The presidency of Abraham Lincoln began on March 4, 1861, when Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as the 16th president of the United States , and ended upon his assassination on April 14, 1865 and death the next morning, 42 days into his second term. Lincoln was the first member of the recently established Republican Party elected to the presidency. Lincoln successfully presided over the Union victory in the American Civil War , which dominated his presidency and resulted in the end of slavery. He was succeeded by Vice President Andrew Johnson .
210-633: Lincoln took office following the 1860 presidential election , in which he won a plurality of the popular vote in a four-candidate field. Almost all of Lincoln's votes came from the Northern United States , as the Republicans held little appeal to voters in the Southern United States . A former Whig , Lincoln ran on a political platform opposed to the expansion of slavery in the territories . His election served as
420-519: A Doughface, and questioned his intellectual capacity for a high government position. In the end, Smith's selection for Secretary of the Interior had much to do with his campaign efforts on behalf of Lincoln and their friendship. Smith would serve less than two years before resigning due to poor health. He was replaced by John Palmer Usher . Southern Democrats had dominated the Supreme Court of
630-518: A Lincoln election. Nonetheless, loyal army officers in Virginia, Kansas and South Carolina warned Lincoln of military preparations to the contrary. Secessionists threw their support behind Breckinridge in an attempt either to force the anti-Republican candidates to coordinate their electoral votes or throw the election into the House of Representatives, where the selection of the president would be made by
840-622: A New England state for the cabinet. Hamlin recommended Gideon Welles of Connecticut, a former Democrat who had served in the Navy Department under President James K. Polk . Other influential Republicans concurred, and Welles became Secretary of the Navy . For the position of Interior Secretary, Lincoln chose Caleb Blood Smith of Indiana, a former Whig representing the same type of Midwestern constituency as Lincoln. His critics faulted him for some of his railroad ventures, accused him of being
1050-535: A New Englander and former member of Franklin Pierce 's cabinet. This larger group met immediately in Baltimore's Institute Hall, with Cushing again presiding. They adopted the pro-slavery platform rejected at Charleston, and nominated Vice President John C. Breckinridge for president, and Senator Joseph Lane from Oregon for vice president. Yancey and some (less than half) of the bolters - almost entirely from
1260-553: A North American Balkans. Instead, Abraham Lincoln did triumph in New York. He delivered a learned, witty, and exquisitely reasoned address that electrified his elite audience and, more important, reverberated in newspapers and pamphlets alike until it reached tens of thousands of Republican voters across the North. He had arrived at Cooper Union a politician with more defeats than victories, but he departed politically reborn. [...] At
1470-467: A ballot for Lincoln could theoretically have still voted for him by means of a write-in ballot provided his state had electors pledged to Lincoln and the voter knew their identities, casting a ballot in favor of the Republican candidate in a strongly pro-slavery county would have incurred (at minimum) social ostracization (of course, casting a vote for Breckinridge in a strongly abolitionist county ran
1680-482: A bitter feud. Bates outlined his positions on the extension of slavery into the territories and equal constitutional rights for all citizens, positions that alienated his supporters in the border states and Southern conservatives, while German Americans in the party opposed Bates because of his past association with the Know Nothings . Into this mix came Lincoln. He was not unknown; he had gained prominence in
1890-558: A bloc for him. Lincoln did not attend the convention in person and left the task of delegate wrangling to several close friends. The first round of voting predictably produced a lead for Seward, but not a majority, with Lincoln in second place. The second round eliminated most of the minor contenders, with voters switching mostly to Seward or Lincoln. The convention remained deadlocked, however, and skillful political maneuvering by Lincoln's delegate wranglers convinced some delegates to abandon Seward in favor of Lincoln. Lincoln's combination of
2100-591: A difficult task if he was to win the nomination. He set about ensuring that he was the second choice of most delegates, realizing that the first round of voting at the convention was unlikely to produce a clear winner. He engineered that the convention would happen in Chicago, which would be inherently friendly to the Illinois-based Lincoln. He also made sure that the Illinois delegation would vote as
2310-485: A discussion between Republicans and that wing of the Democracy headed by Senator Douglas. It simply leaves the inquiry: "What was the understanding those fathers had of the question mentioned?" ... The sum of the whole is, that of our thirty-nine fathers who framed the original Constitution, twenty-one—a clear majority of the whole—certainly understood that no proper division of local from federal authority, nor any part of
SECTION 10
#17327730383832520-575: A former one-term Whig Representative from Illinois. Its platform promised not to interfere with slavery in the South but opposed extension of slavery into the territories. The 1860 Democratic National Convention adjourned in Charleston, South Carolina , without agreeing on a nominee, but a second convention in Baltimore, Maryland , nominated Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas . Douglas's support for
2730-741: A high number of casualties, including the death of General Stonewall Jackson . Following the Confederate victory, Lee decided to take the offensive, launching the Gettysburg campaign in June 1863. Lee hoped that Confederate victories in the offensive would empower Lincoln's political opponents and convince the North that the Union could not win the war. After Hooker failed to stop Lee in the early stages of his advance, Lincoln replaced Hooker with General George Meade . Lee led his army into Pennsylvania, and
2940-510: A letter in which he stated that his health had been so poor that he had not been able to be away from home since 1858. Nonetheless, he remained popular in the party because he had helped inspire some of John Brown's supporters at the Raid on Harpers Ferry . In his letter, Smith donated $ 50 to pay for the printing of ballots in the various states. There was quite a spirited contest between the friends of Gerrit Smith and William Goodell in regard to
3150-603: A low profile, led to critics and cartoonists accusing him of sneaking into Washington in disguise. Lincoln met with Buchanan and Congressional leaders shortly after arriving in Washington. He also worked to complete his cabinet, meeting with Republican Senators to obtain their feedback. Lincoln, aware that his inaugural address would be delivered in an atmosphere filled with fear and anxiety, and amid an unstable political landscape, sought guidance from colleagues and friends as he prepared it. Among those whose counsel Lincoln sought
3360-485: A man among you is in favor of federal prohibition of slavery in federal territories, according to the practice of "our fathers who framed the Government under which we live". Not one of all your various plans can show a precedent or an advocate in the century within which our Government originated. Consider, then, whether your claim of conservatism for yourselves and your charge of destructiveness against us, are based on
3570-468: A meeting on March 7, General Winfield Scott , the top-ranking general in the army, and John G. Totten , the army's chief engineer, said that simply reinforcing the fort was not possible, although Secretary of the Navy Welles disagreed. Scott advised Lincoln that it would take a large fleet, 25,000 troops, and several months of training in order to defend the fort. On March 13, Postmaster General Blair,
3780-525: A moderate stance on slavery, long support for economic issues, his western origins, and strong oratory proved to be exactly what the delegates wanted in a president. On the third ballot on May 18, Lincoln secured the presidential nomination overwhelmingly. Senator Hannibal Hamlin from Maine was nominated for vice president, defeating Clay. Hamlin was surprised by his nomination, saying he was "astonished" and that he "neither expected nor desired it." The party platform promised not to interfere with slavery in
3990-748: A murderer!" To be sure, what the robber demanded of me—my money—was my own; and I had a clear right to keep it; but it was no more my own than my vote is my own; and the threat of death to me, to extort my money, and the threat of destruction to the Union, to extort my vote, can scarcely be distinguished in principle. ... These natural, and apparently adequate means all failing, what will convince them? This, and this only: cease to call slavery wrong, and join them in calling it right. And this must be done thoroughly - done in acts as well as in words. Silence will not be tolerated - we must place ourselves avowedly with them. Senator Douglas' new sedition law must be enacted and enforced, suppressing all declarations that slavery
4200-404: A necessity. Let all the guarantees those fathers gave it, be, not grudgingly, but fully and fairly, maintained. For this Republicans contend, and with this, so far as I know or believe, they will be content. But you say you are conservative—eminently conservative—while we are revolutionary, destructive, or something of the sort. What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against
4410-525: A new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Following the Battle of Fredericksburg, Lincoln reassigned Burnside to the western theater and replaced Burnside with General Joseph Hooker , who had served in several battles of the eastern theater. With the war dragging on, Lincoln signed the Enrollment Act , which provided for
SECTION 20
#17327730383834620-477: A new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It
4830-557: A new oratorical style: informed by history, suffused with moral certainty, and marked by lawyerly precision." Holzer wrote about Lincoln's speech in New York City: Had Abraham Lincoln failed at his do-or-die debut in New York, he would never have won his party's presidential nomination three months later, not to mention election to the White House that November. Such was the impact of a triumph in
5040-440: A pending constitutional amendment that would preserve slavery in the states where it currently existed. He also assured the states that had already seceded that the federal government would not "assail" (violently attack) them. After these assurances, however, Lincoln declared that secession was "the essence of anarchy" and it was his duty to "hold, occupy, and possess the property belonging to the government". Focusing on those within
5250-782: A platform dispute, led by the extreme pro-slavery " Fire-Eater " William Lowndes Yancey and the Alabama delegation: following them were the entire delegations of Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas, three of the four delegates from Arkansas, and one of the three delegates from Delaware. Six candidates were running: Stephen A. Douglas from Illinois, James Guthrie from Kentucky, Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter from Virginia, Joseph Lane from Oregon, Daniel S. Dickinson from New York, and Andrew Johnson from Tennessee, while three other candidates, Isaac Toucey from Connecticut, James Pearce from Maryland, and Jefferson Davis from Mississippi (the future president of
