greeley, writing that while he personally wished all men
could be free, his first obligation as president was to preserve the Union:[230]
My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and
is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union
without freeing any 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 and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do
about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps
to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I
do not believe it would help to save the Union ... [¶] I have here
stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend
no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men
everywhere could be free.[231]
On September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation
Proclamation,[232] which announced that, in states still in rebellion on January
1, 1863, the slaves would be freed. He spent the next 100 days, between
September 22 and January 1, preparing the army and the nation for emancipation,
while Democrats rallied their voters by warning of the threat that freed slaves
posed to northern whites.[233] At the same time, during those 100 days, Lincoln
made efforts to end the war with slavery intact.[234] But, on January 1, 1863,
keeping his word, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation,[235] freeing the
slaves in 10 states not then under Union control,[236] with exemptions specified
for areas under such control.[237] Lincoln's comment on signing the Proclamation
was: "I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do
in signing this paper."[238]
With the abolition of slavery in the rebel states now a military objective,
Union armies advancing south "enable[d] thousands of slaves to escape to
freedom".[239] The Emancipation Proclamation having stated that freedmen would
be "received into the armed service of the United States," enlisting these
freedmen became official policy. By the spring of 1863, Lincoln was ready to
recruit black troops in more than token numbers. In a letter to Tennessee
military governor Andrew Johnson encouraging him to lead the way in raising
black troops, Lincoln wrote, "The bare sight of fifty thousand armed, and
drilled black soldiers on the banks of the Mississippi would end the rebellion
at once".[240] By the end of 1863, at Lincoln's direction, General Lorenzo
Thomas "had enrolled twenty regiments of African Americans" from the
Mississippi Valley.[240]

Gettysburg Address (1863)

Lincoln spoke at the dedication of the Gettysburg battlefield cemetery on

November 19, 1863.[243] In 272 words, and three minutes, Lincoln asserted that
the nation was born not in 1789, but in 1776, "conceived in Liberty, and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal". He defined the
war as dedicated to the principles of liberty and equality for all. He declared
that the deaths of so many brave soldiers would not be in vain, that slavery
would end, and the future of democracy would be assured, that "government of
the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth".
[244]

Defying his prediction that "the world will little note, nor long remember what
we say here", the Address became the most quoted speech in American history.
[245]

