The Civil War: Lesson 3- Abraham Lincoln

The Civil War: Lesson 3- Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln is considered by many to be one of the greatest United States’ presidents for his contributions and actions during the Civil War. Lincoln was the 16th US president, and he was in office from 1862 until his assassination in April 1865. He is remembered for his efforts in preserving the Union and beginning the process that led to the end of slavery in the US. Many admire Lincoln because of his character and leadership during a tumultuous time in history. Others admire him because of his determination and perseverance that led him to becoming the president of the US, despite his humble background.

Born on February 12, 1809, in Kentucky, Lincoln and his family moved to Indiana in 1816 and then to Illinois in 1830. He mostly worked to support his family, so he was not able to consistently attend school. Despite his lack of schooling, Lincoln became involved in local politics and supported the Whig Party. In 1834, Lincoln won the election to the Illinois state legislature. He opposed the spread of slavery to the new US territories, and he also wanted the US to become an industrialized nation instead of an agrarian (agricultural) society.

Lincoln taught himself law and passed the bar exam in 1836. He began working as a lawyer after moving to Springfield, and he soon earned the nickname “Honest Abe”. Here Lincoln met Mary Todd, and they married in 1842. Lincoln held his first US political office when he was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1846.

When the US-Mexican War began in 1846, Lincoln strongly opposed it and frequently spoke out against President James K. Polk and his decision to go to war. Lincoln became unpopular as a result, and he did not serve a second term. He returned to Springfield in 1849 and continued to practice law.

However, Lincoln returned to national politics 5 years later. When the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in 1854, voters of each territory, not the federal government, would decide if slavery would be allowed. Lincoln debated Stephen Douglas, a Democrat in Congress, on October 16, 1854, in front of a large crowd in Peoria, Illinois. Lincoln denounced slavery and called it a violation of the most basic right of the Declaration of Independence: all men are created equal. Lincoln unsuccessfully ran for the US Senate in 1855.

In 1858, Lincoln joined the newly formed Republican Party, which was against slavery expanding into the territories, and he ran for the US Senate for the second time. This time, Douglas was Lincoln’s opponent. Lincoln gave one of his most famous speeches during the Illinois Republican Convention on June 16, 1858. During his “House Divided” speech, Lincoln quoted a biblical phrase “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” He warned that the US “government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free” and the country faced a crisis that could destroy it. Lincoln believed the threat of slavery did not come from the southern slaveholding states, but rather from Douglas’ popular sovereignty position, letting the territories decide for themselves whether to allow slavery or not. Lincoln thought that slavery was morally wrong and only the federal government had the power to end it. He did not want slavery to expand across the US, but he reassured southerners that he would not work to end slavery in the states where it already existed. Lincoln’s priority was to preserve the Union. He knew the South depended on slavery for its agrarian (agricultural) economy, while many northerners

felt slavery was morally wrong and industrialization and manufacturing was the key to a successful US economy, not agriculture.

Lincoln lost the US Senate election. Even though his popularity continued to rise in the North, at the beginning of 1860, Lincoln was not considered a major presidential candidate for the Republican Party. In February 1860, Lincoln was invited to deliver a speech at the Young Men’s Central Republican Union of New York because the Republican Party was looking for another presidential candidate. After delivering his speech, Lincoln began to receive praise and was asked to speak in other northern states. Lincoln became a major candidate against William Henry Seward, who had been the leading Republican presidential candidate.

On May 18, 1860, Lincoln was nominated as the Republican candidate for the US presidency. In a matter of months, Lincoln went from not being a presidential candidate to winning the nomination. During the November presidential election, Democratic votes were split between Douglass and John C. Breckenridge, while Lincoln won the majority in the North. Winning the electoral college, Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the US, becoming the first Republican president. With tensions already running high between the North and South, the election of an antislavery northerner enraged many southern states.

When Lincoln gave his First Inaugural Address on March 4, 1861, seven southern states had already seceded from the Union, formed the Confederate States of America (CSA), and seized federal forts that were in the South. Knowing the country was on the brink of war, Lincoln was careful with his words. He wanted to promote peace with the South, yet make it clear he would enforce federal law in the states that did secede. He promised not to interfere with slavery where it existed and to temporarily suspend federal activities in certain parts of the South. However, he did express his displeasure with secession and seizure of federal property. Lincoln closed his address by reminding the South that they were friends, and he wanted to preserve, protect, and defend the government, not start a war. If a war began, it would be because the South started it.

