Archive - May 2014

“House Divided” by Abraham Lincoln

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention. If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with...

The Gettysburg Address

On November 19, 1863 President Lincoln attended a dedication of a military cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. In that battlefield the Union defeated the Confederates in one of the most decisive battles of the war considered a turning point in the...

Assassination

Abraham Lincoln died at 7:22 am on April 15, 1865. He was 56 years old. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth.

Reelection

Reconstruction was part of the contest for the next presidential elections. Lincoln was reelected on the belief that he should better finish the difficult job he had already started.

Reconstruction

Reconstruction started by asserting power in Confederate lands by setting appointed military governors and replacing existing Confederate governments.

Sioux Uprising – Dakota War of 1862

In 1858 the government repossessed half of their territory and opened it to new white settlers. Diminished annuity payments for land they gave up had left them unable to provide for basic necessities.

Conscription

This new act replaced the previous Militia Act of 1862. It called for all males between the ages of 20 to 45 for service instead of assigning quotas to each state.

Emancipation Proclamation

Emancipation on grounds of military policy not on principle It was Benjamin Franklin in 1790 who first addressed Congress in his famous “Petition from the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery” to provide the means to abolish...

Commanding the Union in the Civil War

Lincoln personally selected commanders based on their military expertise instead of their political alliance. He did the same for policy making, promoting Union instead of Disunion. He tried to build consensus between Republicans and Democrats.