   #copyright

Abraham Lincoln

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: USA Presidents

   Abraham Lincoln
   Abraham Lincoln
     __________________________________________________________________

   16th President of the United States
   In office
   March 4, 1861 –  April 15, 1865
   Vice President(s)   Hannibal Hamlin (1861 to 1865); Andrew Johnson
   (March - April 1865)
   Preceded by James Buchanan
   Succeeded by Andrew Johnson
     __________________________________________________________________

   Born February 12, 1809
   Hardin County, Kentucky
   Died April 15, 1865
   Washington, D.C.
   Political party Whig, Republican
   Spouse Mary Todd Lincoln
   Religion No affiliation
   Signature

   Abraham Lincoln ( February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American
   politician who was elected the 16th President of the United States
   (serving from 1861 to 1865), and was the first president from the
   Republican Party. Today, he is best known for ending slavery and
   preserving the Union through his supervision of the Federal (i.e.,
   Northern) forces during the American Civil War. He selected the
   generals and approved their strategy; selected senior civilian
   officials; supervised diplomacy, patronage, and party operations; and
   rallied public opinion through messages and speeches. Lincoln's
   influence was magnified by his powerful rhetoric; his Gettysburg
   Address rededicated the nation to freedom and democracy and remains a
   core component of the American value system.

   To achieve his main goal of preserving the Union, Lincoln first ended
   slavery in the Confederacy through his Emancipation Proclamation
   (1863), then in 1865 secured passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
   U.S. Constitution to abolish slavery forever. He took personal charge
   of Reconstruction, seeking to speedily re-unite the nation through a
   policy of generous reconciliation. He was opposed by the Radical
   Republicans, who advocated much harsher policies.

   His leadership qualities were evident in his bringing all factions of
   the party into his cabinet, in defusing a war scare with Britain in
   1861, in handling the border slave states in 1861, and in his landslide
   reelection in 1864 presidential election. Copperheads criticized him
   vehemently for refusing to compromise on slavery, declaring martial
   law, suspending the writ of habeas corpus, ordering arrests of 18,000
   opponents including public officials and newspaper publishers,
   needlessly ending the lives of hundreds of thousands of young soldiers
   in the war, and for overstepping the bounds of executive power as set
   forth in the Constitution. On the other hand, Radical Republicans
   criticized him for moving too slowly in abolishing slavery, and not
   being ruthless enough toward the conquered South.

   Lincoln had a lasting influence on U.S. political and social
   institutions, redefining republican values, promoting nationalism, and
   enlarging the powers of the federal government. Scholars rank Lincoln
   as one of the two or three greatest presidents. His assassination in
   1865 as the war ended made him a martyr for national unity and an icon
   of Americanism.

Lincoln to 1854

   Symbolic log cabin at Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site
   Enlarge
   Symbolic log cabin at Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site

Early life

   Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, to Thomas Lincoln and
   Nancy Hanks. He was born in a one-room log cabin on the 348 acre (1.4
   km²) Sinking Spring Farm. The farm was in Nolin Creek, three miles (5
   km) south of Hodgenville, Kentucky. This was the southeast part of
   Hardin County (now part of LaRue County), and was at that time
   considered the " frontier". Lincoln was named after his grandfather,
   who was killed in 1786 in an Indian raid. He had no middle name.
   Lincoln's parents were uneducated farmers. Lincoln had one elder
   sister, Sarah Lincoln, who was born in 1805. He also had a younger
   brother, Thomas Jr, who died in infancy. Thomas Lincoln for a while was
   a respected and relatively affluent citizen of the Kentucky
   backcountry. He had purchased the Sinking Spring Farm in December 1808
   for $200 cash and assumption of a debt. But Thomas lost all his
   property in court cases and when Lincoln was a child the family was
   living in a dugout on the side of a hill in Indiana, with not even a
   log cabin to shelter them. His parents belonged to a Baptist church
   that had pulled away from a larger church because they refused to
   support slavery. From a very young age, Lincoln was exposed to
   anti-slavery sentiment. However, he never joined his parents' church,
   or any other church, and as a youth he ridiculed religion.

   In 1816, when Lincoln was seven years old, he and his parents moved to
   Perry County (now in Spencer County), Indiana. He later noted that this
   move was "partly on account of slavery," and partly because of economic
   difficulties in Kentucky. In 1818, Lincoln's mother died of " milk
   sickness" at age thirty four, when Abe was nine. Soon afterwards,
   Lincoln's father remarried to Sarah Bush Johnston. Sarah Lincoln raised
   young Lincoln like one of her own children. Years later she compared
   Lincoln to her own son, saying "Both were good boys, but I must say —
   both now being dead that Abe was the best boy I ever saw or ever expect
   to see." Lincoln was affectionate toward his step-mother, but distant
   from his father.

   In 1830, after more economic and land-title difficulties in Indiana,
   the family settled on government land on a site selected by Lincoln's
   father in Macon County, Illinois. The following desolate winter was
   especially brutal, and the family nearly moved back to Indiana. When
   his father relocated the family to a nearby site the following year,
   the 22-year-old Lincoln struck out on his own, canoing down the
   Sangamon River to Sangamon County, Illinois, in the village of New
   Salem. Later that year, hired by New Salem businessman Denton Offutt
   and accompanied by friends, he took goods from New Salem to New Orleans
   via flatboat on the Sangamon, Illinois and Mississippi rivers. While in
   New Orleans, he may have witnessed a slave auction that left an
   indelible impression on him for the rest of his life. Whether he
   actually witnessed a slave auction at that time or not, he visited
   Kentucky often and probably saw similar atrocities from time to time.

   His formal education consisted of perhaps 18 months of schooling from
   unofficial teachers. In effect he was self-educated, studying every
   book he could borrow. He mastered the Bible, William Shakespeare's
   works, English history and American history, and developed a plain
   style that puzzled audiences more used to grandiloquent oratory. He was
   a local wrestler and skilled with an axe; some of the rails he split
   were exhibited at the 1860 Republican National Convention, as the party
   celebrated the poor-boy-made-good theme. He avoided hunting and fishing
   because he did not like killing animals even for food and, though
   unusually tall and strong, spent so much time reading that some
   neighbors thought he must be doing it to avoid strenuous manual labor.
   Young Abraham Lincoln
   Enlarge
   Young Abraham Lincoln

Early career

   Lincoln began his political career in 1832, at age 23, with a campaign
   for the Illinois General Assembly as a member of the Whig Party. The
   centerpiece of his platform was the undertaking of navigational
   improvements on the Sangamon River in the hopes of attracting steamboat
   traffic to the river, which would allow sparsely populated, poor areas
   along and near the river to grow and prosper. He served as a captain in
   a company of the Illinois militia drawn from New Salem during the Black
   Hawk War, although he never saw combat. He wrote after being elected by
   his peers that he had not had "any such success in life which gave him
   so much satisfaction."

