Lincoln Essay, Research Paper

In March 1861, when Abraham Lincoln took the oath as the sixteenth president of the United States, the country had been struggling with the question of slavery for years. Kansas was bleeding from it, laws had been broken over it and in early February, seven southern states had finally seceded because of it and formed the Confederate States of America. In Kansas, pro-slavery and anti-slavery partisans engaged in a bloody war for control of the territorial government. Prior to these events, the voters who supported Lincoln in 1860 preferred preserving the Union rather than abolishing slavery; however they both became major issues of his presidency following his election.

Contrary to many beliefs, the election of Lincoln was not the result of his followers, the majority of them being Republicans, wanting to completely remove slavery. He was known as the gGreat Emancipator h and yet he did not publicly call for emancipation throughout his entire life. Actually, Lincoln denied continuously that he was an abolitionist. In two separate debates, he refused to believe that blacks should enjoy the privileges of American citizenship. Secondly, much as he hated slavery, he accepted it fs the law of the land, which he held sacred, gas if the Almighty had written it in golden letters a yard high h. Throughout his inaugural address in March of 1861, Lincoln gave additional evidence suggesting that as President he really had no intention of advocating emancipation. Lincoln insisted he had gno purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with slavery in the states where it already exists h. He continued by stating he had neither the lawful right nor the inclination to do so. His speech plainly states without doubt that Lincoln fs primary motive was not to abolish slavery. Instead, during the election campaign of 1860, Lincoln fs highest priority had been to keep the country united. He felt that any decision he would make as president would be made to save the Union from dissolving. He believed if he could save it without freeing any slave, he would do it and if he could save it by freeing all the slaves, he would also do that. It was also Lincoln fs belief that it was in the Union fs best interest was to stop the spread of slavery into the territories that prompted him to reject Crittenden f Compromise. On Election Day voters went to the polls to elect the leader who they believed was going to solve all the issues in the best manner. Breckinridge, the only secession candidate, polled 72 electoral votes, second only to Lincoln while passing both Douglas and Bell. This further leads one to believe that the electoral vote, along with the popular vote, were unquestionably for union and peace.

When the final results came in at about two o’clock in the morning, Abraham Lincoln had become the sixteenth President of the United States with 1,866,452 popular votes. However he, did not receive a single vote in ten Southern states, and largely because of his victory, frustrated, humiliated, and defeated Southerners began the process of secession, beginning with South Carolina in 1860. Abraham Lincoln was chosen by destiny as the man to lead the Nation through its most trying hour, and it is quite probable that he understood just how trying it would be. Upon recalling how he felt immediately after learning of his victory, Lincoln replied, “I went home, but not to get much sleep, for I then felt as I never had before, the responsibility that was upon me.” By Lincoln’s inauguration day in March of 1861, seven states had already seceded from the Union, electing Jefferson Davis as President of their Confederacy. In his inaugural address Lincoln attempted to avoid aggravating the slave states that had not yet seceded. He asked the South to reconsider its actions, but also reinforced his belief that the Union was perpetual, and that states could not secede, saying, “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not mine, is the momentous issue of civil war.” Lincoln also announced that because secession was unlawful he would hold the federal forts and installations in the South. All sided with the Union basically because they were assured by Lincoln that the war was being fought to preserve the Union, and not to destroy slavery. In a letter to Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, on August 22, 1862, Lincoln confirmed this position saying: “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.” Just as he had previously said that he would, on January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln declared that all slaves residing in states and districts still in rebellion against the United States were to be free. Although this was a bold move meant to upset the Southern war effort, the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation had no immediate affect because it applied only to the Confederate states over which the federal government had no control. The proclamation did not apply to the slave states under Union control because there was no legal justification for Lincoln to apply it in those places. It had to be classified as a “military measure,” such as depriving the South of the services of her slaves. Lincoln realized that in order to peacefully integrate the former slaves into American society he decided to train them as regular soldiers, and they fought gallantly. Some 186,000 colored troops had been enrolled in the Union army by the end of the war. The famous poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow remarked, “At last the North consents to let the Negro fight for freedom.” Jefferson Davis, and his war-torn South, had one final hope, the defeat of Lincoln in the election of 1864. Davis knew that as long as Lincoln was in the Office, the industrial superior North would continue to fight, and the South could not withstand the war much longer. If a new “peace” candidate were to be elected, then the Confederacy might survive. “Luckily for Lincoln the tide of the war turned dramatically in September of 1864 when General Sherman took Atlanta, an extremely important Southern rail and manufacturing center. Morale was boosted greatly in the North, and the victories continued to mount under Lincoln’s newfound leaders in Ulysses S. Grant and General Sherman. By the time of the election in November, Lincoln won overwhelmingly with 212 of the 233 possible electoral.” The very weary President addressed the Nation the next day with less than victorious words. He stressed that the South should be dealt with mildly in order to bring the entire Nation back together as soon as possible. “Let us all join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper practical relations between these states and the Union.”

Lincoln was elected because his goal was to keep the union intact, and many people thought that he was the one who could do it. However, Lincoln fs election was the immediate cause of secession and the civil war. Despite many doubts though, Lincoln proved to be a great man who could accomplish very challenging tasks. The effects of his presidency shaped the entire union and will continue to influence us for many years to come.

Works Cited :

Basler, R. P. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. 1953.

Crenshaw, Ollinger. Slaves States in the Presidential Election of 1860, The. January 1945.

Marrin, Albert. Commander in Chief: Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. November, 1997.

Oakes, James. Slavery and Freedom: An Interpretation of the Old South. May, 1998.