Abraham Lincoln
The 16th U.S. President
Overview
First Term: 1861-1864
Second Term: 1865-1865
Party: Republican
Election Opponents
- John C. Breckinridge (Southern Democratic Party)
- John Bell (Constitutional Union Party)
- Stephen A. Douglas (Democratic Party)
Cabinet Members
Vice President:
- Hannibal Hamlin (1861–1865)
- Andrew Johnson (1865) - becomes President after Lincoln is assassinated in 1865.
Secretary of State:
- William H. Seward (1861–1865)
Secretary of the Treasury:
- Salmon P. Chase (1861–1864)
- William P. Fessenden (1864–1865)
- Hugh McCulloch (1865)
Secretary of War:
- Simon Cameron (1861–1862)
- Edwin M. Stanton (1862–1865)
Attorney General:
- Edward Bates (1861–1864)
- James Speed (1864–1865)
America At This Time
- Seven states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas) seceded from the Union as a response of Lincoln getting elected. Eleven total states secede from the Union during the Civil War.
- The Emancipation Proclamation was put into effect on January 1, 1863. This law set free all slaves in the Confederacy (and Deep South).
- The Civil War is dividing the nation up into the North (Union) and the South (Confederacy). The war lasts from 1861 to 1865.
Important Quotes
First Inaugural Address (March 4, 1861)
- "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so."
Gettysburg Address (November 19, 1863)
- "Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure."
House Divided Speech (June 16, 1858)
- "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. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South."
Policies
Domestic:
- End slavery in the United States.
- End the Civil War.
- Bring the Confederacy back into the Union.
Foreign:
- Prevent French and British intervention in the Civil War.
Economic:
- Legal Tender Act of 1862 (issue flat currency, called "greenbacks" or paper money that was not backed by gold and silver) to help pay for the Civil War.
- Morrill Act (makes higher education possible).
- Homestead Act of 1862 (make federal land grants available to people).