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104-550: In March 1864, president Abraham Lincoln asked Congress to construct the hospital. It was constructed in July 1866, for $ 115,000. Designed to accommodate 50 patients, the new hospital had good ventilation, running water, and gas lighting. In 1906, the hospital moved to its new facility at Observatory Hill, 23rd Street, and E Streets, N.W. In 1922, the building became the Temporary Home for Veterans of All Wars. The property

208-655: A log cabin in Kentucky and was raised on the frontier , mainly in Indiana . He was self-educated and became a lawyer, Whig Party leader, Illinois state legislator , and U.S. representative from Illinois . In 1849, he returned to his successful law practice in Springfield, Illinois . In 1854, angered by the Kansas–Nebraska Act , which opened the territories to slavery, he re-entered politics. He soon became

312-480: A raconteur , but lacked the requisite formal education, powerful friends, and money, and lost the election. 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. Lincoln served as New Salem's postmaster and later as county surveyor, but continued his voracious reading and decided to become a lawyer. Rather than studying in

416-624: A "worse tyrant and more inhuman butcher than has existed since the days of Nero ... The man who votes for Lincoln now is a traitor and murderer ... And if he is elected to misgovern for another four years, we trust some bold hand will pierce his heart with dagger point for the public good". The Copperheads sometimes talked of violent resistance and, in some cases, started to organize. However, they never actually made an organized attack. As war opponents, Copperheads were suspected of disloyalty, and their leaders were sometimes arrested and held for months in military prisons without trial. One famous example

520-617: A Federal investigation thwarted his " Northwest Conspiracy ". Despite this Copperhead setback, tensions remained high. The Charleston Riot took place in Illinois in March 1864. Indiana Republicans then used the sensational revelation of an antiwar Copperhead conspiracy by elements of the Sons of Liberty to discredit Democrats in the 1864 House elections . The military trial of Lambdin P. Milligan and other Sons of Liberty revealed plans to set free

624-460: A bit too far. There was some real fire under that smokescreen of Republican propaganda". Jennifer Weber's Copperheads: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln's Opponents in the North (2006) agrees more with Gray and Milton than with Klement. She argues that first, Northern antiwar sentiment was strong, so strong that Peace Democrats came close to seizing control of their party in mid-1864. Second, she shows

728-509: 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. 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

832-518: A condition now thought to be clinical depression . Later in life, Mary struggled with the stresses of losing her husband and sons, and in 1875 Robert committed her to an asylum. 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

936-484: A despot and dunce. Although he supported the war effort in 1861, he blamed abolitionists for prolonging the war and denounced the government as increasingly despotic. By 1864, he was calling for peace at any price. John Mullaly 's Metropolitan Record was the official Catholic newspaper in New York City. Reflecting Irish American opinion, it supported the war until 1863 before becoming a Copperhead organ. In

1040-490: A disciple of Henry Clay". Their party favored economic modernization in banking, tariffs to fund internal improvements including railroads, and urbanization. In 1843, Lincoln sought the Whig nomination for Illinois's 7th district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives ; he was defeated by John J. Hardin , though he prevailed with the party in limiting Hardin to one term. Lincoln not only pulled off his strategy of gaining

1144-594: A federal court for his freedom. His petition was denied in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857). 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

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1248-594: 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". On January 27, 1838, Abraham Lincoln, then 28 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

1352-737: A group largely loyal to Chase, Lincoln shrewdly made no reference to either of these Republican rivals for the nomination." In response to an inquiry about his ambitions, Lincoln said, "The taste is in my mouth a little". On May 9–10, 1860, the Illinois Republican State Convention was held in Decatur . Lincoln's followers organized a campaign team led by David Davis , Norman Judd , Leonard Swett , and Jesse DuBois, and Lincoln received his first endorsement. Exploiting his embellished frontier legend (clearing land and splitting fence rails), Lincoln's supporters adopted

1456-438: A household including her father, nine-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". Dennis Hanks said he

