US Presidents, Day 16: Lincoln

[Joe Republic]

Abraham Lincoln
Republican
1861-1865


Discuss his presidency.  (Oh boy.)

[DownWithTheLeft]

I think we should let States start it off

[Dr. Cynic]

Lincoln saved the Union, and had planned on bringing the South in slowly to appease both radicals and moderates. Apart from that, Lincoln was a skilled politician and a man of action. He also possessed a witty sense of humor.

I don't care what the southerners like States say about him. He was one of our better Presidents, and a key to saving the Union.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Well, to begin with, Lincoln himself is proof that the Civil War was fought over the issue of slavery.  It's hard to imagine a Republican who could have been milder on the issue and the Southern firebrands still seceded, simply because a Republican had been elected.  The rest of the Republican platform was good old-fashioned Whiggery, and electing Zachary Taylor in 1848 didn't cause any controversy.  The central question at the start of his administration was of course, what to do about Forts Sumter and Pickens.  To have withdrawn troops from either would have conceded the issue, and North America would have become a collection of second-rate nations not unlike what happened to Central America and Gran Colombia after they broke apart.  There also would have been wars over the territories anyway, so one cannot fault him for the war.  He had the good fortune (politically that is) to die before he had to fight with Congress over Reconstruction, though he almost certainly would have done better than Johnson in responding to its pressures.

[PBrunsel]

Lincoln, Part I

“Old Abe Lincoln came out of the wilderness many a year ago,” the song sings, but that old school tune is just as deceiving as it is catchy. Generations of school children have learned only about “Lincoln the Saint”. He freed the slaves, saved the Union, and walked 15-miles in the snow to return 25-cents to a little old lady who overpaid at his general store in New Salem, Illinois. Again and again we tell his story. Again and again we honor him with street names, statues, and memorials. Again and again we sing him praise. However, who was Abraham Lincoln? Was he the rough man from the backwoods of Kentucky? Was he the scholar who read newspapers, “inhaled them like food”, and quoted from Shakespeare? Was he the politician who calculated his every move for political gain? Was he the statesman who gave his life for freedom? Lincoln is a man of many masks, he probably should have worn one constantly.

Abraham Lincoln was born February 12th, 1804, in a log cabin on Knob Creek, Willard County, Kentucky. He was the first president born outside the original 13-colonies. Many claim that his family was dirt poor and on the brink of poverty. This is not true. Thomas Lincoln was actually very well off when compared to his neighbors. He owned his own plow, horses, and a good deal of land (at least an acre). Abe was able to attend school, something most of his neighbor’s kids probably couldn’t, and learned to, as he stated in his 1857 autobiography, “read, write, and cipher to the rule of three.” Lincoln’s father needed Abe to work for him on the farm, and through an axe into his hand at the age of 7. Thomas Lincoln respected his son’s mind, and laughed when Abraham would make fun of the pompous preacher every Sunday after church by performing caricatures of the preacher’s sermons. The relationship between the two was never close, and as one of Lincoln’s nephews remembered, “Mr. Lincoln often hit his son.” Thomas Lincoln was not invited to Abraham’s wedding, and Honest Abe did not attend his father’s funeral.

One thing that always made The Great Emancipator mad was when people would refer to him as “born in a log cabin.” He hated log cabins, rail splitting, and pioneer life. He worked from age 21 on to escape his father’s “curse” of farming. “I want to live a life where my livelihood is not based off the wills of the weather,” Lincoln wrote in his journal in 1822. After passing the Illinois Bar Exam in 1824, Lincoln became an attorney. He argued mostly for big business. His last case in 1858 was arguing for a bridge across the Rock River to be allowed to remain in tact. This hurt the small (and poorer) shipping companies that needed a clear river for their boats. “Lincoln,” remembered his law partner Joshua Speed, “Went for top dollar since growing up he never saw money.” Lincoln was not the friend of widows, Indiana, and the poor as a lawyer, even if that is what the history books told you.

