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William Seward

William Seward

William Henry Seward (May 16, 1801 – October 10, 1872) was United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.

Family

His parents were Samuel Sweezy Seward and Mary (Jennings) Seward. He was married to Frances Adeline Miller. They had two daughters and three sons. The daughters were Cornelia Seward (1835-1836) and Frances Adeline (Fanny) Seward (1844-1866). The three sons were William Henry Seward, Jr. (1839-1920), Frederick William Seward (1835-1915) and Augustus Henry Seward (1826-1876).

Education

Seward was born in Florida, New York, a community (which since has incorporated as a village) in Orange County, New York . He attended Union College, studying law, and graduated in 1820, with high honors. He became anti-slavery, which meant he opposed the expansion of slavery and was pro-free soil, after observing the conditions of slavery while working in Georgia. He then read law in Florida, New York and Goshen, New York and joined his practice with his father-in-law, Judge Elijah Miller, in Auburn, New York. He stopped his law practice to become a politician when he was elected to the New York senate.

New York politics

Seward served as a state senator of New York from 1831 to 1834, and as Governor of New York from 1839 to 1843. He promoted progressive political policies including prison reform and increased spending on education, including the idea of schools for immigrants taught in their own language and by members of their own religion. 1843

Services to the United States

He was elected United States Senator from New York from 1849 through 1861. In 1849 he won as a Whig and emerged as the leader of its anti-slavery wing. An opponent of the Fugitive Slave Act, he defended runaway slaves in court. In 1850 Seward voted against the Compromise of 1850 and claimed in a speech that if slavery were not abolished, America would become embroiled in a civil war. He continued to argue this point of view over the next ten years. With the decline in the fortunes of the Whig Party, Seward joined the Republican Party in 1855 and was reelected senator from New York. By this time Seward had moderated his views and became less associated with the group known as the Radical Republicans. Seward lost the presidential nomination to John C. Frémont in 1856. He was expected to get the nomination in 1860 but many of the delegates feared that his radical past would prevent him from winning the election. However, radicals such as Horace Greeley also opposed him because they were angry at his shift to the right. When Abraham Lincoln won the nomination Seward loyally supported him and made a long speaking tour of the West in the autumn of 1860. Abraham Lincoln appointed him Secretary of State in 1861 and he served until 1869. During the War, Seward established a secret police force, which arrested thousands of citizens for disloyalty, i.e. disagreeing with Lincoln's war policies. Arrested citizens were not told the reason for their arrest, no investigation of their alleged wrongdoing was carried out, and no trials were held. Seward boasted to the British Ambassador, Lord Lyons, that he could have any man arrested in any state at a whim. Seward survived an assassination attempt on April 14, 1865 (the same night Abraham Lincoln was shot) from Lewis Powell (alias: Lewis Payne), an associate of John Wilkes Booth, who broke into Seward's bedroom and stabbed him repeatedly. As Secretary of State, he fought for the U.S. purchase of Alaska which he finally negotiated to acquire from Russia for $7,200,000 on March 30, 1867. He had claimed that the United States must move westward. This translated into approximately 2 cents per acre ($4.94 per km²) for 586,412 square miles (1,518,800 km²) of territory, more than twice the size of Texas. The purchase of this frontier land ("Seward's Icebox") was mocked as "Seward's Folly" and Andrew Johnson's "polar bear garden". Currently, Alaska celebrates the purchase on Seward's Day, the last Monday of March.

Later life

He spent his last years traveling and writing. He visited Alaska and went around the world. Seward died in his home in Auburn, New York after a brief illness. His portrait appeared on the 1891 series fifty dollar treasury note, examples of this note are very rare and would likely sell for about $50,000.00 at auction. The town of Seward, Alaska and the Seward Peninsula, also in Alaska, are named for him, as is Seward Park in Seattle, Washington, and the Town of Seward, NY. A statue of him facing towards Alaska is prominent in Volunteer Park .

Works


- Commerce in the Pacific ocean. Speech of William H. Seward, in the Senate of the United States, July 29, 1852 (1852; [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/mtfgc.1000 Digitized page images & text])
- The continental rights and relations of our country. Speech of William Henry Seward, in Senate of the United States, January 26, 1853 (1853; [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/mtfgc.1001 Digitized page images & text])
- The destiny of America. Speech of William H. Seward, at the dedication of Capital University, at Columbus, Ohio, September 14, 1853 (1853; [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/mtfgc.1002 Digitized page images & text])
- Certificate of Exchange (1867; [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.ndlpcoop/mtfxtx.u11846 Digitized page images & text])
- Alaska. Speech of William H. Seward at Sitka, August 12, 1869 (1869; [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/mtfgc.1003 Digitized page images & text])

External links


- [http://www.sewardhouse.org Seward House, Auburn, NY]
- [http://www.tulane.edu/~latner/Seward.html Brief Seward biography]
- [http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h168.html Brief Seward biography]
- [http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=85&subjectID=7 Mr. Lincoln and Friends: William H. Seward]
- [http://www.mrlincolnandnewyork.org/inside.asp?ID=64&subjectID=3 Mr. Lincoln and New York: William H. Seward]
- [http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/inside.asp?ID=93&subjectID=2 Mr. Lincoln's White House: William H. Seward] Seward, William H. Seward, William H. Seward, William H. Seward, William H. Seward, William H. Seward, William H.