1560-692: A killing of American soldiers by Mexican cavalry patrol in disputed territory, and Polk insisted that Mexican soldiers had "invaded our territory and shed the blood of our fellow-citizens on our own soil". Lincoln demanded that Polk show Congress the exact spot on which blood had been shed and prove that the spot was on American soil. The resolution was ignored in both Congress and the national papers, and it cost Lincoln political support in his district. One Illinois newspaper derisively nicknamed him "spotty Lincoln". Lincoln later regretted some of his statements, especially his attack on presidential war-making powers. Lincoln had pledged in 1846 to serve only one term in

1664-585: A largely Copperhead platform and selected Ohio Representative George Pendleton , a Peace Democrat, as the vice-presidential candidate. However, it chose a pro-war presidential candidate, General George B. McClellan . The contradiction severely weakened the party's chances to defeat Lincoln. The values of the Copperheads reflected the Jacksonian democracy of an earlier agrarian society. The Copperhead movement attracted Southerners who had settled north of

1768-611: 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 . They formed the Confederate States of America, which began seizing federal military bases in

1872-581: A mail bag from a state now in the Confederacy: A day or two since, when one of the mail-bags coming from the South by way of Alexandria, was emptied in the court-yard of the Post-office, a box fell out and was broken open, – from which two copperheads, one four and a half and the other three feet long, crawled out. The larger one was benumbed and easily killed; the other was very lively and venomous and

1976-580: A patent for a flotation device for the movement of boats in shallow water. The idea was never commercialized, but it made Lincoln the only president to hold a patent. Lincoln appeared before the Illinois Supreme Court in 175 cases; he was sole counsel in 51 cases, of which 31 were decided in his favor. From 1853 to 1860, one of his largest clients was the Illinois Central Railroad . His legal reputation gave rise to

2080-675: A series of trials in 1864. Copperheadism was a highly contentious grassroots movement. It had its strongest base just north of the Ohio River and in some urban ethnic wards. In the State of Ohio, perhaps in contrast with Indiana and Illinois, the counties that had Peace Democrat majorities tended not to be along the Ohio River, but more in the central and northwestern portions of the state. Historians such as Wood Gray , Jennifer Weber and Kenneth M. Stampp have argued that it represented

2184-476: A species of venomous snake. Those Democrats embraced the moniker, reinterpreting the copper "head" as the likeness of Liberty, which they cut from Liberty Head large cent coins and proudly wore as badges. By contrast, Democratic supporters of the war were called War Democrats . Notable Copperheads included two Democratic Congressmen from Ohio: Reps. Clement L. Vallandigham and Alexander Long . Republican prosecutors accused some prominent Copperheads of treason in

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2288-491: A success over a powerful Whig opponent. Then followed his four terms in the Illinois House of Representatives for Sangamon County . He championed construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal , and later was a Canal Commissioner. He voted to expand suffrage beyond white landowners to all white males, but adopted a "free soil" stance opposing both slavery and abolition . In 1837, he declared, "[The] Institution of slavery

2392-546: A total of fewer than 12 months in aggregate by age 15. Nonetheless, he remained an avid reader and retained a lifelong interest in learning. Family, neighbors, and schoolmates recalled that his readings 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

2496-607: A traditionalistic element alarmed at the rapid modernization of society sponsored by the Republican Party and that it looked back to Jacksonian democracy for inspiration. Weber argues that the Copperheads damaged the Union war effort by opposing conscription , encouraging desertion , and forming conspiracies. Still, other historians say that the draft was already in disrepute and that the Republicans greatly exaggerated

2600-604: A way of life that he thought was being destroyed by the current rulers of his country. His bold protests against these dangerous trends made him the idol of the Democracy of the Wabash Valley . Two central questions have run through the historiography of the Copperheads: "How serious a threat did they pose to the Union war effort and hence to the nation's survival?" and "To what extent and with what justification did

