Abraham Lincoln’s political life
By Jeremy Mattingly
Believe it or not Abraham Lincoln one of the greatest presidents of all
time and the person that freed the slaves was a racist. He believed that
slavery was wrong but that blacks should not be treated equal to whites. He
also supported the Henry Clay’s economic system aka the American system
is a system in which the government and a national bank helped the nations
economy.
He nearly lost interest in politics because of tensions in the
Whig party. He also stated “a house divided against itself cannot stand, I
believe this government cannot endure half free and half slave,”
(pelicanpub.com)
In 1836 Abraham Lincoln became a lawyer. This was the beginning
of his political career. In 1836 he ran for Illinois legislator. However he
was beat by his opponent Stephen Douglas. Afterwards he became a
republican. In 1858 he ran for the senate as a Whig. Then in 1860 went for
the presidency against his past opponent Stephen Douglas however this time
he won.
The Lincoln-Douglas debates were 7 debates during the 1836
elections they took place in Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy and
Aton between August 21 and October 15. In one of those debates he said “I
have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white
and the black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which
in my judgment will probably forever forbid their living together upon the
footing of perfect equality and in as much as it becomes a necessity that
there must be a difference, I as well as judge Douglas am in favor of the race
to which I belong,” although he won the debates he lost the election.
He showed a lot of interest in the civil war. He was the one that
enlisted general Ulysses Grant. During the war he tried to keep the
Republican Party together. While the democrats tried to accuse him of being
a tyrant be cause he denied civil liberties. Because of the way he handled
the issue of slavery. The constitution protected slavery during peace but not
during war so he abolished it claiming that it was a military necessity
He was assassinated 7:22 am April 15, 1865 in Ford Theater by John
Wikes booth while watching a performance of Our American Cousin. He
died with a copy of General William Sherman’s orders for the march to sea
in his pocket. John Wikes booth killed him because he thought Lincoln was
going to lead the us to its doom. Some of his major accomplishments in his
life were. He became the 16th president. He passed the Homestead Act in
1862 which is a law that allowed anyone who had never token up arms
against the us to own 160 acres for free as long as they improved the land
and filled out an application. Finally one of his biggest accomplishments
was the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slave and abolished
slavery in 1863.
Bibliography
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New Book of Knowledge®. 2009. Grolier Online. 30 Sep. 2009
<http://nbk.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=a2017280-h>.
2. Neely, Jr., Mark E. "Lincoln, Abraham." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. 2009.
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3. "Lincoln, Abraham." America the Beautiful. 2009. Grolier Online. 1 Oct. 2009
<http://atb.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?templatename=topics.html&a
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4. Neely, Jr., Mark E. "Lincoln, Abraham." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. 2009.
Grolier Online. 1 Oct. 2009 <http://gme.grolier.com/cgibin/article?assetid=0173280-0>.
5. "abraham lincoln." abraham lincoln. Web. 2 Oct 2009.
<http://sc94.ameslab.gov/TOUR/alincoln.html>.
6. "Abe Lincoln: His Sordid Political Career." Abe Lincoln: His Sordid Political
Career. Web. 5 Oct 2009.
<http://pelicanpub.com/content/9781589803954_01.pdf>.