Abraham Lincoln Essay Research Paper Abraham Lincoln — страница 2

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Lincoln said ?A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe that this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.? Lincoln ended up losing the election to Douglas, but in turn gained a national name. In 1860 he was nominated as the candidate for the Republican party. By the time he took the oath of office a new country was forming. No other president in history has ever been asked to ?preserve, protect, and defend the constitution and nation? to the level that Lincoln was asked. Lincoln?s first inaugural address was one of conciliation and peace. He was an opponent of slavery. He felt that it was his duty to save the Union. The Emancipation Proclamation freed all the slaves in the rebellious states. But it was not until the 13th amendment that slavery

was abolished nationally. In his second inaugural address Lincoln set an example that all Presidents are still measure by for eloquence and brevity. During Lincoln?s presidency, the Civil War broke out. For Lincoln the country was out of control. Falling into a depression that would plague him throughout his life. Lincoln underwent endless crises that would have shattered a weaker man. Lincoln was a president that lacked administrative experience, suffered from depression, and was thrust into the middle of the Civil War. Lincoln became a tough wartime President. He flexed his powers whenever necessity demanded. He became a ?warrior for the American dream?. Putting aside he hate for bloodshed and violence, Lincoln derived a plan along with Sherman?s army to storm through and end

the war. He did this as the surest way to end the killing and salvage the American dream. Lee surrendered his forces at Appomatox Courthouse on April 10, 1865. Four days later Lincoln was shot by an assassins bullet, while attending a play at the Ford?s Theater. John Wilkes Booth, the assassin, enter the president?s theater box, and at a distance of about two feet shot Lincoln in the back of the head. Booth escaped by jumping down on to the stage and escaped through the rear of the theater. Twenty-one men carried Lincoln out of the theater to a boarding house down the street. Lincoln never regained consciousness. At 7:22 p.m., April 15, 1865, President Lincoln was pronounced dead. It was not until April 26 that Booth was tracked down to a farm in Virginia, where he was shot.

American innocence died with Booth?s shot at Ford?s Theater. Lincoln would not live to see the peace that he had strived 4 long years for. We will always wonder what Lincoln would have done for this country if he had not died. Instead, we will always ponder what was lost that night at the Ford?s Theater, what ended there and what began. BIBLIOGRAPHY Abraham Lincoln, The Man Behind the Myths, Stephen B. Oates, First Meridian Printing, April 1985. Lincoln, David Herbort Donald, New York 1995. 325