2704-622: Is founded on both injustice and bad policy, but the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its evils." 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 . He was admitted to the Illinois bar on September 9, 1836, and moved to Springfield and began to practice law under John T. Stuart , Mary Todd's cousin. Lincoln emerged as

2808-855: Is still owned by the federal government but its jurisdiction was transferred to the District of Columbia in 1962. The building was vacant for many years. The Friends of the Old Naval Hospital has raised money to restore the building, at an estimated cost of $ 12 million. The plan is for the Hill Center to be a facility for education and community life on Capitol Hill. Restoration started in June 2010. [REDACTED] Media related to Old Naval Hospital at Wikimedia Commons Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( / ˈ l ɪ ŋ k ən / LINK -ən ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865)

2912-460: Is the strong man of the party ... and if I beat him, my victory will be hardly won." 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. The principals stood in stark contrast both physically and politically. Lincoln warned that

3016-648: The 1864 presidential election , when they were used to discredit the leading Democratic candidates. Copperhead support increased when Union armies did poorly and decreased when they won great victories. After the fall of Atlanta in September 1864, Union military success seemed assured, and Copperheadism collapsed. A possible origin of the name came from a New York Times newspaper account in April 1861 that stated that when postal officers in Washington, D.C., opened

3120-563: The Colored Orphan Asylum , an orphanage for 233 black children. On August 19, 1864, John Mullaly was arrested for inciting resistance to the draft. Even in an era of extremely partisan journalism, Copperhead newspapers were remarkable for their angry rhetoric. Wisconsin newspaper editor Marcus M. Pomeroy of the La Crosse Democrat referred to Lincoln as "Fungus from the corrupt womb of bigotry and fanaticism" and

3224-539: The Illinois Militia during the Black Hawk War . 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 beverages, Berry obtained bartending licenses for $ 7 each for Lincoln and himself, and in 1833

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3328-634: The Knights of the Golden Circle . Formed in Ohio in the 1850s, it became politicized in 1861. It reorganized as the Order of American Knights in 1863 and again in early 1864 as the Order of the Sons of Liberty, with Vallandigham as its commander. One leader, Harrison H. Dodd , advocated the violent overthrow of the governments of Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and Missouri in 1864. Democratic Party leaders and

3432-488: 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. Although the economy was booming,

3536-702: The Ohio River , and the poor and merchants who had lost profitable Southern trade. They were most numerous in border areas, including southern parts of Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana (in Missouri, comparable groups were avowed Confederates). The movement had scattered bases of support outside the lower Midwest. A Copperhead element in Connecticut dominated the Democratic Party there. The Copperhead coalition included many Irish American Catholics in eastern cities, mill towns and mining camps (especially in

3640-636: 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, 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

3744-646: 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 became one of

3848-555: 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. In January 1860, Lincoln told a group of political allies that he would accept the presidential nomination if offered and, in

3952-635: The Confederate prisoners held in the state. The culprits were sentenced to hang, but the Supreme Court intervened in Ex parte Milligan , saying they should have received civilian trials. Most Copperheads actively participated in politics. On May 1, 1863, former Congressman Vallandigham declared that the war was being fought not to save the Union but to free the blacks and enslave Southern whites. The U.S. Army then arrested him for declaring sympathy for

4056-686: The Fifth Column , which likewise condemned the traitorous Copperheads and praised Lincoln as a model defender of democracy. Gilbert R. Tredway , a professor of history, in his 1973 study Democratic Opposition to the Lincoln Administration in Indiana found most Indiana Democrats were loyal to the Union and desired national reunification. He documented Democratic counties in Indiana having outperformed Republican counties in recruiting soldiers. Tredway found that Copperhead sentiment

4160-608: The House. Realizing Clay was unlikely to win the presidency, he supported General Zachary Taylor for the Whig nomination in the 1848 presidential election . Taylor won and Lincoln hoped in vain to be appointed Commissioner of the United States General Land Office . The administration offered to appoint him secretary or governor of the Oregon Territory as consolation. This distant territory

