Hermann pascha biography of abraham lincoln

But for someone seeking an ideal introduction to Abraham Lincoln or a fluid narrative of his life from birth to death, I would look elsewhere. By far the most interesting and insightful portion of this book is its first sixty pages. These pages are worth reading by anyone interested in US history. The remainder of the book is often beautifully written, but barely adequate as an introductory biography.

I recently read David S. However, it pre-supposes a familiarity with Lincoln and his times, fails to humanize him, largely ignores his personal life though his wife receives significant attention and brushes past several significant historical events which would receive attention in a more traditional biography. Readers seeking a traditional biographical experience or even a cohesive introduction to the 16th president need to look elsewhere, and dedicated fans of Lincoln will the narrative interesting…but with an excess of conjecture and speculation.

Dan said:. June 29, at pm. Steve said:. June 30, at am. Both of these bios are pretty captivating so I imagine a high percentage of folks who start actually do get through them…. Peter said:. January 26, at pm. January 27, at am. March 14, at am. Richard said:. March 20, at am. I am a university student in England and am currently doing an essay on the cause s of the American Civil War.

I am fascinated with American history and politics, and this hermann pascha biography of abraham lincoln is very helpful. My focus is on the Lincoln, Debates and historiography. March 24, at am. Oh my, you are really testing my memory! Good luck! January 18, at pm. Finally…finally I finished Lincoln: A Life. Interestingly, Steve expressed limited discussion about the Civil War, I feel there was too much discussion about the war and not enough about policy and legislation during his terms in office.

I enjoy the policy discussions, for historical events like the war and the assination, I can read books specifically about them, the presidential biographies are seemingly the only place to find the wonky stuff. I have Team of Rivals as well, but that is on hold until I am through the list. Onto Jeffy D. January 19, at am. What are you going to read on JD?

January 23, at pm. Don said:. March 9, at am. That might be the single toughest question you could have asked me about presidential biographies, anyway. The first two are traditional, comprehensive biographies of Lincoln. I liked them both equally well and if choosing between them I would almost tell you to flip a coin — or read whichever is easier for you to get a copy of.

So while this one is slightly less about Lincoln than the others, it offers something extra in return. March 12, at pm. Thank you for your response! Kyle said:. April 18, at am. I wanted to find a good Lincoln biography and came across your blog. Great list, thank you for such detailed descriptions of each book! April 19, at pm. Rick Garner said:.

September 26, at pm. First, I have been following most of your suggestions since Washington and now am spending a great amount on Lincoln. I was really surprised how closely Goodwin followed Tarbell with the Lincoln portions of her work. September 27, at am. Going on my follow-up list! Joe said:. October 15, at pm. In a world of endless writings on the presidents, your site is an invaluable resource!

I so appreciate your diligence and willingness to share! October 16, at am. November 7, at pm. By accident, I have been reading presidential bios this year as well. Fortunately, I chose the one by Ron Chernow and that really got me hooked — his style was easy and his prose is wonderful. Quincy Adams, then Jackson by H. So, as you can see, I will be up to Lincoln and the Civil War soon.

I have been using your reviews since Thomas Jefferson. I am limited to audiobooks so not always your recommendations but your reviews nevertheless have been my guide. Or, should I read one bio focused primarily on Lincolns life and another about the Civil War? November 13, at am. Your audio adventure sounds great! I would also note that only after I read a great biography of Ulysses S.

Grant did I really fully appreciate and understand the Civil War more completely. November 15, at pm. Little did I know then that as I went on he would be a thorn in the side of presidents Jackson to Polk! Even with Jackson, from other books I know about different wars that Indians helped him with that made him famous, but not mentioned in his bio.

That is, if you ever finish this project! Anyway, if you know of any books about Indians dealings with early presidents, please advise. Jeff Collins New Orleans. McDowellFremont, McClellanPopeMcClellan again, BuellBurnsideRosecrans --all of these men and more withered under Lincoln's watchful eye as they failed to bring him success on the battlefield.