Promoting General Grant

General Ulysses Grant's victories at the Battle of Shiloh and in the Vicksburg
campaign impressed Lincoln. Responding to criticism of Grant after Shiloh,
Lincoln had said, "I can't spare this man. He fights."[246] With Grant in
command, Lincoln felt the Union Army could advance in multiple theaters, while
also including black troops. Meade's failure to capture Lee's army after
Gettysburg and the continued passivity of the Army of the Potomac persuaded
Lincoln to promote Grant to supreme commander. Grant then assumed command of
Meade's army.[247]
Lincoln was concerned that Grant might be considering a presidential candidacy
in 1864. He arranged for an intermediary to inquire into Grant's political
intentions, and once assured that he had none, Lincoln promoted Grant to the
newly revived rank of Lieutenant General, a rank which had been unoccupied
since George Washington.[248] Authorization for such a promotion "with the
advice and consent of the Senate" was provided by a new bill which Lincoln
signed the same day he submitted Grant's name to the Senate. His nomination was
confirmed by the Senate on March 2, 1864.[249]
Grant in 1864 waged the bloody Overland Campaign, which exacted heavy losses on
both sides.[250] When Lincoln asked what Grant's plans were, the persistent
general replied, "I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all
summer."[251] Grant's army moved steadily south. Lincoln traveled to Grant's
headquarters at City Point, Virginia, to confer with Grant and William Tecumseh
Sherman.[252] Lincoln reacted to Union losses by mobilizing support throughout
the North.[253] Lincoln authorized Grant to target infrastructure—plantations,
railroads, and bridges—hoping to weaken the South's morale and fighting
ability. He emphasized defeat of the Confederate armies over destruction (which
was considerable) for its own sake.[254] Lincoln's engagement became distinctly
personal on one occasion in 1864 when Confederate general Jubal Early raided
Washington, D.C. Legend has it that while Lincoln watched from an exposed
position, Union Captain (and future Supreme Court Justice) Oliver Wendell
Holmes Jr. shouted at him, "Get down, you damn fool, before you get shot!" But
this story is commonly regarded as apocryphal.[255][256][257][258]
As Grant continued to weaken Lee's forces, efforts to discuss peace began.
Confederate Vice President Stephens led a group meeting with Lincoln, Seward,
and others at Hampton Roads. Lincoln refused to negotiate with the Confederacy
as a coequal; his objective to end the fighting was not realized.[259] On April
1, 1865, Grant nearly encircled Petersburg in a siege. The Confederate
government evacuated Richmond and Lincoln visited the conquered capital. On
April 9, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, officially ending the war.[260]
Reelection
Lincoln ran for reelection in 1864, while uniting the main Republican factions,
along with War Democrats Edwin M. Stanton and Andrew Johnson. Lincoln used
conversation and his patronage powers—greatly expanded from peacetime—to build
support and fend off the Radicals' efforts to replace him.[261] At its
convention, the Republicans selected Johnson as his running mate. To broaden
his coalition to include War Democrats as well as Republicans, Lincoln ran
under the label of the new Union Party.[262]
Grant's bloody stalemates damaged Lincoln's re-election prospects, and many
Republicans feared defeat. Lincoln confidentially pledged in writing that if he
should lose the election, he would still defeat the Confederacy before turning
over the White House;[263] Lincoln did not show the pledge to his cabinet, but
asked them to sign the sealed envelope. The pledge read as follows:
This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable
that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my
duty to so co-operate with the President elect, as to save the Union
between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his
election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterward.[264]
The Democratic platform followed the "Peace wing" of the party and called the
war a "failure"; but their candidate, McClellan, supported the war and
repudiated the platform. Meanwhile, Lincoln emboldened Grant with more troops
and Republican party support. Sherman's capture of Atlanta in September
and David Farragut's capture of Mobile ended defeatism.[265] The Democratic
Party was deeply split, with some leaders and most soldiers openly for Lincoln.
The National Union Party was united by Lincoln's support for emancipation.
State Republican parties stressed the perfidy of the Copperheads.[266] On
November 8, Lincoln carried all but three states, including 78 percent of Union
soldiers.[267]
On March 4, 1865, Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address. In it, he
deemed the war casualties to be God's will. Historian Mark Noll places the
speech "among the small handful of semi-sacred texts by which Americans
conceive their place in the world;" it is inscribed in the Lincoln Memorial.
[268] Lincoln said:

Fondly do we hope—fervently do we pray—that this mighty scourge of war

may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all
the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of
unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn
with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was
said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, "the
judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether". With malice
toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God
gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are
in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have
borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which
may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and
with all nations.[269]
Reconstruction
Main article: Reconstruction era
Reconstruction preceded the war's end, as Lincoln and his associates considered
the reintegration of the nation, and the fates of Confederate leaders and freed
slaves. When a general asked Lincoln how the defeated Confederates were to be
treated, Lincoln replied, "Let 'em up easy."[270] Lincoln was determined to find
meaning in the war in its aftermath, and did not want to continue to outcast
the southern states. His main goal was to keep the union together, so he
proceeded by focusing not on whom to blame, but on how to rebuild the nation as
one.[271] Lincoln led the moderates in Reconstruction policy and was opposed by
the Radicals, under Rep. Thaddeus Stevens, Sen. Charles Sumner and
Sen. Benjamin Wade, who otherwise remained Lincoln's allies. Determined to
reunite the nation and not alienate the South, Lincoln urged that speedy
elections under generous terms be held. His Amnesty Proclamation of December 8,
1863, offered pardons to those who had not held a Confederate civil office and
had not mistreated Union prisoners, if they were willing to sign an oath of
allegiance.[272]

