Civil+War+Project

__** Abraham **** Lincoln’s Presidency **__

__**When and how he was elected**__

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its greatest constitutional, military, and moral crises the American Civil War preserving the Union, abolishing slavery, strengthening the national government and modernizing the economy. Reared in a poor family on the western frontier, Lincoln was self-educated, and became a country lawyer, a Whig Party leader, Illinois state legislator during the 1830s, and a one-term member of the United States House of Representatives during the 1840s.

__**Policies of his Administration**__

When he was 23, Lincoln announced his candidacy for the Illinois General Assembly. Although he didn’t have formal education or a significant amount of money, he was popular among the people of his county. He ran on the issue of improvements to the Sangamon River, and he promised navigational improvements for the river if he was elected. Although he didn't win the election, he came in eighth out of the thirteen candidates. He also won the vast majority of votes from the county which esteemed him. In 1834, he ran again and won the election for state legislature. After this, Lincoln decided that he wanted to become a lawyer, and began to teach himself the law by reading. He was admitted to the bar in 1837, and began his career as a successful lawyer. In 1846, Lincoln was elected to the House of Representatives, and he served a two year term. He was considered a member of the Whig party, and often sided with the party in his votes and speeches. He gave a number of speeches against the Mexican-American War, and criticized President Polk for entering into it. Lincoln demanded that Polk show Congress that spot where American blood had first been shed by the Mexican army, although Congress did side with Lincoln on this issue. His demand, however, earned him the nickname of “Spotty Lincoln.”

__**Ideas on Slavery**__

Abraham Lincoln's position on slavery was one of the central issues in American history. Lincoln often expressed moral opposition to slavery in public and private. Initially, he expected to bring about the eventual extinction of slavery by stopping its further expansion into any U.S. territory, and by proposing compensated emancipation an offer Congress applied to Washington, D.C. in his early presidency. Lincoln stood by the Republican Party platform in 1860, which stated that slavery should not be allowed to expand into any more territories. Lincoln believed that the extension of slavery in the South, Mid-west, and Western lands would inhibit "free labor on free soil". In the 1850s, Lincoln was politically attacked as an abolitionist, but he did not consider himself one; he did not call for the immediate end of slavery everywhere in the U.S. until the proposed thirteenth Amendment became part of his party platform for the 1864 election.

__**Major bills/Amendments/Laws passed during his presidency**__


 * He was the commander of chief during the civil war and becoming our 16th president and being devoted to his family. He also accomplished one of his major goals which was to end slavery, and he has his face on the five $5 bill.
 * Abraham Lincoln made the decision to fight to prevent the nation from splitting apart.
 * Abraham Lincoln was an unfaltering commander in chief during the Civil War which preserved the United States as one nation.
 * Abraham Lincoln's foreign policy was successful in preventing other countries from intervening in America's Civil War.
 * Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which began the process of freedom for America's slaves. The document also allowed black soldiers to fight for the Union.
 * Abraham Lincoln was a strong supporter of the Thirteenth Amendment that formally ended slavery in the United States.
 * Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, the Morrill Act, the National Banking Act, and a bill that chartered the first transcontinental railroad.
 * Abraham Lincoln set an example of strong character, leadership, and honesty which succeeding presidents tried to emulate. Barack Obama is the latest to look to Lincoln as a model.
 * Abraham Lincoln gave a series of great speeches before and during his presidency including the House Divided Speech, the Cooper Union Address, the First Inaugural Address, the Gettysburg Address, and the Second Inaugural Address.
 * Abraham Lincoln wrote a series of famous letters including the letters to Grace Bedell, Horace Greeley, Fanny McCullough, and Lydia Bixby.
 * Abraham Lincoln's quotes are among the most famous in the world.
 * Abraham Lincoln is one of the reasons that slavery was abolished. Abraham Lincoln's foreign policy was successful in preventing other countries from intervening in America's Civil War.

__**Personal Life**__


 * NAME: Abraham Lincoln
 * OCCUPATION: Civil Rights Activist, Lawyer,U.S. President, U.S. Representative
 * BIRTH DATE: February 12, 1809
 * DEATH DATE: April 15, 1865
 * PLACE OF BIRTH: Hodgenville, Kentucky
 * PLACE OF DEATH: Washington, D.C.
 * FULL NAME: Abraham Lincoln
 * NICKNAME: Honest Abe
 * NICKNAME: The Great Emancipator

Lincoln lived in Kentucky, until a land dispute forced his father to move to Indiana, when Lincoln was a boy. There Lincoln lost his mother at age 9, and gained a new step-mother. As was common on the frontier, Lincoln received little formal education. In his young adulthood, he moved with his family to Illinois, where he worked as a boatman, store clerk, surveyor, militia soldier, and ultimately a lawyer. He was elected to the Illinois Legislature, and to the United States Congress from Illinois. In 1842, he married Mary Todd; they had four sons.

__**Assassination**__

The assassination of United States President Abraham Lincoln took place on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, as the American Civil War was drawing to a close. The assassination occurred five days after the commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, General Robert E. Lee, surrendered to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant and the Union Army of the Potomac. Lincoln was the first American president to be assassinated, though an unsuccessful attempt had been made on Andrew Jackson 30 years before in 1835. The assassination was planned and carried out by the well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth, as part of a larger conspiracy in a bid to revive the Confederate cause.

__**Essential Question**__

How did Abraham Lincoln's Presidency effect the Civil War?

The South thought that Lincoln would free all of the slaves, and that is what the Southern economy relied on. The election of Lincoln in 1864 also saw the election of new, mainly abolitionist members of Congress, and many Southern states had already moved toward secession from the Union.