ABRAHAM LINCOLN - ARTE - 2024

Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865) was a politician, statesman, and lawyer, who served as President of the United States of America between 1861 and 1865, when he was shot to the head. He is famous for being the one who proclaimed the emancipation of the slaves in his country in 1863. Lincoln led the nation in one of the most troubled periods in its history, but managed to hold the federal government firm.

Not long after Lincoln assumed the premiership of the United States, the civil war, or war of secession, broke out: the North, which was antislavery and supported the Union, clashed with the Confederates of the south.

Abraham Lincoln (1860), by George Peter Alexander Healy via Wikimedia Commons

The story of Abraham Lincoln stands as a source of inspiration, as he rose from very humble beginnings. He held the ideal of equality that inspired the creation of the United States deeply rooted and reached the highest political positions from which he assumed great responsibilities.

He was a native of the border area between Kentucky and Indiana, which was then popularly known as the Old West, or Far West. His parents lived through tough economic situations, which forced them to leave their lands and move to Indiana.

Abraham Lincoln's stepmother was particularly relevant in his training, since she always supported his inclination towards reading. Although the boy's formal education was practically non-existent, Lincoln was self-taught.

When he had reached the age of 21 the family changed their residence once more, this time to Illinois. Then the young man joined the army as a volunteer and was assigned the rank of captain. Later he began to awaken his political vocation.

After dedicating himself to studying law on his own, he took the law exams known in English as "bar examination" and, upon passing them, Abraham Lincoln became a licensed attorney and moved to Springfield, the state capital.

Thanks to his constant dedication, he soon became one of the most successful litigants, along with his partner William Herndon and both were able to obtain the economic benefits of their work, even earning more than the governor for their legal services.

Over 20 years Abraham Lincoln built a reputation as an honest man, a good speaker, and one of Illinois's most famous attorneys that eventually served him to the Presidency.

When he entered politics, he was sympathetic to the Whig party, from there he was elected to the state Legislature for four terms between 1834 and 1842. Lincoln believed that the American West needed financial aid to be able to prosper properly.

Since then the politician has shown publicly that he was not a supporter of slavery. However, he was not sympathetic to the methods used by the abolitionists, since he said that they usually aggravated evils.

In 1856 Abraham Lincoln decided to join the ranks of the Republican Party. Two years later he faced Stephen Douglas for a Senate seat. However, he did not achieve victory.

Lincoln and McClellan (1862) by Alexander Gardner via Wikimedia Commons

Lincoln argued that the freedoms of citizens, regardless of their skin color, were threatened by having a nation divided into slave states and free states. However, he was not a supporter of racial equality or political freedom for blacks.

In 1860 he once again had to compete against his old opponent, Stephen Douglas, but this time for the Presidency of the United States. Abraham Lincoln was victorious in November and took office in March of the following year.

In April 1861 the Civil War began after the attack on Fort Sumter. Then Lincoln had to take control of a complicated situation: Republicans thought that drastic measures should be applied against secessionists and Democrats did not trust the president's proposals.

For Lincoln the main thing was to maintain the cohesion of the federal government. He implemented a blockade of the southern states and gained ground by placing the best available servicemen in charge of his army.

In 1863 Abraham Lincoln took an important step: the Emancipation Proclamation. A year later he was reelected to his position as president. He was in charge of the country until Robert E. Lee, leader of the Confederates, decided to surrender. But soon after, Lincoln was assassinated at the hands of John Wilkes Booth.

Biography

Early years

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in Hodgenville, Kentucky. He was the son of a Virginia native farmer named Thomas Lincoln, who decided to settle with his wife, Nancy Hanks, in the area and bought several hectares of land.

Additionally, Abraham had two brothers, but one did not reach adulthood, so the only survivors were him and Sarah, who was born in 1807.

The family's first serious problems began in 1811, when a dispute over Thomas Lincoln's land titles forced him to leave his home and move to a farm near his property.