He did not issue his famous Emancipation Proclamation until January 1, after the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam. Nevertheless, it changed the tenor of the war, making it, from the Northern point of view, a fight both to preserve the Union and to end slavery. InLincoln ran again for President. After years of war, he feared he would not win.

Only in the final months of the campaign did the exertions of Ulysses S. Grantthe quiet general now in command of all of the Union armies, begin to bear fruit. A string of heartening victories buoyed Lincoln's ticket and contributed significantly to his re-election. In his second inauguration speechMarch 4,he set the tone he intended to take when the war finally ended.

The Lincoln administration did more than just manage the Civil War, although its reverberations could still be felt in a number of policies. The Revenue Act of established the United States' first hermann pascha biography of abraham lincoln tax, largely to pay the costs of total war. The Morrill Act of established the basis of the state university system in this country, while the Homestead Act, also passed inencouraged 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.

Fighting broke out in April Lincoln always defined the Civil War as a struggle to save the Union, but in January he nonetheless issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in areas still under Confederate control. This was an important symbolic gesture that identified the Union's struggle as a war to end slavery. In the effort to win the war, Lincoln assumed more power than any president before him, declaring martial law and suspending legal rights.

He had difficulty finding effective generals to lead the Union armies until the appointment of Ulysses S Grant as overall commander in On 19 NovemberLincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address at the dedication of a cemetery at the hermann pascha biography of abraham lincoln of the Battle of Gettysburg, a decisive Union victory that had taken place earlier in the year.

InLincoln stood for re-election and won. In his second inaugural address, he was conciliatory towards the southern states. The proclamation did not cover the nearlyslaves in the slaveholding border states that had remained in the Union; nor did it apply to Tennessee or West Virginia, both of which were largely under the control of Union forces.

As Southern states were subdued, critical decisions had to be made as to the leadership and policies of these states. Louisiana, which had a larger slave population than other Confederate states occupied early in the war, became the center of discussion regarding Reconstruction under Lincoln and military governor Benjamin Butler. Banksimplemented a labor system in which free blacks worked as laborers on white-owned plantations.

This model, which paid blacks wages but also represented a continuation of plantation agriculture, was adopted throughout much of the occupied South. AfterDemocrats like Reverdy Johnson sought the withdrawal of the Emancipation Proclamation and amnesty for the Confederates. By contrast, Radical Republicans like Sumner argued that rebel Southerners had lost all rights by attempting to secede from the Union.

In his ten percent planLincoln sought to find a middle ground, calling for the emancipation of Confederate slaves and the re-integration of Southern states once ten percent of voters in a state took an oath of allegiance to the U. As the Wade—Davis Bill interfered with Lincoln's plans for the readmission of Louisiana and Arkansas, Lincoln pocket vetoed the bill in late Even as they cooperated on most other issues, Lincoln and congressional Republicans continued to clash over Reconstruction policies after the election.

Many in Congress sought far-reaching reforms to Southern society that went beyond the abolition of slavery, and they refused to recognize Lincoln's reconstituted Southern governments. Disagreements within Congress prevented the passage of any Reconstruction bill or the recognition of governments in Arkansas and Louisiana. Historian Eric Foner notes that no one knows what Lincoln would have done about Reconstruction had he served out his second term, but he adds.

Unlike Sumner and other Radicals, Lincoln did not see Reconstruction as an opportunity for a sweeping political and social revolution beyond emancipation. He had long made clear his opposition to the confiscation and redistribution of land. He believed, as most Republicans did in Aprilthat the voting requirements should be determined by the states.

He assumed that political control in the South would pass to white Unionists, reluctant secessionists, and forward-looking former Confederates. But time and again during the war, Lincoln, after initial opposition, had come to embrace positions first advanced by abolitionists and Radical Republicans Lincoln undoubtedly would have listened carefully to the outcry for further protection for the former slaves It is entirely plausible to imagine Lincoln and Congress agreeing on a Reconstruction policy that encompassed federal protection for basic civil rights plus limited black suffrage, along the lines Lincoln proposed just before his death.

