Cora lee day biography of abraham lincoln

Shortly after the Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg), Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect on January 1, 1863, and freed all of the enslaved people in the rebellious states not under federal control, but left those in the border states (loyal to the Union) in bondage.

Though Lincoln once maintained that his “paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery,” he nonetheless came to regard emancipation as one of his greatest achievements and would argue for the passage of a constitutional amendment outlawing slavery (eventually passed as the 13th Amendment after his death in 1865).

Two important Union victories in July 1863—at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and at the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania—finally turned the tide of the war.

He overcomes these obstacles by winning the respect of his former competitors, and in the case of Seward, finds a loyal and crucial friend to see him through.

This brilliant multiple biography is centered on Lincoln’s mastery of men and how it shaped the most significant presidency in the nation’s history.

Lincoln at Gettysburg by Gary Wills

The power of words has rarely been given a more compelling demonstration than in the Gettysburg Address.

His entire life and previous training and his deep political experience went into this, his revolutionary masterpiece.

By examining both the address and Lincoln in their historical moment and cultural frame, Wills breathes new life into words we thought we knew, and reveals much about a president so mythologized but often misunderstood.

Lincoln led the UnitedStatesthrough its greatest constitutional, military, and moral crisis—the AmericanCivil War—preserving the Union, abolishing slavery, strengthening the nationalgovernment and modernizing the economy. Although it didn't immediately free all slaves, it was a crucial step towards the abolition of slavery and altered the character of the Civil War, adding a moral imperative to the Union's cause.

On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, following the Battle of Gettysburg.

Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train traveled through 180 cities and seven states so mourners could pay homage to the fallen president.

Today, Lincoln’s birthday—alongside the birthday of George Washington—is honored on President’s Day, which falls on the third Monday of February.

“Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time.”

“I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.”

“I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot.”

“I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that struggle was made, and I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be a humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this, his almost chosen people, for perpetuating the object of that great struggle.”

“This is essentially a People's contest.

Lincoln's death was a profound loss for the nation as it grappled with the aftermath of the Civil War. His leadership had preserved the Union and laid the groundwork for the abolition of slavery, making him a revered figure in American history.

The Lincoln Memorial, located on the western end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was dedicated on May 30, 1922.

His family was of modest means, and he was mostly self-educated. Lincolnexplained in his secondinaugural address: "Both partiesdeprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the Nation survive, and the otherwouldaccept war rather than let it perish, and the war came."

Famous Quotes:

• A jury too often has at least one member more ready to hang the panel than to hang the traitor.
• I believe, if we take habitual drunkards as a class, their heads and their hearts will bear an advantageous comparison with those of any other class.
• We cannot ask a man what he will do, and if we should, and he should answer us, we should despise him for it.

  This is a brilliant and unprecedented examination of how Lincoln used the power of words to not only build his political career but to keep the country united during the Civil War.

  The Fiery Trial by Eric Foner

  Selected as a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times Book Review, this landmark work gives us a definitive account of Lincoln’s lifelong engagement with the nation’s critical issue: American slavery.

  If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.

• Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. On the side of the Union, it is a struggle for maintaining in the world, that form, and substance of government, whose leading object is, to elevate the condition of men—to lift artificial weights from all shoulders—to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all—to afford all, an unfettered start, and a fair chance, in the race of life.”

“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

“This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”