PRESIDENTIAL: President Abraham Lincoln is one of America’s greatest presidents because of what he did for America
AGN.News Team
April 15, 2023
WASHINGTON (AGN.News) – Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865), the 16th President of the United States of America, was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman.
He was born into poverty in a small log cabin on Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky. He grew up in Indiana and educated himself.
He became a lawyer, an Illinois state legislator, and U.S. Congressman from Illinois. After serving his country in Congress, he returned to private law practice in 1849.
Abraham Lincoln devoted his life to addressing America’s problems, healing the nation’s cultural wounds and divisions while unifying a grateful nation.
Abraham Lincoln’s view of human slavery
In 1854, Lincoln was angered by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which opened the territories to slavery of African Americans. He returned to politics and soon became leader of the then new Republican Party, not to be confused with the current Republican Party.
On October 16, 1854, he delivered a speech in Peoria, Illinois on the perils of slavery and its negative effects on the country. This anti-slavery speech was a public notice that, given the opportunity, he would end slavery in America.
Lincoln understood the curse of slavery would, if left unchecked, would destroy the unity of the country. He knew slavery was like a plague upon the land. Lincoln realized America could never be free when four million of its people were living in slavery.
Lincoln vs Douglas in 1860 Election
Lincoln ran for president in 1860. His opponent was Stephen A. Douglas. In 1847, Douglas was elected to the U.S. Senate from Illinois. Douglas believed in popular sovereignty, which supported the idea that each state should determine what they wanted to do about slavery.
Stephen Arnold Douglas (1813-1861), known as the “Little Giant” because of his short stature, became a forceful and foremost advocate for the idea that every state should be allowed to determine whether or not to allow slavery within its borders.
People on both sides of the issue of slavery were opposed to this radical idea.
Douglas ran for president in 1856. The democratic party nominated James Buchanan who went on to win. Douglas, who lost the nomination proceeded to make accusations about an unfair election.
Lincoln Wins the 1860 Election
In 1860, both Abraham Lincoln (Republican) and Stephen Douglas (Democrat) were the two main candidates for president from the North.
Southern Democrats rejected Douglas and supported John C. Breckinridge who loss the election and went on to become the Confederate Secretary of War from February 6, 1865 until May 10, 1865.
The then-New Republican Party candidate Abraham Lincoln won the election because of strong support from the North. Lincoln was sworn into office on March 4, 1861.
As Lincoln became president, sworn members of the U.S. government were plotting to create their own country where slavery would be legal, the Confederate States of America.
Civil War to preserve slavery in America
Decades of political controversy over slavery were brought to a head by the victory in the 1860 U.S. presidential election of Abraham Lincoln, a man who opposed slavery’s expansion into the western territories.
Pro-slavery elements in the South viewed Lincoln’s election as a threat to the institution of slavery.
Seven Southern states began seceding from the Union and began seizing federal military bases in the South. These states were willing to go to war and divide the country in a misguided attempt to keep millions of African Americans as slaves.
For one day, in 1861, from April 12 pm through April 13 pm, Southerners attacked Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina. As a result, Union soldiers surrendered the fort to the Confederates. This was the beginning of the American Civil War.
Lincoln knew great tasks were ahead
On September 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, officially Proclamation 95. This Proclamation 95 or executive order would go into effect on January 1, 1863.
This order change the legal status of more than 3.5 million of the 4 million enslaved African Americans in the secessionist Confederate states from enslaved to free.
These newly-declared free Americans who were freed by Union soldiers or escaped the control of their slavers were immediately and permanently free.
These now-freed Americans were eligible to “be received into the armed service of the United States”. They could now join the Union army and fight the Confederates.
Lincoln worked to unify America
President Lincoln accepted the challenge to end slavery in America while keeping the nation united. That was a great task!
Anti-war Democrats, known as “Copperheads” or Peace Democrats who wanted a peace settlement with the Confederates, despised Lincoln while pro-Confederate elements plotted his assassination.
Lincoln took his message directly to the American people. On the afternoon of November 19, 1863, Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address in dedication of the Solders’ National Cemetery, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
Shortly after former U.S. Senator Edward Everett’s well-received remarks, Lincoln spoke for only a few minutes. With a “few appropriate remarks”, he was able to summarize his view of the war in just a few sentences.
The Gettysburg Address: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, 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 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 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 a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
This was four and a half months after the Union armies defeated Confederate forces in the Battle of Gettysburg, the Civil War’s deadliest battle. Today, Lincoln’s speech remains one of the best known speeches in American history.
Events leading to Lincoln’s death
On April 11, 1865, Lincoln gave a speech about giving now-freed Black Americans the right to vote. His future murderer – actor and Confederate spy – John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865), was right there listening and with anger in his heart went into “kill the president mode”.
His opportunity would come three days later when he learned of Lincoln’s plans to attend a play at Ford’s Theatre on the evening of April 14.
Just a short time before leaving the White House for Ford’s Theatre, President Lincoln signed legislation establishing the United States Secret Service.
In an ironic twist, John Wilkes Booth, age 26, had an earlier meeting with Confederate Secret Service agents who conspired, aided, plotted, and partially funded Lincoln’s assassination.
Death given to preserve America’s unity
Lincoln, his wife, and guests went to Ford’s Theatre. At 10:15 in the evening on April 14, 1865, while they were watching a performance of Our American Cousin Booth made his move.
He entered the theater upper-level box where the couple were seated, slipped a single-shot derringer from his pocket and shot the president in the head.
After being shot, the fatally wounded president was carried across the street to Peterson House.
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, remained in a coma for eight hours. He died in the next morning at 7:22 on April 15.
Abraham Lincoln’s Funeral and Burial
On hundred fifty-eight years ago today, on April 15, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre. Lincoln gave his life so America could live as a united country.
Lincoln laid in state in the East Room in the White House and later at the Capital Rotunda from April 19 through April 21. The Lincoln Special funeral train, containing his body, traveled for three weeks to Springfield, Illinois where he was laid to rest within Lincoln Tomb at the Oak Ridge Cemetery.
Along the way to Springfield, the train stopped for memorials in many cities as hundreds of thousands of mourners gathered in silence, some singing songs, bands playing, choirs singing, or simply standing in silent grief.
Abraham Lincoln Unified the States
Abraham Lincoln proved the value of a united country. He viewed the country as a singular entity, the United States, with emphasis on the word “United” as in the United States of America.
At Gettysburg, Lincoln said “our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
He further added, “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 today resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Abraham Lincoln’s enduring lessons
Eight score less two years ago the great president, Abraham Lincoln, gave us a lasting and enduring lesson of unity and self-sacrifice as oppose to self-indulgence and quest for power to the detriment of a great nation.
Lincoln gave his life so the nation “can long endure” and live on as “a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”. It’s a nation “by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
The life lesson Lincoln gave us is proof – the survival of the nation – is bigger than one person or one idea. After one hundred and fifty-eight years this lesson has been branded into the mind of a grateful nation.
President Abraham Lincoln, in all his wisdom, remains one of the greatest American presidents in the history of the United States.
It’s because of what he believed in, fought for, lived for, did for, and worked for – every single person – for all Americans – and the survival of the United States of America.
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