   For a few months he operated a small store in New Salem, Illinois,
   selling tea, coffee, sugar, salt, blue calico, brown muslin, straw
   hats--and whiskey. After coming across the second volume of Sir William
   Blackstone's four-volume Commentaries on the Laws of England, he taught
   himself law and was admitted to the bar in 1837. That same year, he
   moved to Springfield, Illinois, and began to practice law with Stephen
   T. Logan. He became one of the most respected and successful lawyers in
   Illinois and grew steadily more prosperous. Lincoln served four
   successive terms in the Illinois House of Representatives, as a Whig
   representative from Sangamon County, beginning in 1834. He became a
   leader of the Whig party in the legislature. In 1837, he made his first
   protest against slavery in the Illinois House, stating that the
   institution was "founded on both injustice and bad policy".

   It was in 1837, that Lincoln met his best friend, Joshua Fry Speed. In
   1842, Lincoln wrote a series of anonymous letters which were published
   in the Sangamo Journal, mocking prominent Democrat and State Auditor
   James Shields. When Shields found out it was Lincoln, he challenged him
   to a duel. Since Shields was the challenger, Lincoln chose the weapon
   and specified "Cavalry broad swords of the largest size." Lincoln, much
   taller with long arms, had an overwhelming advantage; the duel was
   called off at the last minute.

   In 1841, Lincoln entered law practice with William Herndon, a fellow
   Whig. In 1856, both men joined the fledgling Republican Party.
   Following Lincoln's death, Herndon began collecting stories about
   Lincoln from those who knew him in central Illinois, and published them
   in Herndon's Lincoln.

Family

   On November 4, 1842, at the age of 33, Lincoln married Mary Todd. She
   came from a prominent slave-owning family from Kentucky and allowed his
   children to spend time in Kentucky surrounded by slaves. The couple had
   four sons.
     * Robert Todd Lincoln ( August 1, 1843 - July 26, 1926): born in
       Springfield, Illinois, and died in Manchester, Vermont.
     * Edward Baker Lincoln ( March 10, 1846 - February 1, 1850): born and
       died in Springfield.
     * William Wallace Lincoln ( December 21, 1850 - February 20, 1862):
       born in Springfield and died in Washington, D.C.
     * Thomas "Tad" Lincoln ( April 4, 1853 - July 16, 1871): born in
       Springfield and died in Chicago.

   Only Robert survived into adulthood. Lincoln greatly admired the
   science that flourished in New England and was one of the few men in
   Illinois at the time to send a son to elite eastern schools; he sent
   Robert Todd Lincoln to Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard College).
   Robert had three children and three grandchildren, but none of these
   had children, so Abraham Lincoln's bloodline ended when Robert Beckwith
   (Lincoln's great-grandson) died on December 24, 1985.

   Among his wife's family, four of his brothers-in-law fought for the
   Confederacy with one wounded and another killed in action. Lieutenant
   David H. Todd, a half-brother of Mary Todd Lincoln, served as
   commandant of the Libby Prison camp during the war.

Antiwar activist

   Lincoln in the 1840s
   Enlarge
   Lincoln in the 1840s

   In 1846, Lincoln was elected to a term in the U.S. House of
   Representatives. A staunch Whig, Lincoln often referred to party leader
   Henry Clay as his political idol. As a freshman House member, Lincoln
   was not a particularly powerful or influential figure in Congress. He
   spoke out against the Mexican-American War, which he attributed to
   President Polk's desire for "military glory — that attractive rainbow,
   that rises in showers of blood". Besides this rhetoric, he also
   directly challenged Polk's claims as to the boundary of Texas. Lincoln
   was among the 82 Whigs in January 1848 who defeated 81 Democrats in a
   procedural vote on an amendment to send a routine resolution back to
   committee with instructions for the committee to add the words "a war
   unnecessarily and unconstitutionally begun by the President of the
   United States". The amendment passed, but the bill never reemerged from
   committee and was never finally voted upon. Lincoln damaged his
   reputation by an intemperate speech in the House. He announced, "God of
   Heaven has forgotten to defend the weak and innocent, and permitted the
   strong band of murderers and demons from hell to kill men, women, and
   children, and lay waste and pillage the land of the just." Two weeks
   later, Polk sent a peace treaty to Congress. No one in Washington paid
   any attention to Lincoln, but the Democrats orchestrated angry
   outbursts from all over his district, where the war was popular and
   many had volunteered. In Morgan County, resolutions were adopted in
   fervent support of the war and in wrathful denunciation of the
   "treasonable assaults of guerrillas at home; party demagogues;"
   slanderers of the President, defenders of the butchery at the Alamo,
   traducers of the heroism at San Jacinto. Lincoln's law partner William
   Herndon warned Lincoln that the damage was mounting and irreparable;
   Lincoln himself was despondent, and he decided not to run for
   reelection. In the fall 1848 election, he campaigned vigorously for
   Zachary Taylor, the successful general whose atrocities he had
   denounced in January. Lincoln's attacks on Polk and Taylor came back to
   haunt him during the Civil War and indeed was held against him when he
   applied for a major patronage job from the new Taylor administration.
   Instead Taylor offered Lincoln a minor patronage job in remote Oregon
   Territory. Acceptance would end his career in the fast-growing state of
   Illinois, so he declined. Returning instead to Springfield, Lincoln
   gave up politics and turned his energies to making a living as an
   attorney, which involved grueling travels on horseback from county
   courthouse to county courthouse.

