Talk:Abraham Lincoln/Archive 28: Difference between revisions

^Early life and ancestry (click here to return to main)

• Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809, in a one-room log cabin near Hodgenville, Kentucky. His parents, Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, married in 1806 and moved to Elizabethtown, Kentucky. They had three children: Sarah, Abraham, and another son, Thomas, who died in infancy.
• In 1814, land disputes forced Thomas to sell his holdings in Kentucky. The family moved to Indiana, a free, non-slaveholding territory, in 1816. The land survey process was more reliable in Indiana, and by 1830, Thomas acquired clear title to 260 acres of land.
• Nancy Lincoln died of milk sickness in 1818, leaving eleven-year-old Sarah in charge of the household. Lincoln's father remarried late in 1819 to Sarah "Sally" Bush Johnston, a widow from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, with three children of her own. Lincoln's sister died in childbirth in 1828.
• Lincoln was largely self-educated. His formal schooling may have amounted to less than a year. As a youth, Lincoln disliked the hard labor associated with frontier life, preferring to read. Nevertheless, Lincoln took responsibility for the chores expected of him as one of the boys in the household. Tall for his age, Lincoln was also strong and athletic.
• In 1830, the family relocated to Illinois, a non-slaveholding state, and settled in Macon County, Illinois. In 1831, Abraham struck out on his own. After moving to the village of New Salem, he was hired to take goods by flatboat from New Salem to New Orleans. In New Orleans, Lincoln witnessed slavery firsthand. He returned to New Salem, where he remained for the next six years.

^Marriage and children (click here to return to main)

• Lincoln's first romantic interest is believed to have been Ann Rutledge, whom he met when he first moved to New Salem. However, she died at the age of 22 in 1835, most likely of typhoid fever. In the early 1830s, he courted Mary Owens for several years.
• In 1839, Lincoln met Mary Todd, who was from a wealthy slave-holding family in Lexington, Kentucky. Over the next three years they became engaged, broke off their engagement, and became engaged again, finally marrying in 1842.
• He was an affectionate, though often absent, husband and father of four children. Robert Todd was born in 1843, and Edward (Eddie) was born in 1846. Edward died in 1850, probably of tuberculosis. "Willie" was born in 1850 and died in 1862. Thomas "Tad" Lincoln was born in 1853 and died of heart failure in 1871. Robert was the only child to live to adulthood and to have children.
• The deaths of their sons had profound effects on both parents. Later in life, Mary struggled with the stresses of losing her husband and sons. Abraham Lincoln himself suffered from "melancholy" (clinical depression).

Early career and militia service summary

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• In 1832, Lincoln and a partner bought a small general store in New Salem, Illinois. The business struggled, and Lincoln eventually sold his share.
• He then served as a captain in the Illinois Militia for three months during the Black Hawk War.
• On his return, Lincoln ran for election to the Illinois General Assembly. After his loss, he decided to become a lawyer and began teaching himself law.
• In 1834, his second try for electoral office was successful. He served four successive terms in the Illinois House of Representatives as a Whig representative from Sangamon County. He supported the funding of internal improvements, expansion of suffrage to all white males whether landowners or not, and was a moderate standing between defenders of slavery and abolitionists.
• Admitted to the Illinois bar in 1836, he began to practice law under John T. Stuart and became an able and successful lawyer.

U.S. House of Representatives, 1847–49 summary

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• In 1843, he lost the Whig nomination for Illinois's 7th district of the U.S. House of Representatives to John J. Hardin, but a principle of rotation was in place which allowed Lincoln to run for office in 1846.
• After winning the election, he supported a compromise bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia (while enforcing the fugitive slave act), spoke out against the Mexican–American War, supported the Wilmot Proviso, and opposed President Polk on multiple issues.
• Although Lincoln considered himself a disciple of Henry Clay, he supported General Zachary Taylor for the Whig nomination in the 1848 presidential election as a candidate with an actual chance of winning.
• After his single term in office under the rotation agreement, Lincoln resumed his law practice.

