...Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the United States of America from March 1861 until he was assassinated in April of 1865. His face can be seen on the American penny as well as the five dollar bill. Lincoln also makes an appearance as one of the four famous American Presidents carved into the miraculous Mount Rushmore. In our opinion Abraham Lincoln was an extremely interesting and important individual because of his involvement in the Emancipation Proclamation, his assassination, and the many legends told of him such as the nickname, “Honest Abe.” Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in Hardin, Kentucky to Thomas and Nancy Lincoln. Even though he lacked a thorough formal education, he was determined to make a difference nonetheless. One of his first political roles was in March of 1832 when he campaigned for the Illinois General Assembly. Although he had the popularity vote, he was not as strong in other aspects like in the way of money and education. This could have been the reason that he did not win the election. Later on in 1846 Lincoln was voted to serve a two-year term in the United States House of Representatives. He had many political roles leading up to the presidential election of 1860, by which he became the sixteenth president of the United States of America. Abraham Lincoln played an important role in the Battle of Fort Sumter during the American Civil War. Soon after Abraham Lincoln’s success in the presidential election of 1860, South...
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...Abraham Lincoln James M. McPherson, the author of the book Abraham Lincoln, amazingly summarizes Abraham Lincoln’s life story, from birth to death captivating all the nuances that made Abraham Lincoln not only an American hero but also a marvelous sixteenth president. Throughout the book, McPherson pinpoints the significant turning point throughout Lincolns life allowing the reader to fall in love with Abraham Lincoln but also understand completely who Abraham Lincoln was. Uneasily, McPherson navigated through the Civil War explaining how it started and Lincoln’s involvement. James M. McPherson starts off by introducing Abraham Lincoln at birth. Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in Hardin, Kentucky. His father, Thomas Lincoln, was an illiterate farmer who favored labor over education. Consequently, every time Abraham Lincoln indulge himself in a book, his father would criticize his actions and label them as laziness. Abraham’s mother, Nancy Hanks, was no different from Thomas Lincoln reasoning being; they were both illiterate and from a low social class. Although, being from a low...
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...Abraham Lincoln on the Challenge of Equality On October 16, 1854, Abraham Lincoln gave a speech disapproving the Kansas-Nebraska Act at Peoria, Illinois. He believed that it was too modified and that it went against the Missouri Compromise. The Missouri Compromise prohibited slavery in the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase. Lincoln had said earlier, “For although volume upon volume is written to prove slavery a very good thing, we never hear of the man who wishes to take the good of it, by being a slave himself” (Mason/Baker, 436). The Kansas-Nebraska Act gave the territories popular sovereignty, the direct opposite of the previous decision. “I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world; enables the enemies of free institutions with plausibility to taunt us as hypocrites; causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity; and especially because it forces so many good men among ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty, criticizing the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest” (Mason/Baker, 463). In 1854, Abraham Lincoln protested that both blacks and whites had the same right to enslave each other and neither had more superiority. He used a theory to prove all of the whites' reasons for slavery were incorrect and could be turned around to enslave them. "You say A. is white, and B is black. It is color, then; the lighter...
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...April 15, 1865 the sixteenth president of the United States of America took his last breath after being assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. Being the first president successfully assassinated in the United States of America would be enough to put Abraham Lincoln’s name in the history books, however his life is equally remarkable. Lincoln’s reputation as a strong leader has stood the test of time from his career as a politician and lawyer to the president who preserved the union during a crucial turning point in our nation’s history. Lincoln’s unquenchable thirst for education and self-improvement formed the foundation for the leader he later became (Austell, 2006). Lincoln’s stepmother, Sarah Bush Johnston, was the first person in his life that understood the importance of education and encouraged Lincoln in his educational efforts (Herndon & Weik, 1888). Lincoln’s quest for knowledge was a lifelong journey that continued throughout his career as a lawyer and a politician, and helped him to earn the trust and admiration of colleagues and friends (Alvy & Robbins, 2010). Lincoln’s first office for the federal government was as postmaster at New Salem followed by multiple terms in the Illinois state legislature. Over time Lincoln’s influence within the Illinois legislature grew, in large part due to his ability to draft bills and laws (Burlingame, 2008). It was during his first term in the Illinois legislature that Lincoln was first encouraged to study law by John Todd Stuart...
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...the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln remains one of the most well known and influential. Many simply recognize him as the president who declared “we must free the slaves”, but few people understand Lincoln as a person (110). In the biography “Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America”, Civil War historian William E. Gienapp gives a brief summary of Lincoln's upbringing, development in politics, and time spent during his presidency specifically on the war. Because the book is a biography there is no thesis presented. Instead, Gienapp creates a portrayal of not only Lincoln's life, and examines how Lincoln became an exceptional person and leader. Early on Gienapp offers interesting viewpoints...