Thomas found neither justice nor security in the title surveillance system that the state of Kentucky offered to its inhabitants. He decided to sell the rest of the land he had left and moved to Indiana along with his family.

Abraham Lincoln's parents flocked to the Church of Separate Baptists. Among the values ​​that the religious community imparted to its followers was opposing slavery and showing upright conduct in society.

Lincoln's father was dedicated, not only to the work of the land, since he had managed to buy 80 hectares, but also to carpentry. Meanwhile, the education of the children was practically nil.

New family

In 1818, when Abraham Lincoln was only 9 years old and his sister 11, his mother Nancy Hanks passed away. It is believed that the cause of death was poisoning from interacting with a common plant in the area known as ageratina.

The following year Thomas decided to remarry a woman named Sarah Bush Johnston. The Lincoln children's stepmother was a Kentucky widow and had three children from her previous marriage.

The relationship between the family and Thomas Lincoln's new wife was very warm. Abraham called her mother. She too quickly became fond of and treated both children like her own children, but the affection for Abraham was very special.

Abraham Lincoln by William Balfour Ker via Wikimedia Commons

His stepmother encouraged him to take up reading, despite the fact that Lincoln was never in a formal regime of schooling for a long period of time. Meanwhile, others thought the boy was lazy because he was not interested in physical work.

Altogether Abraham Lincoln's education was limited to a duration of less than a year, separated into short periods of time during his childhood years. But that was not a reason for him not to cultivate himself.

Youth

Even though working on the farm was not one of Abraham Lincoln's favorite activities, he complied with helping his father with all the necessary tasks. He grew into a tall, athletic boy so he did well in helping with jobs.

In 1830 an outbreak of dairy disease, the name given to the same disease that had been responsible for the death of his mother, reached the Lincoln lands and all the livestock were at risk of perishing.

Until then, Abraham had fulfilled all the duties of a boy of his age, both by collaborating with activities within his father's property, and by providing him with the money he received for other jobs.

However, after the Lincolns' move to Illinois, the young man, who had reached the age of majority, decided to move and become an independent man.

Abraham Lincoln working with his ax, by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris via Wikimedia Commons

The family settled in Macon County and Abraham Lincoln began work driving a boat up the Mississippi River to New Orleans.

After that, in 1831, Abraham Lincoln decided to move to New Salem and take a job as a warehouse manager in that town.

Beginnings in the laws

In 1832, Abraham Lincoln enlisted as a volunteer in the Army with the outbreak of the Black Hawk War, between the Indians and the Americans. He was selected as a captain in the Illinois Militia.

Around the same time, he had aroused his interest in politics and ran for the office of legislator in the Illinois House of Representatives. Although he received almost all of New Salem's votes, he failed to win the square.

It was then, after trying different occupations, that Lincoln decided to become a lawyer. He was self-taught and devoted himself to studying law books, among which was the Commentaries on the Laws of England, by Blackstone.

In 1834 he returned to the political arena. Lincoln aspired to the same position once more, but this time with the support of the Whig Party. He managed to become a legislator and held office for four terms.

Among the measures he favored was allowing all white men, and not just landowners, to exercise their right to vote.

In 1836 it was examined to obtain the license to exercise legal practice and was approved. So he moved to the state capital, Springfield.

Legal career

After his move, he began a partnership with another lawyer named John T. Stuart, who was a cousin of Mary Todd who became Abraham Lincoln's wife in 1842. She then worked for a time with Stephen T. Logan.

Young Abraham Lincoln, by Popular Graphic Arts via Wikimedia Commons

Finally, in 1944, Lincoln found what would be his most stable partner in the practice of the profession: William H. Herndon. It is believed that both men divided the earnings equally each time one worked on a case and that they never had money problems.

Abraham Lincoln achieved fame as a good lawyer shortly after settling in Springfield. He earned about $ 1,500 a year, while governors earned a salary of $ 1,200.