4264-555: The Know-Nothings nominated former Whig President Millard Fillmore . Buchanan prevailed, while Republican William Henry Bissell won election as Governor of Illinois, and Lincoln became a leading Republican in Illinois. 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

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4368-563: The Lincoln administration and other Republican officials violate civil liberties to contain the perceived menace?" The first book-length scholarly treatment of the Copperheads was The Hidden Civil War: The Story of the Copperheads (1942) by Wood Gray . In it, Gray decried the "defeatism" of the Copperheads and argued that they deliberately served the Confederacy's war aims. Also in 1942, George Fort Milton published Abraham Lincoln and

4472-573: The Moon was at a low angle, drastically reducing visibility. Armstrong was acquitted. In an 1859 murder case, leading up to his presidential campaign, Lincoln elevated his profile with his defense of Simeon Quinn "Peachy" Harrison, who was a third cousin; Harrison was also the grandson of Lincoln's political opponent, Rev. Peter Cartwright . Harrison was charged with the murder of Greek Crafton who, as he lay dying of his wounds, confessed to Cartwright that he had provoked Harrison. Lincoln angrily protested

4576-811: 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. 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

4680-788: The Pennsylvania coal fields). They were also numerous in German Catholic areas of the Midwest , especially Wisconsin. Historian Kenneth Stampp has captured the Copperhead spirit in his depiction of Congressman Daniel W. Voorhees of Indiana: There was an earthy quality in Voorhees, "the tall sycamore of the Wabash." On the stump his hot temper, passionate partisanship, and stirring eloquence made an irresistible appeal to

4784-489: The President as a tyrant destroying American republican values with despotic and arbitrary actions. Some Copperheads tried to persuade Union soldiers to desert. They talked of helping Confederate prisoners of war seize their camps and escape. They sometimes met with Confederate agents and took money. The Confederacy encouraged their activities whenever possible. The Copperheads had numerous important newspapers, but

4888-543: 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,

4992-467: The U.S. as a nation. "It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher", said Lincoln. Prior to that, on April 28, 1836, a 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. True to his record, Lincoln professed to friends in 1861 to be "an old line Whig,

5096-591: The Union and abolish slavery. He is often ranked in both popular and scholarly polls as the greatest president in American history. 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 through subsequent generations migrated west, passing through New Jersey , Pennsylvania , and Virginia . Lincoln

5200-399: 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." The speech created a stark image of the danger of disunion. The stage was then set for the election of the Illinois legislature which would, in turn, select Lincoln or Douglas. When informed of Lincoln's nomination, Douglas stated, "[Lincoln]

5304-419: 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." The new Republican Party was formed as a northern party dedicated to antislavery, drawing from

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5408-400: The abolitionists. 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. Though the Republican legislative candidates won more popular votes, the Democrats won more seats, and

5512-408: The antislavery wing of the Whig Party and combining Free Soil , Liberty , and antislavery Democratic Party members, Lincoln resisted early Republican entreaties, fearing that the new party would become a platform for extreme abolitionists. Lincoln held out hope for rejuvenating the Whigs, though he lamented his party's growing closeness with the nativist Know Nothing movement. In 1854, Lincoln

5616-405: 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. In the campaign, Lincoln advocated for navigational improvements on the Sangamon River . He could draw crowds as

5720-417: The conspiracies for partisan reasons. Historians such as Gray and Weber argue that the Copperheads were inflexibly rooted in the past and were naive about the refusal of the Confederates to return to the Union. Convinced that the Republicans were ruining the traditional world they loved, they were obstructionist partisans. In turn, the Copperheads became a significant target of the National Union Party in

5824-457: The dispute over slavery in the territories, the decision sparked further outrage in the North. Lincoln denounced it as the product of a conspiracy of Democrats to support the Slave Power . 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

5928-417: The early 1830s, he met Mary Owens from Kentucky. Late in 1836, Lincoln agreed to a match with Owens if she returned to New Salem. Owens arrived that November and he courted her; 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. In 1839, Lincoln met Mary Todd in Springfield, Illinois , and