Prairie lawyer summary

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• As a busy lawyer in Springfield, Lincoln handled a wide diversity of cases. In one landmark case, he represented a bridge company that was being sued by a riverboat company after a canal boat sank after hitting a bridge. In 1851, in another landmark case, he successfully represented the Alton & Sangamon Railroad in a dispute with one of its shareholders.
• Lincoln also took on criminal cases, one notable instance occurring in 1858 when he successfully defended William "Duff" Armstrong of murder charges.

Republican politics 1854–60 summary

^Emergence as Republican leader (click here to return to main)

• The debate over whether to allow slavery to expand into the new territories strongly split the South and North. Lincoln favored gradual emancipation and compromise between the opposite extremes on the slavery issue. Senator Stephen A. Douglas's version of compromise was the doctrine of popular sovereignty as expressed in a clause of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which passed Congress in 1854.
• Lincoln came to strongly oppose the Kansas-Nebraska Act because of the probability that it would lead to an extension of slavery. An internal schism over the slavery issue led to the demise of the Whig party and the rise of a new Republican party.
• In 1854, Lincoln won election to the Illinois legislature but declined to take his seat, preferring instead to run for the U.S. Senate. Unable to win a majority of the voting legislators, Lincoln threw his support to an antislavery Democrat, Lyman Trumbull, enabling Trumbull to defeat a proslavery Democrat, Joel Aldrich Matteson.
• In 1856, Lincoln switched to the Republican Party. At the 1856 Bloomington Convention, which established the Illinois Republican Party, Lincoln gave his famous "Lost Speech", which appears to have been a strongly worded condemnation of slavery. Lincoln's vigorous campaigning on behalf of the Republican ticket made him the leading Republican in Illinois.
• The 1857 Supreme Count decision in the case of Dred Scott v. Sandford, which held that blacks could not be citizens and derived no rights from the Constitution, outraged Lincoln, who alleged that it was the product of a conspiracy of Democrats to support the "Slave Power", the disproportionate and corrupt influence wielded by wealthy Southerners.

^Lincoln–Douglas debates and Cooper Union speech (click here to return to main)

• 1858 was an election year, with Douglas up for re-election. Lincoln's campaigning for former Democrat Trumbull, who was now serving as a Republican Senator, had earned him great credit within the party, and the Illinois Republicans nominated Lincoln for the Senate. Accepting the nomination, Lincoln delivered his well-known House Divided Speech.
• The Lincoln–Douglas debates of 1858 are among the most famous political debates in American history. Lincoln accused Douglas of being a representative of the "Slave Power". Douglas, however, emphasized that the principle of popular sovereignty allowed local settlers the freedom to make their own choices.
• Though the Republican legislative candidates won more popular votes, the Democrats won more seats, and the legislature re-elected Douglas to the Senate. Although Lincoln lost, his articulation of the issues gave him a national reputation.
• At Cooper Union in New York, Lincoln gave a speech to a group of powerful Republicans. He argued that the Founding Fathers had little use for popular sovereignty and had repeatedly sought to restrict slavery. This speech brought Lincoln into the front rank of contenders for the Republican presidential nomination.

^1860 Presidential nomination and campaign (click here to return to main)

• At the 1860 Illinois Republican State Convention, Lincoln received his first endorsement for the presidency. Lincoln supporters exploited the embellished legend of his frontier days. At the Republican National Convention, Lincoln became the Republican candidate on the third ballot, while a former Democrat, Hannibal Hamlin, was nominated for Vice President. Lincoln's success depended on his campaign team, his reputation as a moderate on the slavery issue, and his strong support for Whiggish programs of internal improvements and the protective tariff.
• Douglas was selected as the candidate of the Northern Democrats. Delegates from 11 slave states walked out of the Democratic convention, disagreeing with Douglas' position on popular sovereignty. These southern Democrats nominated incumbent Vice President John C. Breckinridge as their candidate. A group of former Whigs and Know Nothings formed the Constitutional Union Party and nominated John Bell of Tennessee. Lincoln and Douglas competed for votes in the North, while Bell and Breckinridge primarily found support in the South.
• Lincoln was the only candidate who gave no speeches. Instead, he relied on the enthusiasm of thousands of Republican Party workers who campaigned on his behalf, focusing on the party platform and spreading the story of Lincoln's life.

