The role of A. Lincoln as US President in the development of the American economy. Becoming a politician Lincoln's domestic and foreign policy

20.02.2024

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St. Petersburg Institute of Management and Law

Faculty of "State and Municipal Administration"

Essay

On the topic of: Abraham Lincoln

Completed by: Khitrichenko Andrey Andreevich

Checked by teacher: Lebedeva Inna Mikhailovna

St. Petersburg 2014

Introduction

Among the outstanding political figures of the world, the sixteenth President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, occupies a special place. His presidency occurred during the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865 and claimed the lives of more than 600 thousand Americans. Slavery was undoubtedly at the center of the struggle between North and South, but it was not the only cause of the war. Economic, political-ideological and cultural factors were tied into a knot of problems that could no longer be resolved through agreements and compromises. Since the 1920s, the United States has been in the grip of a “market revolution” that transformed all areas of life, but had different consequences in the South and in the North. The Northeast and Northwest were soon linked by a complex and diversified economy in which the agricultural sector gradually gave way to industrialization and trade. The growing demand for labor was met primarily by resettlement from Europe, and the number of people living in cities in 1850 was approaching the 5 million mark.

Cotton growing, which dominated the Southwest as a monoculture, contributed to the fact that the character of the entire region remained agricultural. Planters thought and acted as entrepreneurs on the principles of supply, demand and profit. For them, slaves were both labor and capital, a “resource” that became more and more expensive and scarce during the cotton boom. Since cotton production can only increase by increasing the cultivated area, plantation owners regarded all attempts to territorially limit slavery as a mortal danger to their economic and social system. They even pressured Washington to allow the importation of slaves, which had been banned in 1808, again. Culturally, the South remained in the grip of the past. Southern whites, poor and rich, rallied ever closer to defend their traditional values and ideals, the Southern way of life, from being threatened by what they perceived as the individualistic and egalitarian society of the North.

At the end of the 1950s, two different societies, two cultures and two visions of the future were opposed within the union, which could no longer be restrained by the constitution and the party system, which had long served as a connecting link. In this fateful situation, which could not be handled by any individual, Abraham Lincoln took responsibility for the American nation.

Choosing a path

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in Kentucky into the family of a poor farmer. Her entire well-being depended on the piece of land on which Abraham's parents, Thomas and Nancy Lincoln, worked. Since childhood, Abraham was accustomed to working, helping his parents cultivate the land, hunting and collecting wild berries. American farmers at the beginning of the 19th century. many dangers awaited. Indian attacks, epidemics, and depletion of the land forced them to frequently move from place to place. In 1816 the family moved to southwestern Indiana, which had recently been admitted to the union. Cultivation of the land and meager life on the border of the settlers' advance to the West between wilderness and civilization required great physical and spiritual strength from them. Lack of medical care led to casualties in the Lincoln family: his younger brother died at an early age, he lost his mother at age 9, and a few years later his older sister died of childbed fever. The father soon married again.

The stepmother, who herself had three children from her first marriage, encouraged the children to read. In total, Abraham attended school for one year. He himself said this: “Undoubtedly, when I came of age, I knew little. However, I somehow read, wrote and counted, and that was all I could.” The Bible, which in many pioneer families was the only book in the house, and several other works that he was able to obtain - among them "Robinson Crusoe", "The Pilgrim's Progress" and Aesop's fables - he studied with particular thoroughness. His speeches subsequently testified to a deep knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, which was not surprising then. His quotes from the Bible, aptly applied to everyday events, were stunning.

Slavery occupied a significant place in Lincoln's mind. His uncle and uncle's father owned slaves. His father, on the contrary, resolutely rejected slavery, although not only for ethical and moral reasons; as a simple worker, he experienced first-hand what it meant to compete with the labor of slaves. The family moved many times, built a log house and cultivated the land. In 1830 they again moved further west to Illinois, which twelve years earlier had become, as a slave-free state, part of the union. Then he left his family, found a temporary job, and during one of his boat trips down the Mississippi down to New Orleans, he became acquainted not only with the expanses of the then United States, but also saw the lack of infrastructure, which still did not sufficiently connect individual regions with each other. The impressions from this trip, as well as a visit to a slave market with groups of chained and singing slaves, deeply shocked him. Upon his return, he settled in the small village of Salam in Illinois, where he worked as a postmaster, merchant and surveyor.

For several years, Lincoln studied law, hoping to obtain a lawyer's license. His interests also included history and philology, and he independently studied mathematics and mechanics. Living among ordinary people, Lincoln managed to gain authority through his success in sports, particularly in wrestling.

Becoming a politician

Lincoln took his first steps in politics in 1834. The position of captain strengthened his self-confidence so much that he tried to get a seat in the Illinois House of Representatives. During the election campaign he advocated the expansion and improvement of infrastructure and the development of education. After failing in his first attempt, Lincoln was elected 2 years later and established his mandate as a member of the Whig Party until 1842. During this period he was active as the leader of his party and chairman of the finance committee. In Illinois, Lincoln went through an excellent political school and gained the authority of his colleagues. In 1836, Lincoln passed a difficult exam and received the right to practice as a lawyer. After becoming a lawyer, he moved to the city of Springfield. Lincoln, by the way, began to earn good money for the first time in his life. To do this, he had to practice throughout the judicial district. Every spring and fall, he traveled hundreds of miles on horseback or in a buggy across the sparsely populated prairies from one village to another, sorting out the litigation of farmers. The cases were mostly small, and the fees for them were negligible. Lincoln achieved fame in the state of Illinois with his deep knowledge of jurisprudence and unselfishness.

Professionally, at first he was unlucky, and he often had debts, which he always repaid to the last penny. Considering his background, Lincoln had an impressive journey: the poor son of a pioneer settler, before reaching the age of thirty, became a lawyer with his own practice and a politician in the center of public attention. His marriage in 1842 to Mary Toddy, the daughter of a Southern planter, only completed the picture of social rise. They had four sons, but only one, Robert Toddy, lived to adulthood.

When Lincoln entered the political arena, Andrew Jackson was president. Lincoln shared Jackson's sympathies for the common man, but not his understanding of the philosophy of public rights, that the federal government should, for the sake of the common good, refrain from all economic initiatives and settlements. His political models were Daniel Webster and Henry Clay, who promoted the economic consolidation of the union through the activities of Congress and the federal government. Under the slogan “the American system,” they demanded the unification of banking and currencies, improved infrastructure, and the development of American industry through protective tariffs. Like most Whig politicians, Lincoln was reticent on the issue of slavery: he rejected the “special institution” emotionally and morally, but did not want to be counted among the abolitionists, whose inflammatory rhetoric he sharply criticized.

The next step in Abraham Lincoln's political career was his election to the House of Representatives of the US Congress in 1847. Working in Congress opens up the opportunity to apply for a place in the government of the country. However, Lincoln failed to stand out among American legislators this time. Moreover, by opposing American aggression in Mexico and the policies of President Polk, Lincoln made many political enemies. The fact was that the United States at that time was pursuing an active foreign policy to seize the lands of neighboring countries, in particular Mexico. With the help of weapons and money, Americans in the first half of the 19th century. increased their territory by 3.5 times. The majority of the country's population supported such government actions. Lincoln, a staunch opponent of war, strongly opposed the American invasion of Mexico. Assessing the actions of the government, he stated that “the political course of the Democrats leads to new wars, territorial conquests, and the further spread of slavery.”