6032-481: The editors never allied. In Chicago, Wilbur F. Storey made the Chicago Times into Lincoln's most vituperative enemy. The New York Journal of Commerce , originally abolitionist, was sold to owners who became Copperheads, giving them an important voice in the largest city. A typical editor was Edward G. Roddy , owner of the Uniontown, Pennsylvania Genius of Liberty . He was an intensely partisan Democrat who saw African Americans as an inferior race and Lincoln as

6136-437: The enemy. He was court-martialed by the Army and sentenced to imprisonment, but Lincoln commuted the sentence to banishment behind Confederate lines. The Democrats nevertheless nominated him for governor of Ohio in 1863. He left the Confederacy and went to Canada, where he campaigned for governor but lost after an intense battle. He operated behind the scenes at the 1864 Democratic convention in Chicago. This convention adopted

6240-633: 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 interest in 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. Speculation persists that Lincoln's first romantic interest

6344-426: The family moved to Indiana , where the land surveys and titles were more reliable. They settled in an "unbroken forest" in Hurricane Township, Perry County, Indiana . When the Lincolns moved to Indiana it "had just been admitted to the Union" as a "free" (non-slaveholding) state, except that, though "no new enslaved people were allowed, ... currently enslaved individuals remained so". In 1860, Lincoln noted that

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6448-509: 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 multiple farms in Kentucky, but could not get clear property titles to any, losing hundreds of acres of land in property disputes. In 1816,

6552-779: The family's move to Indiana was "partly on account of slavery", but mainly due to land title difficulties. 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 Baptist Church , which "condemned profanity, intoxication, gossip, horse racing, and dancing." Most of its members opposed slavery. Overcoming financial challenges, Thomas in 1827 obtained clear title to 80 acres (32 ha) in Indiana, an area that became known as Little Pigeon Creek Community . On October 5, 1818, Nancy Lincoln died from milk sickness , leaving 11-year-old Sarah in charge of

6656-413: 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

6760-453: The first time, Illinois Republicans held a convention to agree upon a Senate candidate, and Lincoln won the nomination with little opposition. 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

6864-414: The following months, several local papers endorsed his candidacy. 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

6968-402: The following year they became engaged. She was the daughter of Robert Smith Todd , a wealthy lawyer and businessman in Lexington, Kentucky . Their wedding, which was set for January 1, 1841, was canceled because Lincoln did not appear, but they reconciled and married on November 4, 1842, in the Springfield home of Mary's sister. While anxiously preparing for the nuptials, he was asked where he

7072-418: The judge's initial decision to exclude Cartwright's testimony about the confession as inadmissible hearsay . Lincoln argued that the testimony involved a dying declaration and was not subject to the hearsay rule. Instead of holding Lincoln in contempt of court as expected, the judge, a Democrat, reversed his ruling and admitted the testimony into evidence, resulting in Harrison's acquittal. The debate over

7176-412: The label of "The Rail Candidate". 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." 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

7280-448: 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." The deaths of their sons Eddie and Willie had profound effects on both parents. Lincoln suffered from " melancholy ",

7384-399: The legislature re-elected Douglas. However, Lincoln's articulation of the issues had given him a national political presence. 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. In the aftermath of

7488-710: The mainstream Democratic candidate, Joel Aldrich Matteson . 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

7592-478: The midst of the nation's western expansion, particularly river barge conflicts under the many new railroad bridges. As a riverboat man, Lincoln initially favored those interests, but ultimately represented whoever hired him. He later represented a bridge company against a riverboat company in Hurd v. Rock Island Bridge Company , a landmark case involving a canal boat that sank after hitting a bridge. In 1849 he received

7696-597: The most famous speeches in American history. 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 he averted war with Britain by defusing the Trent Affair . In 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation , which declared