5460-477: A political liability, Lincoln dismissed Blair from the cabinet in September 1864, replacing him with William Dennison . Missouri provided the other border state cabinet member in the form of Attorney General Edward Bates . Bates resigned in 1864, and was replaced by James Speed , the older brother of Lincoln's close friend, Joshua Fry Speed . Lincoln tasked Vice President-elect Hamlin with finding someone from
5670-569: A prominent political family, as his father, Francis Preston Blair , had served as an adviser to President Andrew Jackson , while his younger brother, Francis Preston Blair Jr. , was a major Unionist leader in Missouri. Blair's Postal Service aptly responded to the challenges posed by the Civil War, but the Blair family alienated key Northern and border state leaders during the war. Seeing Blair as
5880-404: A result of the losses, and the future of democracy in the world would be assured, that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth". Lincoln concluded that the Civil War had a profound objective: a new birth of freedom in the nation. Compared to the eastern theater of the war, Lincoln exercised less direct control over operations that took place west of
6090-444: A result of the threat, the travel schedule was altered, tracks were closed to other traffic, and the telegraph wires even cut to heighten security. Lincoln and his entourage passed through Baltimore's waterfront at around 3 o'clock in the early morning of February 23, and arrived safely in the nation's capital a few hours later. The unannounced departure from the published schedule, along with the unconventional attire Lincoln wore to keep
6300-687: A special session to begin in July. Though an in-session Congress could potentially affect his freedom of action, Lincoln needed Congress to authorize funds to fight the war. On the advice of Winfield Scott, Lincoln asked a political ally to offer General Robert E. Lee command of the Union forces, but Lee chose to serve the Confederacy. Union soldiers in Southern states burned federal facilities to prevent Southern forces from taking control of them, while Confederate sympathizers rioted in Baltimore. To ensure
6510-407: A special train that over the course of the next two weeks would take him to the nation's capital. Lincoln spoke several times each day during the train trip. While his speeches were mostly extemporaneous, his message was consistent: he had no hostile intentions towards the South, disunion was not acceptable, and he intended to enforce the laws and protect property. Rumors abounded during the course of
Presidency of Abraham Lincoln - Misplaced Pages Continue
6720-455: A strike against Virginia which would end the war with one climactic battle. After Scott retired in late 1861, Lincoln appointed McClellan general-in-chief of all the Union armies. McClellan, a young West Point graduate, railroad executive, and Pennsylvania Democrat, took several months to plan and attempt his Peninsula campaign . The campaign's objective was to capture Richmond by moving the Army of
6930-413: A valid presidential ballot; however, what this meant in practice was that a candidate's campaign was responsible for printing and distributing their own ballots (this service was typically done by supportive newspaper publishers). Moreover, since voters did not choose the president directly, but rather presidential electors, the only way for a voter to meaningfully support a particular candidate for president
7140-450: A vice presidential candidate. Houston, never enthusiastic about running for the presidency, soon became convinced that he had no chance of winning and that his candidacy would only make it easier for the Republican candidate to win. He withdrew from the race on August 16, and urged the formation of a Unified "Union" ticket in opposition to Lincoln. In their campaigning, Bell and Douglas both claimed that disunion would not necessarily follow
7350-425: A voter the same risk). In the four slave states that did not secede (Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware), Lincoln came in fourth in every state except Delaware (where he finished third). Within the fifteen slave states, Lincoln won only two counties out of 996, Missouri's St. Louis and Gasconade counties. In the 1856 election, the Republican candidate for president had received no votes at all in twelve of
7560-427: A warm introduction. Lincoln's ungainly appearance, ill-fitting suit, and shrill voice gave an initially poor impression to listeners, but he soon warmed up, and his oratory improved. The clarity and logic of his speech quickly wiped away any doubts the audience had. Lincoln's speech has three major parts, each building towards his conclusion. The first part concerns the founders and the legal positions they supported on
7770-453: A youngster and paraded them into the convention with a banner that proclaimed Lincoln to be "The Rail Candidate" for president. Lincoln received a thunderous ovation, surpassing his and his political allies' expectations. Lincoln's campaign managers had printed and distributed thousands of fake convention admission tickets to Lincoln supporters to ensure and increase the crowd's support. Even with such support from his home state, Lincoln faced
7980-438: Is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to
8190-433: Is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, "Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!" The third section, addressed to fellow Republicans, encourages level-headed thinking and cool actions, doing "nothing through passion and ill temper": We must not only let them alone, but we must somehow, convince them that we do let them alone. This, we know by experience,
8400-552: Is due to the necessity arising from its actual presence in the nation; but can we, while our votes will prevent it, allow it to spread into the National Territories, and to overrun us here in these Free States? If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our duty, fearlessly and effectively. Let us be diverted by none of those sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so industriously plied and belabored—contrivances such as groping for some middle ground between
8610-527: Is lost, and sooner or later must be done over. Douglas is sure to be again trying to bring in his [popular sovereignty]. Have none of it. The tug has to come & better now than later." In mid-December, Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky, the chairman of the special Senate committee, proposed a package of six constitutional amendments, known as the Crittenden Compromise . The compromise would protect slavery in federal territories south of
Presidency of Abraham Lincoln - Misplaced Pages Continue
8820-510: Is no easy task. We have been so trying to convince them from the very beginning of our organization, but with no success. In all our platforms and speeches we have constantly protested our purpose to let them alone; but this has had no tendency to convince them. Lincoln states that the only thing that will convince the Southerners is to "cease to call slavery wrong, and join them in calling it right", supporting all their runaway slave laws and
9030-534: Is specifically written in the Constitution. That instrument is literally silent about any such right. We, on the contrary, deny that such a right has any existence in the Constitution, even by implication. ... Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events. ... An inspection of
9240-452: Is wrong, whether made in politics, in presses, in pulpits, or in private. We must arrest and return their fugitive slaves with greedy pleasure. We must pull down our Free State constitutions. The whole atmosphere must be disinfected from all taint of opposition to slavery, before they will cease to believe that all their troubles proceed from us. ... Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it alone where it is, because that much
9450-511: The 2024 United States presidential election , has voted Republican ever since, marking the beginning of the longest active voting streak for any party at the county level. The 1860 presidential election conventions were unusually tumultuous, due in particular to a split in the Democratic Party that led to both Northern and Southern party conventions. Republican candidates: The Republican National Convention met in mid-May 1860 after
9660-476: The 36°30′ parallel and prohibit it in territories north of that latitude, with newly admitted states deciding on the status of slavery within their borders. Congress would be forbidden from abolishing slavery in any state (or the District of Columbia) or interfering with the domestic slave trade. Despite pressure from Seward, Lincoln refused to support the compromise. Still opposed to the expansion of slavery into
9870-639: The Appalachian Mountains . At the end of 1861, Lincoln ordered Don Carlos Buell , commander of the Department of the Ohio , and Henry Halleck, Frémont's replacement as commander of the Department of the Missouri , to coordinate support with Unionists in Kentucky and Eastern Tennessee . General Ulysses S. Grant quickly earned Lincoln's attention, winning the first significant Union victory at
10080-508: The Battle of Fort Henry and earning a national reputation with his victory at the Battle of Fort Donelson . The Confederates were driven from Missouri early in the war as a result of the March 1862 Battle of Pea Ridge . In April 1862, U.S. Naval forces under the command of David Farragut captured the important port city of New Orleans . Grant won further victories at the Battle of Shiloh and
10290-627: The Battle of Fort Sumter ; afterwards four further states seceded. Lincoln would go on to win re-election in the 1864 United States presidential election . The 1860 election was the first of six consecutive Republican victories. Despite Lincoln's commanding victory, this was the first election in American history in which the winner has failed to win his home county, with Lincoln narrowly losing Sangamon County, Illinois to Douglas. However, he would win Gasconade County, Missouri , which as of
10500-535: The Battle of the Wilderness and Cold Harbor . Even though they had the advantage of fighting on the defensive, the Confederate forces had a similarly high level of casualties. The high casualty figures alarmed many in the North, but, despite the heavy losses, Lincoln continued to support Grant. While Grant's campaign continued, General Sherman led Union forces from Chattanooga to Atlanta, defeating Confederate Generals Joseph E. Johnston and John Bell Hood along
10710-537: The District of Columbia , and the domestic slave trade. However he made it clear that he was unalterably opposed to anything which would allow the expansion of slavery into any new states or territories. On December 6, Lincoln wrote to Congressman Orlando Kellogg , a Republican on the special House committee, saying that Kellogg should "entertain no proposition for a compromise in regard to the extension of slavery. The instant you do, they have us under again; all our labor
SECTION 50
#173277303838310920-471: The Founding Fathers would agree with this position. The journalist Robert J. McNamara wrote, "Lincoln's Cooper Union speech was one of his longest, at more than 7,000 words. And it is not one of his speeches with passages that are often quoted. Yet, due to the careful research and Lincoln's forceful argument, it was stunningly effective." Horace Greeley 's New York Tribune hailed it as "one of