As Southern states fell, they needed leaders while their administrations were
restored. In Tennessee and Arkansas, Lincoln respectively appointed Johnson
and Frederick Steele as military governors. In Louisiana, Lincoln ordered
General Nathaniel P. Banks to promote a plan that would reestablish statehood
when 10 percent of the voters agreed, and only if the reconstructed states
abolished slavery. Democratic opponents accused Lincoln of using the military
to ensure his and the Republicans' political aspirations. The Radicals
denounced his policy as too lenient, and passed their own plan, the 1864 Wade–
Davis Bill, which Lincoln vetoed. The Radicals retaliated by refusing to seat
elected representatives from Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee.[273]
Lincoln's appointments were designed to harness both moderates and Radicals. To
fill Chief Justice Taney's seat on the Supreme Court, he named the Radicals'
choice, Salmon P. Chase, who Lincoln believed would uphold his emancipation and
paper money policies.[274]
After implementing the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln increased pressure on
Congress to outlaw slavery throughout the nation with a constitutional
amendment. He declared that such an amendment would "clinch the whole matter"
and by December 1863 an amendment was brought to Congress.[275] The Senate
passed it on April 8, 1864, but the first vote in the House of Representatives
fell short of the required two-thirds majority. Passage became part of
Lincoln's reelection platform, and after his successful reelection, the second
attempt in the House passed on January 31, 1865.[276] With ratification, it
became the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on December
6, 1865.[277]
Lincoln believed the federal government had limited responsibility to the
millions of freedmen. He signed Senator Charles Sumner's Freedmen's Bureau bill
that set up a temporary federal agency designed to meet the immediate needs of
former slaves. The law opened land for a lease of three years with the ability
to purchase title for the freedmen. Lincoln announced a Reconstruction plan
that involved short-term military control, pending readmission under the
control of southern Unionists.[278]
Historians agree that it is impossible to predict how Reconstruction would have
proceeded had Lincoln lived. Biographers James G. Randall and Richard Current,
according to David Lincove, argue that:[279]
 It is likely that had he lived, Lincoln would have followed a policy
similar to Johnson's, that he would have clashed with congressional
Radicals, that he would have produced a better result for the freedmen
than occurred, and that his political skills would have helped him
avoid Johnson's mistakes.
Eric Foner argues that:[280]
Unlike Sumner and other Radicals, Lincoln did not see Reconstruction
as an opportunity for a sweeping political and social revolution
beyond emancipation. He had long made clear his opposition to the
confiscation and redistribution of land. He believed, as most
Republicans did in April 1865, that the voting requirements should be
determined by the states. He assumed that political control in the
South would pass to white Unionists, reluctant secessionists, and
forward-looking former Confederates. But time and again during the
war, Lincoln, after initial opposition, had come to embrace positions
first advanced by abolitionists and Radical Republicans.... Lincoln
undoubtedly would have listened carefully to the outcry for further
protection for the former slaves ... It is entirely plausible to
imagine Lincoln and Congress agreeing on a Reconstruction policy that
encompassed federal protection for basic civil rights plus limited
black suffrage, along the lines Lincoln proposed just before his
death.

Native Americans
Lincoln's experience with Native Americans started early with their killing of
his grandfather in front of the family.[281] Later he served as a captain in
the state militia during the Black Hawk War but saw no combat.[282] During his
presidency, his policy toward Indians was based on politics. He used
appointments to the Indian Bureau as a reward to supporters
from Minnesota and Wisconsin. While in office his administration faced
difficulties guarding Western settlers, railroads, and telegraphs, from Indian
attacks.[283]
On August 17, 1862, the Sioux or Dakota uprising broke out in Minnesota.
Hundreds of settlers were killed, 30,000 were displaced from their homes, and
Washington was deeply alarmed.[284] Some feared incorrectly that it might
represent a Confederate conspiracy to start a war on the Northwestern frontier.
[285] Lincoln ordered thousands of Confederate prisoners of war sent by railroad
to put down the uprising.[286] When the Confederates protested forcing
Confederate prisoners to fight Indians, Lincoln revoked the policy and none set
foot in Minnesota. Lincoln sent General John Pope to Minnesota as commander of
the new Department of the Northwest a couple of weeks into the hostilities.[287]
[288] Before he arrived, the Fond Du Lac band of Chippewa sent Lincoln a letter
begging to go to war for the United States against the Sioux, so Lincoln could
send Minnesota's troops to fight the South.[289][290] Shortly after, a Mille Lacs
Band Chief offered the same at St. Cloud, Minnesota.[291][292] In it the Chippewa
specified that they wanted to use the indigenous rules of warfare.[293] That
meant there would be no prisoners of war, no surrender, no peace agreement.
[294] Lincoln did not accept the Chippewa offer, as he had no means to control
the outcome and women and children were considered legitimate casualties in
native American warfare.[295] One of the Chippewa signing the letter, Chief Naw-
Gaw-Nub, had received a Presidential medal from Lincoln earlier in the year.
[296]

