The Morrill Act of established the basis of the state university system in this country, while the Homestead Act, also passed in , encouraged settlement of the West by offering acres of free land to settlers.
Lincoln also created the Department of Agriculture and formally instituted the Thanksgiving holiday. Internationally, he navigated the "Trent Affair," a diplomatic crisis regarding the seizure of a British ship carrying Confederate envoys, in such a way as to quell the saber-rattling overtures coming from Britain as well as the United States. In another spill-over from the war, Lincoln restricted the civil liberties of due process and freedom of the press.
The assassination was part of a larger plot to eliminate the Northern government that also left Secretary of State William Seward grievously injured. Lincoln died the following day, and with him the hope of reconstructing the nation without bitterness.
Civil War Biography. Abraham Lincoln. Title 16th President of the United States. Date of Birth - Death February 12, — April 15, Topic s :. Related Biographies. View All Related Resources. Evidence for The Unpopular Mr. During the Civil Lincoln is enshrined in the Wrestling Hall of Fame.
Defeated only once in approximately matches, Lincoln reportedly talked a little smack in the Andrew Johnson , the 17th U. Johnson, who served from to , was the first American president to be impeached. A tailor before he entered politics, Johnson grew up poor and Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. Recommended for you. Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln's Funeral Train. Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural. Abraham Lincoln's House Divided Speech. The Lingering Legend of Abraham Lincoln's Ghost Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United States , is remembered for his vital role as the leader in preserving the Union during the Civil War and beginning the process that led to the end of slavery in the United States.
Ulysses S. He went to school on and off for a total of about a year, but he educated himself by reading borrowed books. When Lincoln was nine years old, his mother died.
His father—a carpenter and farmer—remarried and moved his family farther west, eventually settling in Illinois. As a young adult, Lincoln worked as a flatboat navigator, storekeeper, soldier, surveyor, and postmaster. At age 25 he was elected to the local government in Springfield, Illinois.
Once there, he taught himself law, opened a law practice, and earned the nickname "Honest Abe. He served one term in the U. House of Representatives but lost two U. Senate races. But the debates he had about the enslavement of people with his senatorial opponent, Stephen Douglas, helped him win the presidential nomination two years later. Lincoln opposed the spread of slavery in the United States.
In , he responded to the death of the Illinois abolitionist and newspaper editor Elijah Parish Lovejoy, who was killed while defending his printing presses from a mob of pro-slavery citizens in Alton, Illinois.
In a statesmanlike manner, Lincoln gave a cautious speech at the Springfield Young Men's Lyceum, emphasizing the dangers to democracy and the rule of law when citizens use violence instead of votes and reason to have their way. In , with a keen political eye, Lincoln campaigned for the populist war hero and Whig candidate William Henry Harrison.
In taking this position, Lincoln clearly appealed to the racism of the overwhelming majority of Illinois voters. Like many other opponents of slavery, Lincoln, at this point, did not favor citizenship rights for blacks. After four terms in the state legislature, Lincoln left office in but returned to public life in to win the Whig nomination for a seat from the Illinois seventh congressional district to the U.
House of Representatives. Ten days after the nomination, America went to war with Mexico. During the months of the campaign, Lincoln said nothing about the Mexican-American War, which allowed him to win the district by a large majority. Once in office, however, Lincoln voiced his opinion on the conflict. Congressman Lincoln boldly challenged President James Polk's assertion that the Mexicans had started the war by attacking American soldiers on American soil.
In a speech on the House floor, Lincoln scathingly denounced the Polk administration for taking the country to war by misrepresenting the situation to the nation, claiming correctly that the conflict had begun on territory contested by the two sides. It was a blatant and public attack on a popular President by a young unknown congressman from a state that was solidly behind the war.
Some of his friends were shocked at Lincoln's bold position, but his stand was common among congressional Whigs. Lincoln earlier had promised not to run for a second term in order to win the party's nomination over two other aspiring candidates. He also had little chance as a Whig for election as a U.
No Whig had ever obtained either position from Illinois. In , intent on keeping his name before the national audience, Lincoln campaigned in Maryland and Massachusetts for Whig presidential candidate Zachary Taylor. Then he retired to Springfield, where he practiced law from to , becoming one of the more successful lawyers in the state, representing all kinds of clients, including railroad interests.
Although elected in again to the state legislature, he promptly resigned to run for the U. Senate, losing on the ninth ballot in the state legislature which in those days chose U. After his defeat, Lincoln abandoned the defunct Whig Party and joined the new Republican Party in This new national party was comprised of many former Whigs who opposed slavery—referred to as "Conscience Whigs"—Free-Soilers, and antislavery Democrats. The Republicans took a firm stand against slavery.
They were dedicated to the repeal of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the prevention of the further extension of slavery westward. The new party also demanded the immediate admission of Kansas into the Union as a free state, denounced the Ostend Manifesto, which called for the annexation of Cuba where slavery was legal , and called for federal support of internal improvements-especially the construction of a railroad to the Pacific.
As a favorite-son candidate from Illinois, Lincoln was placed in nomination for vice president but failed to win at the convention in Philadelphia. He thereafter aggressively stumped the state in support of John C. Although the Democratic candidate James Buchanan won the election and carried Illinois, Lincoln's Republican Party did surprisingly well, winning most of the northern counties and 30 percent of the popular vote. This put him head-to-head in a race with the powerful Senator Stephen A.
Douglas, one of Lincoln's rivals from his days in the Illinois state capital, who was running for a third term as a Democrat. There followed a series of seven debates between Lincoln and Douglas in towns across Illinois over the next seventy days. Several factors helped to attract national attention to the campaign battles. First, Douglas, one of the key figures behind the Compromise of , enjoyed a reputation as the "Little Giant" of the Democratic Party and its best stump speaker.
Second, the national debate over slavery was reaching a boiling point. During the four years leading up to these historic debates, Americans had witnessed some incredibly violent and explosive events that were sharply dividing the nation. Responding to the fervor, journalists accompanied the candidates, writing articles detailing the debates and offering editorial commentary that was unprecedented in American political history.
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