Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States and Commander in Chief during the Civil War. He was a member of the Free Soil Party and later became a Republican. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves in the Confederate States after the Battle of Antietam, and ultimately led the North to victory in the Civil War. What most do not know, however, is that he got to that point after a long road of lying and deception. Abraham Lincoln constantly altered his views on slavery and other issues during the 1800s purely based on his audience. In addition to this very unpleasant approach, he freed the African Americans only as an advantage that could lead him into winning the war. Furthermore, Abraham Lincoln should be referred to as just another politician. We know him as “Honest Abe.” But really, he is anything but. Abraham Lincoln constantly changed his opinions and views on slavery and equality. “Unite as one people throughout this land, until we shall once stand up for declaring that all men are created equal”(Document A). This is one of his many statements at a speech in Chicago, IL, July 1858. He clearly states that he is in favor of equality and that he believes that not one man should be named superior rather than another. But just two months later, he remarks, in a debate with Stephen A. Douglas …show more content…
According to Document J, the Thirteenth Amendment, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” It proclaimed the freedom of slaves in ten states. Because it was issued under the President's war powers, it excluded areas not in rebellion, but in the end it applied to more than 3 million slaves at the time. Nonetheless, it was only a war measure to hurt the Confederacy and advance in the
After reading the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address, and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, it seems that Lincoln’s original goal of saving the Union has changed. Now, in addition to saving the Union, Lincoln wants to free the slaves thereby making the Union a model for other countries. After reading the documents, there is a perceptible shift in his rhetoric from his First Inaugural Address to his Second Inaugural Address. He now mentions nations in his speech. Lincoln’s speeches clearly show his change in stance towards his original goal by including language that intermixes his multiple goals together.
In Abraham Lincoln’s childhood, he went to school when he was 6, 7, 11, 13 and 15. This schooling added up to less than a year (“A Real Education”). The former President was mostly self-taught and had limited access to books. Despite this, his speeches are sophisticated, moving and memorable. Chief among these speeches is the Second Inaugural Address of 1865.
He wanted equality for all and under no circumstances was there any other choice, which made the North happy. But after Lincoln was assassinated and Johnson became president, he offered much more leeway for the South which set Reconstruction back a large amount. Black and white southerners viewed the future of African Americans very differently. The majority of white southerners
Soon after he was murder. Obviously he was catching other people 's attention for someone to do this. This person was intimidated by Lincoln. in another hand there was Andrew Johnson, he also wanted to rebuild the union soon after lincoln was murdered. Reconstruction failed in the Civil War, some failures from the North effectively rebuilt the South.
As Commander in Chief, Lincoln initially wanted to ameliorate relations with the Confederacy by having them return to the Union and cease rebellion. So President Lincoln was cautious to abolish slavery. As he once wrote in a letter, “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy Slavery.” Fearing the South’s advance in the War, President Lincoln utilized the Union victory at Antietam, to deliver his decree. The Emancipation Proclamation did three things: it undermined the Confederacy's slave economy, created an influx of soldiers for the Union and made the Civil War explicitly about the institution of slavery.
President Abraham Lincoln was the nation’s 16th president. He is best known for disapproval of slavery. After he was elected president for his second term, he gave his 2nd inaugural Address. Lincoln was in hope to bring peace and unite the people together to end violence. He uses diction, organization, and allusion as rhetorical strategies to further his purpose of uniting the nation.
Although the Emancipation Proclamation wasn't able to free all slaves, it was able to “ give African Americans the right to fight for their freedom”. In doing so, it gave them the right to join the Army and the Navy of the Union (“ What were Abraham Accomplishments” ). Lincoln didn't necessarily give blacks the right to vote, but was doing the impossible to help them get equal rights by announcing it in may of his speeches and trying to gain as many supporters as he could. One of his big accomplishments was the “ Gettysburg Address”, this speech is very well-known, because President Lincoln talked about many things that could affect the country, in a good way. For example, he was saying that if we were a whole, that we could accomplish a lot more and that freedom would apply to everyone in the states (“ What were Abraham Accomplishments”
During the history of the United States there have been very respectable speakers Martin Luther King Jr. John F. Kennedy but perhaps no greater leader in American history came to addressing the country like Abraham Lincoln. In his Second Inaugural Address, Lincoln gave a short speech concerning the effect of the Civil War and his own personal vision for the future of the nation. In this speech Lincoln uses many different rhetorical strategies to convey his views of the Civil War to his audience.
During Abraham Lincoln’s presidency at the start of the 1860, an issue that had divided the nation was slavery. Lincoln’s election to presidency as a republic was not received well by the Southern slave states, as they thought that as a republican he was out to abolish slavery. In an effort to calm southern states and keep them from seceding from the United States, he attempts to ease them with his First Inaugural Address. In his First Inaugural Address his key points are to clam southern leaders of slave states, keep the states from seceding, and make them at ease as he enters presidency.
In response to this claim, Lincoln stated in the fourth of the debates that he was “not in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races…and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.” Here, the inconsistency in the reasoning behind Lincoln’s opposition to slavery was most apparent. As Douglas pointed out in his rebuttal, “in every speech he made in the north he quoted the Declaration of Independence to prove that all men were created equal, and insisted that the phrase "all men" included the negro as well as the white man, and that the equality rested upon divine
The Emancipation Proclamation is one of the most well known speeches in US history, due to its influence on the views of African American slaves. However Lincoln, the president at the time, originally did not have a side to the argument of the equal treatment of the African American race. This view would soon start to slowly change with the start of the Civil War. With the coming of the civil war, the Union needed soldiers due to the fact that they were losing many battles, and the African American males were one of the only choices. The other reason would be that allowing slaves to be free in the North would cause a revolt from those that were enslaved in the south.
Lincoln’s main purpose was freedom, and the blacks began to search for identity. On 1 January 1863, “Lincoln proclaimed that the freedom of all slaves in rebellious regions was now a Union war aim- ‘an act of justice’ as well as ‘military necessity’
Many people believe that Abraham Lincoln abused his power. Some may say there was even a “dark side” to President Lincoln. He suspended the Habeas Corpus act during the civil war, which means “you have the body” the body being the prisoner. It protected the prisoner from being unjustly imprisoned. Any prisoner that felt his rights were being violated could stand before a judge and fight for his rights.
In the early stages of war, Lincoln was “receiving pressure from the abolitionists and had lost to the Confederates in a “series of military victories” (Source F). Abraham Lincoln’s two Confiscation Acts, the first in 1861, “declared that slaves escaping to union lines would be considered contraband” which aided the escaped black man to join the Union army, and the second, in 1862, gave “the president the authority to recruit black men for the Union army” which leads us to believe that the President’s actions with regards to slaves during the Civil war, were motivated by “military strategy and necessity” (Source J). These two acts “provided a policy for military commanders and led the way for the Emancipation Proclamation” (Source F). By 1862, “Lincoln began to see slavery as part of the war and began toying with the idea of emancipation as a way to undermine the Confederate war effort” (Source E). Although the president was helping the slaves to freedom, he realised that in altering their inferior position in the South, his enemy would be weakened and he would have the upper hand.
Lincoln makes a reference to our founding fathers at the start of his speech to remind his audience of how our nation started. Giving a description of the origin of our country depicts the purpose of America's existence. A place that was once united against one cause has become a place that is divided and against each other. Lincoln also states, "that all men are created equal" in the same area he mentions the founding fathers to position his opinion on