Lincoln had hoped his address would calm southern fears, but it did not. The following month Lincoln sent Union ships to resupply Fort Sumter; a Union fort that had been surrounded by the Confederate Army. When the Confederates fired upon the ships and the fort, the Civil War began on April 12.

Once the war started, Lincoln knew he needed to keep an open route between Washington, D.C., and the North. He was concerned if Maryland joined the CSA, the nation’s capital would be surrounded by enemy territory. On April 19, 20,000 Confederate sympathizers caused a riot in

Baltimore, Maryland, by trying to stop Union troops from traveling from one train station to the next on their way to D.C. Wanting to maintain a secure route, Lincoln suspended the habeas corpus privilege on April 27 in specific areas along the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-Washington, D.C. route. Now Union generals could arrest and hold anyone in jail who threatened public safety without a trial in these areas.

Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus caused an uproar among Democrats who argued it was unconstitutional because US citizens had a right to appear before a judge before being imprisoned. However, it could be suspended when there was a possibility of a rebellion or threat to public safety. This was not the only time during the Civil War Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, and each time Lincoln faced harsh criticism.

Throughout the war Lincoln’s main goal was to keep the Union together and not necessarily end slavery. Lincoln believed slavery to be evil and wanted to gradually end it, but the US Constitution did protect slavery in any state where the citizens wanted it. Lincoln had to uphold the Constitution. However, he wanted to end the war as soon as possible. In September 1862, Lincoln warned the CSA that unless they returned to the Union by January 1, he would grant freedom to all slaves who lived in those states (Lincoln had signed an act on April 16, 1862, that freed slaves in D.C.).

The CSA remained separate, and, on January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation took effect. This proclamation freed all slaves in the CSA, but left slaves in the border states enslaved. Border states were those states who had remained part of the Union but still allowed slavery (Missouri,

Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware). Lincoln knew the only states that the Union could enforce the

proclamation were those under Union control. However, he did not want to anger the slave holders who lived in border states by freeing their slaves. He had already tried to persuade the border states to end slavery, but they had refused. The proclamation also allowed former slaves to join the Union Army as soldiers, giving the Union Army much needed soldiers. During the next 2 ½ years, 180,000 former slaves and free blacks served in the Union Army and 18,000 in the Navy.

The Emancipation Proclamation did not free a single slave, but it was an important turning point in the Civil War. It changed the fight to preserve the Union into a battle for human freedom. After the Emancipation Proclamation, helping the CSA was seen as accepting slavery. This prevented Great Britain and France, who had been friendly to the CSA, from entering the war on the side of the South. It also united the Republican Party in working toward ending slavery and laid the foundation for the passing of the 13th Amendment at the end of January 1865, which outlawed slavery throughout the US.

In early July 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg took place in Pennsylvania. The Union Army drove out a Confederate invasion. It was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, and it put the Union Army in a better position to win. It was the last time the Confederate Army invaded the North and was the beginning of the decline of the Confederate Army. Thousands of Union soldiers killed at Gettysburg had been quickly buried in poorly marked graves. This was common practice during the war, but because this battle was such an important Union victory, it was decided that a national military cemetery would be created at Gettysburg. Lincoln was not an original speaker chosen for the dedication, but, when he was asked, he saw it as an opportunity to address the American people on the significance of the war.

On November 19, it took Lincoln less than two minutes to deliver his 272- word long Gettysburg Address, one of the most memorable speeches in US history. The American people were growing tired of the war, and Lincoln reminded them why the Union had to fight and win the war. The war was no longer about just preserving the Union, it was about fighting for the freedom and equality of all. Although his speech received mixed reviews at the time (disliked by Democrats, liked by Republicans), today it is regarded as one of the best written speeches about democracy and Lincoln’s most famous speech of his presidency. Lincoln held the belief that the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution, was the Founding Fathers’ vision for the new country. The Constitution allowed slavery, while the Declaration of Independence stated that the new nation was “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Like the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address helped change the Civil War from a fight to preserve the Union to a fight for human equality.

