US Presidents For Dummies

by Marcus Stadelmann

  Lincoln improved his debating skills and his political skills while serving as a legislator. His terms as a state legislator showed his skills in compromising and illuminated his stand on slavery: While he condemned the institution of slavery, he attacked the abolitionist, anti-slavery movement as extreme and dangerous to the country.

  Studying law on the side

  As was common at the time, the Illinois state legislature met for just one session per year — not year-round. Lincoln used his spare time to study law. He received his license to practice in 1837. That same year, he joined the John T. Stuart law firm in Springfield, Illinois and became a successful lawyer. In 1844, he became a founding partner in the firm Logan and Lincoln. He enjoyed the law but longed for politics. By 1844, he was ready to reenter the political scene.

  A Star Is Born

  In 1843, Lincoln sought the nomination of the Whig party for the seventh Congressional district — one of the few safe Whig seats in Illinois. He lost. Undeterred, he tried again in 1846. This time he received the nomination and won the election. Lincoln was now a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

  Annoying everyone

  In November 1846, Abraham Lincoln was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. To his great disappointment, he didn’t become one of the leaders of the body. Instead, he was one of many freshmen — newly elected members of Congress — and he held no important offices.

  Then the war against Mexico started. Lincoln, like many Whigs, considered the war unjust and believed that Polk just wanted to spread slavery, so he opposed the war. In 1847, he blasted Polk on the floor of the House and accused him of inciting the war. He was correct in saying so, but nobody wanted to hear it at the time. Lincoln’s many resolutions condemning the unjust and illegal war fell on deaf ears and annoyed his constituency.

  Lincoln actually wasn’t worried much about his constituency, because according to Whig tradition, he could only serve one term. Therefore, he was able to vote his conscience.

  Lincoln’s resolutions condemning Polk and the Mexican-American War were called Spot Resolutions, because Lincoln alleged that the spot where Mexican troops attacked U.S. troops was actually on Mexican territory. This allegation would have justified the attack. His constituents gave him the nickname “Spotty Lincoln.”

  A tragic marriage

  In 1839, Lincoln met Mary Todd, a bright young socialite from Kentucky visiting New Salem. Lincoln fell in love and proposed to her in 1840. After they became engaged, Lincoln started having second thoughts, and he broke off the engagement. He regretted his decision. A year later, he started pursuing Mary again, and they married in 1842.

  Tragedy struck the couple’s four children — only one lived into adulthood. After losing one of his children before the age of 4, Lincoln became an overprotective father. When his second son, Willie, died in 1862 of typhoid fever, Lincoln suffered from severe depression. His wife took the loss even worse. She went into a state of shock, claiming that she talked to the young boy at night.

  Mary Todd Lincoln also became extremely jealous. She embarrassed Lincoln, who was now president, on many occasions. In addition, she spent most of the couple’s money refashioning the White House and buying expensive clothing for herself. In one fit of extravagance, she bought 300 pairs of gloves. After Lincoln’s death, her only surviving child, Robert, committed her to an insane asylum for a short period of time.

  Voting his conscience on slavery

  Lincoln continued to vote his conscience on other issues, including slavery. He supported the Wilmot Proviso, which outlawed slavery in any territory gained in the Mexican-American War (see Chapter 8.) He introduced a bill to outlaw slavery in the capital, Washington, D.C. (The bill never made it to the floor of the House, and for that reason, it wasn’t voted on by Congress). He further recommended a referendum on the issue by the voters of Washington, D.C., and the full compensation of slave owners who lost their slaves if the referendum passed. Despite his anti-slavery views, Lincoln believed that neither Congress nor the president had the power to abolish slavery in the Southern states, because slavery was a state matter.

  Lincoln on slavery:

  “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.”

  “Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”

  Lincoln abided by the Whig rules — he didn’t run for reelection, although he wanted to serve a second term. He hoped for a nice cushy job from the new Whig President Zachary Taylor, but he only received an offer for the governorship of the Oregon Territory. Lincoln rejected the offer and returned home. Within a few years, he built his law practice into the largest and most prosperous in Illinois and became known statewide.

  Debating his way to national prominence

  By the early 1850s, Lincoln had lost interest in politics and resigned himself to being a lawyer. When the Kansas-Nebraska Act overturned the Missouri Compromise of 1820 (see Chapter 9), Lincoln’s interest in politics was rekindled.

  Lincoln opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act vehemently, believing it would lead to extending slavery into many new states. In 1854, Lincoln participated in a debate with Stephen Douglas, the sponsor of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Lincoln attacked Douglas for exporting slavery and criticized slavery as immoral.

  By 1856, the Whigs had collapsed, so Lincoln joined the Republican Party. He soon became a leader in the new party that shared his anti-slavery views. His reputation was such that he was considered as a vice-presidential candidate for the Republican Party in 1856, but he lost out.