Prairie lawyer

   By the mid-1850s, Lincoln faced competing transportation interests —
   both the river barges and the railroads. In 1849, he received a patent
   related to buoying vessels. Lincoln represented the Alton & Sangamon
   Railroad in an 1851 dispute with one of its shareholders, James A.
   Barret. Barret had refused to pay the balance on his pledge to the
   railroad on the grounds that it had changed its originally planned
   route. Lincoln argued that as a matter of law a corporation is not
   bound by its original charter when that charter can be amended in the
   public interest, that the newer proposed Alton & Sangamon route was
   superior and less expensive, and that accordingly the corporation had a
   right to sue Mr. Barret for his delinquent payment. He won this case,
   and the decision by the Illinois Supreme Court was eventually cited by
   several other courts throughout the United States.

   An important example of Lincoln's skills as a railroad lawyer was a
   lawsuit over a tax exemption that the state had granted to the Illinois
   Central Railroad. McLean County argued that the state had no authority
   to grant such an exemption, and it sought to impose taxes on the
   railroad notwithstanding. In January 1856, the Illinois Supreme Court
   delivered its opinion upholding the tax exemption.

   Lincoln's most notable criminal trial came in 1858 when he defended
   William "Duff" Armstrong, who was on trial for murder. The case is
   famous for Lincoln's use of judicial notice, a rare tactic at that
   time, to show that an eyewitness had lied on the stand. After the
   witness testified to having seen the crime by the light of the moon,
   Lincoln produced a Farmer's Almanac to show that the moon on that date
   was at such a low angle that it could not have provided enough
   illumination to see anything clearly. Based upon this evidence,
   Armstrong was acquitted.

   Lincoln was involved in more than 5,100 cases in Illinois alone during
   a 23-year legal practice. Amounting to about one case per business day,
   many cases involved little more than filing a writ, while others were
   more substantial and drawn-out. Lincoln and his partners appeared
   before the Illinois State Supreme Court more than 400 times.

Republican politics 1854–1860

   The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which expressly repealed the limits on
   slavery's spread that had been part of the Missouri Compromise of 1820,
   drew Lincoln back into politics. Illinois Democrat Stephen A. Douglas,
   the most powerful man in the Senate, proposed popular sovereignty as
   the solution to the slavery impasse, and he incorporated it into the
   Kansas-Nebraska Act. Douglas argued that in a democracy the people of a
   territory should decide whether to allow slavery and not have a
   decision imposed on them by Congress.

   It was a speech against the act, on October 16, 1854, in Peoria, that
   caused Lincoln to stand out among the other free soil orators of the
   day. In the speech, Lincoln commented upon the Kansas-Nebraska Act:


   Abraham Lincoln

   [The Act has a] declared indifference, but as I must think, covert real
   zeal for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I hate it because of
       the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it
        deprives our republican example of its just influence in the
   world—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 really good men
   amongst 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.


   Abraham Lincoln

   He helped form the new Republican Party, drawing on remnants of the old
   Whig, Free Soil, Liberty and Democratic parties. In a stirring
   campaign, the Republicans carried Illinois in 1854 and elected a
   senator. Lincoln was the obvious choice, but to keep the new party
   balanced he allowed the election to go to an ex-Democrat Lyman
   Trumbull.

   In 1857-58, Douglas broke with President Buchanan, leading to a fight
   for control of the Democratic Party. Some eastern Republicans even
   favored the reelection of Douglas in 1858, since he led the opposition
   to the administration's push for the Lecompton Constitution which would
   have admitted Kansas as a slave state. Accepting the Republican
   nomination for the Senate in 1858, Lincoln delivered a famous speech in
   which he stated, "'A house divided against itself cannot stand.'( Mark
   3:25) I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave
   and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not
   expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided.
   It will become all one thing, or all the other." The speech created a
   lasting image of the danger of disunion because of slavery, and rallied
   Republicans across the north.

   The 1858 campaign featured the Lincoln-Douglas debates, a nationally
   famous contest on slavery. Lincoln warned that the Slave Power was
   threatening the values of republicanism, while Douglas emphasized
   democracy, as in his Freeport Doctrine, which said that local settlers
   should be free to choose slavery or not. Though the Republican
   legislative candidates won more popular votes, the Democrats won more
   seats, and the legislature reelected Douglas to the Senate.
   Nevertheless, Lincoln's eloquence transformed him into a national
   political star.

   During the debates of 1858, the issue of race was often discussed.
   During a time period when racial egalitarianism was considered
   politically incorrect, Stephen Douglas informed the crowds, "If you
   desire Negro citizenship… if you desire them to vote on an equality
   with yourselves… then support Mr. Lincoln and the Black Republican
   party, who are in favour of the citizenship of the negro." On the
   defensive, Lincoln countered that he was "not in favour of bringing
   about in any way the social and political equality of the white and
   black races." Lincoln's opposition to slavery was opposition to the
   Slave Power, and he was not an abolitionist in 1858. But the Civil War
   changed many things, including Lincoln's beliefs in race relations.

Election of 1860

   "The Rail Candidate", Lincoln's 1860 candidacy is held up by slavery
   issue (slave on left) and party organization (New York Tribune editor
   Horace Greeley on right)
   Enlarge
   "The Rail Candidate", Lincoln's 1860 candidacy is held up by slavery
   issue (slave on left) and party organization (New York Tribune editor
   Horace Greeley on right)

   Entering the presidential nomination process as a distinct underdog,
   Lincoln was eventually chosen as the Republican candidate for the 1860
   election for several reasons. His expressed views on slavery were seen
   as more moderate than the views of rivals William H. Seward and Salmon
   Chase. His "western" origins also appealed to the newer states. Other
   contenders, especially those with more governmental experience, had
   acquired enemies within the party and were weak in the critical western
   states. Lincoln was seen as a moderate who could win the west. Most
   Republicans agreed with Lincoln that the North was the aggrieved party
   as the Slave Power tightened its grasp on the national government.
   Despite his Southern connections (his in-laws owned slaves), Lincoln
   misunderstood the depth of the revolution underway in the South and the
   emergence of Southern nationalism. Throughout the 1850s he denied there
   would ever be a civil war. His supporters repeatedly denied that his
   election would be a spark for secession.