May 16

May 16 is the 136th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (137th in leap years). There are 229 days remaining.

Events


- 1204 - Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned first Emperor of the Latin Empire.
- 1527 - The Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes a republic.
- 1532 - Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.
- 1568 - Mary Queen of Scots flees to England.
- 1605 - Paul V becomes Pope.
- 1770 - 14-year old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste who later becomes king of France.
- 1777 - Lachlan McIntosh and Button Gwinnett shoot each other during a duel near Savannah, Georgia. Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, dies three days later.
- 1836 - Edgar Allan Poe marries his 13-year-old cousin Virginia.
- 1843 - The first major wagon train heading for the Northwest sets out with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri on the Oregon Trail.
- 1866 - The U.S. Congress eliminates the half dime coin and replaces it with the five cent piece, or nickel.
- 1866 - Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer.
- 1868 - President Andrew Johnson is acquitted during his impeachment trial, by one vote in the United States Senate.
- 1910 - The U.S. Congress authorizes the creation of the United States Bureau of Mines.
- 1918 - The Sedition Act is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government a jailable offense.
- 1919 - US Navy Naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.
- 1920 - In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc as a saint.
- 1929 - In Hollywood, California, the first Academy Awards are handed out.
- 1938 - A fire at the Terminal Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, kills 35 people.
- 1943 - Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
- 1943 - World War II: The Dambuster Raids by RAF 617 Squadron on German dams.
- 1948 - Chaim Weizmann is elected as the first President of Israel.
- 1960 - Nikita Khrushchev demands an apology from US President Dwight D. Eisenhower for U-2 spy plane flights over the Soviet Union thus ending a Big Four summit in Paris.
- 1960 - Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser, at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.
- 1966 - Two extremely influential rock albums are released on the same day: Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde and The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds.
- 1969 - Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus.
- 1975 - India annexes Sikkim after the mountain state held a referendum where popular vote was in favour of merging with India.
- 1975 - Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
- 1988 - A report by American Surgeon General C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
- 1992 - STS-49: Space Shuttle Endeavour lands safely after a successful maiden voyage.
- 2002 - Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones opens in cinemas.
- 2003 - In Casablanca, Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.
- 2005 - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith premieres in London.
- 2005 - Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35-23 National Assembly vote.

Births


- 1490 - Duke Albert of Prussia (d. 1568)
- 1578 - Everard Digby, English conspirator (d. 1606)
- 1611 - Pope Innocent XI (d. 1689)
- 1710 - William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician (d. 1782)
- 1718 - Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician (d. 1799)
- 1763 - Louis Nicolas Vauquelin, French pharmacist (d. 1829)
- 1827 - Pierre Cuypers, Dutch architect (d. 1921)
- 1845 - Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, Russian microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1916)
- 1891 - Richard Tauber, Austrian tenor (d. 1948)
- 1905 - Henry Fonda, American actor (d. 1982)
- 1910 - Olga Berggolts, Russian poet (d. 1975)
- 1912 - Studs Terkel, American writer
- 1913 - Woody Herman, American musician and band leader (d. 1987)
- 1917 - Juan Rulfo, Mexican novelist (d. 1986)
- 1919 - Liberace, American pianist (d. 1987)
- 1923 - Merton Miller, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1927 - Nílton Santos, Brazilian football player
- 1928 - Billy Martin, baseball player and coach (d. 1989)
- 1929 - Adrienne Rich, American writer
- 1930 - Friedrich Gulda, Austrian pianist (d.2000)
- 1931 - Natwar Singh, Indian politician
- 1936 - Roy Hudd, British radio and television actor
- 1936 - Karl Lehmann, German Catholic cardinal
- 1946 - Robert Fripp, English guitarist
- 1950 - J. Georg Bednorz, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1953 - Pierce Brosnan, Irish actor
- 1955 - Olga Korbut, Russian gymnast
- 1955 - Jack Morris, baseball player
- 1955 - Hazel O'Connor, British singer
- 1955 - Debra Winger, American actress
- 1963 - Mercedes Echerer, Austrian actress and politician
- 1963 - Rosie Perez, American actress
- 1965 - Krist Novoselic, American bassist (Nirvana)
- 1966 - Janet Jackson, American singer
- 1966 - Thurman Thomas, American football player
- 1969 - Tucker Carlson, American television commentator
- 1969 - Steve Lewis, American athlete
- 1970 - Gabriela Sabatini, Argentine tennis player
- 1973 - Tori Spelling, American actress
- 1977 - Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Canadian hockey player

Deaths


- 1620 - William Adams, English navigator and samurai (b.1564)
- 1657 - Andrzej Bobola, Polish Jesuit missionary (b. 1591)
- 1667 - Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton, English statesman (b. 1607)
- 1669 - Pietro da Cortona, Italian architect (b. 1598)
- 1691 - Jacob Leisler, German-born American colonist (b. 1640)
- 1703 - Charles Perrault, French author (b. 1628)
- 1778 - Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, English diplomat and politician (b. 1718)
- 1782 - Daniel Solander, Swedish botanist (b. 1736)
- 1790 - Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, English politician (b. 1720)
- 1891 - Ion C. Bratianu, Romanian statesman (b. 1821)
- 1926 - Mehmed VI, last Ottoman Sultan (b. 1861)
- 1944 - George Ade, American author (b. 1866)
- 1947 - Frederick Hopkins, English biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1861)
- 1953 - Django Reinhardt, Belgian musician (b. 1910)
- 1955 - James Agee, American writer (b. 1909)
- 1957 - Eliot Ness, American federal agent (b. 1903)
- 1984 - Andy Kaufman, American comedian (b. 1949)
- 1984 - Irwin Shaw, American author (b. 1913)
- 1985 - Margaret Hamilton, American actress (b. 1902)
- 1988 - Charles Keeping, British illustrator (b. 1924)
- 1990 - Sammy Davis, Jr., American singer, actor, and comedian (b. 1925)
- 1990 - Jim Henson, American puppeteer (b. 1936)
- 2003 - Mark McCormack, American sports business pioneer

