ABRAHAM LINCOLN
While the Southerners, and Northern Democrats accused Lincoln of precipitous, hasty and radical actions, radicals of his own party were not happy with him as he didn't move fast and firmly enough.
The Nixon "Southern Strategy" was that if the Republican Party made extensive efforts to appeal to minorities, given the previous decades of support of white supremacy, they would only be successful with a few, whereas if the Party went in the other direction and supported the Whites fighting against the Democratic initiated, racist hated, Civil Rights Act, they would get almost all the racist Southern Democrats, which were most white males and many white females. This racist policy enabled the Republicans to gain control of the Federal Government more often than not whereas before, it was very unusual.
Sherman was distressed at the full due process and trials that had to be given to Confederate spies and guerrillas and wanted to execute them quickly as an example. He complained to the Judge Advocate General that his men were “losing prisoners in the swamp” which both of them realized meant the immediate execution of prisoners by soldiers and junior officers which Sherman did not like either. The Lincoln administration insisted on the full due process. Even after conviction, President Abraham Lincoln tended to pardon many of the condemned.
Lincoln saw all office seekers personally
This is a wonderful quotation which illustrates the polarization which had taken place in America as a result of the slavery issue. Lincoln’s address—which history and most people have adjudged to be such a moderate attempt to find common ground, and which offended many of his constituents because he was compromising and temporizing on the slavery issue—was seen as the radical attacks of a “fanatic”. There is probably no policy that Lincoln or any other President could have followed that would be even marginally acceptable to the slave owners and their economies and the abolitionists and their economies. In the final analysis, slavery was the kind of issue that is not susceptible to compromise. No nation can exist half slave and half free. The Civil War was inevitable unless the South would give up slavery or the North would accept it.
Buchanan had a very difficult time in his Presidency. There was enormous pressure from the abolitionists to curtail slavery and there was equally passionate pressure from the slave owners to not only maintain slavery as an institution but expand it into the Western territories. Buchanan tried to continue what had been successful since 1787—appeasing the South and persuading the North to go along to maintain national unity. Except the nation was polarizing on the slavery issue and there was no way to “compromise” slavery any longer. Buchanan ended up alienating both sides. He left office and handed the “hot potato” to Lincoln.
Seward had been the odds on favorite to win the Republican Presidential nomination and was totally surprised when he did not and Lincoln did. Seward was one of the most prominent politicians in the nation while Lincoln was a relative unknown who had served a single non descript term in the House of Representatives. However, there were other prominent Republicans contesting for the nomination. Lincoln’s team followed a strategy of trying to be the second choice of many of the delegations who favored another candidate. When none of the front runners could muster a majority, delegations started shifting to their second choices and that’s when Lincoln ended up with the majority beating his better known opponents.
That meant that Lincoln would go to public places like inns and bars. See {584712} .
Ashmun introduced this anti-war resolution during the Mexican War. This resolution failed, but Abraham Lincoln, then a Freshman Congressman voted for it
While Douglas and Lincoln were political opponents with little love lost between them, both were patriots. Douglas’s position were much more popular in the South, and the moment he realized that Lincoln would win the Presidency, he headed South where he was very persuasive in trying to hold the Union together, but he could not see all the potential rebels and was only effective with some. South Carolina not only seceded, but in order to prevent any changing of minds, some the worst of the South Carolinians, attacked Fort Sumter firing on the American Flag and attacking and capturing the Union troops who were totally outnumbered. The Civil War was then inevitable.
While Douglas and Lincoln were political opponents with little love lost between them, both were patriots. And Douglas was committed to seeing that Lincoln was inaugurated and the Union preserved, if Lincoln won the election. When Lincoln did so, Douglas traveled throughout the South trying to persuade Southerners to stay in the Union. See {584870}.
Note the observation about tobacco. Even then it was recognized as addicting despite the testimonies of tobacco executives who lied in Congressional Testimony more than 100 years later
Seward, the powerful Governor of New York, was the heavy favorite for the Republican Presidential nomination in 1860 and the “big story” for the journalists of the time was his failure to secure the nomination. Lincoln, who prevailed and then was elected President, in a remarkable political act, asked Seward and Lincoln’s other rivals to join his cabinet.