Presidency summary

^1860 election and secession (click here to return to main)

• In November, Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States. His victory was entirely due to his support in the North and West; no electoral college ballots were cast for him in 10 of the 15 Southern slave states. Although Lincoln won only a plurality of the popular vote, his electoral college victory was overwhelmingly decisive.
• Secessionists began leaving the Union even before he took office in March. On December 20, South Carolina adopted an ordinance of secession; Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas quickly followed. These states adopted a constitution and declared themselves to be a sovereign nation, the Confederate States of America. The upper South and border states (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Arkansas) were undecided about succession. President Buchanan and President-elect Lincoln refused to recognize the Confederacy, declaring secession illegal. The Confederacy selected Jefferson Davis as its provisional President.
• En route to his inauguration by train, Lincoln addressed crowds and legislatures across the North. To evade possible assassins, he arrived in disguise in Washington, D.C., which had been placed under substantial military guard. Lincoln directed his inaugural address to the South, proclaiming that he had neither intention nor inclination to abolish slavery in the Southern states. However, by March 1861, no leaders of the insurrection had proposed rejoining the Union on any terms. Lincoln and the Republican leadership agreed that dismantling the Union could not be tolerated.

^The Civil War (click here to return to main)

• On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces fired on Union troops at Fort Sumter, beginning the war. Lincoln had resolved that the North not fire the first shot, but had also resolved that the forts not be surrendered, provoking the confederates into action.
• On April 15, Lincoln called on all the states to send detachments to recapture forts, to protect Washington, and to "preserve the Union". This call forced the undecided states to choose sides. Virginia declared its secession, with Richmond becoming the Confederate capital. North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas also voted for secession. Although secessionist sentiment was strong in Missouri and Maryland, they remained in the Union; Kentucky tried to be neutral.
• Northern states sent Union regiments south in response to Lincoln's call. Mobs in Baltimore, which controlled the rail links, attacked Union troops who were changing trains, and local groups burned critical rail bridges to the capital. The Army responded by arresting local Maryland officials. Despite opposition by Roger B. Taney, Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus in areas that the army felt it needed to secure for troops to reach Washington.

^Union military strategy (click here to return to main)

• Lincoln took immediate executive control of the war. Asserting his war powers as commander-in-chief, he imposed a blockade on Confederate shipping, disbursed funds before appropriation by Congress, and after suspending habeas corpus, imprisoned thousands of suspected Confederate sympathizers.
• Bipartisan support was essential to success in the war effort, but compromise was difficult. Copperheads criticized Lincoln for refusing to compromise on the slavery issue, while Radical Republicans criticized him for moving too slowly in abolishing slavery.
• In August 1861, General John C. Frémont imposed martial law in Missouri, declaring that citizens found bearing arms could be court-martialed and shot, and that slaves of persons aiding the rebellion would be freed. Lincoln overruled Frémont's proclamation. This was a popular step in the border states, which saw increases in Union enlistments by over 40,000 troops.
• Lincoln sought to stop foreign military aid from being sent to the Confederacy. Lincoln left most diplomatic matters to Secretary of State William Seward, but also maintained a close working relationship with Charles Sumner, who chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Trent Affair of 1861 threatened war with Great Britain. The U.S. Navy had illegally intercepted a British mail ship on the high seas and seized two Confederate envoys. Lincoln ended the crisis by releasing the two diplomats.
• In 1862, after reports of inefficiency and profiteering in the War Department, Lincoln replaced Simon Cameron with Edwin Stanton as War Secretary. Stanton's efforts saved the federal government $17,000,000.
• Lincoln's strategic priorities were to ensure that Washington was well-defended and to conduct an aggressive war effort. By reading books on military strategy, Lincoln learned the critical need to control strategic points such as the Mississippi River, realized the importance of Vicksburg, and understood the necessity of defeating the enemy's army, rather than simply capturing territory.