Holidays and observances


- In the Irish Calendar - Feast of Saint Brendan the Navigator
- The feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:
  - Ubaldus
  - Saint Honoré
  - John of Ponuk or John Nepomucene (1330 - 1393)
  - Andrew Bobola
  - Simon Stock
- Whit Monday in Western Christianity (2005)
- Adelaide Cup day - South Australia (2005)

Song

"May 16" is also the title of a punk/rock song by Lagwagon from their album Let's Talk About Fellings. It is a upbeat song about living life on your own, and was featured in the soundtrack to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/16 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.tnl.net/when/5/16 Today in History: May 16] ---- May 15 - May 17 - April 16 - June 16 – listing of all days ko:5월 16일 ms:16 Mei ja:5月16日 simple:May 16 th:16 พฤษภาคม

1801

.]] 1801 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar).

Events


- January 1 - Legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland completed under the Act of Union 1800, bringing about the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
- January 1 - Giuseppe Piazzi discovers the first (and largest) asteroid Ceres.
- January 20 - John Marshall is appointed Chief Justice of the United States.
- February 3 - William Pitt the Younger resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
- February 9 - The Treaty of Lunéville ends the war (Second Coalition) between France and Austria.
- February 17 - An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved when Jefferson is elected President of the United States and Burr Vice President by the United States House of Representatives.
- February 27 - Washington, DC is placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress.
- March 4 - Thomas Jefferson succeeds John Adams as the President of the United States of America.
- March 21 - Second Battle of Abukir: a British army under Ralph Abercromby defeats the French troops.
- March 23 - The Russian Tsar Paul I is murdered. He is succeeded by his son Alexander I of Russia.
- April 2 - First Battle of Copenhagen - The British fleet under Admiral Hyde Parker, along with Admiral Horatio Nelson, attack Copenhagen. Armed Neutrality of the North dissolved.
- May - The pascha of Tripoli declares war on United States by having the flagpole on the consulate chopped down.
- June 27 - Cairo falls to British troops.
- July 6 - Battle of Algeciras: The French fleet beats the British fleet.
- July 18 - Napoleon signs the Concordat of 1801 with the pope.
- November 16 - First edition of New York Evening Post
- Aachen is officially annexed by France.
- A census in London revealed it to have 860,035 residents
- First census in France
- Joseph-Marie Jacquard developed a loom where the pattern being woven was controlled by punch cards.
- The ultraviolet radiation is discovered by Johann Wilhelm Ritter

Ongoing events


- French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802)-Second Coalition/Egyptian Campaign
- Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815)-Second Coalition/Egyptian Campaign

Births


- January 3 - Gijsbert Haan, Dutch-American religious leader (d. 1874)
- February 1 - Thomas Cole, American artist (d. 1848)
- February 21 - John Henry Newman, English Roman Catholic Cardinal (d. 1890)
- May 11 - Henri Labrouste, French architect (d. 1875)
- June 1 - Brigham Young, American religious leader and colonizer (d. 1877)
- June 4 - James Pennethorne, English architect (d. 1871)
- June 14 - Heber C. Kimball, American religious leader (d. 1868)
- June 30 - Frederic Bastiat, French philosopher (d. 1850)
- July 5 - David Farragut, American naval commander (d.1870)
- July 29 - George Bradshaw, English publisher (d. 1853)
- October 12 - Friedrich Frey-Herosé, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1873)
- November 3 - Karl Baedeker, German author and publisher (d. 1859)
- November 3 - Vincenzo Bellini, Italian composer (d. 1835)
- November 10 - Vladimir Dal, Russian lexicographer (d. 1872)
- December 11 - Christian Dietrich Grabbe, German writer (d. 1836)

Deaths


- February 7 - Daniel Chodowiecki, Polish painter (b. 1726)
- March 21 - Andrea Luchesi, Italian composer (b. 1741)
- March 23 - Tsar Paul of Russia (b. 1754)
- March 25 - Novalis, German poet (b. 1772)
- March 28 - Ralph Abercromby, British general (b. 1734)
- April 2 - Thomas Dadford Junior, British engineer
- April 7 - Noël François de Wailly, French lexicographer (b. 1724)
- May 17 - William Heberden, English physician (b. 1710)
- June 4 - Frederick Muhlenberg, first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (b. 1750)
- September 19 - Johann Gottfried Koehler, German astronomer (b. 1745)
- October 3 - Philippe Henri, marquis de Ségur, Marshal of France (b. 1724)
- November 4 - William Shippen, American physician and Continental Congressman (b. 1712)
- November 24 - Franz Moritz Graf von Lacy, Austrian field marshal (b. 1725) Category:1801 ko:1801년 ms:1801 simple:1801

1872

1872 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar).