When Lincoln became a politician he truly helped the state of Illinois. He fought for state roads, canals, and dams. He changed the capitol to Springfield, Illinois, in the 1830s to make the capitol a more central location so legislators could travel there on the new roads and arrive earlier. He fought for a new capitol building with gas power. Lincoln became a well known Whig leader in Illinois, so in 1846 he was sent to the House of Representatives. From here people seem to forget that two years in the House was all the national experience Lincoln had in politics. He was best known for having two rowdy kids who stole Daniel Webster’s top hat and for failing to pass a law in 1848 that would have outlawed the slave trade in D.C. Lincoln grew sick of the Congress, and was sent back to Springfield in 1848 where he planned to practice law until the day he died.

This was not to be the plan, however. The introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska Act by Senator Stephen Douglas, Democratic Senator from Illinois and would be president, stirred Lincoln to enter politics. After plagiarizing, “A house divided against itself can not stand”, from the Bible, Lincoln accepted the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate in 1858. Critics claim Lincoln was a racist during this campaign, but he was more or less playing to the audience. In the northern town of Springfield he called the black man, “A civilized and honorable human,” but in the southern town of Cairo he stated, “The black man is not my equal, certainly not in color.” Lincoln never did stray from the idea that the black man was just as qualified to eat the bread he grew as the white man. For this Lincoln was called a radical, and lost the election. This loss helped him become a national figure, since the debates were covered all over the nation. After an address to the Cooper Union, New York City, in early 1860, Lincoln was seen as the best choice for president by the moderates in the Republican Party.

By the time 1860 rolled around Lincoln had to make deals to be president. The magical wood ferry did not come down from the heavens and appoint Abe Lincoln Commander-in-Chief, he had to politick. His personal aide John J. Nikolaou went to Chicago, Illinois, and fought for Abe’s nomination against the better known Governors William Seward of New York and Salmon Chase of Ohio. The first tricky thing that Nikolaou pulled was creating duplicate tickets for Lincoln supporters, and thus he packed “The Wigwam” in the Windy City. He hired leather-lunged Illinois men to holler for Lincoln’s nomination, these were the first “campaign shouters.” He made deals with everyone he met. The cabinet was filled by lunch, and thirteen men were to serve as Secretary of State. These shoddy deals paid off in the end. Lincoln, by appearing like a moderate on the issue of slavery, won the nomination on the 5th ballot, defeating the more radical Seward. His campaign was to be filled with platitudes of “unity” and “the government Washington wanted.” “The Wide Awakes” marched through the towns of America claiming that they could see the scandals of Buchanan, and that Lincoln was by far the more honest choice. The myth of the “rail splitter” was born. Lincoln was “the backwoods man with the axe.” By playing a campaign like Andrew Jackson would have, the GOP won the day, but lost the South.

[PBrunsel]

Lincoln, Part II

In March of 1861 the country was not aware of what they had just purchased. No one knew anything about Abraham Lincoln, and very few were willing to give him a chance. The Easterners in Washington didn’t even want to meet the new president, who they knew was a hick from the sticks. They sent Daniel Webster’s son to welcome the new President and First Family, but Webster was greeted by a goat eating his shoe, a pig running through the halls of the Executive Mansion, and Tad Lincoln shaking his hand when Tad’s own hand was sticky with honey. Webster called them “hillbillies” and this story would inspire the creation of the classic 1960s sitcom “The Beverly Hillbillies”. And now you know the rrrr-rest of the story!

During his entire presidency Lincoln argued with his cabinet. The Fort Sumter Crisis of April 1861 illustrates how Secretary of State Seward tried to take control of the presidency. Seward went into contact with General Beauregard and President Davis of the Confederacy before Lincoln. He told them that the Fort was to be surrendered and that he was in control of the situation, not Lincoln. Abe would have nothing of this, and told Seward that he was not president. Lincoln would fight constantly with Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase about how to raise money and about how Chase would screw things up to further his political career. Just to get Chase out of the way, in 1864 Lincoln appointed him to be the new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. From 1861-1865 Lincoln’s cabinet laughed at him, and all knew they could do a better job as President. A cabinet divided against its chief somehow stood.