Serving under Gen. Pope was Minnesota Congressman Henry H. Sibley. Minnesota's
Governor had made Sibley a Colonel United States Volunteers to command the US
force tasked with fighting the war and that eventually defeated Little Crow's
forces at the Battle of Wood Lake.[288] The day the Mdewakanton force
surrendered at Camp Release, a Chippewa war council met at Minnesota's
capitol with another Chippewa offer to Lincoln, to fight the Sioux.[297]
[additional citation(s) needed] Sibley ordered a military commission to review that
actions of the captured to try those that had committed war crimes. The
legitimacy of military commissions trying opposing combatants had been
established during the Mexican War.[298] Sibley thought he had 16 to 20 of men
he wanted for trial while Gen. Pope ordered that all detained warriors be
tried. When it was done, 303 had been given death sentences that were subject
to Presidential review. Lincoln ordered Gen Pope send all of the trial
transcripts to Washington where he and two of his staff pored over the trials.
The lawyer in Lincoln saw issues. He slowly realized that the trials could be
divided into two groups: combat between combatants and combat against
civilians. The groups could be identified by their transcripts, the first group
were all just three pages in length while the second group had more pages, some
up to twelve. He placed 263 cases into the first group and commuted their
sentences for the largest mass commutation in history. Into the second group
went forty. One he commuted for turning state's witness. Sibley dismissed
another when overwhelming proof surfaced exonerating the man. The remaining 38
were executed in the largest mass hanging in U.S. history. Very quickly
questions arose concerning three of the executions that have not been answered.
[299] Less than four months after the executions, Lincoln issued General Order
100 that relates more to the Minnesota War than the Civil War. Now a
congressman, Alexander Ramsey told Lincoln, in 1864, that he would have gotten
more re-election support in Minnesota had he executed all 303 of the
Mdewakanton. Lincoln responded, "I could not afford to hang men for
votes."[300] The men whose sentences he commuted were sent to a military prison
at Davenport, Iowa. A few of those he had released due to the efforts of
Bishop Henry Whipple.

Whig theory of a presidency

Lincoln adhered to the Whig theory of a presidency focused on executing laws
while deferring to Congress' responsibility for legislating. Lincoln vetoed
only four bills, including the Wade-Davis Bill with its harsh Reconstruction
program.[301] The 1862 Homestead Act made millions of acres of Western
government-held land available for purchase at low cost. The 1862 Morrill Land-
Grant Colleges Act provided government grants for agricultural colleges in each
state. The Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 and 1864 granted federal support for
the construction of the United States' first transcontinental railroad, which
was completed in 1869.[302] The passage of the Homestead Act and the Pacific
Railway Acts was enabled by the absence of Southern congressmen and senators
who had opposed the measures in the 1850s.[303]
In the selection and use of his cabinet, Lincoln employed the strengths of his
opponents in a manner that emboldened his presidency. Lincoln commented on his
thought process, "We need the strongest men of the party in the Cabinet. We
needed to hold our own people together. I had looked the party over and
concluded that these were the very strongest men. Then I had no right to
deprive the country of their services."[305] Goodwin described the group in her
biography as a Team of Rivals.[306]
There were two measures passed to raise revenues for the Federal government:
tariffs (a policy with long precedent), and a Federal income tax. In 1861,
Lincoln signed the second and third Morrill Tariffs, following the first
enacted by Buchanan. He also signed the Revenue Act of 1861, creating the first
U.S. income tax—a flat tax of 3 percent on incomes above $800 (equivalent to
$26,056 in 2022[307]).[308] The Revenue Act of 1862 adopted rates that increased
with income.[309]
The Lincoln Administration presided over the expansion of the federal
government's economic influence in other areas. The National Banking
Act created the system of national banks. The US issued paper currency for the
first time, known as greenbacks—printed in green on the reverse side.[310] In
1862, Congress created the Department of Agriculture.[308]
In response to rumors of a renewed draft, the editors of the New York World and
the Journal of Commerce published a false draft proclamation that created an
opportunity for the editors and others to corner the gold market. Lincoln
attacked the media for such behavior, and ordered a military seizure of the two
papers which lasted for two days.[311]
Lincoln is largely responsible for the Thanksgiving holiday.[312] Thanksgiving
had become a regional holiday in New England in the 17th century. It had been
sporadically proclaimed by the federal government on irregular dates. The prior
proclamation had been during James Madison's presidency 50 years earlier. In
1863, Lincoln declared the final Thursday in November of that year to be a day
of Thanksgiving.[312]
In June 1864, Lincoln approved the Yosemite Grant enacted by Congress, which
provided unprecedented federal protection for the area now known as Yosemite
National Park.[313]