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...The emancipation proclamation was the “turning point” of the civil war and one of the strong defining factors of the wars identity. “The act signaled an important shift in the Union’s Civil War aims,expanding the goal of the war from reunification to include the eradication of slavery”.()It became apparent that “the war was no longer just about preserving the Union— it was also about freeing the slaves.”() As people became more aware of the change, movements were created as a rebuttal, and terrorist groups were popping up everywhere. Even foreign countries were bothered by this change. This caused the evacuation of a lot of America's foreign support toward the war. In September 1862, following the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam in Maryland, a preliminary proclamation was issued. “The proclamation freed all slaves in states that were still in rebellion on January 1, 1863”(). Although, the proclamation was almost never took place because Lincoln’s advisors did not share his strong beliefs. Thankfully, Lincoln's dedication and whole hearted support for justice payed off, and the idea was allowed; allowing only...
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...Book Report Gienapp, William E., Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America; Oxford University Press. New York, 2002. This book is a glimpse into Abraham Lincoln’s political career and personal life. His personal life was much hidden from the outside world, and his feelings and personal affairs were kept out of public scrutiny. He was neither a great husband nor a father, but was considered to be one of the greatest presidents this nation has ever seen. Lincoln was a very conservative man, and managed to provide leadership in both the political and military strategies. He is considered the man who shaped change in our nation, which led to many controversial issues being solved. It took a man of great strength and courage to lead and control the nation during this very demanding time. He was the right person at the right time. President Abraham Lincoln was born in Nolan Creek, Kentucky, on February 12, 1809. In 1811, his father moved to Indiana due to problems with land titles and to get away from slavery. However, his reason was that slaves competed directly for work opportunities for his father. Lincoln’s formal education was limited due to availability. In his later teen years he began to read anything he could. His first brush with law came in the form of a book entitled “The Revised Laws of Indiana.” In the pursuit of a career, Lincoln arrived in Springfield, Illinois in 1837, where he began his new life as a lawyer. Lincoln held that democracy was the most important...
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...anti-Confederate Southerners determined the course/outcome of the civil war. Specific information was given by Freehlng to show how the anti-confederates southerners determined the course and outcome of the civil war. The information is discussed in the following paragraph. According to Freehling, the events beyond the battlefields partially determined military verdicts. Furthermore, home front and battlefront unveiled defining aspects of civil war. The division within the south also helped pave the path toward the war and also, the division among the southern and home front dissensions determined battlefield verdicts. The outcome of the war was the collapse of the confederacy that was caused by the defeat in the military sphere, rather than dissolution behind the lines. Anti-confederate southerners piled on psychological, economical and geographical burdens that ultimately helped flatten white confederate’s resiliency. President Abraham Lincoln’s statecraft, the union’s anaconda military strategy, northern democrats and English men’s attitudes seemingly tangential matters bore vitally on southern anti-confederates capacity to influence the battlefields and to illuminate important characteristics of civil war. The tale of the southern house divided, highlights under appreciated gems of civil war lore, including revealing code words, colorful luminaries, key battles and vital military orders, this tells why the war came. In conclusion, the anti-confederate southerners...
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...many firsts. She was the first woman to ever be executed by the United States federal government. Her crime was suspected involvement in the first United States President assassination. This is better known as President Lincoln’s assassination by John Wilkes Booth. But how much did she really know about the scheme? Was she an accomplice to Booth, like many others including her son, or was she an innocent bystander who accidently got involved with assassins? Many people have heard of the John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln’s shooter, but few have heard of the people behind the scenes of the assassination. Some of the people suspected to be involved included Lewis...
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...From 1861 to 1865 the Civil War waged on in North America leaving the country divided between the North and the South. Abraham Lincoln feared the division would cause the country to remain separated. He came up with a plan to rebuild and reunite America, it was the plan of Reconstruction. There were two goals for Reconstruction. The main goal was to unify the country. The second goal was to better integrate blacks into society. From 165 to 1877 America went through this era of reunification and overall, the main goal of Reconstruction was successful, but the second goal was not. President Lincoln’s original plan for Reconstruction was the 10 percent plan; this required that 10 percent of the voters in each southern state swore their allegiance...
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...Each president of the United States that comes into office has a different agenda and a different way of running things. All of the decisions they make in office impact everyone. After the president leaves office, they leave a legacy behind. This legacy could either be satisfactory or unsatisfactory, depending on what they did while in office. Three presidents that left a big legacy on America are Ronald Reagan, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt and each of them impacted, either good or bad, the country in some way. While each left a legacy, one president's legacy was more impactful, in a helpful way, to America’s development and growth. Before Ronald Reagan came into office in 1980, there was a major recession in the late 1970’s. This means that there was a period of temporary economic decline during which trade and industrial activity were reduced. Reagan’s promise to the people was that he was going to restore the economy, but everyone's question was how he planned to do that. His plan was to provide tax breaks to the very wealthy people. The idea was that if the wealthy class had more money, they could provide more jobs and the money would make its way down to the other classes, this was called trickle down economics (Corvo, Lecture). Reagan’s...