Accusing a candidate who opposed a particular war effort as a traitor and collaborator with the enemy in a campaign worked very well in the 2004 Presidential race where the Republicans painted John Kerry, a war hero, as a traitor and collaborator for opposing the Vietnam War. However, the Republicans had learned the dirty trick in middle of the 19th century from the Democrats when Stephen Douglas accused Abraham Lincoln of selling out his country because Lincoln had opposed the Mexican War. Just as Kerry lost, so did Lincoln in this Senate race, but Lincoln better armed to deal with the attacks, ran for the Presidency two years later.
Historians have different as to the extent of Lincoln’s religiosity. He was a deist but did not involve himself as a parishioner in any organized church. There are those who believe that once into the Presidency, in order to garner support he concealed his true feelings about organized religion. See {586289} for example. Others take him literally at his word in his more religious statements.
Lincoln was a deist but he was never a favorite of the official clergy of any of the religions. When he ran for President in 1860, 20 of the 23 clergymen of his home town, Springfield, IL, opposed him. As he assumed office he was much more prudent in his religious remarks and in the view of some historians political realities and pragmatics caused him to be more circumspect. His oldest friend and law partner believed him to be an unbeliever. See {586285}.
The writer was a free Black minister in Maryland. Maryland was a slave state, and the whites were very anti-Lincoln. The free Blacks were under constant scrutiny as there were rumors that the election of Lincoln would be the instigation of a free Black and slave revolt.
This was the letter which triggered Lincoln’s famous reply. See {609337}.
Although the two men differed on a very important issue, each admired the other and acquitted themselves politely throughout. Congress explicitly gave the President the powers that he had exercised and won the dispute. But Dixon had also won, and upheld the law as it existed until it was changed.
25 of the Union’s TWA Airline Workers in Memphis Tennessee had signed a petition to the Union objecting to the Union’s support for King’s desegregation campaign. Quill responded by inviting King to give the main address at the annual union convention. He was prophetic of the danger King faced, but died before King was assassinated.
Some people think that this quotation was partially copied from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. However, he gave this speech more than a decade earlier. Lincoln might have been familiar with it. His statue is in the U. S. Capitol.
The conspirators in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln were tried, found guilty, sentenced and hanged by a military tribunal. Not everyone agreed that such a process was lawful or desirable. Bates believed also that the effect was to make martyrs of the conspirators.
The Latin phrase is the motto of the State of Virginia.
Abraham Lincoln's election came at a time when the preservation of the United States as one nation was in question. Many, including the incumbent President, had little confidence in Lincoln's capacity to govern:
In 1872 a proposed Constitutional amendment was debated throughout much of the country. The proposed “Christian Amendment” to the Constitution, recognized the Bible, God, and made Christianity the state religion requiring religious tests of public officials including belonging to an organized Christian Church. “Deists” as used then referred to people who had a general belief in a Supreme Being but did not belong to any formal or organized church.
During his campaign for the Senate against Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln adopted a tactic of showing up everywhere his opponent gave a speech and talked to the crowd afterward.
Abraham Lincoln was the only third party candidate to win the presidency in U.S. history. However, when he was nominated, there was little conviction among Republicans that a third or fourth party could actually win:. Lincoln's primary opponent, William H. Seward
In February of 1861, in a last ditch effort to hold the Union together the Senator offered this proposed Constitutional amendment which would not only guarantee the existence of slavery in the South, but would assure that there could be no later Constitutional amendment to do so—the so-called "unamendable amendment." Surprising to us today is the fact that this amendment was not only supported by incoming President Abraham Lincoln, but was passed by the required two-thirds of both houses of Congress. However, before it could be ratified by the States, events overtook the amendment, the South seceded, and the Civil War began.
Black reaction convinced Lincoln, and he abandoned the idea.
Ever since the beginning of the Republic, the major source of Federal revenue was customs duty from New York. The collector employed a massive bureaucracy and was then one of the largest patronage controller in the country. Thurlow Weed and other New York political bosses offered Abraham Lincoln their political support if Lincoln would give them control of the patronage. On September 5, 1864 Lincoln fired his man, Hiram Barney, and replaced him with Draper. The new collector promptly replaced key personnel down the line and stated publicly:
In the Civil War a drafted conscript could pay money instead of serving in the army. Many rich and middle class men did so leaving a higher proportion of the poor to be drafted. The song is sometimes misattributed to William Cullen Bryant.
