Election Of Abraham Lincoln example essay topic

Abraham Lincoln – Bio Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, near Hodgenville, Kentucky. His parents, Nancy Hanks Lincoln and Thomas Lincoln were struggling pioneer farmers living in west central Kentucky. Abraham had been named after Thomas's father, Abraham, who had been shot and killed by an Indian, why the former was working in the fields in 1784. As soon as Abraham could walk, he was sent to the fields to fetch water and gather berries and wild nuts.

Farm work had left little time for Abraham and his older sister to go to school, but when there was time, they attended a "blab school' two miles from their home. It was known as a blab school because the students read their lessons or repeated what their teacher had said in unison. This school did not provide Abraham with a great education, but it taught him numbers, the alphabet, and a little reading and writing. Abraham Lincoln's family moved to Indiana in 1816 due to legal disputes over who owned their land. A year later Abraham's mother, aunt, and uncle died from "the milk sick,' a disease that was fatal to humans and cows and was transferred through the cow's milk. After this loss, Abraham continued to do one thing he truly loved, read.

He read everything he could get his hands on, teaching himself more and more every day. As an adult, Abraham Lincoln began a great rivalry with Stephen A. Douglas in the back of a store owned by Joshua Speed in Springfield, Illinois. Lincoln and Speed, along with other men, gathered in the back of the store to discuss politics. Most of the time Abraham would get into arguments with Stephen Douglas. Lincoln supported the Whig Party, which believed the government should have strong central federal control. Stephen Douglas was a democrat who believed in the right of individual states to control what they did without the government's interference.

Not only were Lincoln and Douglas rivals politically; they were rivals socially, too. They were both attracted to Mary Todd, a 21 year old from Kentucky. Lincoln proved to be the victor marrying Mary Todd in 1842. The second of Lincoln's and Douglas's great rivalries occured came in 1858, when the former ran for the U.S. senate for the Republican party.

Stephen Douglas ran for the Democratic party, and they both immediately began criticizing each other. Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of debates prior to the election to which Douglas agreed. Both men attacked each other's beliefs and defended their own. Stephen Douglas won the election by a narrow margin, but Lincoln came out a winner, too. The Lincoln-Douglas debates were reported across the nation and he developed a national reputation as one of the Republican parties leading spokesmen. In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was selected by the Republican party as their candidate for the presidency.

A short time later Stephen Douglas accepted the Democratic nomination so they were both fighting to be the president. Lincoln gained his final and most important victory over Douglas when he was elected President of the United States. The South was very upset by the election of Abraham Lincoln. The Southerners believed he was a total abolitionist but they were mistaken. Abraham Lincoln was opposed to slavery, but as long as it had been legal in the South, he thought it should remain legal. Lincoln wanted the country to remain united and did not want to force abolition on the South.

Instead, Lincoln wanted to keep slavery from spreading to new territories in hopes that the practice would eventually cease Abraham Lincoln had believed slavery was morally wrong since he was a young boy. Once on a trip to New Orleans, Lincoln saw groups of black slaves chained up and carted off to an auction. What had bothered him the most was that people had treated the slaves like horses or cattle, not like humans. Immediately after the election of Abraham Lincoln, South Carolina seceded from the Union. More states soon followed its example.

The Civil War didn't actually start until after Lincoln was in office. The Confederate Army opened fire on Fort Sumter. Abraham Lincoln asked for 75,000 volunteers from the North. Many who were angry at the attack signed up for 90 days of service. Many felt the war wouldn't last longer than that. The Civil War was a see-saw war with the South easily winning the first battle at a small river called Bull Run.

The Union army roared back with a victory in New Orleans, but lost a battle in Richmond to the Confederates. President Lincoln warned the South that, as of January 1, 1863 all slaves in the confederate states would become free. The only exclusion he made was for the border states that did not oppose the North. He hoped that slavery would die out in the border states that he had exempted from the Emancipation Proclamation. After Lincoln issued the proclamation Great Britian's support and sympathy for the South began to decline. One great benefit for the Union army was the addition of 100,000 black soldiers to their force of white soldiers.

Abraham Lincoln was walking through Richmond, Virginia, one day as he was surrounded by hundreds of black people cheering him, laughing, and crying with joy. Abraham Lincoln had become a hero to the slaves of the South due to his proclamation. After many battles and lost men the war was finally coming to an end. On April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant met at Appomattox courthouse in Virginia. Lee there surrendered to the North. President Lincoln had done what he had set out to do, preserve the Union.

One of Abraham Lincoln's greatest fears was that he would never see his nation go through the period of reconstruction. One night Lincoln had a nightmare in which he was found assassinated in the East room of the White House by an assassin. This proved to be not far from the truth. On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln went to Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. to see the play Our American Cousin. John Wilkes Booth, an actor who hated the president, drilled a hole into the lodge that Lincoln was in.

When he was sure the Lincolns were watching the play, Booth shot Abraham Lincoln in the back of the head from point blank range. In a struggle, John Wilkes Booth was able to escape from Major Rathbone, a friend of Lincoln's who was sitting in the presidential box. Abraham Lincoln, a great president who kept the Union united, died the next day. An era had come to an end. The most disturbing aspect of the Civil War was the greed of the South. In order to save the Union, Lincoln was willing to let them carry on with slavery, and not break the Union apart.

He was willing to live with things he personally was against to be one whole nation, not two separate ones. Abraham Lincoln, son of a backwoods farmer had grown up through many hardships to become president. He struggled through hours of hard work as a child and lacked formal education. Abraham Lincoln set a fine precedent for all Americans. No matter what type of family you are brought up in you can still lead the country as the President of the United States.