The emancipation of the slave is what Lincoln is known for. Historians call him “The Great Emancipator” as if he freed the slaves out of the kindness of his own heart. Lincoln was the master politician; he only did things for political gain. By September 1862 the war was going poorly for the Union. Confederate General Robert E. Lee was defeating Union Generals left and right. In the West, General Ulysses S. Grant was marching towards Vicksburg, Mississippi, into a seemingly hopeless siege. The nations of Great Britain, France, and Spain were looking to end the war in the Americas and recognize the Southern Confederacy. “It looks as if Jeff Davis and his military leaders have built an army, they seem to be building a navy,” Lord North of Great Britain commented in 1862, “But more importantly they have built a nation.” This type of talk lead Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22nd, 1862, which would make all slaves held in Confederate territory “now, henceforth, and forever free” on January 1st, 1863. Lincoln had no authority in the Confederacy, and thus did not free a single slave. He had purposely not touched the Border States of Missouri, Maryland, Delaware, and his native Kentucky so that these states would not secede. This was brilliant politics, especially after the Union “victory” at Antitem, Maryland, the “victory” Lincoln used to issue the proclamation in celebration of. The abolitionist people of Great Britain would now never side with the South, and no nation would oppose the will of Great Britain. Lincoln’s brilliant politics did not free a slave, but it did save the Union.

Lincoln the politician can also be seen by the way he selected generals and those who were pardoned. He preferred Western general over those of the East. Had an Eastern general had the casualties “The Butcher” Grant had, that man would have been court-martialed certainly, but Grant was Lincoln’s favorite general. This was of course not fair, but neither were his pardoning policies. Lincoln made sure that most of the Generals in Illinois never had a man executed for negligence, this compared to the way he treated New York generals in quite different. Abe pardoned many soldiers for violations of protocol, but he also has the distinction of executing the most soldiers for negligence during war time. He was not always the kind-hearted soul who our kids worship today.

[PBrunsel]

Lincoln, Part III

The first president to wear a beard loved his children with all his heart. His son Robert was never close to him and his relationship with his father mirrored that of Abe and his own father. Abe loved the presence of his two little kids the most, William, age 12, and Tad, age 8. William was studious. He read Shakespeare and memorized railroad time charts. “Willie,” Mary Todd Lincoln said, “Will be the joy of my old age.” He was the family favorite and Abraham spent much time with him reading and having long conversations about many things. This was Lincoln’s human side in full bloom. Tad was mischievous. He would break mirrors and set off firecrackers during cabinet meetings. Once he pled for a pardon for his doll “Jack the Soldier” for sleeping on duty. Even though Lincoln pardoned him, Tad hung the doll, claiming he was, “A traitor and a spy.”

When William died of typhoid fever in October 1862, Mary Todd locked herself up in her room and refused to come out. She cried so much she suffered from a bought of dehydration. Lincoln and his wife turned to mediums to speak to their dead son (and their son who perished in 1841, Edward). Mary even believed the ghost of Willie spoke to her at night. This dark period of the Lincoln’s life is rarely spoken of, and thus ignored by historians. Lincoln believed in medium work. He wrote in his journal in January of 1864, “We can speak to those already gone, and I have done so many times.” Mrs. Lincoln had an official White House medium, thus beating Nancy Reagan by more than 120-years.

The life of Abraham Lincoln was one of depression. He lost all he loved. His mother (Nancy Hanks Lincoln) died when he was just eight years old. He had to build her coffin and bury her, which most likely left mental scarring. His first love was Anne Rutledge, and she perished when he was 23-years old. His sister died when he was 24-years old. Everyone he loved died, and he became a man depressed and filled with bitter hatred towards those who he felt took away those he loved. He called his depression “The Lows” and twice tried to kill himself. Once after he left his wife sitting at the alter in 1832 waiting to get married, Lincoln got drunk and started to scream about how he hated Mary. “He had an inner darkness,” law partner William Herndon would tell the nation in 1868, “And only few ever saw the melancholy he suffered from.”