^General McClellan (click here to return to main)

• After the Union rout at Bull Run and Winfield Scott's retirement in 1861, Lincoln appointed George B. McClellan general-in-chief of the Union armies. McClellan was overly meticulous in his planning and preparations, and consistently overestimated the strength of Confederate troops. McClellan's repeated delays frustrated Lincoln and Congress.
• Lincoln demoted McClellan from general-in-chief in March 1862 after McClellan's politically unwise "Harrison's Landing Letter". Radical Republicans pressured Lincoln into the political appointment of John Pope to lead the Army of Virginia. Lacking requested reinforcements from McClellan, Pope was defeated at the Second Battle of Bull Run in the summer of 1862.
• The age of ironclad warships began in 1862 when the CSS Virginia damaged or destroyed three Union vessels in Norfolk, Virginia, before she herself was engaged and damaged by the USS Monitor.
• Despite dissatisfaction with McClellan's failure to reinforce Pope, Lincoln restored him to command of all forces around Washington. General Robert E. Lee's forces crossed the Potomac River into Maryland, leading to the Battle of Antietam in September 1862. The ensuing Union victory made it politically feasible for Lincoln to announce that he would issue an Emancipation Proclamation in January.
• McClellan pursued Lee's retreating army too slowly, allowing Lee to escape; likewise General Don Carlos Buell refused orders to engage rebel forces in Tennessee. As a result, Lincoln replaced McClellan with Ambrose Burnside and Buell with William Rosecrans. However, Burnside was stunningly defeated by Lee at Fredericksburg. Desertions had been the thousands, and they increased after Fredericksburg. Lincoln brought in Joseph Hooker, despite his expressed support for a military dictatorship.
• The mid-term elections in 1862 brought the Republicans severe losses from concerns about conduct of the war, the economy, and loss of civil liberties. Reaction to the prospect of slave emancipation was mixed. Although Democrats saw gains, the Republicans maintained their majorities in Congress and in the major states, except New York.
• Hooker was routed by Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May. He tendered his resignation and was replaced by George Meade, who followed Lee into Pennsylvania for the victorious Gettysburg Campaign. Grant laid siege to Vicksburg and the Union navy attained some success in Charleston harbor. After the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln refrained from making direct suggestions to his field commanders at the level of battlefield tactics, although he continued to give detailed strategic directions to his generals.

^Emancipation Proclamation (click here to return to main)

• The Federal government's power to end slavery was limited by the Constitution, which committed the issue to individual states. Lincoln had argued that the eventual extinction of slavery would result from preventing its expansion into new U.S. territory. He offered compensated emancipation in return for states' prohibition of slavery. Lincoln believed that curtailing slavery in these ways would economically expunge it. Lincoln rejected two battlefield emancipation attempts by Major General Frémont and by Major General David Hunter, on the grounds that it was not within their power, and that it would upset the border states loyal to the Union.
• In June, 1862, Congress passed an act banning slavery on all federal territory. In July, the Confiscation Act of 1862 set up procedures to free the slaves of anyone aiding the rebellion. Although Lincoln disagreed that Congress had power to free slaves within the states, he nevertheless approved the bill. He did feel that such action was within the war powers granted to the Commander-in-Chief.
• Privately, Lincoln concluded that the slave base of the Confederacy had to be eliminated. Publicly, Lincoln stated that the primary goal of his actions as the U.S. president was that of preserving the Union.
• The Emancipation Proclamation, issued in September, 1862 and put into effect on January 1, 1863, declared free the slaves in 10 states not then under Union control. Lincoln spent the next 100 days preparing the army and the nation for emancipation, while Democrats warned of the threat freed slaves posed to northern whites.
• Once the abolition of slavery in the rebel states became a military objective, slaves were liberated as the army advanced south.
• Enlisting former slaves in the military was official government policy after the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation. By the end of 1863, General Lorenzo Thomas had recruited 20 regiments of blacks from the Mississippi Valley.