The following year Lincoln won reelection of the US presidency, and his Second Inaugural Address had a different purpose from his first. Lincoln knew a Union victory was a reality because Union

General William T. Sherman had already captured two major Confederate cities, Atlanta and Savannah, and was marching northward through the Carolinas. On March 4, 1865, he stated the need to

reconstruct the South and rebuild the Union “with malice toward none; with charity for all.” Lincoln wanted lasting peace between the North and South, he did not want the South to be punished, and he wanted a smooth transition of the South rejoining the Union. He also said that the true cause of the war was slavery, and it wasn’t just the South, but the entire nation that was guilty. Lincoln wanted the North and South to work together to rebuild the country.

On April 9, the Civil War ended when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia (the war formally ended on June 2). On April 11, Lincoln gave his final speech on the lawn of the White House. He did not celebrate the Union victory. Instead he focused on Reconstruction. He again urged the North to welcome the South back into the Union. He spoke of the problem of rebuilding the nation to fully accept the millions of newly freed slaves along with their former southern owners, whom many northerners believed should be punished for their rebellion. Lincoln expressed his support for limited black suffrage and hinted at his future plans.

Sadly, on April 14, Lincoln was shot while watching a play at Ford’s Theater in D.C. He died the following day. Although Lincoln was not able to put his Reconstruction policies in place, the 13th Amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865. Lincoln was laid to rest on May 4, 1865, in Springfield. His funeral procession lasted three weeks and traveled through 180 cities and seven states. Lincoln’s lasting legacy is preserving the US and helping to bring slavery to an end.

Fill in the blank NOTES:

1. Abraham Lincoln was the ________________ president of the United States.

2. president from ________________ - April ________________; he was ________________ 3. president during the ________________ War

4. remembered for ________________ the Union and ending ________________ in the US 5. born Feb. 12, 1809, in ________________

6. moved to ________________ in 1816, then to ________________ in 1830 7. could not attend ________________ regularly

8. Despite his lack of schooling, Lincoln became involved in local ________________ and joined the ________________ Party.

9. In 1834, he won election to the Illinois state ________________.

10. Lincoln wanted: to stop the spread of slavery into the ________________.

11. the US to become a more ________________ country relying more on ________________ and less of an ________________ society.

12. passed the ________________ exam in 1836

13. moved to ________________, Illinois, & began practicing ________________ 14. earned the nickname “________________ ________________”

15. elected to the US House of ________________ in 1846

16. strongly opposed the US- ________________ War (began in ________________) 17. spoke out against President James K. ________________ & his decision to go to

________________

18. became ________________ as a result

20. The ________________-Nebraska Act passed in 1854.

21. Voters of each ________________ would decide if ________________ was allowed. 22. On Oct. 6, 1854, Lincoln debated Democrat Joseph ________________.

23. Lincoln ________________ slavery, saying it was a violation of the most basic

________________ of the ________________ of Independence: All ________________ are created ________________.

House Divided Speech

25. The Republican Party was against ________________ expanding into the ________________. 26. In 1858, Lincoln ran for the US ________________ for the 2nd time (he lost in 1855 the 1st time). 27. During the Illinois Republican ________________ on June 16, 1858, Lincoln gave one of his most

famous speeches à ________________ ________________

28. “A house divided against ________________ cannot ________________.”

29. Lincoln warned the “US ________________ cannot endure, permanently, half ________________ and half ________________.”

30. Lincoln didn’t believe the threat of slavery came from the slaveholding ________________ states.

31. He believed the threat of slavery came from ________________ ________________: 32. allowing the ________________ to decide for themselves if they would allow slavery or not 33. ________________ supported popular sovereignty à ________________- ________________

Act

34. Lincoln thought slavery was ________________ wrong.

35. He believed only the ________________ government had the power to end slavery.

36. Lincoln reassured the ________________ he would not end slavery where it already ________________.

37. Lincoln wanted to ________________ the Union.

38. The South’s economy relied on ________________ and slave ________________.

39. Many ________________ believed slavery was morally wrong, and the future success of the US depended on ________________, not ________________.