When his term in the House of Representatives expired in 1849, he did not even try to run for office. Returning home from Congress to Springfield marked the onset of the worst period in Lincoln's life: he lost political popularity, his legal practice declined significantly, and he incurred large debts. But over the next three or four years, thanks to perseverance and knowledge. Lincoln became the leading lawyer for the state of Illinois. Having taken on this or that case, he always sought a thorough investigation, knew the laws relevant to the matter down to the subtleties, and was able to overcome all the formalities and get to the essence of the issue. Traveling around the judicial district, he regained his former popularity.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 increased political polarization and contributed to the dissolution of the old party system and the emergence of a new political situation. The Whigs, whose northern wing insisted on an unequivocal rejection of slavery, lost support in the South, and the party disintegrated. The political vacuum was filled by the newly formed Republican Party, which organized resistance to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. An unsuccessful test of strength in Congress did not force Lincoln to abandon political activity. The conflicts awakened Lincoln politically and spurred him to activism. In 1856, he joined the Republicans and assumed leadership in Illinois. The composition of the party could not have been more heterogeneous: anti-slavery Democrats, former Whigs, abolitionists, temperanceists and nativists formed a conglomerate, the basis of which was the goal of preventing the further spread of slavery. With the exception of the abolitionists, these groups did not advocate the abolition of slavery in areas where it already existed. For them, what was important, first of all, was new territories, still “free land.” The Republican program boiled down to the well-known formula “Free soil, free labor, free speech, free man.”

At this time, the political struggle within the United States revolved around the issue of undeveloped lands in the west of the country and territories seized from other countries. The southern states, where the plantation slave economy flourished, wanted to extend slavery to new territories. The northern states, where there was no slavery, believed that these lands should go to free farmers and the industrial bourgeoisie. But the question of free land was only part of a more complex and important question for the United States about the future of the country as a whole: whether capitalist forms of ownership would develop in it or whether the plantation-slave ownership system would prevail. The issue of slavery was very pressing. Throughout the civilized world it was condemned and the slave trade was prohibited. The United States, which was so proud of its democracy, continued to secretly buy slaves and import them into the country.

Abraham Lincoln was an ardent opponent of slavery. “I hate slavery because slavery itself is unjust,” said Lincoln. But as a politician, he understood that attempts to put an end to the shameful phenomenon with drastic measures would only lead to war and the collapse of the state. He admitted to those close to him that the issue of abolishing slavery and preserving the Union of States was a very difficult problem for him. Due to this circumstance, he was extremely careful in his political statements.

Lincoln believed that preserving the Union was more important than all other problems. “Even though I hate slavery, I would rather agree to its expansion than see the union disintegrate,” he said. The prospect of a struggle between the South and the North of the country seemed to Lincoln like this: “A house destroyed by quarrels cannot stand. I am sure that the present government cannot be stable, remaining half slave, half free. I do not expect that the union will be dissolved, then the house will collapse, and I believe that the strife in it will cease. It will become either completely free or completely slave-like.” Lincoln was confident in the possibility of a peaceful solution to the dispute between the North and the South. In his heart he hoped that if slavery were limited only to the southern states, then it would gradually die out. Slave labor led to the fact that the land was poorly cultivated and became scarce, and planters, in order to make a profit from their farms, had to constantly expand the territories of their possessions.

Late 50s XIX century was a turning point in Lincoln's life. Actively participating in political disputes, he gained wide popularity in the country. Speaking in various parts of the country, Lincoln showed himself to be an intelligent and cautious politician. He did not support the demand for the abolition of slavery and tried with all his might to prevent a civil war. At the Republican Party Convention in Chicago in May 1860, Lincoln was nominated for the presidency in the third round. As a compromise candidate with relatively few enemies, he handily beat out his well-known rivals William Steward and Salmon Chase. His ally and candidate for the post of vice president was the staunch opponent of slavery, Hannibal Hamlin from Maine. The Republican election platform rejected slavery in the new territories, but did not demand its elimination in the southern states. She condemned the Buchanan administration's "selling out of interests" to the South, promised legislation for the rapid settlement of the western regions in the future, and advocated for freer citizenship provisions and improved infrastructure. Lincoln did not speak publicly during the campaign, but from Springfield he exercised well-thought-out leadership.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party split over the issue of slavery: its northern wing voted for Douglas, the southern for John Beckinridge. And she actually entered the election with two candidates - a circumstance beneficial to Lincoln. Both parties fought their election battles not for specific content, but for the more general values that the candidates personified. “Honest Abie” Lincoln identified himself with the qualities that make up his myth to this day: the industriousness and work ethic, the honest modesty of a pioneer who rose from poverty and, without forgetting his origins and connections with the people, became a candidate for the highest office . It represented not only social mobility, but also honesty and the ability to remain true to oneself. These properties contrasted with the scandals and corruption of the Buchanan administration. The election campaign mobilized the American population to a degree unknown to this time. On November 6, 1860, participation in the elections for the first time, by the way, exceeded 80 percent. It is not surprising that Lincoln, who was attacked by Southern Democrats as an abolitionist and "black Republican", owed his election solely to Northern votes, although he received 40% of the votes cast nationwide, all of them, with a few exceptions, from the densely populated Northern states, so that with his 180 electoral college votes, even with the unity of the Democrats, he had an unattainable lead.

At the postpresident

Lincoln applied the protectionist system in distributing positions even more consistently than his predecessors. Already in the spring of 1861, 80 percent of political posts previously controlled by Democrats were occupied by Republicans. Lincoln's benevolence, fairness to opponents, poise, humor and generosity allowed him to create a well-functioning government. In distributing cabinet posts, Lincoln showed great political dexterity: he gave the most important posts, such as Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Secretary of Justice and Secretary of the Treasury, to his former rivals - Republicans William Steward, Edward Bates and Salmon Chase. The President skillfully maneuvered between the opinions of government ministers. He patiently listened to everyone, but always made decisions on his own.

Lincoln's election caused extreme anxiety among Southerners, and the time leading up to his inauguration in early March proved difficult for himself and the nation. Even before this, some slave states threatened to secede if the Republicans won, and this is exactly what happened before Christmas. South Carolina was the first state to dissolve its union with other states. Before February 1, 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas seceded in the first wave. Decisions were made accordingly by state conventions chosen by the people. While still in office, Buchanan allowed the seceding southern states to take possession of the federal fortifications, forts and weapons arsenals located on their territories. Only two fortresses, one of them Fort Sumter, located on an island in front of the port of Charleston, remained in the possession of the union. In early February 1861, the seceding states proclaimed the "Confederate States of America" and installed former senator and Secretary of War Jefferson Davis as its president.

In an effort to restore national unity and recognizing that the states of the “upper South” had so far behaved loyally, Lincoln avoided harsh tones in his inaugural address on March 4. He compared the demand for secession to anarchy, but again emphasized that he did not think of threatening slavery where it already existed. The President made it clear that he was not thinking about a military conflict, that the fate of the nation was in the hands of the southerners. They did not vow to forcibly destroy the union, while he himself swore to preserve, protect and defend it.