Supreme Court appointments

Supreme Court Justices
Justice Nominated Appointed
January 21, January 24,
Noah Haynes Swayne 1862 1862
July 16, July 16,
Samuel Freeman Miller 1862 1862
December 1, December 8,
David Davis 1862 1862
March 6, March 10,
Stephen Johnson Field 1863 1863
Salmon Portland December 6, December 6,
Chase (Chief Justice) 1864 1864

Lincoln's philosophy on court nominations was that "we cannot ask a man what he
will do, and if we should, and he should answer us, we should despise him for
it. Therefore we must take a man whose opinions are known."[312] Lincoln made
five appointments to the Supreme Court. Noah Haynes Swayne was an anti-slavery
lawyer who was committed to the Union. Samuel Freeman Miller supported Lincoln
in the 1860 election and was an avowed abolitionist. David Davis was Lincoln's
campaign manager in 1860 and had served as a judge in the Illinois court
circuit where Lincoln practiced. Democrat Stephen Johnson Field, a previous
California Supreme Court justice, provided geographic and political balance.
Finally, Lincoln's Treasury Secretary, Salmon P. Chase, became Chief Justice.
Lincoln believed Chase was an able jurist, would support Reconstruction
legislation, and that his appointment united the Republican Party.[314]
Foreign policy

Lincoln named his main political rival, William H. Seward, as Secretary of

State and left most diplomatic issues in his portfolio. However, Lincoln did
select some top diplomats as part of his patronage policy.[315] He also closely
watched the handling of the Trent Affair in late 1861 to make sure there was no
escalation into a war with Britain.[316] Seward's main role was to keep Britain
and France from supporting the Confederacy. He was successful after indicating
to Britain and France that the Union would declare war on them if they
supported the South.[317]
Assassination

John Wilkes Booth was a well-known actor and a Confederate spy from Maryland;
though he never joined the Confederate army, he had contacts with the
Confederate secret service.[318] After attending Lincoln's last public address,
on April 11, 1865, in which Lincoln stated his preference that the franchise be
conferred on some black men, specifically "on the very intelligent, and on
those who serve our cause as soldiers",[319] Booth hatched a plot to assassinate
the President.[320] When Booth learned of the Lincolns' intent to attend a play
with General Grant, he planned to assassinate Lincoln and Grant at Ford's
Theatre. Lincoln and his wife attended the play Our American Cousin on the
evening of April 14, just five days after the Union victory at the Battle of
Appomattox Courthouse. At the last minute, Grant decided to go to New Jersey to
visit his children instead of attending the play.[321]
On April 14, 1865, hours before he was assassinated, Lincoln signed legislation
establishing the United States Secret Service,[322] and, at 10:15 in the
evening, Booth entered the back of Lincoln's theater box, crept up from behind,
and fired at the back of Lincoln's head, mortally wounding him. Lincoln's
guest, Major Henry Rathbone, momentarily grappled with Booth, but Booth stabbed
him and escaped.[323] After being attended by Doctor Charles Leale and two other
doctors, Lincoln was taken across the street to Petersen House. After remaining
in a coma for eight hours, Lincoln died at 7:22 in the morning on April 15.[324]
[k] Stanton saluted and said, "Now he belongs to the ages."[329][l] Lincoln's
body was placed in a flag-wrapped coffin, which was loaded into a hearse and
escorted to the White House by Union soldiers.[330] President Johnson was sworn
in later that same day.[331]
Two weeks later, Booth, refusing to surrender, was tracked to a farm in
Virginia, and was mortally shot by Sergeant Boston Corbett and died on April
26. Secretary of War Stanton had issued orders that Booth be taken alive, so
Corbett was initially arrested to be court martialed. After a brief interview,
Stanton declared him a patriot and dismissed the charge.[332]