7800-410: The nickname "Honest Abe". In an 1858 criminal trial, Lincoln represented William "Duff" Armstrong, who was on trial for the murder of James Preston Metzker. The case is famous for Lincoln's use of a fact established by judicial notice to challenge the credibility of an eyewitness. After an opposing witness testified to seeing the crime in the moonlight, Lincoln produced a Farmers' Almanac showing

7904-621: The nomination in 1846, but also won the election. He was the only Whig in the Illinois delegation, but as dutiful as any participated in almost all votes and made speeches that toed the party line. He was assigned to the Committee on Post Office and Post Roads and the Committee on Expenditures in the War Department . Lincoln teamed with Joshua R. Giddings on a bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia with compensation for

8008-401: 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. He later said of his legal education that "I studied with nobody." Lincoln's second state house campaign in 1834, this time as a Whig , was

8112-555: The old ways. Klement argued in the 1950s that the Copperheads' activities, especially their supposed participation in treasonous anti-Union secret societies, were mostly false inventions by Republican propaganda machines designed to discredit the Democrats at election time. Curry sees Copperheads as poor traditionalists battling against the railroads, banks, and modernization. In his standard history Battle Cry of Freedom (1988), James M. McPherson asserted Klement had taken "revision

8216-705: The owners, enforcement to capture fugitive slaves, and a popular vote on the matter. He dropped the bill when it eluded Whig support. On foreign and military policy, Lincoln spoke against the Mexican–American War , which he imputed President James K. Polk 's desire for "military glory — that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood". He supported the Wilmot Proviso , a failed proposal to ban slavery in any U.S. territory won from Mexico. Lincoln emphasized his opposition to Polk by drafting and introducing his Spot Resolutions . The war had begun with

8320-551: The peace sentiment led to deep divisions and occasional violence across the North. Third, Weber concluded that the peace movement deliberately weakened the Union military effort by undermining both enlistment and the operation of the draft. Indeed, Lincoln had to divert combat troops to retake control of New York City from the anti-draft rioters in 1863. Fourth, Weber shows how the attitudes of Union soldiers affected partisan battles back home. The soldiers' rejection of Copperheadism and overwhelming support for Lincoln's reelection in 1864

8424-475: The presidency. 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...." Lincoln's attacks on the Kansas–Nebraska Act marked his return to political life. Nationally

8528-552: The pursuit of happiness". 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. Some eastern Republicans supported Douglas for his opposition to the Lecompton Constitution and admission of Kansas as a slave state . Many Illinois Republicans resented this eastern interference. For

8632-527: The right and the wrong". Many in the audience thought he appeared awkward and even ugly. 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". 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

8736-589: The slaves in the states "in rebellion" to be free. It also directed the Army and Navy to "recognize and maintain the freedom of said 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

8840-433: The spring and summer of 1863, the paper urged its Irish working-class readers to pursue armed resistance to the draft passed by Congress earlier in the year. When the draft began in the city, working-class European Americans , largely Irish, responded with violent riots from July 13 to 16, lynching, beating and hacking to death more than 100 black New Yorkers and burning down black-owned businesses and institutions, including

8944-654: 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. In his 1852 eulogy for Clay, Lincoln highlighted the latter's support for gradual emancipation and opposition to "both extremes" on the slavery issue. As the slavery debate in the Nebraska and Kansas territories became particularly acrimonious, Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas proposed popular sovereignty as

9048-478: 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. 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

9152-464: 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

9256-581: The western Democracy [i.e. the Democratic Party]. His bitter cries against protective tariffs and national banks , his intense race prejudice , his suspicion of the eastern Yankee , his devotion to personal liberty , his defense of the Constitution and State's rights faithfully reflected the views of his constituents. Like other Jacksonian agrarians , he resented the political and economic revolution then in progress. Voorhees idealized

9360-485: Was Ann Rutledge , whom he met when he moved to New Salem. However, witness testimony, given decades afterward, showed a lack of any specific recollection of a romance between the two. Rutledge died on August 25, 1835, most likely of typhoid fever ; Lincoln took the death very hard, saying that he could not bear the idea of rain falling on Ann's grave. Lincoln sank into a serious episode of depression, and this gave rise to speculation that he had been in love with her. In