Confederalists paid little attention to Lincoln's call, and last-minute, reluctant attempts at congressional mediation remained unsuccessful. When the President refused to surrender Fort Sumter to the South, South Carolina troops responded on April 12 by shelling the fort. The civil war has begun. The following four states quickly seceded: Tennessee, Arkansas, North Carolina and Virginia, whose capital Richmond also became the capital of the Confederacy. The border states of Kentucky, Missouri, Delaware and Maryland - all slave states - were at first hesitant, but after hesitation and internal disagreements remained in the union. So, the 23 states of the union with approximately 22 million inhabitants were opposed by 11 confederate states, in which 5.5 million whites lived and exactly 3.5 million slaves.

Naturally, military operations had a hindering effect on the progress of the war. From Lincoln's point of view, it was quite important to find a cohesive political concept that would give meaning to this struggle. The Confederate government had a relatively simple matter in this regard: the southern states fought for their independence, the preservation of their slavery-based social system, and the protection of their own territory. The North fought for the principle: for the unity of the nation - and only later, and secondarily, for the abolition of slavery.

In 1862, the government introduced new taxes on the rich and passed a law confiscating rebel property. On May 20, 1862, a law was passed giving every US citizen with $10 the right to receive a 160-acre plot of land in the West (the Homestead Act). After five years, the site became the full property of the settler. This law was of great importance for the outcome of the won. Farmers and workers who had been pushing for this law for decades believed in their government.

On September 22, 1862, when Southern troops were forced to withdraw from Maryland after the Battle of Antwerp, Lincoln felt the moment was right to announce a long-overdue decision: he issued a preliminary declaration of freedom, according to which all slaves held after January 1, 1863, "rebellious states" were declared free. This geographical limitation was intended to ensure the loyalty of the population in the border states and in already occupied areas. It also meant a concession to moderate voters in the North, for whom the abolition of slavery was not a motive for the war, but who understood that this step could facilitate the victory of the union.

Some radical Republicans criticized the declaration, arguing that it freed slaves where they could not currently be freed, namely in enemy territory, and did not free them where it was possible, namely in occupied areas and in border states that joined the union. This was certainly an apt argument, but it could not disguise the symbolic explosive power of the declaration, which directly or indirectly brought freedom to nearly three million slaves.

Foreign policy, Lincoln's Declaration deprived the governments of England and France of any opportunity to enter the war on the side of the Confederacy. Since now it was a question of a war “for” or “against” slavery, the public in both countries, which had long ago abolished slavery in their colonial areas, clearly took the side of the northern states. Lincoln understood perfectly well that the Declaration of Freedom did not have a strong constitutional and legal basis. Only a properly enacted amendment to the Constitution could finally seal the fate of slavery before the end of the war. Without this step, slave owners could legally demand back their “property” - that is, freed slaves, since the declaration was only valid as a war measure. In connection with this circumstance, Lincoln did everything in his power to speed up the ratification of the 13th amendment to the Constitution, issued by Congress, for the final abolition of slavery by the individual states.

The President also proved himself to be a talented diplomat. A striking example is the so-called “Trent case”. Aboard the English ship Trent, two Confederate diplomats were heading to Great Britain and France to persuade Europeans to help the South. However, the English ship was detained by the northerners, and the envoys of the southerners were arrested. The British government regarded the actions of the northerners as an insult. Lincoln understood that the entry of the British on the side of the South was unacceptable, and released the diplomats. The threat of war with Great Britain disappeared.

With his actions against war opponents in the North and his temporary declaration of freedom, Lincoln provided Democrats with ample arguments to fight in the upcoming congressional elections. Meanwhile, a popular settlement law had already been passed, which made it easier for farmers in the West to acquire land, but the latest defeats of the Union troops, combined with a decline in production and rapidly rising inflation, led to losses in the Republican Party. Democrats protested what they considered Lincoln's arbitrary interpretation of the Constitution, using the campaign slogan "For the Constitution as it is, and for the Union as it was," and demanded the return of the seceded states without abolishing slavery. Although the Republicans' lead in the House of Representatives decreased from 35 to 18 seats, they maintained their majorities in both houses of Congress.

In January 1863, Democrats intensified their attacks on Lincoln and his style of warfare and demanded peace negotiations with the Confederates. Based on such public statements, the leading leader of this movement, Representative Vallandigham from Ohio, was arrested and sentenced to prison by a military tribunal. Lincoln, however, allowed him to leave the union and go to the South. A new domestic political spark came from conscription, which, by the way, was introduced for the first time in the history of the United States on March 3, 1863. Particularly controversial were provisions that allowed wealthy Americans to put up dummies in their place and buy their way out of military service. Tension increased in the cities, and in July 1863, riots and street battles began, which were suppressed with the use of military force.

Only in the summer of 1863 was the North able to effectively use its enormous material and numerical advantage. The turning point came in July 1863 at the Battle of Guttenberg in Pennsylvania, where two armies totaling 160,000 soldiers clashed, of whom more than one-quarter were killed three days later. The Union troops were barely able to hold out, and the Confederates, under the leadership of General Robert E. Lee, were forced to retreat to Virginia. At the same time, Union troops under the command of General Ulysses Grant achieved success on the western front and captured the fortified city of Vicksburg on the Mississippi. The entire Mississippi Valley was now in Northern hands, and the Confederacy was cut in two from north to south. In March 1864, Lincoln appointed Grant as commander-in-chief, in whom he finally found a convincing military leader. Together with William Sherman and Philip Sheridan, Grant carried out Lincoln's plan - a large-scale and well-coordinated offensive. Lincoln himself, who routinely sat late into the night poring over military books borrowed from the Library of Congress, developed an entirely new concept of command for the United States, under which his Chief of General Staff (Halleck), Secretary of War (Stanton replaced Cameron), and Commander-in-Chief (Grant) received coordinating instructions from him himself. Lincoln's military genius, combined with a non-dogmatic approach to the complex, new problems of modern warfare, was later appreciated many times over.

The presidential election of 1864 has gone down in American history as the most important. The people had to decide whether to continue the war or not - the administration formed by the Democrats had to offer peace to the South. Rivalry within the Republican camp and the emergence of influential contenders for the presidency, primarily Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Chase, made it impossible to say with certainty whether Lincoln would be re-elected. In addition, one term in office has become almost a political tradition; after Andrew Jackson, no president managed to get into the White House a second time. In July, Lincoln was chosen as the candidate of the Union Party, but still doubted his re-election, the mood in the North was inclined towards a compromise solution, the victory of the Democrats was not excluded, whose candidate was none other than General McClellan, who was fired by Lincoln at the end of 1862.

The victory in the battle was decisive: the capture of Atlanta in Georgia by Union troops under the command of General Sherman on September 2, 1864 sharply changed the public mood, calmed the intra-party differences of the Republicans and pushed the Democratic Party with its peace proposal into political impasse. Lincoln's victory could be seen as clear authority to continue the war and completely free the slaves. The President quickly submitted the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, where it was adopted by the required two-thirds majority.

By the time the president was inaugurated again, the civil war was practically won. In his second inaugural address on March 4, 1865, Lincoln again touched upon the themes of the Gettysburg Address and extended a hand of reconciliation to the Southern states: “Without ill will toward any, and with love of neighbor for all, standing firmly in our God-given right, let us continue strive to complete the work we have begun; to bandage the wounds of the nation... to do everything that can give and preserve a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

This is how he outlined his position on the integration of the southern states: leniency and reconciliation, not punishment and retribution, should determine the post-war phase.