He did not stay in Springfield all year, since he practiced statewide when the court made tours. He was one of the main legal representatives of the Illinois Central Railroad, the most important train company in the state.

As the trials in the United States of America were oral, Lincoln stood out among other lawyers, since his skill with words and his performance before the public that he possessed were impeccable.

All these attributes were very useful to Abraham Lincoln, who always remained interested in political activity. Furthermore, his reputation as a lawyer, a just and honorable man predicted him.

Political career

Start

His interest in politics began in the early 1830s. Abraham Lincoln's first position was that of legislator in the Illinois House of Representatives for Sangamon County.

In his first candidacy he was defeated, but in 1934 he managed to access the position, which he held for four consecutive terms until 1842. He supported the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, which connected the Great Lakes with the Mississippi River.

He began his career in politics as a Whig and an admirer of Henry Clay. The ideals that Lincoln shared since then supported the urban and economic modernization of the United States of America.

In 1843 Abraham Lincoln tried to get a seat in the House of Representatives, but was defeated by John J. Hardin. Then, in 1846, he managed to be selected for the position for which he had applied.

His contrary position regarding the Mexican-American war was not to the liking of the majority of voters, so he did not run for reelection in office.

At the end of his term, he dedicated himself to supporting Zachary Taylor in the presidential election of 1848. Although Lincoln's candidate became president, he did not obtain the reward he expected for his support and briefly retired from politics.

Republican Party

The Whig Party, of which Abraham Lincoln had been a member very early in his life, had been disintegrating since the early 1850s. But what dragged Lincoln back into politics was the Kansas-Nebraska Act, supported by Stephen Douglas, a democrat.

Abraham Lincoln by Brooklyn Museum via Wikimedia Commons

This law allowed slaves to be re-traded in Louisiana while the inhabitants of Kansas and Nebraska could decide by popular sovereignty, that is, by direct vote and not through the federal government, whether they would be free or slave states.

In Illinois the proposal was not well received by most of the population. The same year it was passed, 1854, Abraham Lincoln became one of its fiercest opponents. In October he promulgated his famous Peoria speech.

Since then the rivalry between Douglas and Lincoln was born. In addition, the latter was one of the founders of the Republican Party in Illinois in 1856. They attracted both Whigs and Democrats who opposed slavery to their ranks.

In 1858, Lincoln decided that he would compete with Douglas for his seat in the Senate. Between the two there were interesting and rich debates that were later compiled and published by Lincoln himself.

Although Douglas managed to repeat his tenure as senator, Lincoln's name went from being locally recognized to becoming one of the most widely appointed leaders of the Republican Party in the entire country.

Road to the presidency

Abraham Lincoln had to face various members of his party who ran as candidates, among those names were Simon Cameron, Salmon Chase or William Seward. Despite this, he stood as the sole candidate on May 16, 1860 at the Chicago Convention.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party did not suffer the same fate, since its votes were divided between two candidates, one supported by the North and who Lincoln knew well, Stephen Douglas, and the representative of the Southern Democrats was John Breckinridge.

In addition to these three candidates, John Bell also ran on behalf of the Constitutional Union Party. This multiplicity of contenders for the prime minister among Lincoln's opposition worked in his favor.

The publishing machinery of the north did their thing. Pro-Abraham Lincoln propaganda flooded states that sympathized with him. In addition, many young people shared the Republican candidate's vision of slavery and the market.

They took advantage of Lincoln's humble origins, which were used as a stronghold in the editorial line of the campaign, showing that with freedom anyone could build their own path to the top.

In addition, the fact that the Republican Party was a new figure in politics also won many adherents, both from the old Whigs and the Democrats.

First period

On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became president-elect of the United States. He got 39.82% of the popular vote, followed by Democrat Stephen Douglas with 29.46%. He obtained 180 representatives from the Electoral Colleges and needed only 152 to win.