Lincoln himself knew that he was a loner and a man prone to depression, so he tried to laugh all the time. During the bloodiest war in American history he would tell jokes, funny stories, and anecdotes. On the battlefield of Antitem, it was said, Lincoln wanted the minstrel song “Picayune Butler” played to make the wounded men laugh. This turned out to be untrue, but Abe really wanted people to laugh so they would not cry. Once while touring a captured Confederate hospital in Maryland, the President shook the hand of a Georgian who was taller than him (at 6’4 our tallest president) but was lacking a foot. He joked, “At least if you were to attack me I could run away twice as fast as you could chase me.” The Georgian laughed, and thus Lincoln had made one sad fellow happy.

From the jokes to the stories, many thought Lincoln a simpleton. His jokes always had a purpose, however. “He used humor to make a point,” historian Gore Vidal stated in his book Lincoln. It was easier for Abe to use jokes to make a point than arguments. Some said this meant he was an idiot, but he was truly shrewd. These jokes would go over the heads of his “educated” cabinet members, bit his personal aides would know what he meant, and act on his wishes before the cabinet could stop them. Lincoln was the people’s politician, and no one can argue with that.

From freeing the slaves to saving the Union, Lincoln is no longer considered a man. His great memorial shows as a giant who sits upon a throne, not the small town lawyer who never combed his hair and worse pants that barely went to his ankles. Lincoln was a politician first and foremost, and did everything based on the politics of the matter. This is not the picture given off by the schools, but it is the truth. For 56-years he cried, laughed, fretted, decided, and hoped like every other human being. Old Abe Lincoln came out of the wilderness, and he came back a legend, whether accurate or not. 

[jokerman]

Despite what some of my fellow Southerners think about Lincoln, after reading one of his biographies (not precisely a biography, Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals) I couldn't help but admire his drive of sheer will out of lowly life and his fierce ambition to craft a legacy that would be remembered by the ages.  Among those who judged him having never met him he was often called a hick, among those gathering their first impressions they often developed a suprising respect for him and among those who developed a close relationship with him over the years, regardless of how that relationship originated, he was revered.

[??????????]

One of Americas' first war criminals and the worst thing about it was it was against his own people. One of his first actions when the war began was to shut down the free press in Maryland and in other regions, then to "silence" Maryland various state politicians were imprisoned at Ft McHenry as to shut down any opposition to the legal act of secession. Not only were these politicians arrested but they were also held indefinately without trial. Lincoln believed that the way to bring the south back into the union (although he stated that southern states never left, a huge contradiction) was through the point of bayonet as opposed to reasoned diplomacy. Most of his various other criminal acts during the war are already well known, so I won't go into much detail, they range from the burning of Atlanta, burning of Richmond, senseless destruction of southern property, farmland, animals, et al. His failure to reprimand Sherman when the general allowed a great amount of freedmen to drown in a river near Savannah because Sherman ordered his troops to leave them behind and pull up the pontoon bridges. There's much more but I can't remember it all now.

[Hash]

One of the only Republicans I like.

[??????????]

One of the only Republicans I like.

So then I can assume you don't dislike Bush all that badly.

[Hash]

Bush and Lincoln are way different. Iraq is a useless, stupid, retarded war. The Civil War was justified.

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

Saved the union from a bunch of secessionistic rebels. His one problem was that he was FAR too nice on the former CSA and put in a pro-south weakling as veep and later president. There should have been mass execution plus land reforms and deportation of the southerners who don't cooperate with the new order(let South Africa or Brazil have them)

[??????????]

Bush and Lincoln are way different. Iraq is a useless, stupid, retarded war. The Civil War was justified.

Ok, so you're pretty clueless as to history and facts around here. Sadly that's not to uncommon on this forum. Next.

[gorkay]

Not only one of the greatest Americans, but a man who has come to symbolize America itself in a manner and stature comparable to that of Washington. A complex, sensitive, intelligent, talented man, who was constantly underestimated and undervalued by friend and enemy alike.

[??????????]

Not only one of the greatest Americans, but a man who has come to symbolize America itself in a manner and stature comparable to that of Washington. A complex, sensitive, intelligent, talented man, who was constantly underestimated and undervalued by friend and enemy alike.

If you don't believe in the Constitution then you are correct.