Meanwhile, Grant's attack on Richmond and Sherman's even more notorious "throw to the sea", which left behind traces of devastation, demoralized the Confederacy and marked the beginning of its defeat. At first, Lincoln was skeptical of Sherman's plans because, like Grant, he did not understand the strategic principle of “scorched earth”, which gave the war a “total” character in the final phase. On April 9, 1865, General Lee surrendered his army in Virginia, and a few weeks later the remnants of the Southern troops stopped fighting.

Re-electionand murder

On November 8, 1864, in the next election, Lincoln was elected president for a second term. Despite the objections of some politicians and his own doubts, Abraham Lincoln defeated his rival from the Democratic Party, General J. B. McClellan. Lincoln believed that the emancipation of slaves should be legally enforceable. At his insistence, on January 31, 1865, Congress adopted the XIIIth Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibited slavery in the United States and came into force after its ratification by the states in December of the same year. The American Civil War ended, but the president became one of the last victims of this bloody war. On April 14, 1865, as the country celebrated victory in Washington, at Ford's Theater, Abraham Lincoln was shot in the head. Having committed the crime, the murderer, actor John Boots, a fanatical supporter of the southerners, jumped onto the stage and shouted: “This is how tyrants die. The South is avenged!” lincoln slavery president

Lincoln's death literally shocked the whole world. An endless stream of people went to the White House to say goodbye to the man who led the country out of a severe crisis, rallying supporters of the unity of the country and the abolition of slavery. Millions of Americans, white and black, came to pay their last respects to their president during the two-and-a-half week funeral train journey from Washington to Springfield, where Lincoln was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery. Lincoln's tragic death contributed greatly to the creation around his??in? the halo of a martyr who died for the liberation of slaves.

Conclusion

The Civil War was an epochal turning point in the history of the United States, and Abraham Lincoln, who led the affairs of the White House during these years, remains a central historical figure in the consciousness of the American people. During the crisis of the union, Lincoln's every thought and action was directed toward salvaging and once again fully demonstrating the legacy of the Founding Fathers—the values and principles of the republic set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. His personality, which has become a myth, focuses on the main features of American democracy, which his presidency strengthened for a long time. The Civil War renewed Americans' focus on a unified nation and a free society purged of slavery.

Abraham Lincoln understood and loved his people. He was from a simple poor family and experienced many difficulties in his life before taking the post of president. He proved himself to be a subtle politician, a lawyer, also friendly, fair to opponents and criticism, balanced by the president.

Thanks to him, the Americans preserved the integrity of their state, slavery was abolished, and homesteads were distributed. Only by maintaining a single state could the United States subsequently become the leading power in the world. Assessing Lincoln's merits, the great Russian writer L.N. Tolstoy said this: “he was what Beethoven was in music, Dante in poetry, Raphael in painting, Christ in the philosophy of life.”

Bibliography

1. A.Ya. Yudovskaya "New History" - M. "Enlightenment", 2004

2. Ivanov R.F. "Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War" M., 1964.

3. "World History" M., "Avanta+", 1997

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Introduction

I chose this topic due to my interest in the economic development of the United States during the modern period. The relevance of the topic is due to the fact that the personality of A. Lincoln, his political and economic activities embody the foundations of democracy, freedom and unity - three most important factors that to a certain extent accelerated the capitalist development of the United States and further contributed to its emergence as a world leader at the turn of the 19th century. XX centuries and determined the United States as one of the leading countries in the world today. The purpose of my independent work is to describe the historical portrait of Abraham Lincoln and to justify his role in the development of the US economy.

Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United States (1861-1865) was a great figure in the era of the bourgeois revolution (late XVIII - 1860s), which was marked by such a major event as the Civil War (1861-1865), which significantly changed the course of US history . This war between the abolitionist states of the North and the eleven slave states of the South (the Confederacy) was the result of worsening economic and socio-political contradictions between two social systems: the wage labor system and the slavery system. According to one version, “the reason for the war between the North and the South was the election in 1860 of Abraham Lincoln, one of the talented leaders of the Republican Party and a supporter of the abolition of slavery, to the presidency of the United States.” 1 Lincoln personally directed the military effort that led to the Northern victory over the Confederacy. At the end of the war, the president proposed a plan for moderate Reconstruction (a process associated with the annexation of the southern states to the United States and the abolition of the slave system on their territory). Lincoln also supported the integration of black people into American society.

The formation of a future politician: A. Lincoln’s childhood and early life

A. Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, into a family of farmers - Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, who lived on a farm in Gardin County, Kentucky. When Abraham was seven years old, the family moved to Indiana. At the age of nine, Abraham lost his mother, after which his father married the widow Sarah Bush Johnston. The stepmother believed that children should definitely receive an education. Lincoln became the first in his family to learn to write and count, although, according to his own admission, he attended school for no more than a year because of the need to help the family. Since childhood, he was addicted to books and carried his love for them throughout his life. Honesty, integrity and a sharp mind led to the rapid growth of his authority. “Lincoln was a born speaker: his speech was simple and figurative, he had an inexhaustible sense of humor, he loved and appreciated witty jokes, but never allowed himself to offend anyone with ridicule. He was distinguished by his prudence, never cut from the shoulder, carefully considering his decisions, but, once making them, he never deviated from the choice he made.” 2 In 1830 the family moved further west again to Illinois, which had been part of the Union for twelve years as a slave-free state. Slavery occupied a significant place in Lincoln's mind. His uncle and uncle's father owned slaves. His father, a staunch Baptist, on the contrary, strongly rejected slavery, although not only for ethical and moral reasons. As a simple worker, he knew what it was like to compete with the labor of slaves.

Then Abraham left his family, found a temporary job, and during one of his boat trips down the Mississippi down to New Orleans, he became acquainted not only with the expanses of the then United States, but also saw the lack of infrastructure, which did not yet sufficiently connect individual regions with each other. The impressions from this trip, as well as a visit to a slave market with groups of chained and singing slaves, deeply shocked him. Upon his return, he settled in the small village of New Salem, Illinois, where he worked as a postmaster, merchant and surveyor.

In 1832, Lincoln ran for a seat in the Illinois Legislature but was defeated. After this, he began to systematically study science. In 1833 he was appointed postmaster of New Salem. From 1833 to 1836 he studied law and in 1836 was admitted to legal practice. During his years living in New Salem, Lincoln often had to borrow money. His habit of repaying his debts in full earned him one of his most famous nicknames - “Honest Abe.” From 1834 to 1842, Lincoln was elected four times to the Illinois Legislature as a Whig member. In 1837 he moved to Springfield. When Lincoln entered the political arena, Andrew Jackson was president. Lincoln shared Jackson's sympathies for the common man, but not the view that the federal government should, for the sake of the common good, refrain from all economic initiatives and settlements. His political examples were Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, who promoted the economic consolidation of the union through the activities of the federal government and Congress. Under the slogan "American system," they demanded the unification of currencies and banking, improved infrastructure, and the development of American industry through protective tariffs. Like most Whig politicians, Lincoln was reticent on the issue of slavery: he rejected the "special institution" emotionally and morally, but did not want to be classified with the abolitionists he criticized.

In 1842 he married Mary Todd. From 1847 to 1849, he represented Illinois in the lower house of the US Congress and opposed the war with Mexico and the slave trade. In subsequent years, he practiced law, became one of the leading lawyers in the state, and was a consultant for the Illinois Central railroad. In 1856, he joined the Republican Party, which arose in the fight against the slave-owning oligarchy of the South.