   Lincoln did not campaign or give speeches. The campaign was handled by
   the state and county Republican organizations. They were thorough and
   used the newest techniques to sustain the enthusiasm of party members
   and thus obtain high turnout. There was little effort to convert
   non-Republicans, and there was virtually no campaigning in the South
   except for a few border cities such as St. Louis, Missouri, and
   Wheeling, Virginia; indeed the party did not run a slate of electors in
   most of the South. In the North, there were thousands of Republican
   speakers, tons of campaign posters and leaflets, and thousands of
   newspaper editorials. They focused first on the party platform, and
   second on Lincoln's life story, making the most of his boyhood poverty,
   his pioneer background, his native genius, his rise from obscurity to
   fame. His nicknames, "Honest Abe" and "the Rail-Splitter," were
   exploited to the full. The point was to emphasize the superior power of
   "free labor", whereby a common farm boy could work his way to the top
   by his own efforts.

   On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected the 16th President of the
   United States, beating Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, John C.
   Breckinridge of the Southern Democrats, and John C. Bell of the new
   Constitutional Union Party. Lincoln was the first Republican president.
   He won entirely on the strength of his support in the North: he was not
   even on the ballot in nine states in the South — and won only 2 of 996
   counties in the other Southern states. Lincoln gained 1,865,908 votes
   (39.9% of the total,) for 180 electoral votes; Douglas 1,380,202
   (29.5%) for 12 electoral votes; Breckenridge 848,019 (18.1%) for 72
   electoral votes; and Bell 590,901 (12.5%) for 39 electoral votes. There
   were fusion tickets in some states, but even if his opponents had
   combined in every state, Lincoln had a majority vote in all but two of
   the states in which he won the electoral votes and would still have won
   the electoral college and the election.

Civil War

Secession winter 1860–1861

   As Lincoln's election became more probable, secessionists made it clear
   that their states would leave the Union. South Carolina took the lead
   followed by six other cotton-growing states in the deep South. The
   upper South ( Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee,
   Kentucky, Missouri, and Arkansas) listened to and rejected the
   secessionist appeal. They decided to stay in the Union, though warning
   Lincoln they would not support an invasion through their territory. The
   seven Confederate states seceded before Lincoln took office, declaring
   themselves an entirely new nation, the Confederate States of America.
   President Buchanan and President-elect Lincoln refused to recognize the
   Confederacy, which became the immediate cause of the war.

   President-elect Lincoln evaded possible assassins in Baltimore and on
   February 23, 1861, arrived in disguise in Washington, D.C. At Lincoln's
   inauguration on March 4, 1861, the Turners formed Lincoln's bodyguard;
   and a sizable garrison of federal troops was also present, ready to
   protect the capital from Confederate invasion or insurrection from
   Confederates in the capital city.
   Photograph showing the March 4, 1861, inauguration of Abraham Lincoln
   in front of U.S. Capitol Building
   Enlarge
   Photograph showing the March 4, 1861, inauguration of Abraham Lincoln
   in front of U.S. Capitol Building

   In his First Inaugural Address, Lincoln declared, "I hold that in
   contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution the Union of
   these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in
   the fundamental law of all national governments", arguing further that
   the purpose of the United States Constitution was "to form a more
   perfect union" than the Articles of Confederation which were explicitly
   perpetual, and thus the Constitution too was perpetual. He asked
   rhetorically that even were the Constitution a simple contract, would
   it not require the agreement of all parties to rescind it?

   Also in his inaugural address, in a final attempt to unite the Union
   and prevent the looming war, Lincoln supported the pending Corwin
   Amendment to the Constitution, which had passed Congress. It explicitly
   protected slavery in those states in which it already existed, and was
   designed to appeal not to the Confederacy but to the critical border
   states. Lincoln adamantly opposed the Crittenden Compromise, however,
   which would have permitted slavery in the territories. Despite support
   for the Crittenden compromise among some Republicans, Lincoln denounced
   it saying it "would amount to a perpetual covenant of war against every
   people, tribe, and state owning a foot of land between here and Tierra
   del Fuego [at the far end of South America]."

   By the time Lincoln took office, the Confederacy was an established
   fact, and no leaders of the insurrection proposed rejoining the Union
   on any terms. No compromise was found because no compromise was
   possible. Lincoln perhaps could have allowed the southern states to
   secede, and some Republicans recommended that. However, conservative
   Democratic nationalists, such as Jeremiah S. Black, Joseph Holt, and
   Edwin M. Stanton had taken control of Buchanan's cabinet around January
   1, 1861, and refused to accept secession. Lincoln and nearly all
   Republican leaders adopted this nationalistic position by March 1861:
   the Union could not be broken.

Fighting begins: 1861–1862

   After Union troops at Fort Sumter were fired upon and forced to
   surrender in April 1861, Lincoln called on governors of every state to
   send 75,000 troops to recapture forts, protect the capital, and
   "preserve the Union," which in his view still existed intact despite
   the actions of the seceding states. Virginia, which had repeatedly
   warned Lincoln it would not allow an invasion of its territory or join
   an attack on another state, then seceded, along with North Carolina,
   Tennessee and Arkansas.

   Nevins argues that Lincoln made three serious mistakes at this point.
   He at first underestimated the strength of the Confederacy, assuming
   that 75,000 troops could end the insurrection in 90 days. Second, he
   overestimated the strength of Unionist sentiment in the South and
   border states; he assumed he could call the bluff of the
   insurrectionists and they would fade away. Finally he misunderstood the
   demands of Unionists in the border states, who warned they would not
   support an invasion of the Confederacy.

   The slave states of Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware did not
   secede, and Lincoln urgently negotiated with state leaders there,
   promising not to interfere with slavery in loyal states. After the
   fighting started, he had rebel leaders arrested in all the border areas
   and held in military prisons without trial; over 18,000 were arrested.
   None were executed; one — Clement Vallandingham — was exiled; all were
   released, usually after two or three months. See Ex parte Merryman.

Emancipation Proclamation

   Lincoln met with his Cabinet for the first reading of the Emancipation
   Proclamation draft on July 22, 1862. L-R: Edwin M. Stanton, Salmon P.
   Chase, Abraham Lincoln, Gideon Welles, Caleb Smith, William H. Seward,
   Montgomery Blair and Edward Bates.
   Enlarge
   Lincoln met with his Cabinet for the first reading of the Emancipation
   Proclamation draft on July 22, 1862. L-R: Edwin M. Stanton, Salmon P.
   Chase, Abraham Lincoln, Gideon Welles, Caleb Smith, William H. Seward,
   Montgomery Blair and Edward Bates.