Events

January - April


- January 2 - Brigham Young is arrested for bigamy (25 wives).
- January 12 - Yohannes IV is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Axum, the first ruler crowned in that city in over 200 years.
- February 20 - In New York City the Metropolitan Museum of Art opens.
- March 1 - Yellowstone National Park is established as the world's first national park
- March 5 - George Westinghouse patents the air brake.
- March 5 - The case of Tichborne Claimant decided against the claimant Arthur Orton
- March 26 - Earthquake at Lone Pine, California with an estimated magnitude of 7.2 .

May - August


- May 10 - Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for President of the United States, although she is a year too young to qualify and does not appear on the ballot.
- May 22 - Reconstruction: President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act of 1872 into law restoring full civil rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.
- June 14 - Trade unions legalised in Canada.[http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=ArchivedFeatures&Params=A218]
- July 4 - Society of Jesus is pronounced Illegal in German Empire

September - December


- September 1 - Group of Icaiche Maya under Marcos Canul attack Orange Walk town in British Honduras. British send troops against them
- November - Ulysses S. Grant defeats Horace Greeley in the U.S. presidential election
- November 5 - Women's suffrage: In defiance of the law, suffragist Susan B. Anthony votes for the first time (on November 18 she was served an arrest warrant and in the subsequent trial she was fined $100 - she never paid the fine).
- November 7 – Mary Celeste sets sail from New York, bound for Genoa
- November 9 - Great Boston Fire of 1872: In Boston, Massachusetts, a large fire begins to burn on Lincoln Street (the two day event destroyed about 65 acres (0.3 km²) of city, 776 buildings, much of the financial district and caused US$60 million in damage).
- November 27 - Meteor rain display over France
- November 29 - Indian Wars: The Modoc War begins with the Battle of Lost River.
- November 30 - First ever international football match takes place at Hamilton Crescent, Scotland.
- December 4 - The crewless American ship Mary Celeste is found by the British brig Dei Gratia (the ship was abandoned for 9 days but was only slightly damaged).
- December 12 - A meteorite struck earth near Banbury, England.
- December 21 - HMS Challenger sails from Portsmouth on the 4 year scientific expedition that would lay the foundation for the science of oceanography

Unknown date


- Louis Ducos du Hauron creates the first color photograph.[http://www.worldisround.com/articles/2378/photo2.html]
- London Metropolitan Police strike.
- In the aftermath of the War of the Triple Alliance, new government of Paraguay makes peace with Brazil, grant reparations and territorial concessions
- Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition
- Foundation of the Kolozsvári Egyetem, the predecessor of the University of Szeged
- US government geologist Clarence King reveals the diamond hoax in Wyoming

Births


- January 6 - Alexander Scriabin, Russian composer (d. 1915)
- January 23 - Goce Delchev, Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary (d. 1903)
- January 31 - Zane Grey, American writer (d. 1939)
- March 7 - Piet Mondrian, Dutch painter (d. 1944)
- April 29 - Harry Payne Whitney, businessman, horse breeder (d. 1930)
- May 18 - Bertrand Russell, English philosopher and mathematician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (d. 1970)
- May 31 - Heath Robinson, British cartoonist and illustrator (d. 1944)
- July 1 - Louis Blériot, French aviation pioneer (d. 1936)
- July 4 - Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States (d. 1933)
- July 16 - Roald Amundsen, Norwegian polar explorer (d. 1928)
- August 3 - King Haakon VII of Norway (d. 1957)
- August 9 - Joseph August, Archduke of Austria, Austiran field marshal (d. 1962)
- August 10 - Bill Johnson, American jazz musician (d. 1972)
- August 13 - Richard Willstätter, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1942)
- August 15 - Sri Aurobindo, Indian nationalist, writer, and mystic (d. 1950)
- August 21 - Aubrey Beardsley, British artist (d. 1898)
- October 11 - Harlan F. Stone, Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1946)
- November 30 - John McCrae, Canadian soldier and poet (d. 1918)
- December 21 - Don Lorenzo Perosi, Italian composer (d. 1956)
- December 26 - Norman Angell, British poltician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1967)
- Charles Greely Abbot, American astrophysicist

Deaths


- January 7 - Big Jim Fisk, American financier (b. 1834)
- January 21 - Franz Grillparzer, Austrian writer (b. 1791)
- April 1 - Frederick Maurice, English theologian (b. 1805)
- April 2 - Samuel Morse, American inventor (b. 1791)
- June 4 - Stanisław Moniuszko, Polish composer (b. 1819)
- June 4 - Johan Rudolf Thorbecke, Dutch politician (b. 1798)
- July 18 - Benito Juárez, President of Mexico (b. 1806)
- August 19 - Charles XV, King of Sweden and Norway (b. 1826)
- September 13 - Ludwig Feuerbach, German philosopher (b. 1804)
- October 23 - Théophile Gautier, French writer (b. 1811)
- November 28 - Mary Somerville, British mathematician (b. 1780)
- December 15 - Lady Beaconsfield, wife of Benjamin Disraeli (b. 1792) Category:1872 ko:1872년 simple:1872 th:พ.ศ. 2415