The role of A. Lincoln as US President in the development of the American economy

Moderate views on the issue of slavery determined the election of Lincoln as a compromise presidential candidate from the Republican Party in the 1860 election. Americans associated Lincoln's personality with hard work, honesty, and social mobility. “Coming from the people, he was a self-made man.” 3

His first term as president, from March 1861 to April 1865, was during the Civil War. After A. Lincoln was elected president, the southern states responded by seceding from the Union and proclaiming the Confederate States of America in February 1861. The cause of discord between the North and the South was Lincoln's desire to stop the spread of slavery in the United States. The South, and especially the forward-moving Southwest, was characterized by expansion and commercialization. Cotton growing, which is a monoculture in this territory, served as the basis for defining this region as an agricultural one. To continue this agricultural path and increase the scale of production, it was necessary to increase the cultivated areas, which turned out to be impossible under the conditions of territorial restrictions on slavery. Thus, cotton plantation owners perceived the Lincoln government's attempt to prevent the expansion of slavery as an attack on their economic and social system. The armed uprising of the southerners prompted Lincoln to take retaliatory measures.

Homestead Act

During the Civil War, a powerful blow to slavery was the Homestead Law, which led to a radical solution to the agrarian problem and marked the beginning of the development of farming.

The Homestead Act of May 20, 1862 allowed: heads of families, persons over 21 years of age who were U.S. citizens, and persons intending to become U.S. citizens who had not committed any past acts against the United States or assisted or who provided assistance to enemies of the United States, from January 1, 1863, to receive public lands of not more than 160 acres at a price of $1.25 per acre or less than 80 acres for $2.50 per acre. When holding such land of less than 160 acres, the homesteader is entitled to receive additional land adjacent to his or her lot up to a total area of not more than 160 acres. The law predetermined the impossibility of providing land for obtaining any benefits to outsiders. After 5 years, the site became the property of the settler if a house was built on the site, a well was dug, 10 acres of land were cultivated and a certain area was fenced off.

The Homestead Act became the apogee of Lincoln's policy aimed at suppressing the emergence of slavery in new territories, and later at its complete eradication.

abolition of slavery

The victory of the North over the slave-owning South in the American Civil War in 1861-1965 put an end to the importation of slaves into the country.
On June 19, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln passed a law abolishing slavery, and on December 30 of the same year he signed the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring blacks living in territories in rebellion against the United States “now and forever” free. “Issued the Declaration of Independence on January 1, 1863, calling on the Union Army to free all slaves owned by landowners.” 4
However, the Declaration did not have the desired impact until the end of the war, because its constitutionality was challenged by the very fact of the armed conflict between the North and the South. In December 1865, the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution was adopted, abolishing slavery throughout the state. This event dealt a final blow to the slave trade in the country. The abolition of slavery removed obstacles to the development of capitalism, which laid the foundation for further economic recovery in the United States.

Conclusion

Abraham Lincoln has become a central historical figure in the consciousness of the American people. He was able to prevent the collapse of the United States, made a significant contribution to the formation of the American nation and abolished slavery, which was the main obstacle to the subsequent normal economic development of the country. Lincoln ushered in the modernization of the South and the emancipation of slaves. He is the author of the formulation of the main goal of democracy: “A government created by the people, from the people and for the people.” During his presidency, a transcontinental railroad to the Pacific Ocean was also built, the infrastructure system was expanded, a new banking system was created, and the agrarian problem was solved. However, after the end of the war, the country faced many problems, including uniting the nation and equalizing the rights of black and white people. After the assassination of Lincoln (April 14, 1865), the economy of the United States for a long time became the most dynamically developing economy in the world, which allowed the country to become a world leader at the beginning of the 20th century. In many ways, his personal qualities made it possible to mobilize the forces of the state and reunite the country. To this day, Abraham Lincoln is considered one of the most intellectual presidents of the United States.

In my opinion, Abraham Lincoln brought the United States to a new stage of development. After all, by abolishing slavery, he removed an obstacle to the advancement of the United States to a leading position in both the economic, political and social spheres. He set Americans on a path of unity, freedom and equality. The solution to the agrarian problem and the transition to the farmer path of agricultural development also contributed to the improvement of people's lives and economic growth. Abraham Lincoln's contribution to the development of the country is difficult to overestimate, since he is one of the most outstanding presidents in the history of the United States of America.

Literature

Burova I. I., Silinsky S. V. USA. SPb. , 2002

World History: Textbook for Universities / Ed. – G.B. Polyak, A.N. Markova. – M.: Culture and Sports, UNITY, 1997. – 496 p. ISBN 5-85178-042-8

http://www.hrono.ru/biograf/bio_l/linkoln_a.php- Biographical index: Abraham Lincoln played... his final victory, which cost him his life and to the president USA Abraham Lincoln. The civil war remained the bloodiest...

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Moscow, November 7 - "Vesti.Ekonomika". The American president is, among other things, responsible for US foreign policy.

If we talk about domestic policy, then the president coordinates all issues of internal affairs with the US Congress and the states, but as for foreign policy, here the constitution gives the president broader powers.

The president can command the armed forces, conclude treaties of alliance, and appoint diplomats.

Moreover, the president can deploy troops for up to 60 days without congressional consent.

In general, a good president pursues a foreign policy that meets the national interests of his country.

At the same time, at the moment, many believe that US President Donald Trump does not meet this criterion, since his policies run counter to US national interests.

Nevertheless, analysts cite the example of other US presidents who actually pursued a very smart and rational foreign policy that was fully in the interests of the country.

Below we will talk about five US presidents whose foreign policies are still considered the best in history.

George Washington

George Washington - the first popularly elected president of the United States of America (1789-1797), one of the founding fathers of the United States, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, participant in the War of Independence, creator of the American institution of the presidency.

In the sphere of foreign policy, Washington initially established the superiority of the executive branch over the legislative branch.

The President advocated US non-interference in the confrontation between European powers, issuing a proclamation of neutrality in 1793.

However, at the same time he recognized the French revolutionary government and confirmed the treaty of friendship of 1778, although avoiding any conflicts.

Jay's Treaty, signed in November 1794 by the President's representative, eliminated the threat of war with Great Britain, but split the country into two camps.

More favorable was the attitude toward Pinckney's Treaty of 1795, which established the boundaries between the United States and Spanish possessions and granted Americans the right to freedom of navigation along the Mississippi.

Thus, Washington managed to strengthen the position of the United States on the American continent and protect the country from harmful interference in European affairs. Washington's foreign policy has also brought considerable benefits to the development of trade.

John Adams

John Adams - American politician, prominent figure in the American Revolutionary War, first vice president and second president of the United States (1797-1801).

Adams's presidency was marked by crises and conflicts, such as the XYZ Affair (a diplomatic incident that led to undeclared naval war between the US and French navies), the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts, and the confrontation with Jeffersonians. At the same time, he is considered the founding father of the American Navy.

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln - American statesman, 16th President of the United States (1861-1865) and the first of the Republican Party, liberator of American slaves, national hero of the American people.

Lincoln personally directed the military effort that led to victory over the Confederacy during the Civil War of 1861-1865.

His presidency led to the strengthening of executive power and the abolition of slavery in the United States.