   Congress in July 1862 moved to free the slaves by passing the Second
   Confiscation Act. The goal was to weaken the rebellion, which was led
   and controlled by slave owners. This did not abolish the legal
   institution of slavery (the 13th Amendment did that), but it shows
   Lincoln had the support of Congress in liberating the slaves owned by
   rebels. Lincoln implemented the new law by his "Emancipation
   Proclamation."

   Lincoln is well known for ending slavery in the United States. In
   1861-62, Lincoln made it clear that the North was fighting the war to
   preserve the Union, not to abolish slavery. Freeing the slaves became,
   in late 1862, a war measure to weaken the rebellion by destroying the
   economic base of its leadership class. Abolitionists criticized Lincoln
   for his slowness, but on August 22, 1862, Lincoln explained,


   Abraham Lincoln

     I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the
    Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the
   nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." ... My paramount object
   in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to
   destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I
    would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would
   do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone
                            I would also do that.


   Abraham Lincoln

   The Emancipation Proclamation, announced on September 22 and put in
   effect January 1, 1863, freed slaves in territories not under Union
   control. As Union armies advanced south, more slaves were liberated
   until all of them in Confederate hands were freed (over three million).
   Lincoln later said: "I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was
   doing right, than I do in signing this paper." The proclamation made
   abolishing slavery in the rebel states an official war goal. Lincoln
   then threw his energies into passage of the 13th Amendment to
   permanently abolish slavery throughout the nation.

   Lincoln had for some time been working on plans to set up colonies for
   the newly freed slaves. He remarked upon colonization favorably in the
   Emancipation Proclamation but all attempts at such a massive
   undertaking failed. As Frederick Douglass observed, Lincoln was, "The
   first great man that I talked with in the United States freely who in
   no single instance reminded me of the difference between himself and
   myself, of the difference of colour."

Domestic measures

   While Lincoln is usually portrayed bearded, he first grew a beard in
   1861 at the suggestion of 11-year-old Grace Bedell
   Enlarge
   While Lincoln is usually portrayed bearded, he first grew a beard in
   1861 at the suggestion of 11-year-old Grace Bedell

   Lincoln believed in the Whig theory of the presidency, which left
   Congress to write the laws while he signed them, vetoing only bills
   that threatened his war powers. Thus, he signed the Homestead Act in
   1862, making available millions of acres of government-held land in the
   west for purchase at very low cost. The Morrill Land-Grant Colleges
   Act, also signed in 1862, provided government grants for agricultural
   universities in each state. Lincoln also signed the Pacific Railway
   Acts of 1862 and 1864, which granted federal support to the
   construction of the United States' first transcontinental railroad,
   which was completed in 1869. Other important legislation involved money
   matters, including the first income tax and higher tariffs. Also
   included was the creation of the system of national banks by the
   National Banking Acts of 1863, 1864, and 1865 which allowed the
   creation of a strong national financial system.

   Lincoln sent a senior general to put down the " Sioux Uprising" of
   August 1862 in Minnesota. Presented with 303 death warrants for
   convicted Santee Dakota who had massacred innocent farmers, Lincoln
   affirmed 39 of these for execution (one was later reprieved).

1864 election and second inauguration

   After Union victories at Gettysburg, Vicksburg and Chattanooga in 1863,
   victory seemed at hand. Lincoln promoted Ulysses S. Grant
   General-in-Chief on March 12, 1864. When the spring campaigns all
   turned into bloody stalemates, Lincoln strongly supported Grant's
   strategy of wearing down Lee's army at the cost of heavy Union
   casualties. Lincoln easily defeated efforts to deny his renomination,
   and selected Andrew Johnson, a War Democrat from the Southern state of
   Tennessee as his running mate in order to form a broader coalition.
   They ran on the new Union Party ticket; it was a coalition of
   Republicans and War Democrats.

   Republicans across the country had the jitters in August, fearing that
   Lincoln would be defeated. Acknowledging those fears, Lincoln wrote out
   and signed the following pledge that he would destroy the Confederacy
   even if he was defeated for reelection; he did not show it to his
   cabinet, asking them each to sign the sealed envelope. Lincoln wrote:


   Abraham Lincoln

   This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that
   this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to
    so co-operate with the President elect, as to save the Union between
   the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election
         on such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterwards.


   Abraham Lincoln

   That is, Lincoln pledged to destroy the Confederacy before he left
   office on March 4, 1865.

   The Democratic platform followed the Peace wing of the party, calling
   the war a "failure." However their candidate, General George McClellan,
   supported the war and repudiated the platform.

   Lincoln provided Grant with new replacements and mobilized the Union
   party to support Grant and talk up local support for the war. Sherman's
   capture of Atlanta in September ended defeatist jitters; the Democratic
   Party was deeply split, with some leaders and most soldiers openly for
   Lincoln; the Union party was united and energized, and Lincoln was
   easily reelected in a landslide. He won all but two states, capturing
   212 of 233 electoral votes.

   On March 4, 1865, he delivered his second inaugural address, which was
   his favorite of all his speeches. At this time, a victory over the
   rebels was at hand, slavery was dead, and Lincoln was looking to the
   future.


   Abraham Lincoln

  Fondly do we hope — fervently do we pray — that this mighty scourge of
    war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until
    all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of
   unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with
    the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said
    three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of
                the Lord, are true and righteous altogether".

     With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the
   right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the
     work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who
   shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan — to do
      all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among
                       ourselves, and with all nations


   Abraham Lincoln

Conducting the war effort

   The war was a source of constant frustration for the president, and it
   occupied nearly all of his time. Lincoln had a contentious relationship
   with General George B. McClellan, who became general-in-chief of all
   the Union armies in the wake of the embarrassing Union defeat at the
   First Battle of Bull Run and after the retirement of Winfield Scott in
   late 1861. Lincoln wished to take an active part in planning the war
   strategy despite his inexperience in military affairs. Lincoln's
   strategic priorities were two-fold: first, to ensure that Washington,
   D.C., was well defended; and second, to conduct an aggressive war
   effort in hopes of ending the war quickly and appeasing the Northern
   public and press, who pushed for an offensive war. McClellan, a
   youthful West Point graduate and railroad executive called back to
   military service, took a more cautious approach. McClellan took several
   months to plan and execute his Peninsula Campaign, which involved
   capturing Richmond by moving the Army of the Potomac by boat to the
   peninsula between the James and York Rivers. McClellan's delay
   irritated Lincoln, as did McClellan's insistence that no troops were
   needed to defend Washington, D.C. Lincoln insisted on holding some of
   McClellan's troops to defend the capital, a decision McClellan blamed
   for the ultimate failure of his Peninsula Campaign.