11130-868: The Kansas–Nebraska Act and the Supreme Court's 1857 decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford . From the election of 1856 , the Republican Party had replaced the defunct Whig Party as the major opposition to the Democrats. A group of former Whigs and Know Nothings formed the Constitutional Union Party , which sought to avoid disunion by resolving divisions over slavery with some new compromise. The 1860 Republican National Convention in Chicago nominated Abraham Lincoln,
11340-606: The Millard Fillmore administration. The party platform advocated compromise to save the Union with the slogan "The Union as it is, and the Constitution as it is." Liberty (Union) candidates: By 1860, very little remained of the Liberty Party , after most of its membership left to join the Free Soil Party in 1848 and nearly all of what remained of it joined the Republicans in 1854. The remaining party
11550-495: The Potomac River into Maryland, leading to the Battle of Antietam in September 1862. The ensuing Union victory was among the bloodiest in American history, but it enabled Lincoln to announce that he would issue an Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, which he did. Following the battle, McClellan resisted the president's demand that he pursue Lee's retreating and exposed army. The mid-term elections in 1862 brought
11760-849: The Seven Days Battles , which effectively brought the Peninsula Campaign to a close. In late June 1862, while the Army of the Potomac was fighting the Seven Days Battles, Lincoln appointed John Pope to command the newly-formed Army of Virginia . On July 11, Lincoln summoned Henry Halleck from the Western Theater of the war to take command as general-in-chief of the army. Shortly thereafter, Lincoln asked Ambrose Burnside to replace McClellan as commander of
11970-589: The Siege of Vicksburg , which cemented Union control of the Mississippi River and is considered one of the turning points of the war. In October 1863, Lincoln appointed Grant as the commander of the newly created Division of the Mississippi , giving him command of the Western Theater. Grant and Generals Hooker, George H. Thomas , and William Tecumseh Sherman led the Union to another major victory at
12180-642: The Third Battle of Chattanooga in November, driving Confederate forces out of Tennessee. The capture of Chattanooga left Georgia vulnerable to attack, raising the possibility of a Union march to the Atlantic Ocean, which would divide the Confederacy. In April 1861, Lincoln announced the Union blockade of all Southern ports; commercial ships could not get insurance and regular traffic ended. The South blundered in embargoing cotton exports in 1861 before
12390-479: The United States on November 6, 1860. The Republican Party ticket of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin won a national popular plurality, a popular majority in the North where states had already abolished slavery, and a national electoral majority comprising only Northern electoral votes. Lincoln's election thus served as the main catalyst of the states that would become the Confederacy seceding from
12600-618: The ambassador to Russia . Cameron was replaced by Edwin Stanton , a staunchly Unionist pro-business conservative Democrat who moved toward the Radical Republican faction. Stanton worked more often and more closely with Lincoln than any other senior official. Lincoln appointed two individuals from the border states to his cabinet. Montgomery Blair of Maryland, who was popular among anti-slavery and border state Democrats, became Lincoln's first Postmaster-General . Blair came from
12810-602: The election of 1876 ). 31.5% of the voting age population. Since Andrew Jackson had won re-election in 1832, all six subsequent presidents had only won one term, while the last four of those had won with a popular vote under 51 percent. Cooper Union speech The Cooper Union speech or address , known at the time as the Cooper Institute speech , was delivered by Abraham Lincoln on February 27, 1860, at Cooper Union , in New York City . Lincoln
SECTION 60
#173277303838313020-399: The 1850s, primarily over extending slavery into the western territories . The incumbent president, James Buchanan , like his predecessor, Franklin Pierce , was a Northern Democrat with Southern sympathies . Buchanan also adamantly promised not to seek reelection. From the mid-1850s, the anti-slavery Republican Party became a major political force, driven by Northern voter opposition to
13230-546: The 1858 Lincoln–Douglas debates and had represented Illinois in the House of Representatives. Lincoln had been quietly eyeing a run since the debates, ensuring that they were widely published and that a biography of himself was published. He gained great notability with his acclaimed February 1860 Cooper Union speech , which may have ensured him the nomination although he had not yet announced his intention to run. Delivered in Seward's home state and attended by Greeley, Lincoln used
13440-542: The American Civil War , Lincoln cycled through numerous military commanders during the war, finally settling on General Ulysses S. Grant , who had led the Union to several victories in the Western Theater . Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation recognized the legal freedom of the 3.5 million slaves then held in Confederate territory and established emancipation as a Union war goal. In 1865, Lincoln
13650-553: The Army of the Potomac, but Burnside, who was close friends with McClellan, declined the post. Pope's forces moved South towards Richmond, and in late August, the Army of Virginia met the Confederate army in the Second Battle of Bull Run , which was another major Union defeat. Following the battle, Lincoln turned to McClellan again, placing him in command of the Army of Virginia as well as the Army of Potomac. Shortly after McClellan's return to command, General Lee's forces crossed
13860-400: The Battle of Gettysburg is often referred to as a turning point in the war. Though the battle ended with a Confederate retreat, Lincoln was dismayed that Meade had failed to destroy Lee's army. Feeling that Meade was a competent commander despite his failure to pursue Lee, Lincoln allowed Meade to remain in command of the Army of the Potomac. The Eastern Theater would be locked in a stalemate for
14070-429: The Confederacy. From the start, it was clear that bipartisan support would be essential to success in the war effort, and any action, such as the appointment of generals, could alienate factions on both sides of the aisle. Lincoln appointed several political generals to curry favor with various groups, especially Democrats. On its return in July 1861, Congress supported Lincoln's war proposals, providing appropriations for
14280-578: The Confederate guerrillas in the Shenandoah Valley . With Democratic gains in the 1862 and 1863 midterm elections, Lincoln felt increasing pressure to finish the war before the end of his term in early 1865. Hoping to rally unionists of both parties, Lincoln urged Republican leaders to adopt a new label for the 1864 election: the National Union Party . By the end of 1863, Lincoln had won the respect of many, but his re-nomination
14490-468: The Confederate States ) also received votes. Douglas, a moderate on the slavery issue who favored " popular sovereignty ", was ahead on the first ballot, but was 56½ votes short of securing the nomination. On the 57th ballot, with Douglas still ahead, but 51½ votes short of the nomination, the exhausted and desperate delegates agreed on May 3 to cease voting and adjourn the convention. While
14700-465: The Constitution will show that the right of property in a slave is not "distinctly and expressly affirmed" in it. ... But you will not abide the election of a Republican president! In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, "Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be
14910-577: The Constitution, forbade the Federal Government to control slavery in the federal territories ... In the second part, in which he uses the prosopopoeia of a mock debate between Republicans and the South, Lincoln denies that Republicans are a "sectional" party, representing only the North and helping to incite slave rebellions. He rebukes the Southern Democrats' accusation that Republicans helped John Brown by saying, "John Brown
15120-569: The Constitution, forbade the Federal Government to control slavery in the federal territories; while all the rest probably had the same understanding. Such, unquestionably, was the understanding of our fathers who framed the original Constitution ... It is surely safe to assume that the thirty-nine framers of the original Constitution, and the seventy-six members of the Congress which framed the amendments thereto, taken together, do certainly include those who may be fairly called "our fathers who framed
15330-406: The Constitution, forbids the Federal Government to control as to slavery in the federal territories, he is right to say so, and to enforce his position by all truthful evidence and fair argument which he can. But he has no right to mislead others, who have less access to history, and less leisure to study it, into the false belief that "our fathers who framed the Government under which we live" were of
15540-541: The Cooper Union, Lincoln became more than a regional curiosity. He became a national leader. Writing about his visit to Lincoln's speech place at Cooper Union and the meaning of this place for Lincoln's career and legacy, Holzer states that "only at the Great Hall of Cooper Union can audiences so easily inhale Lincoln's presence too—there to imagine not the dying but the living man, not the bearded icon of myth but
15750-445: The Democrats are in opposition to the teachings of the founding fathers and "reject, and scout, and spit upon that old policy, and insist upon substituting something new." The final section is addressed to Republicans. In the first section, in response to a statement by Illinois Democrat Stephen A. Douglas , Lincoln asks rhetorically, "What is the frame of government under which we live?" He answers that it "must be: 'The Constitution of
15960-503: The Democrats convened again at the Front Street Theater in Baltimore, Maryland , on June 18, 110 Southern delegates (led by "Fire-Eaters") boycotted the convention or walked out after the convention informed them they would not adopt a resolution supporting extending slavery into territories whose voters did not want it. While some considered Horatio Seymour a compromise candidate for the national Democratic nomination at
16170-584: The Democrats had been forced to adjourn their convention in Charleston. With the Democrats in disarray and a sweep of the Northern states possible, the Republicans felt confident going into their convention in Chicago . William H. Seward from New York was considered the front-runner, followed by Salmon P. Chase from Ohio, and Missouri's Edward Bates . Abraham Lincoln from Illinois, was lesser-known, and
16380-413: The Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it. Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer called the Cooper Union address "Lincoln's watershed, the event that transformed him from a regional leader into a national phenomenon. Here the politician known as frontier debater and chronic jokester introduced
16590-462: The Government under which we live", but with them all other living men within the century in which it was framed, among whom to search, and they shall not be able to find the evidence of a single man agreeing with them. ... I do not mean to say we are bound to follow implicitly in whatever our fathers did. To do so, would be to discard all the lights of current experience—to reject all progress—all improvement. What I do say is, that if we would supplant