Presidential Portrait of Abraham Lincoln, by George Henry Story via Wikimedia Commons

Before receiving the position, Lincoln was the victim of an attempt on his life in Maryland. That's why he and his security team thought it prudent for him to head to Washington undercover. However, many called him a coward for that action.

He assumed the first national magistracy on March 4, 1861. Some of his proposals were investment in infrastructure by the State, while guaranteeing better opportunities for American products than imported ones.

He was also in favor of the emancipation of slaves, which, along with the rest of the commercial policies, affected the southern states, whose economy was not yet industrialized and depended on slave labor, as well as the British products at low cost.

Before he was inaugurated as president, seven slave states declared that they separated from the Federal Union: South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. Those states were later joined by North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and part of Virginia.

During his period Lincoln managed to keep the Union firm despite the civil war that took 4 years to resolve.

Re-election

In 1864 the corresponding presidential elections were held in the United States, although they were in the middle of a civil war. Abraham Lincoln ran again for the Republicans for the Presidency and Andrew Johnson participated as Vice President.

For their part, the Democrats chose George McClellan, who was one of the soldiers who had participated in the war. However, the northern Democratic agenda corresponded to peace and the candidate did not enter the ranks, and some even decided to give Lincoln their vote.

Thanks to recent military victories in the north, Lincoln won the support of the majority of his party members and was able to run for election with victory over the south almost assured.

On November 8, he obtained 55.02% of the votes that were guaranteed by 212 representatives in the Electoral Colleges. It obtained the majority in all the states of the Union. Then in March 1865 he became president of the United States of America again.

On April 9, 1865, General Lee, the military leader of the Confederates, surrendered to General Grant of the Union. There it was agreed that the southern states would join the north again.

Death

Abraham Lincoln died on April 15, 1865 in Washington DC, United States at the age of 56. The night before, he had attended the Ford Theater with his wife Mary Todd for Tom Taylor's performance of Our American Cousin and was shot in the head.

After the president settled into his seat, a southern fanatic named John Wilkes Booth came up behind Lincoln and shot him in the back of the head shouting "Sic Semper tyrannis!" Which translates to like: "So always to tyrants!"

Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, by Internet Archive Book Images via Wikimedia Commons

The attacker managed to escape the scene, while Abraham Lincoln spent nine hours in a coma and later died.

After the funeral in the Capitol that took place between April 19 and 21, 1865, the remains of the President of the United States of America were transported by train through some areas of the country for three weeks so that citizens could express his mourning.

The body of Abraham Lincoln is found in the Oak Ridge Cemetery in the Illinois capital.

On April 26 of the same year Booth was found by Union soldiers and, after he refused to surrender peacefully, was killed in a confrontation with official forces.

Personal life

Some sources claim that Abraham Lincoln had a brief relationship with Ann Rutledge, a young woman from New Salem who died in 1835. However, they were not engaged at the time of the girl's death.

Then he met Mary Owens, a Kentucky girl who moved to New Salem so she could keep in touch with Lincoln. But when the relationship became serious, they both repented and did not write to each other since 1837.

Lincoln was a partner of John Stuart, whose Kentucky cousin Mary Todd had succeeded in captivating many hearts in Illinois. Among the girl's suitors was Stephen Douglas, but she chose Abraham Lincoln and they got engaged in 1840.

There has been speculation about the sexuality of Abraham Lincoln; however, there is no hard evidence to show his homosexual inclinations.

Marriage

Lincoln and Todd were married on November 4, 1842. Later, the Lincolns moved into a house in Springfield, and while Mary was in the service of the home, Abraham worked as a lawyer and built his political career.

They had 4 children: Robert (1843), followed by Edward (1846), then William (1850) was born, the last son of the marriage was Thomas (1853). Of all the children of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd, only one managed to reach adulthood, the first.