^Gettysburg Address (1863) (click here to return to main)

• With the great Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 and the defeat of the Copperheads in the Ohio election in the fall, Lincoln was in a strong position to redefine the war effort. His address at the Gettysburg battlefield cemetery on November 19, 1863 has become the most quoted speech in American history.
• In 272 words delivered in three minutes, Lincoln redefined the war as an effort dedicated to the principles of liberty and equality for all. The emancipation of slaves was now part of the national war effort.

^General Grant (click here to return to main)

• Meade's failure to capture Lee's army as it retreated from Gettysburg persuaded Lincoln that a change in command was needed. After General Ulysses S. Grant's victories at the Battle of Shiloh and in the Vicksburg campaign, Lincoln saw Grant as a top commander who also agreed on the use of black troops. Lincoln obtained Congress's consent to reinstate for Grant the rank of Lieutenant General, which no officer had held since George Washington.
• Grant waged his bloody Overland Campaign in 1864. This was a war of attrition, with high Union losses. Grant's high casualty figures alarmed the North. However, although Grant had lost a third of his army, his resolve to finish the fight was undiminished.
• The Confederate forces had equally high casualties but without possibility of reinforcements. Lincoln and the Republican Party mobilized support for the draft throughout the North to replace the Union losses. Grant's army moved south and crossed the James River, forcing the Siege of Petersburg. Lincoln visited Grant's headquarters at City Point, Virginia, to confer in person with Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman about the hostilities.
• Lincoln authorized Grant to target the Confederate infrastructure—such as plantations, railroads, and bridges—to destroy the South's morale and weaken its economic ability to continue fighting. Following this strategy, Generals Sherman and Philip Sheridan destroyed plantations and towns in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley.
• Confederate general Jubal Early began a series of assaults in the North that threatened the Capital. Sheridan was appointed to meet this assault, and the threat from Early was dispatched.
• Efforts to discuss peace began. Confederate Vice President Stephens led a group to meet with Lincoln and his advisors at Hampton Roads, but without results. Grant outflanked Lee's forces in the Battle of Five Forks, and the Confederate government evacuated Richmond. On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, and the war was effectively over.

^1864 re-election (click here to return to main)

• Lincoln faced reelection in 1864. Lincoln had managed to bring together all the main factions of the Republican Party, and as well as War Democrats such as Edwin M. Stanton and Andrew Johnson. At its 1864 convention, the Republican Party selected Johnson as his running mate. To broaden the coalition to include War Democrats as well as Republicans, the Republican party relabeled itself the National Union Party.
• When Grant's 1864 spring campaigns turned into bloody stalemates and Union casualties mounted, Republicans across the country feared that Lincoln would be defeated. Lincoln resolved that if he should lose the election, he would still defeat the Confederacy before turning over the White House.
• While the Democratic platform followed the "Peace wing" of the party and called the war a "failure", their candidate, General George B. McClellan, supported the war. Sherman's capture of Atlanta in September and David Farragut's capture of Mobile ended defeatist jitters and split the Democratic Party. The National Union Party was energized as Lincoln made emancipation the central issue. On November 8, Lincoln was re-elected in a landslide, carrying all but three states.
• On March 4, 1865, Lincoln delivered his greatly admired second inaugural address.