In 1864 many Republicans wanted to abandon Abraham Lincoln as the presidential nominee of the party. Grant, then the commanding general of the Union Army was a favorite alternative and there was a possibility that he might be nominated.
Holmes was a young soldier at the battle. This quote is also sometimes attributed to General Horatio Wright, who was present at the battle and actually got the President down to safety, but we regard it as unlikely that a sophisticated, mature general would have addressed the President so rudely
Despite Hooker's outspoken remarks, the President appointed him commanding general anyway.
"Honest Abe" was not an appellation for Abraham Lincoln concurred in by all:
See also Matthew 12:25. Quoted by Abraham Lincoln in his speech to the Republican State Convention, Springfield, IL, June 16, 1858
Compare Mark 3:25, above, and Abraham Lincoln's use of the phrase in one of his most famous speeches.
Meigs had urged McClellan that it was his obligation to keep the President abreast of the planning for the war effort.
In the Republican convention of 1860, William H. Seward lead Abraham Lincoln for the presidential nomination on the first two ballots. The third ballot showed that Lincoln only one and a half votes short of a majority. Salmon P. Chase was the governor of Ohio and its delegation was chaired by D. K. Cartter. Joseph Medill was Lincoln's "floor manager" and said to Cartter:. The Ohio delegation changed three votes, putting Lincoln over the top. Lincoln had told Medill and others to make no bargains in his name and stated he would not honor such. Lincoln was nominated and elected. He appointed Salmon P. Chase to the U. S. Supreme Court.
Secretary of State William H. For a similar assessment of Seward see Morton S. Wilkinson.
the progressive Republicans were then mostly in the West
The Republican platform was extremely conservative and an embarrassment to the progressive Republicans of the day:
The Talmud is a Jewish legal and ethical collection; Henry Ford was a well known anti-Semite of the time.
During the 1860 Republican nominating convention, following the custom of the time, neither Lincoln or the odds on favorite, William H. Seward, were even in Chicago. Lincoln's campaign managers wired him regarding a possible deal with Simon Cameron to obtain the votes of the Pennsylvania delegation:. Lincoln's managers were incredulous. Without bargains there was no way Lincoln stood a chance. They decided that Lincoln didn't really mean what he had said but was only "covering himself" for the record. They proceeded to deal with Cameron as well as trade for most of the prospective cabinet and some Federal judgeships as well. Lincoln won and honored all the bargains when he became president.
Vallandigham was urging Union soldiers to refuse to fight and serve. Lincoln had to approve all the death sentences of deserters from the army and there were few duties that troubled him more … so much so that he even violated the 1st Amendment responsiblities he had sworn to uphold. Based in this precedent and others, President Woodrow Wilson jailed critics of the First World War including the labor leader Eugene Debs.
Mrs. Lincoln spent extravagantly and kept the information from the President. She had an additional reason to wish him re-elected.
Mrs. Lincoln was a compulsive shopper and spender. Her comment to a friend provides insight into the demands and mores of the presidency of the time.
She had a great early influence on Lincoln.
Lieber was assigned by President Lincoln to study the then international laws of war and prepare a manual for the guidance of union troops in the Civil War. Lincoln then issued the document as a general order. This particular article is particularly relevant to the modern war on terrorism where there is criticism of the treatment of captured terrorists. There are some who argue that they should be treated as prisoners of war. However, under the principles of this article, they specifically ought not to be so treated. Incidentally, highway robbers and pirates at the time were hanged.
Lieber is best known because he was assigned by President Lincoln to study the then international laws of war and prepare a manual for the guidance of union troops in the Civil War. Lincoln then issued the document as a general order.
Lieber is best known because he was assigned by President Lincoln to study the then international laws of war and prepare a manual for the guidance of union troops in the Civil War. Lincoln then issued the document as a general order.
Lieber is best known because he was assigned by President Lincoln to study the then international laws of war and prepare a manual for the guidance of union troops in the Civil War. Lincoln then issued the document as a general order.