16800-431: The Government under which we live". And so assuming, I defy any man to show that any one of them ever, in his whole life, declared that, in his understanding, any proper division of local from federal authority, or any part of the Constitution, forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in the federal territories. I go a step further. I defy any one to show that any living man in the whole world ever did, prior to
17010-451: The Government under which we live, understood this question just as well, and even better, than we do now", speak as they spoke, and act as they acted upon it. This is all Republicans ask—all Republicans desire—in relation to slavery. As those fathers marked it, so let it be again marked, as an evil not to be extended, but to be tolerated and protected only because of and so far as its actual presence among us makes that toleration and protection
17220-596: The Illinois senate race just two years earlier. That two candidates were from Illinois showed the importance of the West in the election. While Benjamin Fitzpatrick from Alabama was nominated for vice president, he refused the nomination. After the convention concluded with no vice presidential nominee, Douglas offered the vice presidential nomination to Herschel V. Johnson from Georgia, who accepted. Southern Democratic candidates: The delegates who walked out of
17430-778: The Lower South - met on June 28 in Richmond, along with the South Carolina and Florida delegations, at a convention that affirmed the nominations of Breckinridge and Lane. Besides the Democratic parties in the Southern states, the Breckinridge/Lane ticket was also supported by the Buchanan administration. Buchanan's own continued prestige in his home state of Pennsylvania ensured that Breckinridge would be
17640-636: The March to the Sea, Sherman turned North through South Carolina and North Carolina to approach the Lee's army from the south. During the Valley Campaigns of 1864 , Confederate general Jubal Early crossed the Potomac River, and advanced into Maryland. On July 11, two days after defeating Union forces under General Lew Wallace in the Battle of Monocacy , Early attacked Fort Stevens , an outpost on
17850-722: The Potomac by boat to the Virginia Peninsula and then overland to the Confederate capital. McClellan's repeated delays frustrated Lincoln and Congress, as did his position that no troops were needed to defend Washington. In response to Bull Run, Congress established the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War to provide oversight of military operations. Throughout the war, the committee would investigate generals deemed incompetent or insufficiently aggressive. Aside from
18060-471: The Potomac over either potential replacement. He did, however, remove McClellan as general-in-chief of the army in May, leaving the office vacant. McClellan moved against Confederate forces in March, and the Army of Potomac fought the bloody-but-inconclusive Battle of Seven Pines at the end of May. Following the battle, Robert E. Lee took command of Confederate forces in Virginia, and he led his forces to victory in
18270-420: The Republican Party. Seward had been painted as a radical, and his speeches on slavery predicted inevitable conflict, which spooked moderate delegates. He also was firmly opposed to nativism , which further weakened his position. He had also been abandoned by his longtime friend and political ally Horace Greeley , publisher of the influential New-York Tribune . Chase, a former Democrat, had alienated many of
18480-404: The Republican nomination. He did not shy away from surrounding himself with strong-minded men, even those whose credentials for office appeared to be much more impressive than his own. Though the cabinet appointees held different views on economic issues, all opposed the extension of slavery into the territories. The first cabinet position filled was that of Secretary of State. It was tradition for
18690-412: The Republicans severe losses due to sharp disfavor with the administration over its failure to deliver a speedy end to the war, as well as rising inflation, new taxes, rumors of corruption, the suspension of habeas corpus, the military draft law, and fears that freed slaves would undermine the labor market. The Emancipation Proclamation gained votes for the Republicans in the rural areas of New England and
18900-538: The Senate and never considered by the House. The second effort was a "never-never" constitutional amendment on slavery, that would shield domestic institutions of the states from Congressional interference and from future constitutional amendments. Commonly known as the Corwin Amendment , the measure was approved by Congress, but was not ratified by the state legislatures . On February 11, 1861, Lincoln boarded
19110-656: The Seward forces were disappointed at the nomination of a little-known western upstart, they rallied behind Lincoln, while abolitionists were angry at the selection of a moderate and had little faith in Lincoln. Northern Democratic candidates: At the Democratic National Convention held in Institute Hall in Charleston, South Carolina , in April 1860, 50 Southern Democrats walked out over
19320-484: The South by providing material for Senator Lyman Trumbull to insert into his own public address. Republicans praised Trumbull's address, Democrats assailed it, and the South largely ignored it. In December 1860, both the House and Senate formed special committees to address the unfolding crisis. Lincoln communicated with various Congressmen that there was room for negotiation on issues such as fugitive slaves, slavery in
19530-607: The South was not as monolithic as the Electoral College map would make it seem. Economically, culturally, and politically, the South was made up of three regions. In the states of the Upper South, also known as the Border South (Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri), unionist popular votes were scattered among Lincoln, Douglas, and Bell, to form a majority in all four. In the four Middle South states, there
19740-402: The South who were still on the fence regarding secession, Lincoln contrasted "persons in one section or another who seek to destroy the Union as it exists" versus "those, however, who really love the Union." In his closing remarks Lincoln spoke directly to the secessionists, and asserted that no state could secede from the Union "upon its own mere motion" and emphasized the moral commitment that he
19950-424: The South, to preside over the country until that time. President Buchanan declared that secession was illegal but denied that the government had any power to resist it. Lincoln had no official power to act while the secession crisis escalated. Nevertheless, Lincoln was barraged with advice. Many wanted him to provide reassurances to the South that its interests were not being threatened. Realizing that soothing words on
20160-499: The South, while Lincoln and Douglas would compete for votes in the North. Republicans were confident after these party conventions, with Lincoln predicting that the fractured Democrats stood little chance of winning the election. Lincoln carried all but one Northern state to win an Electoral College majority with 180 votes to 72 for Breckinridge, 39 for Bell, and 12 for Douglas. Lincoln won every county in New England and most of
20370-664: The South. Pomeroy's attempts to galvanize support for Chase backfired as they generated a groundswell of support for Lincoln's re-nomination, and Chase announced in early 1864 that he was not a candidate for the presidential nomination. After Chase decided not to run, anti-slavery activists cast about for a new candidate. In May 1864, a group led by Wendell Phillips nominated John C. Frémont for president. Most abolitionist leaders and Radical Republicans, including William Lloyd Garrison , Frederick Douglass, and Charles Sumner, decided to support Lincoln over Frémont, as they believed that Frémont's candidacy would ultimately help Democrats more than
20580-456: The Southern Democrats' demand to secede from the Union if a Republican were to be elected president was like armed robbery: "the threat of destruction to the Union, to extort my vote, can scarcely be distinguished in principle" from that of a robber. But you will not abide the election of a Republican president! In that supposed event, You say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That
20790-738: The Treasury Salmon Chase to the position of Chief Justice. Lincoln's appointments gave Northern Unionists a majority on the Court. Lincoln also appointed 27 judges to the United States district courts during his time in office. By the time Lincoln assumed office seven states had declared their secession and had seized federal property within their bounds, but the United States retained control of major military installations at Fort Sumter near Charleston and Fort Pickens near Pensacola . Less secure than Fort Pickens, and situated in
21000-595: The Treasury and popularity among Radical Republicans. Chase offered his resignation in June 1864 due to a dispute over an appointment, and Lincoln, having just been renominated for president, accepted Chase's resignation. Lincoln replaced Chase with William P. Fessenden , a Radical Republican who had served as Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee . The aging Fessenden resigned in February 1865 and
21210-454: The Union . This marked the first time that a Republican was elected president. It was also the first presidential election in which both major party candidates were registered in the same home state; the others have been in 1904 , 1920 , 1940 , 1944 , and 2016 . Lincoln's 39.7% of the popular vote is to date the lowest for any winner not decided by a contingent election . The United States had become increasingly sectionally divided during
21420-402: The Union and be controlled by Confederate armies, ballots for Lincoln were cast only in Virginia, where he received 1,929 votes (1.15 percent of the total). Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of the votes Lincoln received were cast in border counties of what would soon become West Virginia – the future state accounted for 1,832 of Lincoln's 1,929 votes. Lincoln received no votes at all in 121 of
21630-568: The Union army to target the Confederate infrastructure—such as plantations, railroads, and bridges—hoping to shatter the South's morale and weaken its economic ability to continue fighting. Leaving Atlanta, and his base of supplies, Sherman's army marched east with an unknown destination, laying waste to about 20 percent of the farms in Georgia in his " March to the Sea ". He reached the Atlantic Ocean at Savannah , Georgia in December 1864. Following
21840-489: The Union. Perhaps even more critical than Maryland was Kentucky , which provided access to key rivers and served as a gateway to Tennessee and the Midwest. Hoping to avoid upsetting the delicate balance in the state, Lincoln publicly ordered military leaders to respect Kentucky's declared neutrality, but quietly provided support to Kentucky Unionists. The Confederates were the first to violate this neutrality, seizing control of
22050-434: The United States in the period before Lincoln took office, and their unpopular ruling in the 1857 case of Dred Scott v. Sandford had done much to invigorate the Republican cause in the North. When Lincoln took office, the death of Peter Vivian Daniel had left a vacant seat on the Supreme Court. Two more vacancies arose in early 1861 due to the death of John McLean and the resignation of John Archibald Campbell . Despite