Funeral and burial

Main article: Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln
The late President lay in state, first in the East Room of the White House, and
then in the Capitol Rotunda from April 19 to 21. The caskets containing
Lincoln's body and the body of his son Willie traveled for three weeks on
the Lincoln Special funeral train.[333] The train followed a circuitous route
from Washington D.C. to Springfield, Illinois, stopping at many cities for
memorials attended by hundreds of thousands. Many others gathered along the
tracks as the train passed with bands, bonfires, and hymn singing[334] or in
silent grief. Poet Walt Whitman composed "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard
Bloom'd" to eulogize him, one of four poems he wrote about Lincoln.[335] African
Americans were especially moved; they had lost their "Moses".[336] In a larger
sense, the reaction was in response to the deaths of so many men in the war.
[337] Historians emphasized the widespread shock and sorrow, but noted that some
Lincoln haters celebrated his death.[338] Lincoln's body was buried at Oak Ridge
Cemetery in Springfield and now lies within the Lincoln Tomb.[339]
Religious and philosophical beliefs

As a young man, Lincoln was a religious skeptic.[340] He was deeply familiar

with the Bible, quoting and praising it.[341] He was private about his position
on organized religion and respected the beliefs of others.[342] He never made a
clear profession of Christian beliefs.[343] Throughout his public career,
Lincoln often quoted Scripture.[344] His three most famous speeches—the House
Divided Speech, the Gettysburg Address, and his second inaugural—each contain
direct allusions to Providence and quotes from Scripture.
In the 1840s, Lincoln subscribed to the Doctrine of Necessity, a belief that
the human mind was controlled by a higher power.[345] With the death of his son
Edward in 1850 he more frequently expressed a dependence on God.[346] He never
joined a church, although he frequently attended First Presbyterian Church with
his wife beginning in 1852.[347][m]
In the 1850s, Lincoln asserted his belief in "providence" in a general way, and
rarely used the language or imagery of the evangelicals; he regarded the
republicanism of the Founding Fathers with an almost religious reverence.
[348] The death of his son Willie in February 1862 may have caused him to look
toward religion for solace.[349] After Willie's death, he questioned the divine
necessity of the war's severity. He wrote at this time that God "could have
either saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest
began. And having begun, He could give the final victory to either side any
day. Yet the contest proceeds."[350]
Lincoln did believe in an all-powerful God that shaped events and by 1865 was
expressing that belief in major speeches.[343] By the end of the war, he
increasingly appealed to the Almighty for solace and to explain events, writing
on April 4, 1864, to a newspaper editor in Kentucky:
I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events
have controlled me. Now, at the end of three years struggle the
nation's condition is not what either party, or any man devised, or
expected. God alone can claim it. Whither it is tending seems plain.
If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that we
of the North as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our
complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein new
cause to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God.[351]
This spirituality can best be seen in his second inaugural address, considered
by some scholars[352] as the greatest such address in American history, and by
Lincoln himself as his own greatest speech, or one of them at the very least.
[n][353] Lincoln explains therein that the cause, purpose, and result of the war
was God's will.[354] Lincoln's frequent use of religious imagery and language
toward the end of his life may have reflected his own personal beliefs or might
have been a device to reach his audiences, who were
mostly evangelical Protestants.[355] On the day Lincoln was assassinated, he
reportedly told his wife he desired to visit the Holy Land.[356]
Health
Main article: Health of Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln is believed to have had depression, smallpox, and malaria.[357] He

took blue mass pills, which contained mercury,[358] to treat constipation.
[359] It is unknown to what extent this may have resulted in mercury poisoning.
[360]

Several claims have been made that Lincoln's health was declining before the
assassination. These are often based on photographs of Lincoln appearing to
show weight loss and muscle wasting.[361] It is also suspected that he might
have had a rare genetic disease such as Marfan syndrome or multiple endocrine
neoplasia type 2B.[361]