  Lincoln ran for the U.S. Senate in 1858 against none other than Stephen Douglas, his debating opponent. The campaign became an instant classic. Lincoln challenged Douglas to seven debates, which attracted many voters (more than 15,000 people attended one debate) and national newspaper coverage. By election time, Lincoln was a household name not just in Illinois but throughout the United States. For the complete texts of the debates, please see The Complete Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858, edited by Paul M. Angle (University of Chicago Press).

  In his acceptance speech as the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate, Lincoln gave the following classic quotes: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” and “I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave, 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.”

  Lincoln lost the Senate race to Douglas, even though Lincoln received more popular support. At the time, the state legislature picked the U.S. Senator — and the Democratically controlled Illinois legislature chose Douglas.

  President Abraham Lincoln (1861–1865)

  The election of 1860 proved to be unique in U.S. history. Four separate candidates ran for the presidency, and all won Electoral College votes. The Democratic Party split over the issue of slavery (see Chapter 9) and ran two candidates — the Northern Democrats nominated Lincoln’s old nemesis Stephen Douglas, while the Southern Democrats ran Vice-President John Breckinridge. The old Whigs, renamed “Constitutional Unionists,” nominated John Bell, who called for preserving the Union. Finally, the new Republican Party ran Abraham Lincoln on a moderate anti-slavery platform. The platform was enough for the South to proclaim that it wouldn’t accept a Lincoln victory.

  Lincoln, shown in Figure 10-1, won 180 Electoral College votes, but received only 40 percent of the popular vote. He won over 50 percent of the vote in the North and West, but received a measly 3 percent in the South. Breckinridge came in second, winning all of the Southern states, with 72 Electoral College votes. Bell and Douglas finished third and fourth, respectively.

  Figure 10-1: Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States.

  Courtesy of the Library of Congress

  Abraham Lincoln grew a beard for the 1860 campaign at the request of a little girl by the name of Grace Bedell. She wrote him a letter telling him th
at all the ladies like whiskers and that they would tease their husbands to vote for Lincoln. So Lincoln became the first president to have a beard.

  Forming the Confederacy

  On February 4, 1861, the seceding Southern states met in Alabama to set up a new union. The new union — the Confederate states of America — elected Jefferson Davis, the U.S. Senator from Mississippi, as its new president. The Confederacy further set up a new constitution based on the Constitution of the United States. The main difference was that the Confederate constitution emphasized the right to own slaves and stressed states’ rights. The new union was closer to a confederation, where the states have political power, than it was to a federation, where the states share political power with a national government. “Dixie Land,” or “Dixie” as it was called, became the unofficial anthem of the Confederacy.

  When the Civil War broke out, the South faced many distinct disadvantages:

  The South had a population that was only a fraction of the North’s — 9 million people, including 3.5 million slaves, to the North’s 22 million people.

  The North had industries and was about to become more industrial, while the South was agricultural in nature. Because of its industrial nature, the North could supply its armies better than the South.

  The North, with its constant influx of immigrants, had an unlimited amount of soldiers at its disposal. At one point, new immigrants were coming off boats and going straight into the military. The South only had its native population available.

  The North controlled the navy and slowly strangled the South with its economic embargo.

  With European powers staying neutral in the conflict, the Confederacy was all alone and vastly inferior to the Union. The only way the Confederacy could win was by immediately overpowering the North — a quick victory was the only victory possible. When an immediate victory didn’t happen, it was all over for the South.

  Dealing with secession

  As threatened, Southern states started to secede as soon as Lincoln’s victory became clear. On December 20, 1860, only a month after Lincoln won the election, South Carolina seceded from the Union. Other states soon followed. By the time Lincoln took office in March 1861, the following states had seceded:

  President Buchanan’s inaction in the face of secession left Lincoln with a mess. By the time Lincoln assumed power, the Confederacy was in place and more Southern states were ready to secede.

  Confronting the Confederacy

  Lincoln assumed the presidency of the United States on March 4, 1861. His first order of business was to deal with the new Confederacy. He wanted to reassure the Southern states that there was no reason to secede, and he used his first inaugural address to do so.

  In his inaugural address, Lincoln proclaimed that he believed that he had no right and no intention to interfere with slavery in the Southern states. In other words, Lincoln told the South that it could keep slavery — all he wanted was to prevent the institution of slavery from spreading to other states. At the same time, he took a strong stance on secession. He told the Confederacy that states didn’t have the right to secede from the Union and that he would do everything in his power to keep the Union intact. He further warned the South that the federal government wouldn’t allow the states to seize federal property — the federal government would hold it at all costs.

  The Civil War

  One of the headaches Lincoln inherited from his predecessor, Buchanan, was Fort Sumter, located outside of Charleston, South Carolina. Because it was a federal fort, Lincoln refused to evacuate it and hand it over to the Confederacy. Instead, he tried to reinforce it by sending additional supplies. The Confederacy, claiming the fort, subsequently attacked it and forced it to surrender. Now Lincoln had to act. He called up 75,000 militiamen from the loyal states to subdue the insurrection. While the North supported the president, the rest of the Southern states decided to join the Confederacy. Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia left the Union and joined the Confederacy.