Lincoln included his opponents in the government and was able to bring them to work towards a common goal. The President kept Great Britain and other European countries from intervention throughout the war. During his presidency, the transcontinental railroad was built, the Homestead Act was adopted, which resolved the agrarian question. Lincoln was an outstanding orator, his speeches inspired northerners and remain a shining legacy to this day. At the end of the war, he proposed a plan for moderate reconstruction, associated with national harmony and renunciation of revenge. On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was mortally wounded at the theater, becoming the first US president to be assassinated.

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt - American politician, 25th Vice President of the United States, 26th President of the United States in 1901-1909, representative of the Republican Party, Nobel Peace Prize laureate for 1906.

Under him, the United States began to turn into a full-fledged world power, which European countries were forced to respect.

Roosevelt revived the Monroe Doctrine and added a new feature to it: now not only could Europe not interfere in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere, but also, if any country in the region began to “behave badly,” the United States could take measures to maintain order in it.

Another important achievement of Roosevelt was the construction of the Panama Canal. Despite the obstacles, he was able to organize everything in accordance with his plans, because he was not the kind of person who deviates from his goals.

And for his mediation in the Russo-Japanese War, Roosevelt received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Of course, his activity can be treated controversially, but one thing is clear: under President Theodore Roosevelt, the United States became one of the great powers of the world.

Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon - 37th President of the United States of America (1969-1974).

The first and only US president to resign before the end of his term.

During his reign, American astronauts landed on the moon, and a series of reforms were implemented that led to the virtual stoppage of the Bretton Woods system. Foreign policy during this period was led by Henry Kissinger.

Under Nixon, the United States improved relations with the People's Republic of China (after the president's sensational personal visit to China in February 1972), and a policy of détente began in relations with the USSR.

In May 1972, Nixon (the first president since F. Roosevelt in 1945) and his wife visited the Soviet Union. During this visit, he signed the SALT I Treaty with Brezhnev.

During the presidential election, Nixon campaigned under the slogan of ending the war in Vietnam with an “honorable peace.”

In 1969, the new US administration began a policy of “Vietnamization” aimed at transferring responsibility for control over the country's territories to the troops of South Vietnam - in fact, the goal of this policy was to find opportunities for the withdrawal of US troops from the conflict zone.

In July, the systematic withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam began, which lasted more than three years.

MOSCOW STATE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY named after. N.E. BAUMAN

Political science homework.

Subject of politics.

Abraham Lincoln as a politician.

Student: Sukharev A.S., group MT8-41.

Teacher: Levchenkov A.I.

Moscow, 2002

Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865) – sixteenth President of the United States.

The Civil War was an epochal turning point in the history of the United States, and Abraham Lincoln, who led the affairs of the White House during these years, remains a central historical figure in the consciousness of the American people. During the crisis of the union, Lincoln's every thought and action was directed toward salvaging and once again fully demonstrating the legacy of the Founding Fathers—the values and principles of the republic set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. His personality, which has become a myth, focuses on the main features of American democracy, which his presidency strengthened for a long time. The Civil War once again set Americans' sights on a unified nation and a free society purged of slavery, the Cain seal of the great democratic experiment. Lincoln believed that by preserving the United States, he had preserved, as he once put it, “the last hope on earth,” if only for his own era.

Slavery was undoubtedly at the center of the struggle between North and South, but it was not the only cause of the war. Economic, political-ideological and cultural factors were tied into a knot of problems that could no longer be resolved through agreements and compromises. Since the 1920s, the United States has been in the grip of a “market revolution” that transformed all areas of life, but had different consequences in the South and in the North. The Northeast and Northwest were soon linked by a complex and diversified economy in which the agricultural sector gradually gave way to industrialization and trade. The growing demand for labor was met primarily by resettlement from Europe, and the number of people living in cities in 1850 was approaching the 5 million mark.

Expansion and commercialization also defined the South, especially the forward-moving Southwest. Cotton growing, which dominated here as a monoculture, contributed to the fact that the character of the entire region remained agrarian. Planters thought and acted as entrepreneurs on the principles of supply, demand and profit. For them, slaves were both labor and capital, a “resource” that became more and more expensive and scarce during the cotton boom. Since cotton production can only increase by increasing the cultivated area, plantation owners regarded all attempts to territorially limit slavery as a mortal danger to their economic and social system. They even pressured Washington to allow the importation of slaves, which had been banned in 1808, again. Culturally, the South remained in the grip of the past, and so a peculiar mixture of paternalistic and democratic elements emerged. Southern whites, poor and rich, rallied ever closer to defend their traditional values and ideals, the Southern way of life, from being threatened by what they perceived as the individualistic and egalitarian society of the North. Slavery was also considered a positive value in the South, which was contrasted with the exploitative “wage slavery” of the North as a humane institution. The religious reform zeal that began in the north, with which many people reacted to rapid social transformation, was increasingly directed towards the evil of slavery in the southern states. At the end of the 1950s, two different societies, two cultures and two visions of the future were opposed within the union, which could no longer be restrained by the constitution and the party system, which had long served as a connecting link. In this fateful situation, which could not be handled by any individual, Abraham Lincoln took upon himself responsibility for an American nation that did not yet, or no longer, exist.

Relatively little is known about Lincoln's childhood and youth. He was born February 12, 1809, on a small farm in Gardin County, Kentucky, the second child and first son of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. In 1816 the family moved to southwestern Indiana, which had recently been admitted to the union. Cultivation of the land and meager life on the border between the advance of settlers to the West between wilderness and civilization required great physical and spiritual strength from the pioneers. Lack of medical care led to casualties in the Lincoln family: his younger brother died at an early age, he lost his mother at age 9, and a few years later his older sister died of childbed fever. The father soon married again. The stepmother, who herself had three children from her first marriage, encouraged the children to read. In total, Abraham attended school for one year. He was mostly self-taught. The Bible, which in many pioneer families was the only book in the house, and several other works that he was able to obtain - among them "Robinson Crusoe", "The Pilgrim's Progress" and Aesop's fables - he studied with particular thoroughness. His speeches subsequently testified to a deep knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, which was not surprising then. His quotes from the Bible, aptly applied to everyday events, were stunning.

Slavery occupied a significant place in Lincoln's mind. His uncle and uncle's father owned slaves. His father, a staunch Baptist, on the contrary, resolutely rejected slavery, although not only for ethical and moral reasons; as a simple worker, he experienced first-hand what it meant to compete with the labor of slaves. The family moved many times, built a log house and cultivated the land. In 1830 they again moved further west to Illinois, which twelve years earlier had become, as a slave-free state, part of the union. Meanwhile, the grown Abraham worked for some period for his father, at which time his nickname arose “chip picker”, given to him for his skillful and dexterous ability to work with an ax. Then he left his family, found a temporary job, and during one of his boat trips down the Mississippi down to New Orleans, he became acquainted not only with the expanses of the then United States, but also saw the lack of infrastructure, which did not yet sufficiently connect individual regions with each other. The impressions from this trip, as well as a visit to a slave market with groups of chained and singing slaves, deeply shocked him. Upon his return, he settled in the small village of Salem, Illinois, where he worked as a postmaster, merchant and surveyor.

When the governor of Illinois called for volunteers for the Black Falcons' Indian War, Lincoln, whose paternal grandparents had been killed by Indians, enlisted and was chosen as a captain by his fellows. His military service was short and uneventful for his unit. The position of captain so strengthened his self-confidence that that same year he tried to win a seat in the Illinois House of Representatives. During the election campaign he advocated the expansion and improvement of infrastructure and the development of education. After failing in his first attempt, Lincoln was elected two years later and established his mandate as a member of the Whig Party until 1842. During this period he was active as the leader of his party and chairman of the finance committee.