Legacy

Republican values
Lincoln's redefinition of republican values has been stressed by historians
such as John Patrick Diggins, Harry V. Jaffa, Vernon Burton, Eric Foner, and
Herman J. Belz.[362] Lincoln called the Declaration of Independence—which
emphasized freedom and equality for all—the "sheet anchor" of republicanism
beginning in the 1850s. He did this at a time when the Constitution, which
"tolerated slavery", was the focus of most political discourse.[363] Diggins
notes, "Lincoln presented Americans a theory of history that offers a profound
contribution to the theory and destiny of republicanism itself" in the 1860
Cooper Union speech.[364] Instead of focusing on the legality of an argument, he
focused on the moral basis of republicanism.[365]
His position on war was founded on a legal argument regarding the Constitution
as essentially a contract among the states, and all parties must agree to pull
out of the contract. Furthermore, it was a national duty to ensure the republic
stands in every state.[366] Many soldiers and religious leaders from the north,
though, felt the fight for liberty and freedom of slaves was ordained by their
moral and religious beliefs.[367]
As a Whig activist, Lincoln was a spokesman for business interests, favoring
high tariffs, banks, infrastructure improvements, and railroads, in opposition
to Jacksonian democrats.[368] Lincoln shared the sympathies that the Jacksonians
professed for the common man, but he disagreed with the Jacksonian view
that the government should be divorced from economic enterprise.
[369] Nevertheless, Lincoln admired Andrew Jackson's steeliness as well as his
patriotism.[370] According to historian Sean Wilentz:[370]
Just as the Republican Party of the 1850s absorbed certain elements of
Jacksonianism, so Lincoln, whose Whiggery had always been more
egalitarian than that of other Whigs, found himself absorbing some of
them as well. And some of the Jacksonian spirit resided inside the
Lincoln White House.
William C. Harris found that Lincoln's "reverence for the Founding Fathers, the
Constitution, the laws under it, and the preservation of the Republic and its
institutions strengthened his conservatism."[371] James G. Randall emphasizes
his tolerance and moderation "in his preference for orderly progress, his
distrust of dangerous agitation, and his reluctance toward ill digested schemes
of reform." Randall concludes that "he was conservative in his complete
avoidance of that type of so-called 'radicalism' which involved abuse of the
South, hatred for the slaveholder, thirst for vengeance, partisan plotting, and
ungenerous demands that Southern institutions be transformed overnight by
outsiders."[372]
Reunification of the states
In Lincoln's first inaugural address, he explored the nature of democracy. He
denounced secession as anarchy, and he explained that majority rule had to be
balanced by constitutional restraints. He said, "A majority held in restraint
by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with
deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true
sovereign of a free people."[373]
The successful reunification of the states had consequences for how people
viewed the country. The term "the United States" has historically been used
sometimes in the plural ("these United States") and other times in the
singular. The Civil War was a significant force in the eventual dominance of
the singular usage by the end of the 19th century.[374]
Historical reputation