In Decembera proposed constitutional amendment that would outlaw slavery was introduced in Congress; though the Senate voted for the amendment with the necessary two-thirds majority, the amendment did not receive sufficient support in the House. With the aid of large Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, Lincoln believed that he could permanently end the institution of slavery in the United States.

Rather than waiting for the 39th Congress to convene in March, Lincoln pressed the lame duck session of the 38th Congress to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment as soon as possible. After an extensive lobbying campaign by Lincoln and Seward, the House narrowly cleared the two-thirds threshold in a —56 vote. With the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, some abolitionist leaders viewed their work as complete, though Frederick Douglass believed that "slavery is not abolished until the black man has the ballot.

In the decades prior to the Civil War, Southern congressmen had blocked the passage of various economic proposals, including federal funding for internal improvementssupport for higher education, and increased tariff rates designed to protect domestic manufacturing against foreign competition. The 37th Congresswhich met from topassed public acts, more than double the number of the 27th Congresswhich had previously held the record for most public acts passed.

The 38th Congress, meeting from topassed public acts. Many of these bills were designed to raise revenue for funding the war, as federal expenses increased seven-fold in the first year of the Civil War. Congress quickly approved Lincoln's request to assemble a ,man army, but initially resisted raising taxes to pay for the war. This taxation of income reflected the increasing amount of wealth held in stocks and bonds rather than property, which the federal government had taxed in the past.

Lincoln also signed the second and third Morrill Tariffsthe first having become law in the final months of Buchanan's tenure. These tariff acts raised import duties considerably compared to previous tariff rates, and they were designed to both raise revenue and protect domestic manufacturing against foreign competition. During the war, the tariff also helped manufacturers off-set the burden of new taxes.

Compared to pre-war levels, the tariff would remain relatively high for the remainder of the 19th century. The revenue measures of proved inadequate for the funding of the war, forcing Congress to pass further bills designed to generate revenue. Greenbacks were not backed by gold or silverbut rather by the promise of the United States government to honor their value.

Despite these new measures, funding the war continued to be a difficult struggle for Chase and the Lincoln administration. Lincoln also took action against rampant fraud during the civil war, by enacting the False Claims Act in This law, also known as the "Lincoln Law," made it possible for private citizens to file false claims qui tam lawsuits on behalf of the U.

Hoping to stabilize the currency, Chase convinced Congress to pass the National Banking Act in Februaryas well as a second banking act in Those acts established the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to oversee "national banks," which would be subject to federal, rather than state, regulation. In return for investing a third of their capital in federal bonds, these national banks were authorized to issue federal banknotes.

Many of the bills passed by the 37th and 38th Congress were designed at least in part to pay for the war, but other bills instituted long-term reforms in areas unrelated to revenue. Under the act, settlers would be granted acres of public land if they invested five years into developing the land. The law gave each member of Congress 30, acres of public land to sell, with proceeds funding the establishment of land-grant colleges.

The Pacific Railway Acts of and granted federal support for the construction of the United States' First transcontinental railroadwhich was completed in In JuneLincoln approved the Yosemite Grant enacted by Congress, which provided unprecedented federal protection for the area now known as Yosemite National Park. Before Lincoln's presidency, Thanksgiving, while a regional holiday in New England since the 17th century, had been proclaimed by the federal government only sporadically and on irregular dates.

In the aftermath of the attack on Fort Sumter, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and began to imprison suspected Confederate sympathizers. InSeward set up a special office in the State Department designed to monitor internal security, and the federal government and local police officers worked together to suppress those suspected of actively supporting the Confederacy.