Professionally, he was unlucky at first, and he often had debts, which he always repaid to the last penny. After “Honest Abe” buried his plans to become a blacksmith, he managed to meet a justice of the peace and began to independently, but purposefully and persistently, study the legal sciences. In 1836 he was admitted to the Illinois Bar. A year later he moved to Springfield, the new capital of his native state of Illinois, where he became a partner of a lawyer known far beyond the region. Considering his background, Lincoln had an impressive journey: almost like the proverbial rags to riches, the poor son of a pioneer settler, before reaching the age of thirty, became a lawyer with his own practice and a politician in the public spotlight. Even then, he was the embodiment of a “self-made” man, and thus of the “American Dream.” His marriage in 1842 to Mary Todd, the daughter of a Southern planter, only completed the picture of social rise. They had four sons, but only one, Robert Todd, lived to adulthood.

The assassination of abolitionist newspaper publisher Elijah Lovejoy in 1837, reluctantly condemned by the Illinois Congress, marked a turning point in Lincoln's political development. This incident prompted him to make his first principled speech at the Young Men's Lyceum in Springfield. Using motifs and elements of romance in his speech, he emphasized the core values of American democracy and the legacy of the nation's Founding Fathers. The Constitution and laws should be revered as a kind of “political religion”. Rampant mob rule - as in the case of lynching - must never threaten national unity. At the same time, abolitionism did not seem to him the right way to solve the problem of slavery.

After his term in the Illinois House of Representatives expired in 1842, Lincoln devoted himself, along with his practice as a lawyer, to further political tasks within the Whig party; for his outstanding activity in supporting candidate Henry Clay in the 1844 election fight, the Whigs nominated him in 1846 year to Congress. He passed with an overwhelming majority, but his service as a member of Congress in Washington from 1847 to 1849 passed without sensation. Through his popular opposition to the Mexican War, Lincoln made more enemies than friends. He supported the so-called Wilmaud Proviso, which would have prohibited slavery in all newly acquired territories, but it failed to pass the Senate. In 1848, he actively supported the presidency of General Zachary Taylor and after his victory was clearly disappointed, not receiving the expected post in the government. After these two rather depressing years, he remained aloof from politics for a long time and devoted himself to his thriving law practice in Springfield.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 increased political polarization and contributed to the dissolution of the old party system and the emergence of a new political situation. The Whigs, whose northern wing insisted on an unequivocal rejection of slavery, lost support in the South, and the party disintegrated. The political vacuum was filled by the newly formed Republican Party, which organized resistance to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The conflicts awakened Lincoln politically and spurred him to activism. In 1856, he joined the Republicans and assumed leadership in Illinois. The composition of the party could not have been more heterogeneous: anti-slavery Democrats, former Whigs, abolitionists, temperanceists and nativists formed a conglomerate, the basis of which was the goal of preventing the further spread of slavery. With the exception of the abolitionists, these groups did not advocate the abolition of slavery in areas where it already existed. For them, what was important, first of all, was new territories, still “free land.” The Republican program boiled down to the well-known formula “Free soil, free labor, free speech, free man.”

With growing concern, Lincoln watched the events of "Bloody Kansas," where pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces engaged in guerrilla warfare. He was deeply outraged that the Supreme Court's 1857 Dreyde-Scott verdict had clearly vindicated slavery and thereby effectively overturned the Missouri Compromise. When the famous Democratic Senator of Illinois, Stephen E. Douglas, the chief responsible for the Kansas-Nebraska Act, wanted to run for election in 1858, Lincoln emerged as the opposing Republican candidate. The public debate of both politicians attracted tens of thousands of people: the masses came, some even. special trains to listen to verbal duels staged in seven Illinois cities between "Little Giant" Douglas (1.62 m) and "Tall Baby" Lincoln (1.9 m). Lincoln lost the election, however, thanks to the verbal battles that revolved around. centered around slavery, attracted national attention and gained important political advantages for his later career. Lincoln's speech, the slogan of which was taken from the New Testament (Matthew 12:25): “And every house divided against itself cannot stand,” penetrated especially deeply into the public consciousness. Its main thesis was that the United States could not permanently tolerate slavery and a free society and that Americans were therefore forced to choose one system or the other. When Douglas accused his rival of abolitionism. Lincoln countered with a conspiracy theory that powerful Democrats, including President Buchanan, wanted to extend slavery first to new territories and then throughout the union. Lincoln knew that there was no exact evidence for this, but he deliberately made the accusation part of his election strategy, which even then, as he himself admitted, had long-term prospects. Douglas was able to secure the senatorial seat from Lincoln due to his experience and advocacy of the principle of "sovereignty of the people", which left the decision to allow or prohibit slavery to the discretion of the states and territories. On some points he went so far as to accommodate his president that his popularity in the South plummeted. The debate, however, made clear what divided both men: unlike Douglas, Lincoln considered slavery an evil that he rejected out of moral conviction.

In October 1859, public unrest reached a new high point due to the action of the fanatical, religiously-minded opponent of slavery John Brown, who had previously carried out political terrorist attacks in Kansas. He, along with his sons and several followers, attacked an armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown, who secretly received support from wealthy abolitionists in New York, wanted to signal a slave uprising in the South. But the attempt failed, and Brown was soon hanged along with his men. Lincoln was among those who condemned Brown's action because of its violence. At the same time, he warned the southerners that secession would be no less unlawful and punishable than the actions of an underground fighter.

At the Republican Party Convention in Chicago in May 1860, Lincoln was nominated for the presidency in the third round. As a compromise candidate with relatively few enemies, he handily outmaneuvered his well-known rivals, William Seward and Salmon Chase. His ally and candidate for the post of vice president was the staunch opponent of slavery, Hannibal Hamlin from Maine. The Republican election platform rejected slavery in the new territories, but did not demand its elimination in the southern states. She denounced the Buchanan administration's "sale of interests" to the South, sharply criticized the Supreme Court's decision in the Dreyd-Scott case, promised legislation for the rapid settlement of the western regions in the future, advocated looser citizenship provisions and improved infrastructure. Lincoln did not speak publicly during the campaign, but from Springfield he exercised well-thought-out leadership.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party split over the issue of slavery: its northern wing voted for Douglas, its southern wing for John Breckinridge. And she actually entered the election with two candidates - a circumstance beneficial to Lincoln. Both parties fought their election battles not for specific content, but for the more general values that the candidates personified. “Honest Abe” Lincoln identified himself with the qualities that make up his myth to this day: the industriousness and work ethic, the honest modesty of a pioneer who rose from poverty and, without forgetting his origins and connections with the people, became a candidate for the highest office . It represented not only social mobility, but also honesty and the ability to remain true to oneself. These properties contrasted with the scandals and corruption of the Buchanan administration. The election campaign mobilized the American population to a degree unprecedented before that time. On November 6, 1860, participation in the elections exceeded 80 percent for the first time. It is not surprising that Lincoln, who was attacked by Southern Democrats as an abolitionist and "black Republican", owed his election solely to Northern votes, although he received 40% of the votes cast nationwide, all of them, with a few exceptions, from the densely populated Northern states, so that with his 180 electoral college votes, even with the unity of the Democrats, he had an unattainable lead.

