Abraham Lincoln Listeni/ˈeɪbrəhæm ˈlɪŋkən/ (
February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) 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
Civil War—its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional and political crisis.[
1][2] In doing so, he preserved the
Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy.
Reared in a poor family on the western frontier, Lincoln was a self-educated lawyer in
Illinois, a
Whig Party leader, state legislator during the
1830s, and a one-term member of the
Congress during the
1840s. He promoted rapid modernization of the economy through banks, canals, railroads and tariffs to encourage the building of factories; he opposed the war with
Mexico in 1846. After a series of highly publicized debates in 1858, during which Lincoln spoke out against the expansion of slavery, he lost the
U.S. Senate race to his archrival,
Democrat Stephen A. Douglas.
Lincoln, a moderate from a swing state, secured the
Republican Party presidential nomination in
1860. With very little support in the slave states, Lincoln swept the
North and was elected president in 1860. His election prompted seven southern slave states to form the
Confederacy before he took the office. No compromise or reconciliation was found regarding slavery.
When the North enthusiastically rallied behind the Union after the
Confederate attack on
Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, Lincoln concentrated on the military and political dimensions of the war effort. His primary goal was always to reunite the nation. He suspended habeas corpus, arresting and temporarily detaining thousands of suspected secessionists in the border states without trial. Lincoln averted potential
British intervention by defusing the
Trent Affair in late 1861. His complex moves toward ending slavery centered on the
Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, using the
Army to protect escaped slaves, encouraging the border states to outlaw slavery, and helping push through Congress the
Thirteenth Amendment to the
United States Constitution, which permanently outlawed slavery. Lincoln closely supervised the war effort, especially the selection of top generals, including his most successful general
Ulysses S. Grant. He made the major decisions on Union war strategy.
Lincoln's Navy set up a naval blockade that shut down the
South's normal trade, helped take control of
Kentucky and
Tennessee, and gained control of the
Southern river system using gunboats. Lincoln tried repeatedly to capture the Confederate capital at
Richmond; each time a general failed, Lincoln substituted another, until finally Grant succeeded in 1865.
An exceptionally astute politician deeply involved with power issues in each state, Lincoln reached out to "
War Democrats" (who supported the North against the South), and managed his own re-election in the
1864 presidential election. As the leader of the moderate faction of the
Republican party, Lincoln confronted
Radical Republicans who demanded harsher treatment of the South, War Democrats who called for more compromise, antiwar
Democrats called Copperheads who despised him, and irreconcilable secessionists who plotted his death. Politically, Lincoln fought back by pitting his opponents against each other, by appealing to the
American people with his powers of oratory, and by carefully planned political patronage.[3] His
Gettysburg Address of 1863 became an iconic statement of
America's dedication to the principles of nationalism, republicanism, equal rights, liberty, and democracy. Lincoln held a moderate view of
Reconstruction, seeking to reunite the nation speedily through a policy of generous reconciliation in the face of lingering and bitter divisiveness. Six days after the surrender of Confederate commanding general
Robert E. Lee,
Lincoln was assassinated by
John Wilkes Booth, a noted actor and Confederate sympathizer.
Lincoln has been consistently ranked both by scholars[4] and the public[5] as one of the greatest
U.S. presidents.
- published: 13 Sep 2014
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