It is the quotee’s thesis that these leaders and many others adopted deliberate affectation to their dress for the dual political purpose of easy public recognition and fitting an image of individuality but short of deviance.
Though Ryan was not necessarily a proponent of Southern secession, he was an outspoken critic of the Lincoln administration’s misuse of Constitutional powers in the Civil War.
Strong is referring to the popular support of Abraham Lincoln’s candidacy in Western states.
On his deathbed he claimed to Kelly that he had been offered command of the Army of the Potomac but was not willing to "pay the price" which he claimed was to accept the terms. Pleasonton, always more of a bureaucrat than an ideologue or strong leader, like many Union officers, only wanted to defang the South so that they could not threaten the rest of the states but was not convinced that "crushing" the rebels was worth the cost or that slavery or the reelection of Lincoln was worth it. There is no independent verification of his receiving the offer, but what is more likely was as the Cavalry Commander of the Army of the Potomac he was "sounded out" on the subject.
Nehru kept two icons on his desk. One was a gold statue of Gandhi and the other was a death cast of the hand of Abraham Lincoln.
Lorenzo Thomas Adjutant General U.S. Army He was a sergeant with a teaching background when he wrote this letter. He volunteered for the new duty and was commissioned an officer in the 9th Louisiana Volunteer Infantry—one of the Negro Divisions. A few months later he was killed in action.
This is one of the most eloquent writings on the racial discrimination issue in American History. The young man who wrote it was a free Black born and educated in Troy, New York who became a seaman in New Bedford. He enlisted in the famous Massachusetts 54th Black Regiment. He also sent bi-weekly news dispatches to The New Bedford Mercury. In the midst of the assault on Fort Wagner in Charleston Harbor on July 18, 1863, and in the battle of Oustlee, Florida, on February 20, 1864. In the latter battle, he was wounded and captured. He was murdered by the inhuman conditions in the infamous Confederate prison camp at Andersonville, GA. He was only 27 years old.
This proposed Constitutional Amendment was debated just before Abraham Lincoln would take office. The South wanted to tie his hands on the Slavery issue, and wanted to end what had become a constant polarized Congressional debate over slavery. Of course, their idea of ending the debate was to Constitutionally prohibit further attempts to outlaw or otherwise interfere with slavery in the Southern states. A number of Northern members of Congress voted for it realizing that there was little or no chance of obtaining the ratifications of ¾ of the states and they wanted to buy some time for the Southerners to calm down over their fear of Lincoln and his upstart Republican party. The Amendment never obtained the needed votes though a few states did ratify it. Secession and the Civil War mad the amendment moot. The Southern position was so rigid, that they would compromise in no way on the slavery issue, and ended up of course losing more than they ever thought was possible by succeeding. Another reason this proposed amendment is historically important, is that it is yet another strong piece of evidence that the issue of the Civil War was slavery and not differences in political and economic philosophies as many Southerners have claimed since then. If States Rights in general were the great concern, would have been no reason to single out slavery if it were not the major issue. Yet the last phrase, “including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State” does just. Similar evidence is given by the Secession Resolutions of the Southern States and the debates around them. It is clear that slavery was the issue that the South fought over.
After the Presidential years of James Buchanan who protected the South from slavery reform and abolition as the North was gaining political power and the abolitionists were having a greater and greater effect on public opinion in the North. While Southerners did not believe Lincoln would emancipate the slaves, they realized that the majority of the growing nation was opposed to slavery, and more and more Northern states were passimg laws making any slave who sets foot in the State a free person. Slaves coud not only have more reason to run away, but slave owners would not be able to get their “property” back. Lincoln would not help the South as Buchanan did, and the Southerners realized that over time, slavery would no longer be feasible or profitable. Cobb, very experienced at Washington politics, realized the changes that would come and thought that they would be “certain and speedy.” The irony was that if the South had not seceded and simply dragged its feet legislatively, it would have taken two or three decades for slavery to end. However, by seceding and initially fighting so hard and well while poor Union generals were in command, Lincoln was forced to try more drastic measures and issued the Emancipation Proclamation after only a few years. The Civil War and seccession was not only a tactical and strategic error for the South, but rapidly brought about just what the Southerners were fighting to prevent.