22260-476: The United States. ' " From there, he begins his reasoning on why the federal government can regulate slavery in the federal territories (but not states), especially resting on the character of the founders, and how they thought of slavery: The sum of the whole is, that of our thirty-nine fathers who framed the original Constitution, twenty-one – a clear majority of the whole – certainly understood that no proper division of local from federal authority, nor any part of
22470-407: The Western Theater, to capture Atlanta . Lincoln strongly approved of Grant's new strategy, which focused on the destruction of Confederate armies rather than the capture of Confederate cities. Two months after being promoted to general-in-chief, Grant embarked upon his bloody Overland Campaign . This campaign is often characterized as a war of attrition , given high Union losses at battles such as
22680-494: The abolitionist cause. Frémont himself eventually endorsed this view, and he withdrew from the race in favor of Lincoln in September 1864. Despite recent setbacks in the Western Theater of the war, the June 1864 National Union National Convention nominated Lincoln for president. Though Hamlin hoped to be re-nominated as vice president, the convention instead nominated Andrew Johnson, the military governor of Tennessee. Lincoln had refused to weigh in on his preferred running mate, and
22890-537: The aid of journalist acquaintances. The new audience proved to be very useful for Lincoln, as it now included Horace Greeley , who had the power to act as a presidential king-maker and was on a campaign to prevent the presidential nomination of his longtime friend, and now sworn rival, William H. Seward . Lincoln was the third speaker in a series, going after Frank Blair (who would later serve as an advisor to Lincoln) and abolitionist Cassius M. Clay . New York Evening Post editor William Cullen Bryant provided
23100-499: The battlefield, but his soldiers were disgruntled and undisciplined. Desertions during 1863 were in the thousands and they increased after Fredericksburg. The defeat also amplified the criticisms of Radical Republicans such as Lyman Trumbull and Benjamin Wade , who believed that Lincoln had mishandled the war, particularly with regards to his selection of generals. "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent,
23310-402: The beginning of the present century, (and I might almost say prior to the beginning of the last half of the present century,) declare that, in his understanding, any proper division of local from federal authority, or any part of the Constitution, forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in the federal territories. To those who now so declare, I give, not only "our fathers who framed
23520-567: The blockade was effective; by the time they realized the mistake, it was too late. " King Cotton " was dead, as the South could export less than 10 percent of its cotton. The Confederate Navy briefly challenged Union naval supremacy by building an ironclad warship known as the CSS Virginia , but the Union responded by building its own ship, the USS Monitor , which effectively neutralized the Confederate naval threat. The blockade shut down
23730-455: The chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. Lincoln began the process of constructing his cabinet on election night. In an effort to create a cabinet that would unite the Republican Party, Lincoln attempted to reach out to every faction of his party, with a special emphasis on balancing former Whigs with former Democrats. Lincoln's eventual cabinet would include all of his main rivals for
23940-426: The clean-shaven, fresh-voiced political original who conquered all New York here on the way to the White House and immortality." David Herbert Donald considers the speech to be a masterful political move. Delivered in the home state of William H. Seward , who was the favored candidate for the 1860 election, and attended by Greeley, now an enemy of Seward, the speech put Lincoln in the ideal position to challenge for
24150-451: The clearest and stable foundations. ... Human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed. There are judgment and a feeling against slavery in this nation, which cast at least a million and a half of votes. You cannot destroy that judgment and feeling—that sentiment—by breaking up the political organization which rallies around it. You can scarcely scatter and disperse an army which has been formed into order in
24360-412: The coastal city of Portsmouth . One key difference between modern elections and those of the mid-nineteenth century is that at the time the state did not print and distribute ballots. In theory, any document containing a valid or at least non-excessive number names of citizens of a particular state (provided they were eligible to vote in the electoral college within that state) might have been accepted as
24570-490: The committee's activities, Congress would generally defer to Lincoln's leadership throughout the war. A group of congressmen known as the Radical Republicans often became frustrated with Lincoln's conduct of the war and reluctance to immediately push abolition, but Lincoln was able to maintain good relations with many of the Radical Republican leaders, including Senator Charles Sumner . Congressional Democrats, on
24780-607: The competing factions realized that it was important to business interests that at least some Pennsylvanian be in Lincoln's cabinet, and Cameron was made Secretary of War. Historian William Gienapp believed that the final selection of Cameron for this soon-to-be-critical position was a clear indicator that Lincoln did not anticipate a civil war. Feeling that Cameron was not capable of handling the War Department, Lincoln tactfully removed Cameron in January 1862 by appointing him as
24990-463: The concept of popular sovereignty , which called for each territory's settlers to decide locally on the status of slavery , alienated many radical pro-slavery Southern Democrats, who wanted the territories, and perhaps other lands , open to slavery. With President Buchanan's support, Southern Democrats held their own convention, nominating Vice President John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky . The 1860 Constitutional Union Convention , which hoped to avoid
25200-427: The contest, he defeated his former subordinate, General George B. McClellan of the Democratic Party, in a landslide . Months after the election, Grant would essentially end the war by defeating the Confederate army led by General Robert E. Lee . Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, five days after the surrender of Lee, left the final challenge of reconstructing the nation to others. Following his death, Lincoln
25410-411: The convention after multiple ballots. Lincoln spent much of 1859 and 1860 building support for his candidacy, and his Cooper Union speech was well received by eastern elites. Lincoln positioned himself in the "moderate center" of his party; he opposed the expansion of slavery into the territories but accepted the consensus that the federal government could not abolish slavery in the slave states . On
25620-529: The convention at Charleston reconvened in Richmond, Virginia on June 11. When the Democrats reconvened in Baltimore, they rejoined (except South Carolina and Florida, who had stayed in Richmond). When the convention seated two replacement delegations on June 18, they walked out again or boycotted the convention, accompanied by nearly all other Southern delegates and erstwhile Convention chair Caleb Cushing ,
25830-516: The convention chose to nominate Johnson, a Southern War Democrat, in order to boost the party's appeal to Unionists of both parties. The party platform called for the unconditional surrender of the Confederacy, and also endorsed open immigration policies, the construction of a transcontinental railroad, and the establishment of a national currency. 1860 United States presidential election James Buchanan Democratic Abraham Lincoln Republican Presidential elections were held in
26040-551: The defensive perimeter of Washington. Lincoln watched the combat from an exposed position; at one point during the skirmish Captain Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. is said to have shouted at him, "Get down, you damn fool, before you get shot!", but this is commonly regarded as apocryphal. Afterward, Grant created the Army of the Shenandoah and put Sheridan in command. Sheridan quickly repelled Early and suppressed
26250-529: The end of 1862, Seward had emerged as the dominant figure in Lincoln's cabinet, though the Secretary of State's conservative policies on abolition and other issues alienated many within the Republican Party. Despite pressure from some congressional leaders to fire Seward, Lincoln retained his Secretary of State for the duration of his presidency. Lincoln's choice for Secretary of the Treasury was Ohio Senator Salmon P. Chase , Seward's chief political rival. Chase
26460-507: The end, dare to do our duty as we understand it. In his speech last autumn, at Columbus, Ohio, as reported in The New York Times , Senator Douglas said: "Our fathers, when they framed the Government under which we live, understood this question just as well, and even better than we do now." I fully endorse this, and I adopt it as a text for this discourse. I so adopt it because it furnishes a precise and an agreed starting point for
26670-437: The expansion of slavery. He ends by saying that Republicans, if they cannot end slavery where it exists, must fight through their votes to prevent its expansion. He ends with a call to duty: Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to
26880-439: The expansion of the army to 500,000 men. Organizing the army would prove to be a challenge for Lincoln and the War Department, as many professional officers resisted civilian control, while many state militias sought to act autonomously. Knowing that success in the war required the support of local officials in mobilizing soldiers, Lincoln used patronage powers and personal diplomacy to ensure that Northern leaders remained devoted to
27090-459: The extension of slavery into the territories but pledged not to interfere with it in the states. It also endorsed a protective tariff , internal improvements such as a transcontinental railroad , and policies designed to encourage the settlement of public land in the West. The 1860 Democratic National Convention met in April 1860, but adjourned after failing to agree on a candidate. A second convention met in June and nominated Stephen Douglas as
27300-604: The extinction of slavery in the United States. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina voted to secede, and six other Southern states seceded in the next forty days. In February, these Southern states formed the Confederated States of America (CSA) and elected Jefferson Davis as provisional president. Despite the formation of the CSA, the slave-holding states of Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri still remained part of
27510-420: The face of your heaviest fire; but if you could, how much would you gain by forcing the sentiment which created it out of the peaceful channel of the ballot-box, into some other channel? ... When you make these declarations, you have a specific and well-understood allusion to an assumed Constitutional right of yours, to take slaves into the federal territories, and to hold them there as property. But no such right