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865), sometimes called Abe Lincoln and nicknamed Honest Abe, the Rail Splitter, and the Great Emancipator, was the 16th President of the United States (1861 to 1865), and the first president from the Republican Party. Lincoln staunchly opposed the expansion of slavery into federal territories, and his victory in the 1860 presidential election further polarized an already divided nation. Before his inauguration in March of 1861, seven southern slave states seceded1 from the United States, formed the Confederate States of America, and took control of U.S. forts and other properties within their boundaries. These events soon led to the American Civil War. Lincoln is often praised for his work as a wartime leader who proved adept at balancing competing considerations and at getting rival groups to work together toward a common goal. Lincoln had to negotiate between Radical and Moderate Republican leaders, who were often far apart on the issues, while attempting to win support from War Democrats and loyalists in the seceding states. He personally directed the war effort, which ultimately led the Union forces to victory over the Confederacy. His leadership qualities were evident in his diplomatic handling of the border slave states at the beginning of the fighting, in his defeat of a congressional attempt to reorganize his cabinet in 1862, in his many speeches and writings which helped mobilize and inspire the North, and in his defusing of the peace issue in the 1864 presidential campaign. Critics vehemently attacked him for violating the Constitution, overstepping the traditional bounds of executive power, refusing to compromise on slavery in the territories, declaring martial law, suspending habeas corpus, ordering the arrest of some opposing state government officials and a number of publishers, and for being a racist. Lincoln is most famous for his roles in preserving the Union and ending slavery in the United States with the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. All historians agree that Lincoln had a lasting influence on American political values and social institutions. He redefined republicanism, democracy and the meaning of the nation. He destroyed secessionism and greatly weakened states rights. Lincoln's administration established the U.S. Department of Agriculture, created the modern system of national banks, and encouraged farm ownership with the Homestead Act of 1862. During his administration West Virginia and Nevada were admitted as states. Lincoln is usually ranked as one of the greatest presidents. Because of his role in ending slavery, and his guiding the Union to victory in the civil war, his assassination made him a martyr to millions of Americans.

Early life

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a one-room log cabin on a 348 acre (1.4 km²) Sinking Spring Farm in the Southeast part of Hardin County, Kentucky, then considered the frontier (now part of LaRue Co., in Nolin Creek, three miles (5 km) south of Hodgenville), to Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks. Lincoln was named after his deceased grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, who was scalped in 1786 in an Indian raid. He had no middle name. Lincoln's parents were uneducated illiterate farmers. Later, when Lincoln became more renowned, reporters and storytellers often exaggerated the poverty and obscurity of Lincoln's birth. In fact, Lincoln's father Thomas 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. His parents belonged to a Baptist church that had pulled away from a larger church because they refused to support slavery. Accordingly, 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 ridiculed religion. Three years after purchasing the property, a prior land claim filed in Hardin Circuit Court forced the Lincolns to move. Thomas continued legal action until he lost the case in 1815. Money spent on the lawsuit contributed to family difficulties. In 1811, they were able to lease 30 acres (0.1 km²) of a 230 acre (0.9 km²) farm on Knob Creek a few miles away, where they then moved. In a valley of the Rolling Fork River, this was some of the best farmland in the area. At this time, Lincoln's father was a respected community member and a successful farmer and carpenter. Lincoln's earliest recollections are from this farm. In 1815, another claimant sought to eject the family from the Knob Creek farm. Frustrated with litigation and lack of security provided by Kentucky courts, Thomas decided to move to Indiana, which had been surveyed by the federal government, making land titles more secure. It is possible that these episodes motivated Abraham to later learn surveying and become an attorney. In 1816, when Lincoln was seven years old, he and his parents moved to Spencer County, Indiana, he would state "partly on account of slavery" and partly because of economic difficulties in Kentucky. In 1818 Lincoln's mother along with others in the town, died of "milk sickness". Nancy Hanks Lincoln was only thirty-four years old when she died, and her son Abraham 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, by David Herbert Donald, 1995) 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 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, canoeing down the Sangamon to Sangamon County, Illinois (now in Menard County), 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, living in a country with a considerable slave presence, he probably saw similar atrocities from time to time. His formal education consisted of perhaps 18 months of schooling from itinerant teachers. In effect he was self-educated, studying every book he could borrow. He mastered the Bible, Shakespeare, English history and American history, and developed a plain style that puzzled audiences more used to orotund oratory. 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. He was skilled with an axe and a good wrestler. river

Early career

Lincoln began his political career in 1832 at the age of 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." He later tried and failed at several small-time business ventures. He held an Illinois state liquor license and sold whiskey. Finally, after coming across the second volume of Sir William Blackstone's four-volume Commentaries on the Laws of England, he taught himself the law, and was admitted to the Illinois 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 highly respected and successful lawyers in the prairie state, and grew steadily more prosperous. Lincoln served four successive terms in the Illinois House of Representatives, as a 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." [http://www.hti.umich.edu/l/lincoln/] Lincoln shared a bed with Joshua Fry Speed from 1837 to 1841 in Springfield. While many claim it was not uncommon in the mid-19th century for men to share a bed (just as two men today may share a house or an apartment), C. A. Tripp's 2005 biography, The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln, suggesting that their relationship may also have been sexual, has generated a great deal of controversy. However, even when Lincoln was bitterly reviled for any number of faults by many enemies during the Civil War, not one ever suggested he had ever engaged in homosexual activities. In 1841 Lincoln entered law practice with William Herndon, a fellow Whig. In 1856 both men joined the fledgling Republican Party. Following Lincoln's assassination, Herndon began collecting stories about Lincoln from those who knew him in central Illinois, eventually publishing a book, Herndon's Lincoln. He never joined an antislavery society and denied he supported the abolitionists. He married into a prominent slave-owning family from Kentucky, and allowed his children to spend time there surrounded by slaves. Several of his in-laws became Confederate officers. He greatly admired the science that flourished in New England, and was perhaps the only father in Illinois at the time to send his son Robert Todd Lincoln to elite eastern schools, Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard College.