The President wanted Anderson to relay his message to other Republicans which he did. At that time the Southern racists were almost all members of the Southern bloc of the Democratic Party. Most Republicans were then advocates of non discrimination. By 2010 virtually all the racists, nativists, neo Nazis, anti Catholics, and anti Semites had gravitated to the Republican party if they were still active in politics. Reasonable Republicans were embarrassed as reasonable Democrats had been before the shift which resulted from passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
This newspaper editorial has historical importance for two reasons. First, it is yet another proof that the sole reason for southern secession was slavery. Second, note the implication that Lincoln had Negro ancestry. As that could be the only reason that he would hold his views on slavery. This disreputable tactic of slandering opponents who hold different views have extended to German ancestry in WWI, Catholic religion, communist affiliation, and in one of the more recent examples, the accusation—believed by a number of Americans, that President Obama was a secret Muslim.
The logic of Southern secession made so little sense to most Northerners, that they assumed that after the election, the Southern threats of treason and rebellion would stop. Most Northerners did not appreciate that Southerners had little economic vision absent slavery and could not imagine how they could survive. For the Northerners, they had seen great economic growth with free labor and no slavery. But most Southerners were ignorant of the possibilities except for the few very wealthy Southern families who had seen the North and England. They realized that the South could make it economically, but they whose total fortunes came from the ownership value of slaves, might not be in their exalted positions without slavery. At the time, the value of the Southern slaves was greater than the value of all the land, factories, mines, and farms of the South.
Describing Abraham Lincoln’s attitude towards others:
Referring to the 1860 Republican presidential nomination of Abraham Lincoln over William H. Seward:
He was the Russian Reformer who ended serfdom and gave land to the peasants and then was assassinated. Ironically, both Alexander II and Lincoln were assassinated—because of their reform efforts—Lincoln for going too far; the Czar for not going far enough. See the Nickname that was given to the Czar: {622809}.
Douglas was the first Black who had been a guest at an Inaugural Party. The President asked Douglas for his assessment of the Inaugural Address,
Note that he referred to the “martyred President” as if Lincoln had recently been assassinated. It was actually 33 years after, and many of his audience had lived through what for most was their greatest national trauma. Springfield was the hometown of Lincoln and many in the audience had served under Lincoln in the Union Army. At that time, a statement like this praising Blacks was hated in the South, and unusual even in the North. However, politically the Solid South then always voted for the Democrats, so he and his party would never win any Southern States anyway, but the KKK was active in Illinois and many other Northern States. Adjacent Indiana was the headquarters of the KKK. There was much racism in the North so this speech was quite courageous. Republican Presidents Hayes, McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt made significant inroads in the racial problem and brought Blacks into Federal jobs. The progress, however, was totally undone by Woodrow Wilson who fired most Blacks who had gotten Federal jobs. Wilson needed the Southern legislators which was a major component of his party. He also came from New Jersey which had a strong KKK element who pressured him. Jim Crowe, the KKK and racism increased and the Republican Presidents thereafter did little for Civil rights. The great progress was made by Democratic Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Truman, and Lyndon Johnson and the Democratic Party replaced the Republicans as the Civil Rights party, and the Southern Democratic politicians switched to the Republican Party ending its traditional leadership in race relations
When the first Southern States seceded, each appointed a whose job it was to persuade the other Southern States to also secede. In this case Hale was marketing secession to Kentucky which with Maryland were the only two Southern States to reject what they regarded as treason and rebellion. The importance of the quotation however is in his argument which was all based on enmity to racial equality and abolition. Later Southern apologists would argue that the Civil War was fought, not about slavery and racism butt about different philosophies of government. See {623715} .
Johnson was Vice President at the time. What he did not realize at the time was that one of the plotters was supposed to have killed him at the same time as the others, but the assassin got cold feet at the last minute and never entered Johnson’s house.
After attending a Lincoln speech, Booth said to Lewis Powell, one of his band of conspirators, “Now, by God, I’ll put him through. That is the last speech he will ever make.”
Samuel Colt, 1814–1862, was the inventor and manufacturer of the six gun which was available for about half a cowboy’s monthly wage ($17) and, in effect, put all men on an equal footing in individual conflicts.