9464-736: Was "Honest Abe", unpolished but trustworthy. Copperhead (politics) In the 1860s, the Copperheads , also known as Peace Democrats , were a faction of the Democratic Party in the Union who opposed the American Civil War and wanted an immediate peace settlement with the Confederates . Republicans started labeling anti-war Democrats "Copperheads" after the eastern copperhead ( Agkistrodon contortrix ),

9568-399: Was General Ambrose Burnside 's 1863 General Order Number 38 , issued in Ohio, which made it an offense (to be tried in military court) to criticize the war in any way. The order was used to arrest Ohio congressman Clement L. Vallandigham when he criticized the order itself. However, Lincoln commuted his sentence but exiled him to the Confederacy. Probably the largest Copperhead group was

9672-503: Was a Democratic stronghold, and acceptance of the post would have disrupted his legal and political career in Illinois, so he declined and resumed his law practice. In his Springfield practice, Lincoln handled "every kind of business that could come before a prairie lawyer". Twice a year he appeared for 10 consecutive weeks in county seats in the Midstate county courts; this continued for 16 years. Lincoln handled transportation cases in

9776-606: 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

9880-576: 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. Lincoln "was remarkably fond of children" and the Lincolns were not considered to be strict with their own. In fact, Lincoln's law partner William H. Herndon would grow irritated when Lincoln brought his children to

9984-554: Was decisive in securing the Northern victory and the preservation of the Union. The Copperheads' appeal, she argues, waxed and waned with Union failures and successes in the field. There was no official flag for Copperheads they differed from area to area. Most accounts from that time indicate some flags had a white field white with the inscription "peace" and "nation." Other were American with 13 to 22 stars and 11-7 stripes these were known as "exclusionary flags". They mostly cut out

10088-493: Was dispatched with some difficulty and danger. What are we to think of a people who resort to such weapons of warfare. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the Copperheads nominally favored the Union and strongly opposed the war, about which they faulted abolitionists . They demanded immediate peace and resisted draft laws . They wanted President Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans ousted from power, seeing

10192-469: Was elected to the Illinois legislature, but before the term began in January he declined to take his seat so that he would be eligible to be a candidate in the upcoming U.S. Senate election. The year's elections showed the strong opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, and in the aftermath Lincoln sought election to the U.S. Senate. At that time, senators were elected by state legislatures. After leading in

10296-589: Was going and replied, "To hell, I suppose". 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. Lincoln was an affectionate husband and father of four sons, though his work regularly kept him away from home. The eldest, 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

10400-434: Was lazy, for all his "reading—scribbling—writing—ciphering—writing poetry". His stepmother acknowledged he did not enjoy "physical labor" but loved to read. 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. In Indiana at age seven, due to farm chores, he attended school only sporadically, for

10504-532: 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 his 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

10608-472: Was the 16th president of the United States , serving from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War , defending the nation as a constitutional union , defeating the Confederacy , playing a major role in the abolition of slavery , expanding the power of the federal government , and modernizing the U.S. economy . Lincoln was born into poverty in

10712-435: Was the recipient of honorary degrees later in life, including an honorary Doctor of Laws from Columbia University in June 1861. When Lincoln was a teen, his "father grew more and more to depend on him for the 'farming, grubbing, hoeing, making fences' necessary to keep the family afloat. He also regularly hired his son out to work ... and by law, he was entitled to everything the boy earned until he came of age". Lincoln

10816-471: Was uncommon among the rank-and-file Democrats in Indiana. The chief historians who look more favorably on the Copperheads are Richard O. Curry and Frank L. Klement . Klement devoted most of his career to debunking the idea that the Copperheads represented a danger to the Union. Klement and Curry have downplayed the treasonable activities of the Copperheads, arguing the Copperheads were traditionalists who fiercely resisted modernization and wanted to return to

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