Marriage

On November 4, 1842, at the age of 33, Lincoln married Mary Todd. The couple had four sons.
- Robert Todd Lincoln: b. August 1, 1843, in Springfield, Illinois; d. July 26, 1926, in Manchester, Vermont.
- Edward Baker Lincoln: b. March 10, 1846, in Springfield, Illinois; d. February 1, 1850, in Springfield, Illinois.
- William Wallace Lincoln: b. December 21, 1850, in Springfield, Illinois; d. February 20, 1862, in Washington, D.C.
- Thomas "Tad" Lincoln: b. April 4, 1853, in Springfield, Illinois; d. July 16, 1871, in Chicago, Illinois. Only Robert survived into adulthood. Of Robert's three children, only Jessie Lincoln had any children (two: Mary Lincoln Beckwith and Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith). Neither Robert Beckwith nor Mary Beckwith had any children, so Abraham Lincoln's bloodline ended when Robert Beckwith (Lincoln's great-grandson) died on December 24, 1985. [http://members.aol.com/beaufait/biography/geneology.htm]

Towards the presidency

1985 In 1846 Lincoln was elected to one term in the House of Representatives as a member of the United States Whig Party. A staunch Whig, Lincoln often referred to Whig leader Henry Clay as his political idol. As a freshman House member, Lincoln was not a particularly powerful or influential figure in Congress. He used his office as an opportunity to speak out against the war with Mexico, which he attributed to President Polk's desire for "military glory — that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood." Lincoln was a key early supporter of Zachary Taylor's candidacy for the 1848 Whig Presidential nomination. When his term ended, the incoming Taylor administration offered Lincoln the governorship of remote Oregon Territory. Acceptance would end his career in the fast-growing state of Illinois, so he declined. Returning instead to Springfield, Illinois he turned most of his energies to making a living at the bar, which involved extensive travel on horseback from county to county. By the mid-1850s, Lincoln had acquired prominence in Illinois legal circles, especially through his involvement in litigation involving 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, for example, in an 1851 dispute with one of its shareholders, James A. Barret. Barret had refused to pay the balance on his pledge to that corporation on the ground 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. Another important example of Lincoln's skills as a railroad lawyer was a lawsuit over a tax exemption that the state 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, accepting Lincoln's arguments. Lincoln's most notable criminal trial came in 1858 when he defended William "Duff" Armstrong, who was on trial for the murder of James Preston Metzker. The case is famous for when Lincoln used judicial notice, a rare tactic at that time, to show an eyewitness had lied on the stand, claiming he witnessed the crime in the moonlight. Lincoln produced a Farmer's Almanac to show that the moon on that date was at such a low angle it could not have produced enough illumination for the would-be witness to see anything clearly. Based upon this evidence, Armstrong was acquitted. 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. Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, the most powerful man in the Senate, proposed popular sovereignty as the solution to the slavery impasse, incorporating it into the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Douglas argued that in a democracy the people of a territory should decide whether to allow slavery or not, and not have a decision imposed on them by Congress. It was a speech against Kansas-Nebraska, on October 16, 1854 in Peoria, that caused Lincoln to stand out among the other free soil orators of the day. 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 party unity he allowed the election to go to his colleague Lyman Trumbull. In 1857-58 Douglas broke with President Buchanan, leading to a terrific 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 [http://www.nationalcenter.org/HouseDivided.html] in which he stated, "A house divided against itself cannot stand. 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 due to slavery, and rallied Republicans across the north. The 1858 campaign featured the Lincoln-Douglas debates, a nationally noticed discussion on the issues that threatened to split the nation in two. Lincoln forced Douglas to propose his Freeport Doctrine, which lost him further support among slave-holders and speeded the division of the Democratic Party. Though the Republican legislative candidates won more popular votes, the Democrats won more seats and the legislature reelected Douglas to the Senate (this was before the 17th Amendment proscribed popular vote for Senate seats). Nevertheless, Lincoln's eloquence transformed him into a national political star.