The original plan was to kidnap Lincoln from Ford’s Theater and hold him as ransom for Confederate Prisoners of War. However, other conspirators thought it would be difficult to spirit the President out of the theater. Actually, after Booth attended a Lincoln speech, he changed his mind and changed the objective to assassination. See {623953}.
Lieber in 1860 was assigned by President Lincoln to study the then international laws of war and prepare a manual for the guidance of union troops in the Civil War. Lincoln then issued the document as a general order, and much of today’s military rules of conduct came from that effort.
Phelps was a Copperhead Democrat who was a virulent racist, an enemy of Lincoln and supported McClellan against Lincoln in 1864. His extreme disrespect for the President and his racism was not appreciated in Vermont, and Phelps not only failed to help McClellan but destroyed his own credibility in his home state of Vermont. Phelps had been practicing law in New York City where there was a large Copperhead, racist and anti-Lincoln part of the popullation.
This was the first of the famous Lincoln-Douglas Debates. The men were contesting for the U. S. Senate. Douglas won the election.
This was the first of the famous Lincoln-Douglas Debates. The men were contesting for the U. S. Senate. Douglas won the election.
This was the first of the famous Lincoln-Douglas Debates. The men were contesting for the U. S. Senate. Douglas won the election. Lincoln was one of the new Republicans, a third party that had been formed by appealing to people who had been dissatisfied with either of the two major parties—the Whigs and the Democrats—and joined the new Party. Neither of the two traditional parties could just cope with .the national polarization caused by the slavery issue. They had “kicked the can down the road” until there was violence breaking out in Kansas and elsewhere.
McClellan thought President Lincoln an oaf and toyed with the idea of taking over. Ironically, he was a terrible battle general and never would have any reasonable success on the battlefield.
This quotation is very important in that this is the first record that Lincoln had any doubts that he might not be able to preserve the Union.
He was absolutely right. Actually Lincoln has surpassed Washington. Most historians regard Lincoln as the greatest of the American Presidents.
The Republican candidates were campaigning for the Primary election in Illinois. Lincoln was the first and the greatest of the Republican Presidents and a great liberal. The Republicans used to be the more liberal of the two American major parties and even referred to themselves as “radicals.” However the political parties flip flopped over time and in the 2012 primary campaign the Republican candidates were outdoing each other to show who was the most conservative and could trash liberals the most. Pointing out this contradiction between the politics of the first and most popular Republican President and the then current crop of contenders was a little embarrassing to some Republicans and a powerful anti-current Republican message to independents and Democrats.
This is a wonderful contemporaneous assessment of Abraham Lincoln in his second year of his Presidency by America’s then greatest writer. He had met with Lincoln in the midst of the war and his first few lines reflect on that interview, given Lincoln’s great responsibilities and burden.
Shakespeare created many great political leaders, but Lincoln’s reality was, Vidal thought, greater than Shakespeare’s imagination.
Mencken was a brilliant and funny but pompous snob who had little respect for the average person.
Marx followed the American Civil War very closely. The freeing of the slaves caused an immediate social, moral and economic revolution, the results of which we live with today.
Actually, the Agriculture Department was one of Lincoln’s greatest achievements. The subsidies and corporate welfare came much later. The biggest benefits were the land grant collages where agricultural research improved the yields and productivity and the Agricultural Extension provided training and technical assistance to American farmers making the United States the most efficient agricultural producer in the world. The subsidies and corporate welfare had and has nothing to do with the positive initiatives that Lincoln envisioned.
At this point, there had hardly been any fighting and no outrages or war crimes were yet committed by either side. These would come later—more on the Confederate side as they did not want to take the limited resources they had from their troops to fulfil abstract obligations to prisoners of war or to civilians. A few deliberately chose to use terror tactics. The Union troops also at various points in the war got out of hand and looted personal property of civilians. But at this point, this proclamation was just lies and propaganda.