Even more consistently than his predecessors, Lincoln applied a protectionist system when distributing positions. Already in the spring of 1861, 80 percent of political posts previously controlled by Democrats were occupied by Republicans. In distributing cabinet posts, Lincoln showed great political dexterity: he gave the most important posts, such as Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Secretary of Justice and Secretary of the Treasury, to his former rivals - Republicans William Seward, Edward Bates and Salmon Chase.

Lincoln's election caused extreme anxiety among Southerners, and the time leading up to his inauguration in early March proved difficult for himself and the nation. Even before this, some slave states had threatened to secede if the Republicans won, and that is exactly what happened before Christmas. South Carolina was the first state to dissolve its union with other states. Before February 1, 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas seceded in the first wave. Decisions were made accordingly by state conventions chosen by the people. While still in office, Buchanan allowed the seceding southern states to take possession of the federal fortifications, forts and weapons arsenals located on their territories. Only two fortresses, one of them Fort Sumter, located on an island in front of the port of Charleston, remained in the possession of the union. In early February 1861, the seceding states proclaimed the "Confederate States of America" and installed former senator and Secretary of War Jefferson Davis as its president.

In an effort to restore national unity and aware that the states of the "upper South" had so far behaved loyally, Lincoln avoided harsh tones in his inaugural address on March 4. He compared the demand for secession to anarchy, but again emphasized that he did not think of threatening slavery where it already existed. The President made it clear that he was not thinking about a military conflict, that the fate of the nation was in the hands of the southerners. They did not vow to forcibly destroy the union, while he himself swore to preserve, protect and defend it.

Confederalists paid little attention to Lincoln's call, and last-minute, reluctant attempts at congressional mediation remained unsuccessful. When the President refused to give Fort Sumter to the South, South Carolina troops responded on April 12 by shelling the fort. The civil war has begun. The following four states quickly seceded: Tennessee, Arkansas, North Carolina and Virginia, whose capital Richmond also became the capital of the Confederacy. The border states of Kentucky, Missouri, Delaware, and Maryland—all slave states—were at first hesitant, but after hesitation and internal dissensions remained in the union. So, the 23 states of the union with approximately 22 million inhabitants were opposed by 11 confederate states, in which 5.5 million whites lived and exactly 3.5 million slaves.

Like the president. Lincoln was the commander-in-chief of all armed forces, a function that required a lot of his time and energy. Apart from a brief stint as a captain in the Black Falcon War, he had no military experience. However, during the war he very quickly developed the ability to assess the strategic position and the necessary operational actions. As a first measure, he called on all states of the union to mobilize 75,000 volunteers with whom he wanted to suppress the “rebellion.” The population in the North responded to this call with great enthusiasm. On April 19, Lincoln ordered a naval blockade to paralyze Confederate trade and stop the entry of military supplies from Europe. On the battlefields, the better trained and led troops of the southern states inflicted painful blows on the Union. After the defeat at Bull Run in Virginia, where Northern troops were routed by the Confederates in July, Lincoln demanded an increase in troops to 500,000 men. The hope of quickly forcing the rebels to capitulate gave way to the reality that a long and brutal war lay ahead. Lincoln called General McClellan to Washington to reorganize the demoralized troops, and in November made "a new Napoleon his commander - a choice that turned out to be problematic. Thanks to the general's cautious wait-and-see actions, Lincoln came under political pressure from within his own ranks. The population finally wanted to see victories, and besides, McClellan belonged to the Democratic Party, which further increased the skepticism, especially of the radical Republicans.

Naturally, military operations were crucial to the advancement of the war. From Lincoln's point of view, it was very important to find a cohesive political concept that would give meaning to this struggle. The Confederate government had a relatively simple matter in this regard: the southern states fought for their independence, the preservation of their slavery-based social system, and the protection of their own territory. The North fought for the principle: for the unity of the nation - and only later, and secondarily, for the abolition of slavery.

Only if the president could instill a political idea worth making great sacrifices for would there be any prospect of success. At the same time, Lincoln had to obtain the consent of the Republican faction, the political spectrum of which extended from conservatives to radicals. Thus, radical Republicans immediately after the outbreak of the war advocated the abolition of slavery and demanded that the president make the liberation of blacks the central goal of the war. The majority wing of the party, like Lincoln himself, favored, on the contrary, gradual emancipation combined with financial compensation for slaveholders and put the struggle for the unity of the nation at the forefront. Recognizing that only by uniting would it be possible to withstand the Democratic Party, Lincoln was able to amazingly connect the various factions through compromises. It was also his merit that during his presidency a normal political process took place and a historically unusual situation arose for wartime, in which not only the military, but also the voters could decide the fate of the nation. Lincoln was deeply convinced that democracy must adhere to the orderly course of political events even in wartime. Indeed, the two-party system in the North remained unscathed during the Civil War and even strengthened the president's rear, since disagreements and protests could be channeled into party-political channels, which was not the case in the South.

After the incident at Fort Sumter, part of the Democratic Party in the North formed a “loyal opposition” to the Republicans and promised the administration their full support. Stephen Douglas, until recently an ardent opponent of the president, now belonged to his allies and quickly recruited volunteers. When he died unexpectedly two months later in June, the Democratic Party was initially left without leadership. However, at the first meeting of the new Congress in July 1861, the faction continued Douglas's policies and supported Lincoln's war-related legislation.

Lincoln skillfully doled out important military posts to leading Democrats such as Benjamin Butler of Massachusetts and John Logan of Illinois. His second Secretary of War, sworn in early in 1862, Edwin Stanton, ran the Justice Department in Buchanan's Democratic administration. His initially harsh criticism of Lincoln soon gave way to deep admiration. Constantly referring to the principles of loyalty and patriotism during the war, Lincoln managed to win over part of the Democratic Party. These so-called "War Democrats" entered into a formal coalition with the "Union Party," as the organized Republicans called themselves after 1862, for tactical reasons. The conservative Peace Democrats, on the contrary, were still willing to negotiate with the South for a peaceful resolution of the conflict and constituted a majority within their party.

The only acceptable solution for the president was for the seceding southern states to revoke their declaration of independence and return to the union - this would open, as Lincoln explicitly put it, room for negotiations on the issue of slavery. First of all, the preservation of the nation was important to him, although he had a natural dislike for the southern social system. On August 22, 1862, he answered the radical Republican publisher of the New York Tribune, Horace Grill, when asked why he was delaying the emancipation of the slaves: “My highest goal in this fight is to preserve the union, not to preserve or destroy slavery. If I could save union without freeing a single slave, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing some slaves and not freeing others, I would do this. What I do in the matter of slavery and for the colored race, I do because I believe it will help to preserve the union... By this I have explained my intention, which I consider as an official duty, and do not intend to change my often expressed personal desire, that all people everywhere should be free."

A few weeks after this letter, on September 22, 1862, when the Southern troops were forced to withdraw from Maryland after the Battle of Antwerp, Lincoln decided that the moment had come to make public a decision that had long been ripened: he issued a preliminary declaration of freedom, according to which all slaves, those who were in the “rebellious states” after January 1, 1863 were declared free. This geographical limitation was intended to ensure the loyalty of the population in the border states and in already occupied areas. It also meant a concession to moderate voters in the North, for whom the abolition of slavery was not a motive for the war, but who understood that this step could facilitate the victory of the union.