Licnoln family, by Buttre, John Chester, 1821-1893. via Wikimedia Commons

Edward passed away at age 4, presumably as a result of tuberculosis. Then William died when he was 12 from a high fever. The last was Thomas, who in 1871, at age 18, had fatal heart failure.

Abraham Lincoln was very attached to his children and was affected by the early deaths of almost everyone.

Presidency

Economic politics

When Abraham Lincoln became president, the north of the country was much more industrialized than the south, whose economy depended on extensive plantations that required slave labor to maintain.

From the beginning, Lincoln had in mind a protectionist project that would give a boost to the internal economy of the United States. That was the plan of the northern industrialists who supported the Republican Party for the most part.

The war contributed to Lincoln's economic policy in a way, although it created great problems. The blockade of the southern states, although little was done, was also a crucial element for the victory of the Union.

During Lincoln's first government the "Morrill Tariff" was approved, which consisted of tariffs on foreign products. The plan was designed to give a boost to the domestic economy. The first federal tax (Revenue Act of 1861) was also passed.

Other measures

The first banknotes issued by the federal government were created after the approval of the “Legal Tender Act”. The name given to the new coins printed on paper was "greenbacks". Until then, the accepted coins were minted in gold and silver, except those of private banks.

When Abraham Lincoln became President of the United States of America, the foreign debt was close to 650 million dollars and in 1866, a year after his mandate, it was 2 billion dollars.

Abraham Lincoln, by Internet Archive Book Images via Wikimedia Commons

Another relevant measure was that of the first inheritance tax. Similarly, the "Homstead Act" of 1862 was passed, offering land that was owned by the government at very low costs on the condition that they were worked for several years.

Also during the government of Abraham Lincoln, the “National Banking Act” was approved, with which national banks were institutionalized as well as a common currency in the nation.

In 1862 the institution known as the Department of Agriculture was also created to promote and supervise this area.

Social politics

Abraham Lincoln's first priority during his rule was to preserve the Union. That goal led him to be moderate on abolition early in his term, sparking criticism from radicals.

However, when he knew that to defeat the southern states there was no other possible option, he decided to break his economic system by breaking the piece that kept him standing, which was slavery.

On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, although bordering states controlled by the Union and those northern states that were traditionally slaveholders were then excluded.

Also at the time the Liberated Office was created, in which clothing, food and shelter were provided to those who had just acquired their freedom thanks to government policies.

This institution directed by the State was part of the Reconstruction with which it was tried to guarantee the rights of ex-slaves, especially those who lived in the southern states, through aid and constitutional status of equality in certain fundamental aspects.

The 13th Amendment was approved on December 18, 1865, with it it was established that slavery was abolished and that no one should work against their will, except criminals who had been prosecuted.

Other social contributions

During Abraham Lincoln's tenure, it was decreed that Thanksgiving would be celebrated on the last Wednesday of November of each year. Before his administration, that festival had been intermittent and located on different days of the year.

It was also in the Lincoln administration that the current Yosemite National Park was given the rank of protected area on June 30, 1864. With that resolution it was guaranteed that this space would be used solely for public use and preservation.

Vision of the races

Although Abraham Lincoln denounced the evils of slavery from the beginning of his political career, he neither agreed with the abolitionists nor with the equality of the races in the political or the social sphere.

Abraham Lincoln, by Carol M. Highsmith via Wikimedia Commons

On one occasion, he expressed that he did not support African-Americans voting or being able to be appointed to public office, much less marrying a white person, since differences prevented it.

Lincoln supported the proposal that African-American ex-slaves should be sent to Liberia, a territory in Africa where the government would commit to assist them in the creation of settlements.

However, Abraham Lincoln defended that all men should share certain fundamental rights regardless of their status, race or religion. In this way, opposing the theory that since they were not white, they could not enjoy the rights of citizens.

It should be taken into account that during Lincoln's life the concept that was used about races was diametrically opposed to the current one and that historical situations must be put in context in order to be analyzed.