This quotation is fascinating and illustrates the depth and complexity of the problem facing Abraham Lincoln. Howell actually used the word “evil” to describe the abolitionists and their political efforts end slavery. He and other slave holders did not see slavery and the murder, brutality, and torture that went with it as evil. After the Presidential years of James Buchanan who protected the South from slavery reform and abolition as the North was gaining political power and the abolitionists were having a greater and greater effect on public opinion in the North. While Southerners did not believe Lincoln would emancipate the slaves, they realized that the majority of the growing nation was opposed to slavery, and more and more Northern states were passing laws making any slave who sets foot in the State a free person. Slaves could not only have more reason to run away, but slave owners would not be able to get their “property” back. Lincoln would not help the South as Buchanan did, and the Southerners realized that over time, slavery would no longer be feasible or profitable. Cobb, very experienced at Washington politics, realized the changes that would come and thought that they would be “certain and speedy.”—see {620555}. Lincoln had been elected a month earlier and without Buchanan as President to protect the institution of slavery, the anti-slavery majority of the country would prevail unless the South seceded. Cobb was one of the strong advocates. 6 days later, the Georgia legislature called for a convention to debate secession. The irony was that if the South had not seceded and simply dragged its feet legislatively, it would have taken two or three decades for slavery to end. However, by seceding and initially fighting so hard and well while weak Union generals were in command, Lincoln was forced to try more drastic measures and issued the Emancipation Proclamation after only a few years. The Civil War and secession was not only a tactical and strategic error for the South, but rapidly brought about just what the Southerners were fighting to prevent.
It is often said that “elections have consequences”. The 1960 election was one that certainly had profound consequences. Lincoln was unwilling to force the Northern states to return fugitive slaves against the constitution, laws and will of the people of those states as Buchanan said he was (but had a hard time doing). Also Lincoln was unwilling to allow new territories to enter the union if they allowed slavery. In the end, most pro Slavery politicians realized that with the greater growth rate of the North, they Southern disproportionate power in the Congress was doomed as would be the institution of slavery itself. Crittendon a strong Unionist from a border state, understood the implication of Lincoln’s election for the Union.
Everett, considered a great orator, spoke at Gettysburg before Lincoln, but he went on for 2 hours. Hardly anyone recalls his speech. His complement was contemporary praise indeed and right on in the view of Americans of future generations.
There are many theories as to why McClellan was so reluctant to attack even when he had more guns, more men, and better field position, but he almost always came up with a reason. Some historians believe that he really sympathized with the South and wanted the Union to end the war by allowing slavery to continue in the South. McClellan disliked Lincoln and even ran against him for President in 1864. Halleck was McClellan’s superior as General in Chief, but he could not get McClellan to attack any more than the President or others could. When Lincoln fired McClellan, things turned around with the Army of the Potomac.
Lincoln was under enormous stress, and many noticed how he was aging in the Presidency. The photographic records corroborate this.
At the beginning of the Civil War, Lincoln and many of the Union politicians hoped that the South would “come to its senses” and end the rebellion. As a result, they did not want to take all the draconian steps that they were able to. They wanted to give the Southern moderates room to maneuver and persuade the firebrands. However, there was a fundamental issue at stake—slavery—where there was no real compromise left that would have any lasting effect. The slaveholders would be destroyed in their view—possibly by the war, but certainly in the Union where the majority was strongly opposed to slavery on moral grounds.
At the time, the prevailing federal policy was to return fugitive slaves to their owners. Lincoln was intent on keeping Kentucky and Maryland, both slave states, in the union, even at the cost of returning fugitive slaves. Shortly after, he came up with the policy of always returning fugitive slaves except in the rebellious states of the confederacy where the slaves were legally defined as ‘contraband’—war material, and thus could be seized by Union forces. Many fugitive slaves were thus employed by the Union for construction projects. Later, the Emancipation Proclamation set the slaves of the Confederacy free.
Lincoln took the advice of avoiding pledges or promises. However, he did actively campaign.
Pinkerton worked out a plan to spirit Lincoln through Baltimore where he had to change trains.
The Republican Party leadership at the time was extremely isolationist. In addition, they were totally insensitive to the issues of freedom that was being denied people in many countries as a result of Nazi Fascist invasions, persecution of Jews, Gypsies and the mentally retarded and the Japanese Military atrocities in Asia.