  The Civil War was about to start. Lincoln’s greatest fear was that the states bordering the South would also join the Confederacy. But to his great relief, Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland stayed in the Union.

  The Civil War presented Lincoln with an unprecedented opportunity to expand the powers of the president. Lincoln felt compelled to take charge, even though he was opposed to the idea that the president, not Congress, should do so. Without a declaration of war by Congress, many felt that Lincoln couldn’t do much. Because Congress was not in session, Lincoln acted on his own. So, for his first three months in office, the president ran the country by himself. Some of his unilateral actions included

  Setting up blockades at all Southern ports: Lincoln knew that the South was very dependent on imported materials and needed to export its major good — cotton — so he tried to strangle the Southern states economically.

  Blockading a foreign country is considered an act of war, and only Congress has the power to do this. Lincoln chose to act unilaterally.

  Increasing the size of the Union forces by more than 42,000 men: Only Congress has the power to fund additional troops. Lincoln decided to increase the Northern army anyway.

  Suspending the habeas corpus: Habeas corpus refers to the protection from illegal detainment that individuals receive from the federal government. Its suspension allowed the government to imprison people opposed to the war effort. Thousands of U.S. citizens were imprisoned because of their opposition to the war.

  Lincoln justified his actions with the idea of presidential prerogative, meaning that, in emergencies, the executive can assume additional powers for the good of the country.

  The Democrats and the Supreme Court criticized Lincoln for assuming dictatorial powers in 1861. However, by 1863, both Congress and the Supreme Court had a change of heart. They sanctioned Lincoln’s actions because he had to meet the challenges caused by the Civil War.

  Lincoln breathed a sigh of relief when major European powers, such as Great Britain and France, declared their neutrality in the conflict. He knew that had a European power backed the South, it would have changed everything. Ironically, Britain was closer to the South, but felt that it could not morally support a slave society.

  It comes as no surprise that fighting a war can be expensive. So where did the money come from to fight the Civil War? Lincoln increased taxes to pay for most of the war. He raised income taxes and taxes on inheritances. In addition, for the first time the federal government printed money that could not be exchanged for gold.

  Civil War battles

  The first major battle of the Civil War occurred in July 1861. In the battle of Bull Run, the Confederate forces soundly defeated the Union troops. President Lincoln and many in the North were surprised and shocked. They had expected a quick victory. Lincoln demanded more and swifter action, and he got his wish in April 1862. In the battle of Shiloh, which was the bloodiest battle to this point, the Union suffered 13,000 casualties, while the Confederate forces lost 11,000 soldiers. By September 1862, Confederate forces, headed by General Lee, prepared for the invasion of Maryland with the ultimate goal of reaching and capturing Washington, D.C.

  The Confederate armies attacked Maryland on September 17, 1862. Union forces managed to fight the South to a draw in the battle at Antietam Creek. The battle put an end to the Southern invasion of the North.

  In July 1863, the turning point of the U.S. Civil War occurred with the Battle of Gettysburg. The Southern army was defeated decisively, suffering 28,000 casualties. The battle was the last major offensive the South mounted during the Civil War.

  After their success at Gettysburg, the Northern armies began to move southward into Tennessee and Georgia. By the fall of 1864, Northern armies were able to occupy Atlanta. After a series of battles in Virginia (the Wilderness campaign) in late 1864, General Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox, Virginia, in April 1865. The Civil War was over.

  Issuing the Emancipati
on Proclamation

  In April 1862, Lincoln signed a bill abolishing slavery in the capital of Washington, D.C., where slavery was still legal. To appease slaveholders in the capital, he offered them monetary compensation for the loss of their slaves. Because Washington D.C. was controlled by the federal government, Lincoln believed that he had the right to abolish slavery in the capital. But he decided he couldn’t abolish slavery in loyal slave states, such as Missouri, because he considered slavery a state matter.

  In July 1862, Lincoln presented a preliminary version of the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet. After receiving cabinet input, Lincoln revised the proclamation slightly and released it to Northern newspapers for publication in September 1862 — after the successful battle at Antietam, Maryland. Lincoln then issued a final version of the proclamation on January 1, 1863, and it subsequently went into effect.

  In the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln presented an ultimatum to any state that joined the Confederacy. He referred to the Confederacy as the “rebellious states” and gave them 100 days to rejoin the Union. If they did rejoin the Union, slavery was to remain intact and protected in the eleven Southern states that made up the Confederacy. If the Confederate states failed to return to the Union, Lincoln was going to pass a declaration to end slavery in all rebellious states. He stated that he would then proclaim all slaves in the Confederacy free.