Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln was a self-made man from the frontier. Self-taught, he became a leading lawyer in Illinois. He was a leader of the Whig party (which sent him to Congress for one term). When the slavery issue exploded in 1854, he helped form the new Republican party and became its leader in Illinois. Lincoln was opposed to the Slave Power and staunchly opposed its efforts to expand slavery into federal territories. His debates with Democratic leader Stephen Douglas in 1858 gave him national visibility, and as a western moderate he won the 1860 presidential nomination. His victory in the 1860 presidential election was the final straw for the deep South, where seven states seceded, formed the Confederate States of America, and took control of U.S. forts and other properties within their boundaries, setting the stage for the American Civil War.

Lincoln is often praised for his work as a wartime leader; his public statements, most notably the Gettysburg Address, defined the war issues and helped redefine America's self image. He proved adept at replacing mediocre generals with better ones until he finally found a winner in Ulysses S. Grant. In leading the Republican party he kept all factions together and added new support from War Democrats, even as his Copperhead enemies were lambasting him as a ruthless dictator. Lincoln had to negotiate between Radical and Moderate Republican leaders, who were often far apart on issues of slavery. He personally directed the war effort, in close cooperation (1864-65) with General Grant, who in April 1865 accepted the surrender of Robert E. Lee's main army.

His leadership qualities were evident in his first 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. Copperheads criticized him for violating the Constitution, overstepping the bounds of executive power, refusing to compromise on slavery, declaring martial law, suspending habeas corpus, ordering the arrest of 18,000 opponents including public officials and newspaper publishers, and killing hundreds of thousands of young men who were soldiers in the war. Radical Republicans criticized him for moving too slowly in abolishing slavery, and not being ruthless enough toward the conquered South.

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.

Historians have argued that Lincoln had a lasting influence on U.S. political and social institutions, importantly setting a precedent for greater centralization of powers in the federal government and the weakening of the powers of the individual state governments.

Lincoln spent most of his attention on military matters and politics, but with his strong support, his administration established the current system of national banks with the National Bank Act. His administration increased the tariff to raise revenue, imposed the first income tax, issued hundreds of millions of dollars of bonds and the first national Greenbacks (paper money), encouraged immigration from Europe, started the transcontinental railroad, set up the Department of Agriculture, encouraged farm ownership with the Homestead Act of 1862, and set up the modern system of state universities with the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act. During the war, his Treasury department effectively controlled all cotton trade in the occupied South—the most dramatic incursion of federal controls on the economy. Breakaway West Virginia and under populated Nevada were admitted as states.

Lincoln is always ranked as one of the two or three greatest presidents. His importance comes from his roles in defining the great issues, in organizing and winning the Civil War, in destroying slavery, in redefining national values, in building a new political party, and in saving and redefining the Union. His assassination made him a martyr to millions of Americans.