The Professor just connected a telegraph wire to the balloon tether rope and the observer/telegraph operator in the balloon could describe in real time the position, deployment, weapons and strength of the Confederates. The information was picked up by the Union officers on the ground and a few seconds later by Washington where Abraham Lincoln, a brilliant innovator in the use of telegraph technology, had a telegraph office right next to the White House. Observational intelligence was in real time reaching the Commander in Chief and the war planners not unlike the functionality of a modern observational drone. The graphic is a photo of that balloon preparing for launch.
Oates was a Confederate Colonel during the Civil War. His statement almost started a brawl as the Memorial Dedication was a joint North-South participation event. Northern politicians, officers and men were outraged and rose to their feet with several mounting the rostrum to refute Oates intemperate remarks. However, like Southern politicians of the 1960s, they produced a lot of redneck support with such extreme statements. The main reason this quotation is important is that most politicians of North and South wanted to get the animosity of the Civil War over with and to do so sponsored these memorial events where both sides could celebrate and remember the bravery of men fighting and dying for their cause. The photographs of former enemies shaking hands which the newspapers ran frequently, would give the impression that by the 1880s the hatred and animosity of the Civil War was behind the nation. However, that was not at all true. Most veterans of both sides maintained their hatreds throughout their entire lives. Even their children carried the hatred into the next generation. Politicians were expected to not open the scabs of the old wounds in public, but many like Oates found political utility in not doing so. The moral outrage of many in the North remained until WWII when regional unity genuinely transcended the Civil War. See {639364} for a Northern example with no political motive but with uncontrollable moral outrage.
Because of his anti-Vietnam War activities he was frequently accused of hating America.
Although Great Britain had abolished slavery, British economic interests during the Civil War suffered because of the Northern blockade of the South. Much political opinion in England was hostile to the blockade policies of the Union. Bright, a great admirer and supporter of the United Sates and the Union cause was concerned that the United States might drift into War with Great Britain. His letter to Senator Sumner was written with the understanding that it would be in shared with President Lincoln, and it was actually read at a cabinet meeting.
He had is slightly wrong. He also printed another error—that Lee and Defeated Grant in a Battle. Seward, although very badly wounded, survived.
America’s first political economist. This is a wonderful quotation which shows the compromises that even a great president like Abraham Lincoln had to act when Congress passed must have bills.
The Tea Party faction of the Republican Party was opposed to government doing much of anything other than Defense and Foreign Policy. The regular Republicans saw a much more extensive and robust role of government though few did so to the extent of Abraham Lincoln and the other founders of the Republican Party. The Tea Party faction, although in the minority of the Republican Caucus really controlled the Congressional Caucus by their tactics of trashing any Republicans who had views or voted differently from them, and intimidated the other faction by Running Tea Party candidates against the fellow Republicans in the Primary elections.
Reporting on public dissent following Abraham Lincoln's election.
Describing the situation follow Abraham Lincoln's election.
The government relationship to people phrase, although probably Lincoln's most famous, was not totally original. John Adams came close in a 1774 proclamation. As did John Marshall in his McCulloch v. Maryland decision. Daniel Webster's Speech on Foot's Resolution was very close. as was Theodore Parker in 1850 {629578}. There was also Thomas Cooper in 1795. But the earliest appears to be John Wycliffe in 1382 {567292}. It is not known with which of these Lincoln was familiar.
This quote is often misattributed to Abraham Lincoln. It has not been found in any of his writings. The use of a chiasmus (a rhetorical device reversing word order in successive clauses) is very uncharacteristic of Abraham Lincoln's speech or writing. Quote Investigator (QI) credits {Edward J. Stieglitz} as the originator (although its possible his advertising copywriter was the source).
Frequently quoted by Earl Warren
In 1862 after a Sioux uprising, a U. S. military commission condemned 303 Indians to death. The President personally reviewed the records of each case and pardoned most. On December 26, 1862 the largest public execution in American history took place with 38 Indians hanged. Lincoln's decision to commute most of the sentences was not politically popular and in the 1864 election the Republican vote margin in Minnesota was smaller than before. Minnesota Senator Alexander Ramsey told Lincoln that he should have hanged more Indians and obtained a bigger majority.
- Born: February 12, 1809
- Died: April 15, 1865
- Nationality: American
- Profession: President
Abraham Lincoln was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. In doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy.