^Reconstruction (click here to return to main)

• Reconstruction began even during the war, as Lincoln and his associates planned how to readmit the conquered southern states into the Union, and mulled over the fates of Confederate leaders and freed slaves. Lincoln led the moderates regarding Reconstruction policy, and was opposed by the Radical Republicans under Rep. Thaddeus Stevens, Sen. Charles Sumner and Sen. Benjamin Wade. Lincoln's Ten percent plan would restore statehood to a rebel state when 10 percent of its voters agreed to its terms, and offered pardons to most Confederates who had not held high government or army office.
• Lincoln appointed Generals Andrew Johnson and Frederick Steele as military governors of Tennessee and Arkansas. Lincoln's Democratic opponents accused him of using the military to ensure his political aspirations. Radicals denounced his policy as too lenient. To fill Chief Justice Taney's seat on the Supreme Court, he named the choice of the Radicals, Salmon P. Chase.
• After implementing the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln urged that Congress outlaw slavery with a constitutional amendment. A first attempt at an amendment to outlaw slavery failed to pass. Passage of such an amendment became part of the Republican/Unionist platform in the election of 1864. A second attempt passed Congress in 1865 and was sent to the state legislatures for ratification. This became the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
• Lincoln signed into law Sumner's Freedmen's Bureau bill that set up a temporary federal agency to assist former slaves in their immediate material needs. Lincoln planned short-term military control over southern states, until readmission under the control of southern Unionists.
• Historians speculate that had Lincoln lived, his political skills would have helped him avoid Johnson's mistakes, and the long-term outcome for the former slaves might have been better than how they actually turned out.

^Redefining the republic and republicanism (click here to return to main)

• Lincoln's redefined the meaning of republican values. In the 1850s, most political rhetoric focused on the sanctity of the Constitution as the embodiment of American legal values. Lincoln redirected emphasis to the Declaration of Independence as the foundation of American political and moral values, contrasting it with the Constitution's tolerance of slavery. He highlighted the moral basis of republicanism, rather than its legalisms.
• In Lincoln's first inaugural address, he explored the nature of democracy. He denounced secession as anarchy, and explained that majority rule had to be balanced by constitutional restraints in the American system.

^Other enactments (click here to return to main)

• In contrast to his actions as commander-in-chief, Lincoln adhered to the Whig theory of the presidency, believing that his powers as president were relatively limited. Lincoln vetoed only four bills passed by Congress, the most important one being the Wade–Davis Bill sponsored by Radical Republicans. He signed the Homestead Act, making millions of acres of government land available for purchase; the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act, which provided government grants for agricultural colleges; and the Pacific Railway Acts, which supported the construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad.
• Other important legislation involved measures to raise revenues for the Federal government: tariffs and the first Federal income tax.
• Lincoln presided over the creation of a strong financial network in the country through the National Banking Act, which also established a national currency. In 1862, Congress created the Department of Agriculture.
• After the Dakota War of 1862, Lincoln personally reviewed 303 execution warrants for convicted Santee Dakota who were accused of killing innocent farmers, rescinding 264 of them.
• After the editors of the New York World and the Journal of Commerce published false news stories which enabled them to corner the gold market, Lincoln ordered the military to seize the two papers.
• Lincoln is largely responsible for the institution of the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. Lincoln approved the Yosemite Grant enacted by Congress, which provided federal protection for the area now known as Yosemite National Park

^Judicial appointments (click here to return to main)

• Lincoln made five appointments to the Supreme Court who where to have major influence in government policy long after his death: Noah Haynes Swayne, Samuel Freeman Miller, David Davis, Stephen Johnson Field, and in 1864, Chief Justice Salmon Portland Chase.
• Including his Supreme Court appointments, Lincoln appointed 32 federal judges and 27 judges to the United States district courts.

^States admitted to the Union (click here to return to main)

• West Virginia contained several counties of northwest Virginia that broke away from Virginia after Virginia seceded from the Union. West Virginia was admitted into the Union as a separate state during the war. Nevada was admitted as a free state in 1864.