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... which could explain his background for writing a book like this. Of the two, O’Reilly would certainly have the resources to do extensive research to write a historically accurate book. Before the prologue, O’Reilly gives a note to the readers. He gives two key reasons as to why he is writing this book. The first is, “You will learn much in these pages, and the experience, I believe, will advance your understanding of our country, and how Lincoln’s murder changed it forever,” and the second is, “For those of us that want to improve the United States and keep it the greatest nation in the world, we must be aware of the true heroes who have made the country great as well as the villains who have besmirched it” (p 1-2). This is the purpose of the book and I feel that this is what O’Reilly is intending, so there does not seem to be any main thesis that he is arguing to prove. In my own words, I would say the purpose of this book is to give an exciting and readable retelling of the events before, during and after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, so that people who do not care all that much for reading boring, factual non-fiction could also experience and learn about this important time in our nation’s history. The way the book is structured makes it organized and easier...
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...strict religious beliefs. Dickinson did not have a great relationship with her mother, but she rarely left her family’s house during her lifetime. Dickinson began writing poetry and letter during her late twenties, because she believed it was the best way for her to voice her own opinions to the world. Whitman was born in West Hills, New York and got his love for writing at the age of twelve while learning the printer’s trade. While working as a printer he became extremely familiar with the Bible and Shakespeare. During the Civil War, Whitman visited wounded soldiers and volunteered as a nurse. Whitman decided to move to Washington, D.C. after he visited his wounded brother, George, at an army camp. While in Washington, D.C., Whitman continued his love for nursing, but eventually became extremely involved in politics. In the years to follow, Whitman began to write many different poems that were centered around the Civil War and his political involvement. The core values of Dickinson and Whitman are both centered around the different upbringings each poet experienced throughout their lives. Dickinson’s isolated life and religious upbringing are two of the main reasons why Dickinson’s poems were so mysterious and unraveling to her audience. Since Dickinson lived such an isolated life, she used her poems and letters to voice her opinion about what was going on in the world. Whitman grew up living in both a town and on the country side, which allowed him to be able to depict both...
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...President Andrew Johnson Although Andrew Johnson was from the Democratic Party, in 1864, Lincoln chose Johnson as his running mate under the National Union Party banner. When Lincoln died April 15, 1865, Johnson became president. He did not have a Vice President. Johnson now had the job of trying to heal the country after the Civil War left the country in ruins. President Andrew Johnson lifted himself out of extreme poverty to become President of the United States. He was a man with little education who climbed the political ladder and held many different high offices. As a strict constitutionalist, Johnson believed in limiting the powers of the federal government. President Johnson was one of the most bellicose Presidents who “fought” Congress, critics, and many others. President Andrew Johnson faced numerous problems post-Civil War Era including reconstructing the Southern states to combine peacefully with the Union, his battles with Congress, and his career ending impeachment. Following Lincoln’s tragic assassination, President Andrew Johnson took on the accountability of making Reconstruction a reality. Andrew Johnson wanted to use Lincoln’s ideas of reconstruction but in a modified form. Since Congress would be in recess for eight more months Johnson decided to go ahead with his plan. Johnson was initially left to devise a Reconstruction policy without legislative intervention, as Congress was not due to meet again until December 1865. Radical Republicans told the President...
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...Reaction Paper Even though the emancipation of slaves was one of the consequences of the Civil War, the general ideas about freedom and liberty did not apply to African-Americans during the nineteenth century. I agree with this statement because although the Civil War eventually abolished slavery, the ideas, and meaning of freedom and liberty, were not necessarily universal. With the rising of the Abolitionist Movement many changes came to the United States. Slavery was banned in the North-West territories with the Ordinance of 1787 and by 1804 most of the Northern states passed laws that would eventually abolish slavery. In the South however, slavery not only remained legal, but it grew. But with the Southerner's fear of losing the anti-slavery battle they tried to reach compromises with the North. Both the North and the South figured that if slavery didn’t expand, it was doomed to extinction. So in the 1850’s issues on slavery sky rocketed. Many people in the South believed that liberty and economic independence was defined by ownership of land and slaves, and they saw the opportunity of maintaining that lifestyle gradually dwindle. When the Republicans continued to gain strength, the South fell deeper and deeper into debt. The South felt that if they remained in the Union, they would be restricted of freedom and liberty, which lead to the foundation of an independent South, and thus the idea of Southern Nationalism was born. The Election of 1860 was quite eccentric. Essentially...
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