Election and early Presidency

17th Amendment Lincoln was chosen as the Republican presidential candidate for the 1860 election for several reasons: because his views on slavery were seen as more moderate; because of his Western origins (in contrast to his main rival for the nomination, the New Yorker William H. Seward), and because several other contenders had enemies within the party. During the campaign, Lincoln was dubbed "The Rail Splitter" by Republicans to emphasize Lincoln's humility and humble origins, though in fact Lincoln was quite wealthy at the time due to his successful law practice. On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected the 16th President of the United States, beating Douglas, Breckenridge, and Bell. 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 entire South. Lincoln gained 1,865,908 votes for 180 electoral votes, Douglas 1,380,202 for 12 electoral votes, Breckenridge 848,019 for 72 electoral votes, and Bell 590,901 for 39 electoral votes. Even before Lincoln's election, some leaders in the South made it clear that their states would leave the Union in response to a Lincoln victory. South Carolina took the lead followed by six other Southern states. They seceded before Lincoln took office, forming an entirely new nation, the Confederate States of America. President Buchanan and president-elect Lincoln refused to recognize the Confederacy. President-elect Lincoln survived an assassination attempt in Baltimore, Maryland, and on February 23, 1861 arrived secretly in disguise in Washington, D.C. Southerners ridiculed Lincoln for this subterfuge, but the efforts at security may have been prudent. 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 president and the capital from Confederate invasion. Confederate 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 construed as 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 proposed Corwin Amendment to the constitution, of which he had been a driving force. It would have explicitly protected slavery in those states in which it already existed, and had already passed both houses. Lincoln adamantly opposed the Crittenden Compromise, however, which would have permitted slavery in the territories, renewing the boundary set by the Missouri Compromise and extending it to California. Despite support for this compromise among some Republicans, Lincoln declared that were the Crittenden Compromise accepted, 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." Because opposition to slavery expansion was the key issue uniting the Republican Party at the time, Lincoln is sometimes criticized for putting politics ahead of the national interest in refusing any compromise allowing the expansion of slavery. Supporters of Lincoln, however, point out that he did not oppose slavery because he was a Republican, but became a Republican because of his opposition to the expansion of slavery, that he opposed several other Republicans who were in favor of compromise, and that he clearly thought his course of action was in the national interest. After Union troops at Fort Sumter were fired on and forced to surrender in April, 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, now seceded, along with North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas. 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.

Slavery and the Emancipation Proclamation

Fort Sumter, 1862.]] Lincoln is well known for ending slavery in the United States and he personally opposed slavery as a profound moral evil not in accord with the principle of equality asserted in the Declaration of Independence. Yet, Lincoln's views of the role of the federal government on the subject of slavery are more complicated. Lincoln had campaigned against the expansion of slavery into the territories, however, he maintained that the federal government could not constitutionally bar slavery in states where it already existed. During his presidency, Lincoln made it clear that the North was fighting the war to preserve the Union, not to abolish slavery. He was criticized both at home and abroad for his refusal to take a stand for the complete abolition of slavery. On August 22, 1862, a few weeks before signing the Proclamation, and after it had already been drafted, Lincoln responded by letter to an editorial by Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune which had urged abolition:
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." If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. 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. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.
I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free. [http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/greeley.htm]
With the Emancipation Proclamation issued in two parts on September 22, 1862 and January 1, 1863, Lincoln made the abolition of slavery a goal of the war. Lincoln addresses the issue of his consistency (or lack thereof) between his earlier position and his later position on emancipation in an 1864 letter to Albert G. Hodges[http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/hodges.htm] Lincoln is often credited with freeing enslaved African Americans with the Emancipation Proclamation. However, territories and states that still allowed slavery but were under Union control were exempt from the emancipation. The proclamation on its first day, January 1, 1863, freed only a few escaped slaves, but as Union armies advanced south more and more slaves were liberated. Lincoln signed the Proclamation as a wartime measure, insisting that only the outbreak of war gave constitutional power to the President to free slaves in states where it already existed. Acting entirely on his presidential powers, he did not ask or receive approval of Congress for the declaration. He 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 and it became the impetus for the enactment of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution which abolished slavery. Politically, the Emancipation Proclamation did much to help the Northern cause; Lincoln's strong abolitionist stand finally convinced the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and other foreign countries that they could not support the Confederate States of America.

Important domestic measures of Lincoln's first term

Confederate States of America Lincoln believed in the Whig theory of the presidency, which left Congress to write the laws. 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. The most important legislation involved money matters, including the first income tax and higher tariffs. Most important was the creation of the system of national banks by the National Banking Acts of 1863, 1864 and 1865. They 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, many in the North believed that victory was soon to come after Lincoln appointed U.S. Grant General-in-Chief on March 12, 1864. Although no president since Andrew Jackson had been elected to a second term (and none since Van Buren had been re-nominated), Lincoln's re-election was considered a certainty. However, when the spring campaigns, east and west, all turned into bloody stalemates, Northern morale dipped and Lincoln seemed less likely to be re-nominated. Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase strongly desired the Republican nomination and was working hard to win it, while John Fremont was nominated by a breakoff group of radical Republicans, potentially taking away crucial votes in the November elections. Fearing he might lose the election, Lincoln wrote out and signed the following pledge, but did not show it to his cabinet, asking them each to sign the sealed envelope. Lincoln wrote:
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 can not possibly save it afterwards.
The Democrats, hoping to make setbacks in the war a top campaign issue, waited until late summer to nominate a candidate. Their platform was heavily influenced by the Peace wing of the party, calling the war a "failure," but their candidate, former General George McClellan, was a War Democrat, determined to prosecute the war until the Union was restored, although willing to compromise on all other issues, including slavery. McClellan's candidacy was soon undercut as on September 1, just two days after the convention, Atlanta was abandoned by the Confederate army. Coming on the heels of David Farragut's capture of Mobile Bay and followed by Phil Sheridan's crushing victory over Jubal Early's army at Cedar Creek, it was now apparent that the tide had turned in favor of the Union and that Lincoln may be reelected despite the costs of the war. Still, Lincoln believed that he would win the electoral vote by only a slim margin, failing to give him the mandate he'd need if he was to push his lenient reconstruction plan. To his surprise, Lincoln ended up winning all but two states, capturing 212 of 233 electoral votes. After Lincoln's election, 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 within sight, slavery had effectively ended, and Lincoln was looking to the future.
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.