27720-421: The federal territories, he is right to say so. But he should, at the same time, brave the responsibility of declaring that, in his opinion, he understands their principles better than they did themselves; and especially should he not shirk that responsibility by asserting that they "understood the question just as well, and even better, than we do now." But enough! Let all who believe that "our fathers, who framed
27930-576: The final draft. Lincoln's first presidential inauguration occurred on March 4, 1861, on the East Portico of the United States Capitol . Prior to taking the oath, Lincoln delivered his inaugural address . He opened by attempting to reassure the South that he had no intention or constitutional authority to interfere with slavery in states where it already existed. He promised to enforce the fugitive slave law and spoke favorably about
28140-466: The first military draft in U.S. history. The draft law sparked harsh reactions, including draft riots in New York City and other locations. In April 1863, Hooker began his offensive towards Richmond, and his army encountered Lee's at the Battle of Chancellorsville . Despite possessing a larger army, the Union suffered another major loss at Chancellorsville, though the Confederates also suffered
28350-420: The first ballot of the May 1860 Republican National Convention , Lincoln finished second to Seward, but Seward was unable to clinch the nomination. Ignoring Lincoln's strong dictate to "make no contracts that bind me", his managers maneuvered to win Lincoln's nomination on the third ballot of the convention. Delegates then nominated Senator Hannibal Hamlin from Maine for vice president. The party platform opposed
28560-498: The former Whigs by his coalition with the Democrats in the late 1840s. He had also opposed tariffs demanded by Pennsylvania and even had opposition from his own delegation from Ohio. However, Chase's firm antislavery stance made him popular with the Radical Republicans. But what he offered in policy he lacked in charisma and political acumen. The conservative Bates was an unlikely candidate but found support from Horace Greeley, who sought any chance to defeat Seward, with whom he now had
28770-440: The fort surrendered the next day. The relief expedition sent by the Union arrived too late to intervene. On April 15, following the Battle of Fort Sumter, Lincoln declared that a state of rebellion existed and called up a force of seventy-five thousand state militiamen to serve three-month terms. While Northern states rallied to the request, border states such as Missouri refused to provide soldiers. Lincoln also called Congress into
28980-470: The fort, and feasible, despite Anderson's misgivings. On March 28, Scott recommended that both Pickens and Sumter be abandoned, basing his decision more on political than military grounds. The next day a deeply agitated Lincoln presented Scott's proposal to the cabinet. Blair was now joined by Welles and Chase in supporting reinforcement. Bates was non-committal, Cameron was not in attendance, and Seward and Smith opposed resupply. Later that day Lincoln gave Fox
29190-437: The fourteen slave states with a popular vote (these being the same states as in the 1860 election, plus Missouri and Virginia). The election was held on Tuesday, November 6, 1860, and was noteworthy for the exaggerated sectionalism and voter enthusiasm in a country that was soon to dissolve into civil war. Voter turnout was 81.2%, the highest in American history up to that time, and the second-highest overall (exceeded only in
29400-422: The greatest president in American history. Lincoln, who was a former Whig congressman, emerged as a major Republican presidential candidate following his narrow loss to Democrat Stephen A. Douglas in the 1858 Senate election in Illinois. Though he lacked the broad support that Republican Senator William H. Seward of New York had, Lincoln believed that he could emerge as the Republican presidential nominee at
29610-400: The immediate impetus for the outbreak of the Civil War . After being sworn in as president, Lincoln refused to accept any resolution that would result in Southern secession from the Union. The Civil War began weeks into Lincoln's presidency with the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter , a federal installation located within the boundaries of the Confederacy. Lincoln was called on to handle both
29820-479: The impending re-supply of the fort. The message was delivered to Governor Pickens on April 8. The information was telegraphed that night to Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Richmond. The Confederate cabinet was already meeting to discuss the Sumter crisis, and on April 10 Davis decided to demand the surrender of the fort and bombard it if the demand was refused. An attack on the fort was initiated on April 12, and
30030-431: The key driver in the successful effort to form a separate state. Hancock County (Virginia's northernmost at the time) returned Lincoln's best result – he polled over 40% of the vote there and finished in second place (Lincoln polled only eight votes fewer than Breckinridge). Of the 97 votes cast for Lincoln in the state's post-1863 boundaries, 93 were polled in four counties along the Potomac River and four were tallied in
30240-429: The largest enslaved populations, and consequently the smallest enfranchised free white populations. Among the slave states, the three states with the highest voter turnouts voted the most one-sided. Texas, with five percent of the total wartime South's population, voted 75 percent Breckinridge. Kentucky and Missouri, with one-fourth the total population, voted 73 percent pro-Union Bell, Douglas and Lincoln. In comparison,
30450-492: The massive and lanky Lincoln poorly. But his speech proved to be very well written. By the time Lincoln got to New York, he had learned that the speech would instead be sponsored by the Young Men's Central Republican Union and would now be given at the eponymous Cooper Union . Lincoln hurriedly re-wrote his speech for a less religious audience. The night before the speech, he painstakingly "review[ed] and typesett[ed]" it with
30660-479: The most happiest and most convincing political arguments ever made in this City. ... No man ever made such an impression on his first appeal to a New-York audience." As 1860 dawned, Lincoln's political tides were turning. Although he had lost a chance at a Senate seat in the 1858 Illinois Senate elections , he now eyed the presidency. However, it was expected that "the office should seek the man", and Lincoln refrained from announcing his candidacy. In February 1860, he
30870-483: The nation was born not in 1789, following ratification of the United States Constitution , but with the 1776 Declaration of Independence . He defined the war as an effort dedicated to the principles of liberty and equality for all. The emancipation of slaves was now part of the national war effort. He declared that the deaths of so many brave soldiers would not be in vain, that slavery would end as
31080-420: The nation's media capital. Had he stumbled, none of the challenges that roiled his presidency would ever have tested his iron will. […] Moreover, had Lincoln failed in New York, few might recognize today the nation he went on to defend and rededicate. It can be argued that without Cooper Union, hence without Lincoln at the helm, the United States might be remembered today as a failed experiment that fractured into
31290-473: The new and untried? We stick to, contend for, the identical old policy on the point in controversy which was adopted by "our fathers who framed the Government under which we live"; while you with one accord reject, and scout, and spit upon that old policy, and insist upon substituting something new. True, you disagree among yourselves as to what that substitute shall be. You are divided into new propositions and plans, but you are unanimous in rejecting and denouncing
31500-485: The nomination for the presidency. In spite of his professed ill health, Gerrit Smith was nominated for president and Samuel McFarland from Pennsylvania was nominated for vice president. In Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana, slates of presidential electors pledged to Smith and McFarland ran with the name of the Union Party. They received a total of 176 votes in the general election, 0.004% of the total. The People's Party
31710-518: The old policy of the fathers. Some of you are for reviving the foreign slave trade; some for a Congressional Slave-Code for the Territories; some for Congress forbidding the Territories to prohibit Slavery within their limits; some for maintaining Slavery in the Territories through the judiciary; some for the "gur-reat pur-rinciple" that "if one man would enslave another, no third man should object", fantastically called "Popular Sovereignty"; but never
31920-421: The opinions and policy of our fathers in any case, we should do so upon evidence so conclusive, and argument so clear, that even their great authority, fairly considered and weighed, cannot stand; and most surely not in a case whereof we ourselves declare they understood the question better than we. ... If any man at this day sincerely believes that a proper division of local from federal authority, or any part of
32130-526: The order to begin assembling a squadron to reinforce Fort Sumter. Lincoln's policy of re-supplying Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens was designed to deny the right of secession without resorting to violence, which he hoped would allow the administration maintain support among both Northerners and Southern Unionists. With the Fort Sumter mission ready to go, Lincoln sent State Department clerk Robert S. Chew to inform South Carolina Governor Francis W. Pickens of
32340-694: The order, but Missouri emerged as the most problematic of the border states for Lincoln. After the defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run, Lincoln summoned Major General George B. McClellan to replace McDowell. McClellan had won minor battles in the Western Virginia campaign , and those victories had allowed Unionist West Virginia to hold the Wheeling Convention and eventually secede from Virginia. With Lincoln's support, McClellan rejected Scott's Anaconda Plan , instead proposing
32550-466: The other hand, tended to oppose Lincoln's policies regarding both the war and slavery. In January 1862, Lincoln, frustrated by months of inaction, ordered McClellan to begin the offensive by the end of February. When McClellan still failed to launch his attack, members of Congress urged Lincoln to replace McClellan with McDowell or Frémont, but Lincoln decided to retain McClellan as commander of Army of
32760-489: The other six states of the Deep South made up one-fourth the Confederate voting population, split 57 percent Breckinridge versus 43 percent for the two pro-union candidates. The four states that were admitted to the Confederacy after Fort Sumter held almost half its population, and voted a narrow combined majority of 53 percent for the pro-union candidates. In the eleven states that would later declare their secession from
32970-467: The political and military aspects of the Civil War, facing challenges in both spheres. As commander-in-chief, he ordered the suspension of the constitutionally-protected right to habeas corpus in the state of Maryland in order to suppress Confederate sympathizers. He also became the first president to institute a military draft. As the Union faced several early defeats in the Eastern Theater of