   McClellan, a lifelong Democrat who was temperamentally conservative,
   was relieved as general-in-chief after releasing his Harrison's Landing
   Letter, where he offered unsolicited political advice to Lincoln urging
   caution in the war effort. McClellan's letter incensed Radical
   Republicans, who successfully pressured Lincoln to appoint fellow
   Republican John Pope as head of the new Army of Virginia. Pope complied
   with Lincoln's strategic desire for the Union to move towards Richmond
   from the north, thus guarding Washington, D.C. However, Pope was
   soundly defeated at the Second Battle of Bull Run during the summer of
   1862, forcing the Army of the Potomac back into the defenses of
   Washington for a second time. Pope was sent to Minnesota to fight the
   Sioux.

   Panicked by Confederate General Robert E. Lee's invasion of Maryland,
   Lincoln restored McClellan to command of all forces around Washington
   in time for the Battle of Antietam in September 1862. It was the Union
   victory in that battle that allowed Lincoln to release his Emancipation
   Proclamation. Lincoln relieved McClellan of command shortly after the
   1862 midterm elections and appointed Republican Ambrose Burnside to
   head the Army of the Potomac, who promised to follow through on
   Lincoln's strategic vision for an aggressive offensive against Lee and
   Richmond. After Burnside was stunningly defeated at Fredericksburg,
   Joseph Hooker was given command, despite his idle talk about becoming a
   military strong man. Hooker was routed by Lee at Chancellorsville in
   May 1863 and relieved of command early in the subsequent Gettysburg
   Campaign.

   After the Union victory at Gettysburg, Meade's failure to pursue Lee,
   and months of inactivity for the Army of the Potomac, Lincoln decided
   to bring in a western general: General Ulysses S. Grant. He had a solid
   string of victories in the Western Theatre, including Vicksburg and
   Chattanooga. Earlier, reacting to criticism of Grant, Lincoln was
   quoted as saying, "I cannot spare this man. He fights." Grant waged his
   bloody Overland Campaign in 1864, using a strategy of a war of
   attrition, characterized by high Union losses at battles such as the
   Wilderness and Cold Harbour but by proportionately higher losses in the
   Confederate army. Grant's aggressive campaign eventually bottled up Lee
   in the Siege of Petersburg and result in the Union's taking Richmond
   and bringing the war to a close in the spring of 1865.

   Lincoln authorized Grant to destroy the civilian infrastructure that
   was keeping the Confederacy alive, hoping thereby to destroy the
   South's morale and weaken its economic ability to continue the war.
   This allowed Generals William Tecumseh Sherman and Philip Sheridan to
   destroy farms and towns in the Shenandoah Valley, Georgia, and South
   Carolina. The damage in Sherman's March to the Sea through Georgia
   totaled in excess of $100 million.

   Lincoln had a star-crossed record as a military leader, possessing a
   keen understanding of strategic points (such as the Mississippi River
   and the fortress city of Vicksburg) and the importance of defeating the
   enemy's army, rather than simply capturing cities. However, he had
   limited success in motivating his commanders to adopt his strategies,
   until in late 1863 he found in Grant a man who shared his vision of the
   war, his insistence on using black troops, and was able to bring that
   vision to reality with his relentless pursuit of coordinated offensives
   in multiple theaters of war.

   Lincoln showed a keen curiosity with military campaigning during the
   war. He spent hours at the War Department telegraph office, reading
   dispatches from his generals on many nights. He frequently visited
   battle sites and seemed fascinated by watching scenes of war. During
   Jubal A. Early's raid into Washington, D.C., in 1864, Lincoln had to be
   told to duck his head to avoid being shot while observing the scenes of
   battle.

Homefront

   The last photograph taken of Lincoln alive, April 10, 1865.
   Enlarge
   The last photograph taken of Lincoln alive, April 10, 1865.

Rhetoric mobilizes the nation

   Lincoln was more successful in giving the war meaning to Northern
   civilians through his oratorical skills. Lincoln possessed an
   extraordinary command of the English language, as evidenced by the
   Gettysburg Address, a speech dedicating a cemetery of Union soldiers
   from the Battle of Gettysburg that he delivered on November 19, 1863.
   Lincoln's choice words resonated across the nation and across history,
   defying Lincoln's own prediction that "the world will little note, nor
   long remember what we say here." Lincoln's second inaugural address is
   also greatly admired and often quoted. In these speeches, Lincoln
   articulated better than anyone the rationale behind the Union effort.

Civil liberties suspended

   During the Civil War, Lincoln appropriated powers no previous President
   had wielded: he used his war powers to proclaim a blockade, suspended
   the writ of habeas corpus, spent money without congressional
   authorization, and imprisoned 18,000 suspected Confederate sympathizers
   without trial. All his actions, although vehemently denounced by the
   Copperheads, were subsequently upheld by Congress and the Courts.

Reconstruction

   Reconstruction began during the war as Lincoln and his associates
   pondered the questions of how to reintegrate the Southern states back
   into the Union, and what to do with Confederate leaders and with the
   freed slaves. Lincoln was the leader of the "moderates" regarding
   Reconstruction policy, and usually was opposed by the Radical
   Republicans led by Thaddeus Stevens in the House and Charles Sumner and
   Benjamin Wade in the Senate (though he cooperated with those men on
   most other issues). Lincoln was determined to find a course that would
   reunite the nation as soon as possible and not permanently alienate the
   Southerners, and throughout the war Lincoln urged speedy elections
   under generous terms in areas behind Union lines. Critical decisions
   had to be made during the war, as state after state was reconquered. Of
   special importance were Tennessee, where Lincoln appointed Andrew
   Johnson as governor, and Louisiana where Lincoln tried a plan that
   would restore the state when 10% of the voters agreed. The Radicals
   thought that policy was too lenient, and passed their own plan, the
   Wade-Davis Bill in 1864. Lincoln vetoed Wade-Davis, and the Radicals
   retaliated by refusing to seat representatives elected from Louisiana,
   Arkansas, and Tennessee.