Civil War and Reconstruction

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 also relieved of command. 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 Theater, 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 Harbor, but by proportionately higher losses in the Confederate army. Grant's aggressive campaign would eventually bottle up Lee in the Siege of Petersburg and result in the Union taking Richmond and bringing the war to a close in the spring of 1865. Lincoln authorized Grant to use a scorched earth approach to destroy the South's morale and 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 little success in his efforts to motivate his generals to adopt his strategies. Eventually, he found in Grant a man who shared his vision of the war and was able to bring that vision to reality with his relentless pursuit of coordinated offensives in multiple theaters of war. Lincoln, perhaps reflecting his lack of military experience, developed a keen curiosity with military campaigning during the war. He spent hours at the War Department telegraph office, reading dispatches from his generals through many a night. 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 observing the scenes of battle.

Homefront

Lincoln was more successful in giving the war meaning to Northern civilians through his oratorical skills. Despite his meager education and “backwoods” upbringing, 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 in 1863. While the featured speaker, orator Edward Everett, spoke for two hours, Lincoln's few 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 any of his contemporaries the rationale behind the Union effort. During the Civil War, Lincoln exercised powers no previous president had wielded; he proclaimed a blockade, suspended the writ of habeas corpus, spent money without congressional authorization, and frequently imprisoned accused Southern spies and sympathizers without trial. Some scholars have argued that Lincoln's political arrests extended to the highest levels of the government, including an attempted warrant for Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, though the allegation remains unresolved and controversial (see the Taney Arrest Warrant controversy). Lincoln was the only U.S. President to face a presidential election during a civil war (in 1864). The long war and the issue of emancipation appeared to be severely hampering his prospects and pessimists warned that defeat appeared likely. Lincoln ran under the Union party banner, composed of War Democrats and Republicans. General Grant was facing severe criticism for his conduct of the bloody Overland Campaign that summer and the seemingly endless Siege of Petersburg. However, the Union capture of the key railroad center of Atlanta by Sherman's forces in September changed the situation dramatically and Lincoln was reelected.

Reconstruction

The reconstruction of the Union weighed heavy on the President's mind throughout the war effort. He was determined to take a course that would not permanently alienate the former Confederate states, and throughout the war Lincoln urged speedy elections under generous terms in areas behind Union lines. This irritated congressional Republicans, who urged a more stringent Reconstruction policy. One of Lincoln's few vetoes during his term was of the Wade-Davis Bill, an effort by congressional Republicans to impose harsher Reconstruction terms on the Confederate areas. Republicans in Congress retaliated by refusing to seat representatives elected from Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee during the war under Lincoln's generous terms. "Let 'em up easy," he told his assembled military leaders Gen. Ulysses S. Grant (a future president), Gen. William T. Sherman and Adm. David Dixon Porter in an 1865 meeting on the steamer River Queen. When Richmond, the Confederate capital, was at long last captured, Lincoln went there 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." On April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. This left only Joseph Johnston's forces in the East to deal with. Weeks later Johnston would defy Jefferson Davis and surrender his forces to Sherman. Of course, Lincoln would not survive to see the surrender of all Confederate forces; just five days after Lee surrendered, Lincoln was assassinated. He was the first President to be assassinated, and the third to die in office.

Assassination

assassinated, Mary Todd Lincoln, Lincoln, and Booth.]] Lincoln had met frequently with Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. 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 (Grant's wife, Julia Dent Grant, is said to have strongly disliked Mary Todd Lincoln). The President's eldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln, also turned down the invitation. John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor and Southern sympathizer 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 Seward. Without his bodyguard Ward Hill Lamon, to whom he related his famous dream of his own assassination, the Lincolns left to attend the play at Ford's Theater. The play, Our American Cousin, was a musical comedy by the British writer Tom Taylor. As Lincoln sat in his state box 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 gunshot noise. On stage, actor Harry Hawk said the last line Lincoln would ever hear "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 the president was in 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 eyeball. Booth then shouted "Sic semper tyrannis!" (Latin: "Thus always to tyrants," and Virginia's state motto; some accounts say he added "The South is avenged!") and jumped from the balcony to the stage below, breaking his leg. Despite his injury, Booth managed to limp to his horse and make his escape. The mortally wounded and paralyzed President was taken to a house across the street, now called the Petersen House, where he lay in a coma for some time before he quietly expired. Lincoln was officially pronounced dead at 7:22 AM the next morning, April 15, 1865. Upon seeing him die, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton lamented "Now he belongs to the ages." After Lincoln's body was returned to the White House, his body was prepared for his "lying in state." In 2004 a newly discovered [http://www.geocities.com/cathytreks/lincolnatpeace2.jpg photograph] from the estate of photographer, artist and engraver John B. Bachelder, purportedly showing Lincoln but a few hours post mortem, was published in Lloyd Ostendorf's book Lincoln's Photographs: A Complete Album (Rockywood Press, Dayton, Ohio, 2004). If authentic, it is the only immediately post mortem photograph of the late president to be taken by Bachelder. Secretary Seward, who was also attacked that night, did survive. He was not told of Lincoln's assassination, but on Monday announced from his bed that "the President is dead," after seeing the flag at half-mast over the War Department from his window, and concluding that since Lincoln had neither come to see how he was or sent someone to inquire that he must be dead. Booth was shot 12 days later while being captured. Four