That is why it can be said that the actions of Abraham Lincoln were fundamental for African Americans to gain certain freedoms that allowed them to continue fighting for their rights and for the recognition of equality.

Most famous speeches

Abraham Lincoln stood out for being one of the great speakers of his time. He managed to move the masses with his words, which were always precise and without bombastic embellishments, a style that stood out among those of his contemporaries.

Debates against Douglas

One of the first opportunities Lincoln had to show off his speaking skills was in his public debates against Stephen Douglas, the Democrat who became his regular opponent in politics.

“I can't help but hate it (slavery). I hate her for the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it takes away from our republican example its just influence in the world, it allows the enemies of free institutions, with justification, to mock us as hypocrites. It makes the true friends of freedom doubt our sincerity, and especially because it forces many good men among us to open war with the fundamental principles of civil liberty. "

Peoria speech

This was one of Abraham Lincoln's quintessential antislavery speeches. It was delivered in the context of their debates with Douglas, while the two were vying for a seat in the Senate.

“Little by little, but continuously like the march of man to the grave, we have been giving up the old for the new faith. Almost eighty years ago, we began by declaring that all men are created equal; but now, from that beginning, we have moved on to the other statement: that for some men enslaving others is a 'sacred right of self-government'. These principles cannot be together. They are as opposite as God and greed; and whoever clings to one must despise the other ”.

The divided house

In this intervention Lincoln simultaneously raised his position on slavery, the one he maintained with respect to the Union and the form that should be adopted in all the states in order to maintain a solid federal government.

Lincoln, by George Peter Alexander Healy via Wikimedia Commons

“A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe that this government cannot endure, permanently, being half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to dissolve, I do not expect the house to fall, but I do hope that it will cease to be divided. It will become one or the other.

Either the opponents of slavery will halt its spread and place it where the public mind will rest easy in the belief that it is on the way to final extinction; or its defenders will push it, until it becomes legal in all states, both old and new, both North and South. "

First presidential speech

When appearing for the first time before the country as president of the United States of North America, Lincoln was confronted with several states that had already expressed that they would break the accession to the nation, declaring that they were no longer part of the Union.

“Today I take possession of power without the slightest mental reservation, without the idea or purpose of provoking discrepancies. For 72 years, fifteen different citizens have ruled this country, generally with success. But none assumed the direction of the State in circumstances as difficult as the present ones.

We are threatened by the immediate breakdown of the Union. The power that you have entrusted to me I will exercise to keep intact the properties and prerogatives that belong to the Government, making customs contributions and taxes collected everywhere. But there will be no aggression, nor will force be used against the people.

I do not affirm or deny that there are people willing to take advantage of the best pretext to break the Union. If they exist, they are found there with their conscience; I have nothing to say to them ”.

Gettysburg Address

On that occasion Abraham Lincoln gave one of the most famous speeches in American politics. The intervention was carried out on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery, in Pennsylvania.

“The world will hardly notice and won't long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did. It is incumbent on the living to dedicate ourselves to the unfinished work in which those who fought here until now have so nobly advanced.

Rather, we are the living, who must dedicate ourselves to the great task that we have before us: that from these honored dead we take more devotion to that cause for which they gave their last hope. May we here firmly agree that these dead have not given their lives in vain. That this nation, God willing, will have a new birth of freedom, and that the government of the people, by the people and for the people, will not disappear from the earth ”.

References

1. En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Abraham Lincoln. Available at: en.wikipedia.org.
2. Current, R. (2019). Abraham Lincoln - Biography, Facts, History, & Childhood. Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: britannica.com.
3. History.com Editors (2009). Abraham Lincoln. History.com - A&E Television Networks. Available at: history.com.
4. Freidel, F. and Sidey, H. (2006). Abraham Lincoln - The White House, extract from “The Presidents of the United States of America”. The White House. Available at: whitehouse.gov.
5. Thomas, B. (2008). Abraham Lincoln. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.