   On April 9, 1865, General Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House in
   Virginia; the war was effectively over. The other rebel armies
   surrendered and there was no guerrilla warfare. Lincoln went to
   Richmond to make a public gesture of sitting at Jefferson Davis's own
   desk, symbolically saying to the nation that the President of the
   United States held authority over the entire land. He was greeted at
   the city as a conquering hero by freed slaves, whose sentiments were
   epitomized by one admirer's quote, "I know I am free for I have seen
   the face of Father Abraham and have felt him." When a general asked
   Lincoln how the defeated Confederates should be treated, Lincoln
   replied, "Let 'em up easy."

Assassination

   The assassination of Abraham Lincoln. From left to right: Henry
   Rathbone, Clara Harris, Mary Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln and John
   Wilkes Booth.
   Enlarge
   The assassination of Abraham Lincoln. From left to right: Henry
   Rathbone, Clara Harris, Mary Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln and John
   Wilkes Booth.

   Originally, John Wilkes Booth had formulated a plan to kidnap Lincoln
   in exchange for the release of Confederate prisoners. However, on April
   11, 1865 Lincoln gave a speech outside the White House giving his
   support to voting rights to blacks. This infuriated Booth, who was in
   the attending crowd. His plan to kidnap Lincoln changed to a plan for
   assassination.

   Lincoln had met frequently with Grant as the war drew to a close. The
   two men planned matters of reconstruction, and it was evident to all
   that they held each other in high regard. During their last meeting, on
   April 14, 1865 ( Good Friday), Lincoln invited Grant to a social
   engagement that evening. Grant declined. Finally, Major Henry Rathbone
   and Clara Harris (his step-sister and fiancee) agreed to go.

   John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor and a Confederate spy from
   Maryland, heard that the President and Mrs. Lincoln, along with the
   Grants, would be attending Ford's Theatre. Having failed in a plot to
   kidnap Lincoln earlier, Booth informed his co-conspirators of his
   intention to kill Lincoln. Others were assigned to assassinate
   vice-president Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William H. Seward.

   Without his main bodyguard Ward Hill Lamon, to whom he related his
   famous dream of his own assassination, Lincoln left to attend the play
   Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre. As a lone bodyguard wandered,
   and Lincoln sat in his state box (Box 7) in the balcony, Booth crept up
   behind the President's box and waited for the funniest line of the
   play, hoping the laughter would cover the noise of the gunshot. On
   stage, a character named Lord Dundreary (played by Harry Hawk) who has
   just been accused of ignorance in regards to the manners of good
   society, replies, "Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out,
   old gal — you sockdologizing old man-trap..." When the laughter came
   Booth jumped into the box with the President and aimed a single-shot,
   round-slug .44 caliber Deringer at his head, firing at point-blank
   range. The bullet entered behind Lincoln's left ear and lodged behind
   his right eyeball. Major Henry Rathbone momentarily grappled with Booth
   but was cut by Booth's knife. Booth then leapt to the stage and shouted
   " Sic semper tyrannis!" (Latin: "Thus always to tyrants") and escaped,
   despite a broken leg suffered in the leap. A twelve day manhunt ensued,
   in which Booth was chased by Federal agents (under the direction of
   Secretary of War Edwin Stanton), until he was finally cornered in a
   barnhouse in Virginia and shot, dying soon after. Of Booth's other
   conspirators, only one came close to assassinating his target: Lewis
   Powell attacked and critically injured Secretary of State Seward.

   An army surgeon, Doctor Charles Leale, quickly assessed the wound as
   mortal. The President was taken across the street from the theatre to
   the Petersen House, where he lay in a coma for nine hours before he
   died. Several physicians attended Lincoln, including U.S. Army Surgeon
   General Joseph K. Barnes of the Army Medical Museum. Using a probe,
   Barnes located some fragments of Lincoln's skull and the ball lodged 6
   inches (15 cm) inside his brain. Lincoln never regained consciousness
   and was officially pronounced dead at 7:22 a.m. April 15, 1865. There
   is some disagreement among historians as to Stanton's words after
   Lincoln died. All agree he began "Now he belongs to the..." with some
   stating he said "ages", while others believe he said "angels". After
   Lincoln's body was returned to the White House, his body was prepared
   for his lying in state in the East Room.

   The Army Medical Museum, now named the National Museum of Health and
   Medicine, has retained in its collection several artifacts relating to
   the assassination. Currently on display in the museum are the bullet
   that was fired from the Deringer pistol, the probe used by Barnes,
   pieces of Lincoln's skull and hair, and the surgeon's cuff stained with
   Lincoln's blood.
   Lincoln's funeral train carried his remains, as well as 300 mourners
   and the casket of his son William, 1,654 miles (2,661 km) to Illinois.
   Enlarge
   Lincoln's funeral train carried his remains, as well as 300 mourners
   and the casket of his son William, 1,654 miles (2,661 km) to Illinois.

   Lincoln's body was carried by train in a grand funeral procession
   through several states on its way back to Illinois. The nation mourned
   a man whom many viewed as the savior of the United States. Copperheads
   celebrated the death of a man they considered an unconstitutional
   tyrant. He was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois,
   where a 177 foot (54 m) tall granite tomb surmounted with several
   bronze statues of Lincoln was constructed by 1874. To prevent repeated
   attempts to steal Lincoln's body and hold it for ransom, Robert Todd
   Lincoln had Lincoln exhumed and reinterred in concrete several feet
   thick in 1901.

