Abraham Lincoln . Lawyer, politician, statesman and American hero. Sixteenth President of the United States and the first by the Republican Party . He introduced measures that resulted in the abolition of slavery, with the issuance of his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and the promotion of passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1865 .
Biographical synthesis
He was born on 12 of February of 1809 , within a family of Quakers settlers near the town of Hodgenville , Kentucky , United States. During his childhood and youth, marked by the poverty of his family, he traveled the Mississippi and lived closely the inhuman conditions suffered by black slaves.
After living for a few years in Indiana , he became independent from his parents and moved to Louisiana in 1831 . Abraham Lincoln was twenty-three years old when he left the farm where he worked to fight as a private in the war against the Indians. Meanwhile, he undertook his self-taught training and by 1836 he managed to graduate in law. Two years earlier, his anti-slavery attitude had led him to intervene in politics, which earned him his election as a deputy from Illinois , for the period 1834 – 1842 . Thanks to his advocacy for better living conditions for blacks and his great eloquence, he achieved great popularity throughout the state.
Political and military performance
In 1832 he fought as a soldier in the war against the Sac and Fox Indians, led by Black Hawk. He had a self-taught training and in 1836 he graduated in Law. Two years earlier, his anti-slavery attitude had led him to intervene in politics, which earned him his election as a member of the Illinois State Congress (1834-1842).
In 1846 he reached the leadership of the Whig party and was elected representative in the federal Chamber, a position he held until 1849 . In that year he aspired to the state Senate, but his criticism of the war against Mexico contributed to his failure to achieve the objective. He temporarily left politics to establish himself as a lawyer in Springfield , Missouri , until 1854 when he entered the Republican Party . In 1858 he ran for the Senate, but was not elected. In 1860 the republican convention elected him a candidate for the presidency of the Union, which he succeeded in taking possession of the As March 4 as 1861 .
Work as president
In 1854 , when the Whig Party disintegrated, Lincoln was one of the founding members of the Republican Party in his State of Illinois. During his campaign for the United States Senate against Stephen Douglas , it was his well-known gift of public speaking that attracted public support for a little-known candidacy. Lincoln debated Douglas in a series of events that represented a national discussion on the issues that nearly divided the nation.
In that debate Lincoln said to his rival on August 21 , 1858 :I have no intention of introducing political and social equality between the black and white races. There is a physical difference between the two, which in my judgment will probably forever prohibit your life together on the foot of perfect equality; and since it becomes a necessity that there should be a difference, I, as well as Justice Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong have the superior position. I have never said anything to the contrary.
When the National Convention first of the Republican Party met in Philadelphia, between 17 June and 19 of June of 1856 , Lincoln was nominated to be the candidate for Vice President of the United States by the Republican Party in the presidential elections that year (the first in which the new party participated).
Finally Lincoln was defeated in the votes of the Convention by William L. Dayton, a former senator to the United States Congress from New Jersey, who thus became the first vice presidential candidate in the history of the Republican Party; but in the presidential elections the formula made up of Frémont and Dayton was defeated by the Democrats. Lincoln’s unsuccessful nomination, however, reinforced his fame.
In the National Convention of the Republican Party of the year 1860, held in the city of Chicago, Lincoln faced several powerful Republican pre-candidates who aspired to the Presidential Nomination of the party.
In the third ballot of the Convention, held on May 16, 1860, Lincoln defeated his fellow party members and became the party’s official candidate for the Presidency of the United States.
In the elections of November 6, 1860, Lincoln obtained 39.82% of the popular votes (1,865,908 votes) and was elected president, although not by majority vote, due to the North American electoral system.
Shortly after his election, the South made it clear that secession was inevitable. That greatly increased tension across the nation. As president-elect, he survived an assassination attempt in Baltimore , Maryland, and on February 23 , 1861, he secretly arrived in Washington in disguise.
To carry out its program, the “American System”, it needed the union to be maintained. A divided country would ruin that scheme. This is why Lincoln always put union before any other consideration, including slavery.
Emancipation Proclamation
During his presidency, Lincoln is credited with having freed slaves through the Emancipation Proclamation, although it only freed them in areas of the Confederacy not controlled by the Union. However, the proclamation made abolishing slavery in the rogue states an official goal of the war.
The London Spectator, a newspaper of the time, said on this subject: ” The principle (underlying the” Emancipation Proclamation “) is not that one human being cannot justly own another human being, but that he cannot be. if he’s not loyal to the United States . “
During his life, Lincoln made many allusions to the differences between blacks and whites. On one occasion, his words were:My primary objective in this fight is to save the Union, and it is neither to save nor to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would; and if he could save her by freeing all the slaves, he would; and if he could do it by freeing some and leaving others captive he would do it too. There is a physical difference between the white and the black races, which, I believe, will always prohibit these two races from living together in social and political equality … and I like any other man am in favor of the superior position being assigned to the White race.
When Richmond ( Virginia ), the capital Confederated was for captured last, Lincoln went there to make the public gesture of sitting behind the desk of Jefferson Davis , to say symbolically to the nation that the President of the United States, and the US Constitution , they had authority over all that land.
The National Convention of the Republican Party held between June 7 and 8 of June of 1864 in the city of Baltimore voted overwhelmingly in favor of Lincoln’s candidacy for a new presidential term; only 22 Convention delegates voted against Lincoln and for the candidacy of General Ulysses S. Grant (despite the fact that he had not even indicated his intention to be a candidate, much less authorized anyone to run for him in against Lincoln).
In the election held on November 8, 1864, Lincoln obtained 2,218,388 popular votes and was reelected with an overwhelming majority.
Death
He was the victim of an attack, carried out by a southern actor named John Wilkes Booth , on April 14 , 1865 , while he was attending a theatrical performance in Washington . He died 15 as April as 1865 , at age 56. His murder was the first assassination in the United States.