In the subsequent case of Ex parte MerrymanChief Justice Taney asserted that only Congress had the right to suspend habeas corpus. In a message to Congress delivered in JulyLincoln responded by arguing that his actions had been constitutional and necessary given the threat posed by the Confederacy. As the war continued, many in the North came to resist the sacrifices required by the war, and recruiting declined.

The conscription act included various exemptions and allowed potential draftees to pay for substitutes, but it nonetheless proved unpopular in many communities and among many state and local leaders. The New York City draft riots of July saw mobs attack soldiers, policemen, and African Americans, and was only subdued after Lincoln diverted soldiers from the Gettysburg Campaign.

Rejecting calls to institute martial law in the city, Lincoln appointed John Adams Dix to oversee New York City, and Dix allowed the city to hold civilian trials on those who had participated in the riots. Clement Vallandighama Copperhead Democrat from Ohio, emerged as one of the most prominent critics of the war. General Ambrose Burnside arrested Vallandigham in May after the latter strongly criticized the draft and other wartime policies.

A military commission subsequently sentenced Vallandigham to imprisonment until the end of the war, but Lincoln intervened to have Vallandigham released into Confederate territory. Ohio Democrats nonetheless nominated Vallandigham for governor in June Conflicts with Native Americans on the American frontier continued during the Civil War, as American settlers continued to push west.

Presented with execution warrants for convicted Santee Dakota who were accused of killing innocent farmers, Lincoln conducted his own personal review of each of these warrants, eventually approving 39 for execution one was later reprieved. However, as the war to preserve the Union was Lincoln's primary concern, he simply allowed the system to function unchanged for the balance of his presidency.

Two new states were admitted to the Union while Lincoln was in office. In the June Wheeling Convention, delegates from several counties in western Virginia formed the Restored Government of Virginiaostensibly as the legitimate government of Virginia. In the following year, the people of West Virginia voted to secede from Virginia, and a new state constitution was written.

West Virginiathe Supreme Court implicitly affirmed that the breakaway Virginia counties did have the consents necessary to become a separate state. The second state admitted to the Union while Lincoln was president was Nevada. Congress approved an enabling act authorizing Nevada Territory to form a state government in March ; similar legislation was also approved for Colorado Territory and Nebraska Territory.

Nebraska's constitutional convention voted against statehood, while voters in Colorado rejected the proposed state constitution, so of those three territories, only Nevada became a state during Lincoln's presidency. Lincoln named his main political rival William H. Seward as Secretary of State, and left most diplomatic issues in his portfolio. However, Lincoln did select some of the top diplomats as part of his patronage policy.

He was successful after indicating to London and Paris that Washington would declare war on them if they supported Richmond. The U. At the start of the war, Russia was the lone great power to support the Union, while the other European powers had varying degrees of sympathy for the Confederacy. Washington's policy was a success: all foreign nations were officially neutral throughout the Civil War, and none recognized the Confederacy.

Although they remained out of the war, the European powers, especially France and Britain, factored into the American Civil War in various ways. European leaders saw the division of the United States as having the potential to eliminate, or at least greatly weaken, a growing rival. They looked for ways to exploit the inability of the U.

Spain invaded the Dominican Republic inwhile France established a puppet regime in Mexico. Lincoln's foreign policy was deficient in in terms of appealing to European public opinion. The European aristocracy the dominant class in every major country was "absolutely gleeful in pronouncing the American debacle as proof that the entire experiment in popular government had failed.

Confederate spokesmen, on the other hand, were much more successful by ignoring slavery and instead focusing on their struggle for liberty, their commitment to free trade, and the essential role of cotton in the European economy. Any chance of a European intervention in the war ended with the Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, as European leaders came to believe that the Confederate cause was doomed.

Elite opinion in Britain tended to favor the Confederacy, but public opinion tended to favor the United States. Large scale trade continued in both directions with the United States, with the Americans shipping grain to Britain while Britain exported manufactured items and munitions. British trade with the Confederacy was limited, with a trickle of cotton going to Britain and hundreds of thousands of munitions slipped in by numerous small blockade runners.