Presidential appointments

Administration and Cabinet

   Lincoln was known for appointing his political rivals to high positions
   in his Cabinet to keep in line all factions of his party — and to let
   them battle each other and not combine against Lincoln. Historians
   agree that except for Cameron, it was a highly effective group.
            Office                   Name           Term
   President                 Abraham Lincoln      1861–1865
   Vice President            Hannibal Hamlin      1861–1865
                             Andrew Johnson       1865
   Secretary of State        William H. Seward    1861–1865
   Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase      1861–1864
                             William P. Fessenden 1864–1865
                             Hugh McCulloch       1865
   Secretary of War          Simon Cameron        1861–1862
                             Edwin M. Stanton     1862–1865
   Attorney General          Edward Bates         1861–1864
                             James Speed          1864–1865
   Postmaster General        Horatio King         1861
                             Montgomery Blair     1861–1864
                             William Dennison     1864–1865
   Secretary of the Navy     Gideon Welles        1861–1865
   Secretary of the Interior Caleb B. Smith       1861–1863
                             John P. Usher        1863–1865

Supreme Court

   Lincoln appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the
   United States:
     * Noah Haynes Swayne – 1862
     * Samuel Freeman Miller – 1862
     * David Davis – 1862
     * Stephen Johnson Field – 1863
     * Salmon P. Chase – Chief Justice – 1864

Major presidential acts

Enacted as President

     * Signed Revenue Act of 1861
     * Signed Homestead Act
     * Signed Morill Land-Grant College Act
     * Signed Internal Revenue Act of 1862
     * Signed Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 and 1864
     * Established United States Department of Agriculture (1862)
     * Signed National Banking Act of 1863
     * Signed Internal Revenue Act of 1864

   Lincoln spent most of his attention on military matters and politics,
   but with his strong support, U.S government established the current
   system of national banks with the National Bank Act. His Administration
   increased the tariff to raise revenue, imposed the first income tax,
   issued hundreds of millions of dollars of bonds and the first national
   Greenbacks (paper money), encouraged immigration from Europe, started
   the transcontinental railroad, set up the Department of Agriculture,
   and encouraged farm ownership with the Homestead Act of 1862. During
   the war, his Treasury department effectively controlled all cotton
   trade in the occupied South—the most dramatic incursion of federal
   controls on the economy.

States admitted to the Union

     * West Virginia – 1863
     * Nevada – 1864

Legacy and memorials

   Daniel Chester French's seated Lincoln faces the National Mall to the
   east.
   Daniel Chester French's seated Lincoln faces the National Mall to the
   east.
   A portrait of Lincoln as seen on the U.S. five dollar bill.
   Enlarge
   A portrait of Lincoln as seen on the U.S. five dollar bill.
   Lincoln's likeness on Mt. Rushmore.
   Enlarge
   Lincoln's likeness on Mt. Rushmore.
   Lincoln as depicted on the Illinois state quarter
   Enlarge
   Lincoln as depicted on the Illinois state quarter

   Lincoln's death made the President a martyr to many. Repeated polls of
   historians have ranked Lincoln as among the greatest presidents in U.S.
   history. Among contemporary admirers, Lincoln is usually seen as a
   figure who personifies classical values of honesty, integrity, as well
   as respect for individual and minority rights, and human freedom in
   general. Many American organizations of all purposes and agendas
   continue to cite his name and image, with interests ranging from the
   gay rights group Log Cabin Republicans to the insurance corporation
   Lincoln Financial. The Lincoln automobile is also named after him.
   Lincoln stamp, issued Nov. 19, 1965.
   Enlarge
   Lincoln stamp, issued Nov. 19, 1965.

   Lincoln has been memorialized in many city names, notably the capital
   of Nebraska. Lincoln, Illinois, is the only city to be named for
   Abraham Lincoln before he became President. Lincoln's name and image
   appear in numerous places. These include the Lincoln Memorial in
   Washington, D.C. (pictured, left); the U.S. $5 bill and the 1 cent
   coin; as part of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial; Lincoln's Tomb,
   Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, Illinois. In
   addition, New Salem, Illinois (a reconstruction of Lincoln's early
   adult hometown), Ford's Theatre and Petersen House (where he died) are
   all preserved as museums. The Lincoln Shrine in Redlands, California is
   located behind the A.K. Smiley Public Library. The state nickname for
   Illinois is Land of Lincoln.

   Counties in 19 U.S. states ( Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Maine,
   Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico,
   Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia, Washington,
   Wisconsin, and Wyoming) are named after Lincoln.

   Abraham Lincoln's birthday, February 12, (the same date as Charles
   Darwin), is observed in Illinois and many other states as a separate
   legal holiday, Lincoln's Birthday. It was previously a national holiday
   that is now Presidents' Day. Over time Presidents' Day has become a
   common name for the federal holiday. A dozen states have legal holidays
   celebrating the third Monday in February as 'Presidents' Day' and a
   combination Washington-Lincoln Day.
   Proof-quality Lincoln cent with cameo effect, obverse.
   Enlarge
   Proof-quality Lincoln cent with cameo effect, obverse.

   Lincoln's birthplace and family home are national historic memorials:
   Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site in Hodgenville,
   Kentucky and Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield,
   Illinois. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum opened in
   2005 in Springfield as a major tourist attraction with state-of-the-art
   exhibits. The Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery is located in Elwood,
   Illinois.

   Statues of Lincoln can be found in other countries. In Ciudad Juárez,
   Chihuahua, Mexico, is a 13-foot (4 m) high bronze statue, a gift from
   the United States, dedicated in 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
   The U.S. received a statue of Benito Juárez in exchange, which is in
   Washington, D.C. Juárez and Lincoln exchanged friendly letters, and
   Mexico remembers Lincoln's opposition to the Mexican-American War.
   There is also a statue in Tijuana, Mexico, showing Lincoln standing and
   destroying the chains of slavery. There are at least three statues of
   Lincoln in the United Kingdom — one in London by Augustus St. Gaudens,
   one in Manchester by George Grey Barnard and another in Edinburgh by
   George Bissell. In Havana, Cuba, there is a bust of Abraham Lincoln in
   the Museum of the Revolution, a small statue of him in front of the
   Abraham Lincoln School, and a bust of him near the Capitolio.

   The ballistic missile submarine Abraham Lincoln (SSBN-602) and the
   aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) were named in his honour.
   Also, the Liberty ship, SS Nancy Hanks was named to honour his mother.
   During the Spanish Civil War the American faction of the International
   Brigades named themselves the Abraham Lincoln Brigade after Lincoln.

   In a recent public vote entitled " The Greatest American," Lincoln
   placed second (placing first was Ronald Reagan).

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