33180-442: The president-elect to offer this, the most senior cabinet post, to the leading (best-known and most popular) person of his political party. William Seward was that man and in mid-December 1860, Vice President-elect Hamlin, acting on Lincoln's behalf, offered the position to him. Seward had been deeply disappointed by his failure to win the 1860 Republican presidential nomination, but he agreed to serve as Lincoln's Secretary of State. By
33390-445: The presidential election, the party failed to win a majority in either house of Congress, although after the Southern states seceded, Lincoln governed with a majority in both houses. Following Lincoln's victory, all the slave states began to consider secession. Lincoln was not scheduled to take office until March 4, 1861, leaving incumbent Democratic President James Buchanan , a " doughface " from Pennsylvania who had been sympathetic to
33600-460: The presidential nominee, but several pro-slavery Southern delegations refused to support Douglas, as they demanded a strongly pro-slavery nominee. These Southern Democrats held a separate convention that nominated incumbent Vice President John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky for president. A group of former Whigs and Know Nothings formed the Constitutional Union Party and nominated John Bell for president. Breckinridge and Bell would primarily contest
33810-453: The principal Democratic candidate in that populous state. Breckinridge was the last sitting vice president nominated for president until Richard Nixon in 1960 . Constitutional Union candidates: The Constitutional Union Party was formed by remnants of both the defunct Know Nothing and Whig Parties who were unwilling to join either the Republicans or the Democrats. The new party's members hoped to stave off Southern secession by avoiding
34020-488: The question of slavery in the territories. The second part is addressed to the voters of the Southern states by clarifying the issues between Republicans and Democrats. He rebukes claims made by the Democrats that they are "conservative", arguing instead that the Republicans' position on slavery is in fact the "conservative" policy, as Lincoln claims it coincides with the views of the American founding fathers, who he said opposed slavery. By supporting slavery, Lincoln claims that
34230-455: The question, "Assuming it to be possible to now provision Fort-Sumter, under all circumstances, is it wise to attempt it?" Only Blair gave his unconditional approval to the plan. No decision was reached, but Lincoln personally dispatched Fox, Stephen A. Hurlbut , and Ward Lamon to South Carolina to assess the situation. The recommendations that came back were that reinforcement was both necessary, since secessionist feeling ran high and threatened
34440-414: The reconvening convention in Baltimore, Seymour wrote a letter to the editor of his local newspaper declaring unreservedly that he was not a candidate for either spot on the ticket. After two ballots - the 59th ballot overall - the remaining Democrats nominated Stephen A. Douglas from Illinois for president. The election would now pit Lincoln against his longtime political rival, whom Lincoln had lost to in
34650-500: The remainder of 1863. In November 1863, Lincoln was invited to Gettysburg to dedicate the first national cemetery and honor the soldiers who had fallen. His Gettysburg Address became a core statement of American political values. Defying Lincoln's prediction that "the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here", the Address became the most quoted speech in American history. In 272 words, and three minutes, Lincoln asserted
34860-427: The remaining 11. Lincoln's election motivated seven Southern states, all voting for Breckinridge, to secede before the inauguration in March. While Lincoln received no votes in 10 Southern states, this was not due to him being removed from the ballot in those states but rather because of the Republican Party's absence in those states. The American Civil War began less than two months after Lincoln's inauguration, with
35070-400: The remaining counties in the North, but he won just two of the 996 Southern counties. Nationwide, Lincoln took 39.8 percent of the popular vote, while Douglas won 29.5 percent of the popular vote, Breckenridge won 18.1 percent, and Bell won 12.6 percent. 82.2 percent of eligible voters took part in the contentious election, the second highest turnout in U.S. history. Despite Republican success in
35280-453: The representatives elected in 1858, before the Republican majorities in both House and Senate achieved in 1860 were seated in the new 37th Congress . Mexican War hero Winfield Scott suggested to Lincoln that he assume the powers of a commander-in-chief before inauguration. However, historian Bruce Chadwick observes that Lincoln and his advisors ignored the widespread alarms and threats of secession as mere election trickery. Indeed, voting in
35490-598: The right and the wrong, vain as the search for a man who should be neither a living man nor a dead man — such as a policy of "don't care" on a question about which all true men do care — such as Union appeals beseeching true Union men to yield to Disunionists, reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, but the righteous to repentance — such as invocations to Washington , imploring men to unsay what Washington said, and undo what Washington did. ... Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to
35700-464: The rights of slaveholders would alienate the Republican base, while taking a strong stand on the indestructibility of the Union would further inflame Southerners, Lincoln chose a policy of silence. He believed that, given enough time without any overt acts or threats to the South, Southern unionists would carry the day and bring their states back into the Union. At the suggestion of a Southern merchant who contacted him, Lincoln did make an indirect appeal to
35910-431: The role of chief-of-staff. Meade remained in formal command of the Army of the Potomac, but Grant would travel with the Army of the Potomac and direct its actions. Lincoln also obtained Congress's consent to reinstate for Grant the rank of Lieutenant General , which no U.S. officer had held since George Washington . Grant ordered Meade to destroy Lee's army, while he ordered General Sherman, now in command of Union forces in
36120-438: The same opinion—thus substituting falsehood and deception for truthful evidence and fair argument. If any man at this day sincerely believes "our fathers who framed the Government under which we live", used and applied principles, in other cases, which ought to have led them to understand that a proper division of local from federal authority or some part of the Constitution, forbids the Federal Government to control as to slavery in
36330-445: The secessionist hotbed of South Carolina, Fort Sumter emerged as an important symbolic issue in both the North and South during early 1861. Any hope Lincoln might have had about using time to his advantage in addressing the crisis was shattered on his first full day in office, when he read a letter from Major Robert Anderson , the commander at Fort Sumter , stating that his troops would run out of provisions within four to six weeks. At
36540-692: The security of the capital, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus in Maryland and ignored a court order to release John Merryman from prison. While Lincoln struggled to maintain order in Maryland and other border states, Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee all seceded from the Union. North Carolina was the last state to secede, doing so on May 20. With the secession of several states, Lincoln's Republicans enjoyed large majorities in both houses of Congress. War Democrats such as Andrew Johnson of Tennessee also supported many of Lincoln's policies, though Copperheads (Peace Democrats) advocated peace with
36750-490: The slavery issue entirely, nominated a ticket led by former Tennessee Senator John Bell . Lincoln's main opponent in the North was Douglas, who won the popular vote in Missouri, electoral votes in New Jersey, and the second highest popular vote total nationally. Douglas was the only candidate in the 1860 election to win electoral votes in both free and slave states. In the South, Bell won three states and Breckinridge swept
36960-653: The slavery issue. They met in the Eastside District Courthouse of Baltimore and nominated John Bell from Tennessee for president over Governor Sam Houston of Texas on the second ballot. Edward Everett was nominated for vice president at the convention on May 9, 1860, one week before Lincoln. John Bell was a former Whig who had opposed the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the Lecompton Constitution . Edward Everett had been president of Harvard University and Secretary of State in
37170-481: The speech to show that the Republican Party was a party of moderates, not crazed fanatics, as Southerners and Democrats claimed. Afterward, Lincoln was in much demand for speaking engagements. As the convention approached, Lincoln did not campaign actively, as the "office was expected to seek the man". So it did at the Illinois state convention, a week before the national convention. Young politician Richard Oglesby found several fence rails that Lincoln may have split as
37380-471: The state's at-the-time 145 counties (including 31 of the 50 that would form West Virginia), received a single vote in three counties and received ten or fewer votes in nine of the 24 counties where he polled votes. Lincoln's best results, by far, were in the four counties that comprised the state's northern panhandle , a region which had long felt alienated from Richmond, was economically and culturally linked to its neighbors Ohio and Pennsylvania and would become
37590-585: The states, but opposed slavery in the territories. The platform promised tariffs protecting industry and workers, a Homestead Act granting free farmland in the West to settlers, and the funding of a transcontinental railroad . There was no mention of Mormonism (which had been condemned in the Party's 1856 platform), the Fugitive Slave Act , personal liberty laws, or the Dred Scott decision . While
37800-404: The strongest proponent in the cabinet for standing firm at Fort Sumter, introduced Lincoln to his brother-in-law, Gustavus V. Fox . Fox presented a plan for a naval resupply and reinforcement of the fort. The plan had been approved by Scott during the last month of the previous administration, but Buchanan had rejected it. On March 15, Lincoln asked each cabinet member to provide a written answer to
38010-431: The ten Confederate seaports with railheads that moved almost all the cotton, especially New Orleans, Mobile, and Charleston. By June 1861, warships were stationed off the principal Southern ports, and a year later nearly 300 ships were in service. Surdam argues that the blockade was a powerful weapon that eventually ruined the Southern economy, at the cost of few lives in combat. Practically, the entire Confederate cotton crop
38220-423: The territories, Lincoln privately asked Republican Senators to oppose the compromise, and it failed to pass Congress. Lincoln believed that Southern threats of secession were mostly bluster and that the sectional crisis would be defused, as it had in 1820 and 1850. However, many Southerners were convinced that assenting to Lincoln's presidency and the restriction of slavery in the territories would ultimately lead to
38430-438: The town of Columbus , while the Union would capture the important town of Paducah . Like Kentucky, Missouri controlled access to key rivers and had a large pro-Confederate population. Lincoln appointed General John C. Frémont to ensure Union control of the area, but Frémont alienated many in the state by declaring martial law and issuing a proclamation freeing slaves that belonged to rebels. Lincoln removed Frémont and reversed