A serious diplomatic dispute between the U. The Union Navy intercepted a British mail ship, the Trenton the high seas and seized two Confederate envoys en route to Europe. The incident aroused public outrage in Britain; the government of Lord Palmerston protested vehemently, while the American public cheered. Lincoln ended the crisis, known as the Trent Affairby releasing the two diplomats, who had been seized illegally.

British financiers built and operated most of the blockade runnersspending hundreds of millions of pounds on them. They were staffed by sailors and officers on leave from the Royal Navy. When the U. Navy captured one of the fast blockade runners, it sold the ship and cargo as prize money for the American sailors, then released the crew. In DecemberFrance invaded Mexico.

While the official justification was the collection of debts, France eventually established a puppet state under the rule of Maximilian I of Mexico. However, this proposal was declined by the other European powers, who feared alienating the North. Napoleon's bellicose stance towards Russia in the January Uprising divided the powers and greatly diminished any chance of a joint European intervention.

With the end of the American Civil War inthe U. Shortly after p. Lincoln was shot in the back of his head by actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth. The mortally wounded president was immediately examined by a doctor in the audience and then carried across the street to Petersen's Boarding House where he died at a. They hoped to revive the Confederate cause by creating chaos through destabilizing the federal government.

Although Booth succeeded in killing Lincoln, the larger plot failed. Seward was attacked, but recovered from his wounds, and Johnson's would-be assassin fled Washington upon losing his nerve. With the failure of the plot to assassinate Johnson, Johnson succeeded Lincoln, becoming the 17th President of the United States. In surveys of U. Generally, the top three presidents are rated as 1.

Hermann pascha biography of abraham lincoln

Lincoln; 2. George Washington; and 3. Franklin D. Roosevelt, although Lincoln and Washington, and Washington and Roosevelt, are occasionally reversed. The successful reunification of the states had consequences for the name of the country. The term "the United States" has historically been used, sometimes in the plural "these United States" and other times in the singular, without any particular grammatical consistency.

The Civil War was a significant force in the eventual dominance of the singular usage by the end of the 19th century. The Union victory and the subsequent Supreme Court case of Texas v. White ended debate regarding the constitutionality of secession and Nullification by the states. In addition to ending slavery, the Reconstruction Amendments enshrined Constitutional clauses promoting racial equality.

As early as the s, a time when most political rhetoric focused on the sanctity of the Constitution, Lincoln redirected emphasis to the Declaration of Independence as the foundation of American political values—what he called the "sheet anchor" of republicanism. As Diggins concludes regarding the highly influential Cooper Union speech of early"Lincoln presented Americans a theory of history that offers a profound contribution to the theory and destiny of republicanism itself.

Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. Seal of the president — This article is part of a series about. Early life and career Family Health Sexuality Patent. First term. Second term. Presidential elections.

Speeches and works. Assassination and legacy. Election of [ edit ]. Main articles: Abraham Lincoln presidential campaign and United States presidential election. Transition period [ edit ]. Main article: Presidential transition of Abraham Lincoln. Threat of secession [ edit ]. Deepening crisis [ edit ]. Arrival in Washington, D. First inauguration [ edit ].

Main article: First inauguration of Abraham Lincoln. The March 4,inauguration of Abraham Lincoln in front of the U. Capitol Building. Headlines on the day of Lincoln's inauguration portended hostilities with the Confederacy, Fort Sumter being attacked less than six weeks later. Administration [ edit ]. Judicial appointments [ edit ]. Further information: List of federal judges appointed by Abraham Lincoln.

BEP engraved portrait of Salmon P. Chasesixth Chief Justice of the United States— American Civil War [ edit ]. Fort Sumter [ edit ]. Further information: Battle of Fort Sumter. States that seceded before April 15, States that seceded after April 15, States that permitted slavery, but did not secede. States of the Union where slavery was banned.

Early war [ edit ]. Eastern theater to [ edit ].