In surveys of U.S. scholars ranking presidents conducted since 1948, the top
three presidents are Lincoln, Washington, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
although the order varies.[376][o] Between 1999 and 2011, Lincoln, John F.
Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan were the top-ranked presidents in eight public
opinion surveys, according to Gallup.[378] A 2004 study found that scholars in
the fields of history and politics ranked Lincoln number one, while legal
scholars placed him second after George Washington.[379]
Lincoln's assassination left him a national martyr. He was viewed by
abolitionists as a champion of human liberty. Republicans linked Lincoln's name
to their party. Many, though not all, in the South considered Lincoln as a man
of outstanding ability.[380] Historians have said he was "a classical liberal"
in the 19th-century sense. Allen C. Guelzo states that Lincoln was a "classical
liberal democrat—an enemy of artificial hierarchy, a friend to trade and
business as ennobling and enabling, and an American counterpart
to Mill, Cobden, and Bright", whose portrait Lincoln hung in his White House
office.[381][382]
Sociologist Barry Schwartz argues that Lincoln's American reputation grew
slowly from the late 19th century until the Progressive Era (1900–1920s), when
he emerged as one of America's most venerated heroes, even among white
Southerners. The high point came in 1922 with the dedication of the Lincoln
Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.[383]
Union nationalism, as envisioned by Lincoln, "helped lead America to the
nationalism of Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Delano
Roosevelt."[384] In the New Deal era, liberals honored Lincoln not so much as
the self-made man or the great war president, but as the advocate of the common
man who they claimed would have supported the welfare state.[385]
Schwartz argues that in the 1930s and 1940s the memory of Abraham Lincoln was
practically sacred and provided the nation with "a moral symbol inspiring and
guiding American life." During the Great Depression, he argues, Lincoln served
"as a means for seeing the world's disappointments, for making its sufferings
not so much explicable as meaningful." Franklin D. Roosevelt, preparing America
for war, used the words of the Civil War president to clarify the threat posed
by Germany and Japan. Americans asked, "What would Lincoln do?"[386] However,
Schwartz also finds that since World War II Lincoln's symbolic power has lost
relevance, and this "fading hero is symptomatic of fading confidence in
national greatness." He suggested that postmodernism and multiculturalism have
diluted greatness as a concept.[387]
In the Cold War years, Lincoln's image shifted to a symbol of freedom who
brought hope to those oppressed by Communist regimes.[385] He had long been
known as the Great Emancipator,[388] but, by the late 1960s, some African
American intellectuals, led by Lerone Bennett Jr., denied that Lincoln deserved
that title.[389][390] Bennett won wide attention when he called Lincoln a white
supremacist in 1968.[391] He noted that Lincoln used ethnic slurs and told jokes
that ridiculed blacks. Bennett argued that Lincoln opposed social equality and
proposed that freed slaves voluntarily move to another country. The emphasis
shifted away from Lincoln the emancipator to an argument that blacks had freed
themselves from slavery, or at least were responsible for pressuring the
government to emancipate them.[392] Defenders of Lincoln, such as authors Dirck
and Cashin, retorted that he was not as bad as most politicians of his
day[393] and that he was a "moral visionary" who deftly advanced the
abolitionist cause, as fast as politically possible.[394] Dirck stated that few
Civil War scholars take Bennett seriously, pointing to his "narrow political
agenda and faulty research".[395]
By the 1970s, Lincoln had become a hero to political conservatives[396]—apart
from neo-Confederates such as Mel Bradford, who denounced his treatment of the
white South—for his intense nationalism, his support for business, his
insistence on stopping the spread of slavery, his acting
on Lockean and Burkean principles on behalf of both liberty and tradition, and
his devotion to the principles of the Founding Fathers.[397] Lincoln became a
favorite of liberal intellectuals across the world.[398]
Barry Schwartz wrote in 2009 that Lincoln's image suffered "erosion, fading
prestige, benign ridicule" in the late 20th century.[399] On the other hand,
Donald opined in his 1996 biography that Lincoln was distinctly endowed with
the personality trait of negative capability, defined by the poet John
Keats and attributed to extraordinary leaders who were "content in the midst of
uncertainties and doubts, and not compelled toward fact or reason".[400]
In the 21st century, President Barack Obama named Lincoln his favorite
president and insisted on using the Lincoln Bible for his inaugural ceremonies.
[401][402][403]

Lincoln has often been portrayed by Hollywood, almost always in a flattering

light.[404][405]
Lincoln has been also admired by political figures outside the U.S., including
German political theorist Karl Marx,[406] Indian independence leader Mahatma
Gandhi,[407] former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf,[408] and Libyan
revolutionary Muammar Gaddafi.[409]
Mmory and memorials
Main article: Memorials to Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln's portrait appears on two denominations of United States currency,
the penny and the $5 bill. His likeness also appears on many postage stamps.
[410] While he is usually portrayed bearded, he did not grow a beard until 1860
at the suggestion of 11-year-old Grace Bedell. He was the first of five
presidents to do so.[411]
He has been memorialized in many town, city, and county names,[412] including
the capital of Nebraska.[413] The United States Navy Nimitz-class aircraft
carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) is named after Lincoln, the second Navy
ship to bear his name.[414] The Lincoln Memorial is one of the most visited
monuments in the nation's capital[415] and is one of the top five most
visited National Park Service sites in the country.[416] Ford's Theatre, among
the most visited sites in Washington, D.C.,[416] is across the street
from Petersen House, where Lincoln died.[417] Memorials in Springfield,
Illinois, include the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and
Museum, Lincoln's home, and his tomb.[418] A portrait carving of Lincoln appears
with those of three other presidents on Mount Rushmore, which receives about
3 million visitors a year.[419] An influential statue of Lincoln stands
in Lincoln Park, Chicago, with recastings given as diplomatic gifts standing
in Parliament Square, London, and Parque Lincoln, Mexico City.[420][421][422]
In 2019, Congress officially dedicated room H-226 in the United States
Capitol to Abraham Lincoln.[423] The room is located off National Statuary
Hall and served as the post office of the House while then-Representative
Abraham Lincoln served in Congress from 1847 to 1849.[424][425]