38640-467: The trip of various plots to kill Lincoln. Samuel Felton , president of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad , hired detective Allan Pinkerton to investigate reports that secessionists might try to sabotage the railroad along the route. In conducting his investigation Pinkerton obtained information that indicated to him that an attempt on Lincoln's life would be made in Baltimore . As
38850-402: The unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have
39060-461: The union. In February 1861, two final political efforts were made to preserve the Union. The first was made by a group of 131 delegates sent by 21 states to a Peace Conference , held at the Willard's Hotel in the nation's capital. The convention submitted to Congress a seven-point constitutional amendment proposal similar in content to the earlier Crittenden Compromise. The proposal was rejected by
39270-504: The upper Midwest, but it lost votes in the cities and the lower Midwest. After the 1862 mid-term elections, Lincoln, frustrated with McClellan's continued inactivity, replaced McClellan with Burnside. Against the advice of the president, Burnside prematurely launched an offensive across the Rappahannock River and was stunningly defeated by Lee at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December. Not only had Burnside been defeated on
39480-547: The vacancies, Lincoln did not nominate a replacement for any of the justices until January 1862. Noah Haynes Swayne , Samuel Freeman Miller , and David Davis were all nominated by Lincoln and confirmed by the Senate in 1862. Congress added a tenth seat on the Court through the passage of the Tenth Circuit Act of 1863 , and Lincoln appointed a War Democrat, Stephen Johnson Field , to fill that seat. After Roger Taney died in 1864, Lincoln appointed former Secretary of
39690-412: The war effort. Having succeeded in rallying the North against secession, Lincoln next determined to attack the Confederate capital of Richmond , which was located just one hundred miles from Washington. Lincoln was disappointed by the state of the War Department and Navy Department, and Scott counseled that the army needed more time to train, but Lincoln nonetheless ordered an offensive. As the aged Scott
39900-606: The way. Sherman's victory in the September 2 Battle of Atlanta boosted Union morale, breaking the pessimism that had set in throughout 1864. Hood's forces left the Atlanta area to menace Sherman's supply lines and invade Tennessee in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign . General John Schofield defeated Hood at the Battle of Franklin , and General Thomas dealt Hood a massive defeat at the Battle of Nashville , effectively destroying Hood's army. Lincoln authorized
40110-413: Was Orville Browning , who advised Lincoln to omit the phrase "to reclaim the public property and places which have fallen". He also asked his former rival (and Secretary of State-designate) William Seward to review it. Seward exercised his due diligence by presenting Lincoln with a six-page analysis of the speech in which he offered some 49 suggested changes, of which the president-elect incorporated 27 into
40320-619: Was a loose association of the supporters of Governor Samuel Houston . On April 20, 1860, the party held what it termed a national convention to nominate Houston for president on the San Jacinto Battlefield in Texas . Houston's supporters at the gathering did not nominate a vice presidential candidate, since they expected later gatherings to carry out that function. Later mass meetings were held in northern cities, such as New York City on May 30, 1860, but they too failed to nominate
40530-543: Was a unionist majority divided between Douglas and Bell in Virginia and Tennessee; in North Carolina and Arkansas, the unionist (Bell and Douglas) vote approached a majority. In three of the seven Deep South states, unionists (Bell and Douglas) won divided majorities in Georgia and Louisiana and neared it in Alabama. Breckinridge convincingly carried only four of the seven states of the Deep South (South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Texas). The Deep South states had
40740-570: Was also called the Radical Abolitionists. A convention of one hundred delegates was held in Convention Hall, Syracuse, New York, on August 29, 1860. Delegates were in attendance from New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, and Massachusetts. Several of the delegates were women. Gerrit Smith , a prominent abolitionist and the 1848 presidential nominee of the original Liberty Party , had sent
40950-403: Was cast a ballot for citizens of his state who would have pledged to vote for the candidate in the Electoral College. In ten southern slave states, no citizen would publicly pledge to vote for Abraham Lincoln, so citizens there had no legal means to vote for the Republican nominee. In most of Virginia, no publisher would print ballots for Lincoln's pledged electors. While a citizen without access to
41160-402: Was followed by Meade's Army of the Potomac. While many in the North fretted over Lee's advance, Lincoln saw the offensive as an opportunity to destroy a Confederate army. The Confederate and Union armies met at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1. The battle, fought over three days, resulted in the highest number of casualties in the war. Along with the Union victory in the Siege of Vicksburg ,
41370-806: Was instrumental in the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment , which made slavery unconstitutional. Lincoln also presided over the passage of important domestic legislation, including the first of the Homestead Acts , the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862 , and the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 . He ran for re-election in 1864 on the National Union ticket, which was supported by War Democrats in addition to Republicans. Though Lincoln feared he might lose
41580-450: Was invited to speak at Henry Ward Beecher's church in New York, which he very excitedly accepted. Having not spoken in the East before, Lincoln was eager to make a good impression. He had a new suit fitted (at the cost of $ 100 (about $ 3,000 in current dollars)) and went to great pains to write a sophisticated and well-researched speech. His new suit was of little impact, as the suit still fit
41790-513: Was no Republican; and you have failed to implicate a single Republican in his Harper's Ferry enterprise." He addressed the single-mindedness of the Southern Democrats: Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events. He also tried to show that
42000-444: Was not assured, as no president had won a second term since Andrew Jackson in 1832 . Chase emerged as the most prominent potential intra-party challenger, and Senator Samuel C. Pomeroy led a covert campaign for Chase's nomination. Much of the support for Chase came from abolitionists who were frustrated by Lincoln's unwillingness to push for the immediate end of slavery and his willingness to work with conservative Unionist leaders in
42210-440: Was not considered to have a good chance against Seward. Seward had been governor and senator of New York and was an able politician with a Whig background. Also running were John C. Frémont , William L. Dayton , Cassius M. Clay , and Benjamin Wade , who might be able to win if the convention deadlocked. As the convention developed, however, it was revealed that frontrunners Seward, Chase, and Bates had each alienated factions of
42420-493: Was not yet the Republican nominee for the presidency , as the convention was scheduled for May. It is considered one of his most important speeches. Some historians have argued that the speech was responsible for his victory in the presidential election later that year. In the speech, Lincoln elaborated his views on slavery by affirming that he did not wish it to be expanded into the western territories and claiming that
42630-431: Was one of the few senior generals that Lincoln did not know personally, and the president was not able to visit the Western Theater of the war. Nonetheless, Lincoln came to appreciate the battlefield exploits of Grant. Responding to criticism of Grant after Shiloh, Lincoln had said, "I can't spare this man. He fights." In March 1864, Grant was summoned to Washington to succeed Halleck as general-in-chief, while Halleck took on
42840-410: Was portrayed as the liberator of the slaves, the savior of the Union, and a martyr for the cause of freedom. Political historians have long held Lincoln in high regard for his accomplishments and personal characteristics. Alongside George Washington and Franklin D. Roosevelt , he has been consistently ranked both by scholars and the public as one of the top three greatest American presidents, often as
43050-517: Was replaced with Hugh McCulloch , who had served as the Comptroller of the Currency . The most problematic cabinet selection made by Lincoln was that of Simon Cameron as the Secretary of War. Cameron was one of the most influential public leaders in the crucial political state of Pennsylvania, but he was also alleged to be one of the most corrupt. He was opposed within his own state by the faction led by Governor-elect Andrew G. Curtin and party chairman A. K. McClure . Nonetheless, by Inauguration Day
43260-593: Was that the slave-holding border states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri would join the Confederacy. Of these four states, Lincoln was least concerned about Delaware, which had a proportionally large pro-Union population. Due to its location, Maryland remained a critical part of the Union. Lincoln continued to suppress Southern sympathizers in the state, but historian Ronald White also notes Lincoln's forbearance in refusing to take harsher measures. Maryland's election of Unionist Governor Augustus Bradford in November 1861 ensured that Maryland would remain part of
43470-531: Was the leader of the more radical faction of Republicans that sought to abolish slavery as quickly as possible. Seward, among others, opposed the selection of Chase because of both his strong antislavery record and his opposition to any type of settlement with the South that could be considered an appeasement of slaveholders. Chase surreptitiously sought the 1864 Republican nomination, and he frequently worked to undermine Lincoln's re-election, but Lincoln nonetheless retained Chase due to Chase's competence as Secretary of
43680-400: Was unable to lead the army himself, General Irvin McDowell led a force of 30,000 men south, where he met a force led by Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard . At the First Battle of Bull Run , the Confederate army dealt the Union a major defeat, ending any hope of a quick end to the war. Following the secession of four states after the Battle of Fort Sumter, one of Lincoln's major concerns
43890-440: Was undertaking to "preserve, protect, and defend" the laws of the land. He then concluded the address with a firm but conciliatory message: We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell
44100-456: Was useless (although it was sold to Union traders), costing the Confederacy its main source of income. Critical imports were scarce and the coastal trade was largely ended as well. The measure of the blockade's success was not the few ships that slipped through, but the thousands that never tried it. Merchant ships owned in Europe could not get insurance and were too slow to evade the blockade; they simply stopped calling at Confederate ports. Grant
#382617