On the night of April 14, 1865, the actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth slipped into the president’s box at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., and shot him point-blank in the back of the head. Tragically, Lincoln would not live to help carry out his vision of Reconstruction. Union victory was near, and Lincoln gave a speech on the White House lawn on April 11, urging his audience to welcome the southern states back into the fold. In his second inaugural address, delivered on March 4, 1865, Lincoln addressed the need to reconstruct the South and rebuild the Union: “With malice toward none with charity for all.”Īs Sherman marched triumphantly northward through the Carolinas after staging his March to the Sea from Atlanta, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9. Sherman’s capture of Atlanta in September) swung many votes the president’s way. In 1864, Lincoln faced a tough reelection battle against the Democratic nominee, the former Union General George McClellan, but Union victories in battle (especially General William T. With Breckenridge and Bell splitting the vote in the South, Lincoln won most of the North and carried the Electoral College to win the White House.Ībraham Lincoln Wins 1864 Presidential Election Breckenridge of Kentucky, while John Bell ran for the brand new Constitutional Union Party. In the general election, Lincoln again faced Douglas, who represented the northern Democrats southern Democrats had nominated John C.
Seward of New York and other powerful contenders in favor of the rangy Illinois lawyer with only one undistinguished congressional term under his belt. That May, Republicans chose Lincoln as their candidate for president, passing over Senator William H. Lincoln’s profile rose even higher in early 1860 after he delivered another rousing speech at New York City’s Cooper Union. Abraham Lincoln’s 1860 Presidential Campaign READ MORE: Check out our Abraham Lincoln content hub, with more than three dozen stories about the 16th president.
BLACK LEGEND CAPITAL CAREERS SERIES
Lincoln then squared off against Douglas in a series of famous debates though he lost the Senate election, Lincoln’s performance made his reputation nationally. In June, Lincoln delivered his now-famous “house divided” speech, in which he quoted from the Gospels to illustrate his belief that “this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free.” With the Whig Party in ruins, Lincoln joined the new Republican Party–formed largely in opposition to slavery’s extension into the territories–in 1856 and ran for the Senate again that year (he had campaigned unsuccessfully for the seat in 1855 as well). On October 16, 1854, Lincoln went before a large crowd in Peoria to debate the merits of the Kansas-Nebraska Act with Douglas, denouncing slavery and its extension and calling the institution a violation of the most basic tenets of the Declaration of Independence. Promising not to seek reelection, he returned to Springfield in 1849.Įvents conspired to push him back into national politics, however: Douglas, a leading Democrat in Congress, had pushed through the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), which declared that the voters of each territory, rather than the federal government, had the right to decide whether the territory should be slave or free.
As a congressman, Lincoln was unpopular with many Illinois voters for his strong stance against the Mexican-American War. House of Representatives in 1846 and began serving his term the following year. READ MORE: Abraham Lincoln's Inner Circle: Family, Friends, Cabinet and More Abraham Lincoln Enters Politics Lincoln’s assassination made him a martyr to the cause of liberty, and he is widely regarded as one of the greatest presidents in U.S. In April 1865, with the Union on the brink of victory, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln proved to be a shrewd military strategist and a savvy leader: His Emancipation Proclamation paved the way for slavery’s abolition, while his Gettysburg Address stands as one of the most famous pieces of oratory in American history. Abraham Lincoln Wins 1864 Presidential ElectionĪbraham Lincoln, a self-taught lawyer, legislator and vocal opponent of slavery, was elected 16th president of the United States in November 1860, shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War.Emancipation Proclamation and Gettysburg Address.
Abraham Lincoln’s 1860 Presidential Campaign.Abraham Lincoln's Childhood and Early Life.
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