Assassination and funeral summary

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• Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, while attending a play at Ford's Theatre as the American Civil War was drawing to a close. The assassination occurred five days after the surrender of Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Booth was a well-known actor and a Confederate spy.
• Lincoln's bodyguard, John Parker, left Ford's Theater during intermission to drink at the saloon next door. The now unguarded President sat in his state box in the balcony. Seizing the opportunity, Booth crept up from behind and at about 10:13 pm, aimed at the back of Lincoln's head and fired at point-blank range. The President was taken across the street to Petersen House. After remaining in a coma for nine hours, Lincoln died at 7:22 am on April 15.
• President Johnson was sworn in at 10:00 am, less than 3 hours after Lincoln's death.
• After laying in state in the East Room and then in the Capitol Rotunda, Lincoln's casket and that of his son Willie were transported in the Lincoln Special funeral train on a slow circuitous waypoint journey from Washington D.C. to Springfield, Illinois, stopping at many cities across the North for large-scale memorials.
• Booth was tracked down to a farm in Virginia after a 12 day hunt, and after refusing to surrender to Union troops, was killed on April 26.

Religious and philosophical beliefs summary

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• As a young man, Lincoln was a religious skeptic. Later in life, Lincoln's frequent use of religious imagery and language may have reflected his own personal beliefs or may have been a device to appeal to his audiences. He never joined a church, although he frequently attended with his wife. However, he was deeply familiar with the Bible, and he both quoted and praised it.
• In the 1840s, Lincoln subscribed to the Doctrine of Necessity, a belief that asserted the human mind was controlled by some higher power. In the 1850s, Lincoln believed in "providence" in a general way, and rarely used the language or imagery of the evangelicals; he regarded the republicanism of the Founding Fathers with an almost religious reverence. In his writings, he is known to have wondered why, from a divine standpoint, the severity of the war was necessary.

Health summary

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• Several claims abound that Lincoln's health was declining before the assassination. One such claim is that he suffered from a rare genetic disorder, MEN2b. Others claim he had Marfan syndrome, based on his tall appearance with spindly fingers. As of 2009^[update], a museum holding tissue samples has refused DNA analysis.

Historical reputation summary

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• In surveys of U.S. scholars ranking presidents conducted since the 1940s, Lincoln is consistently ranked in the top three, often as number one.
• President Lincoln's assassination increased his status to the point of making him a national martyr.
• Lincoln became a favorite exemplar for liberal intellectuals across Europe and Latin America and even in Asia.
• Lincoln's American reputation grew slowly in the late 19th century until the Progressive Era (1900–1920s) when he emerged as one of the most venerated heroes in American history, with even white Southerners in agreement.
• By the 1970s Lincoln had become a hero to political conservatives for his intense nationalism, support for business, his insistence on stopping the spread of human bondage, his acts on behalf of both liberty and tradition, and his devotion to the principles of the Founding Fathers.
• In the late 1960s, some African American intellectuals led by Lerone Bennett Jr. have led a reaction against Lincoln's image as the Great Emancipator. Bennett won wide attention when he called Lincoln a white supremacist. He noted that Lincoln used ethnic slurs, told jokes that ridiculed blacks, opposed social equality, and proposed sending freed slaves to another country. Defenders retort that it is not fair to judge Lincoln by today's standards, and that he was a moral visionary who advanced the abolitionist cause as fast as politically possible.
• In the 21st century, President Barack Obama named Lincoln his favorite president and insisted on using Lincoln's Bible for his swearing in to office at both his inaugurations.

Memory and memorials summary ^(click here to return to main)

• Lincoln's portrait appears on two denominations of United States currency, the penny and the $5 bill. His likeness also appears on many postage stamps and he has been memorialized in many town, city, and county names, including the capital of Nebraska.
• The most famous and most visited memorials include Lincoln's sculpture on Mount Rushmore; Lincoln Memorial, Ford's Theatre, and Petersen House (where he died) in Washington, D.C.; and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois, not far from Lincoln's home, as well as his tomb.
• The United States Navy Template:Sclass- USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) is named after Lincoln, the second Navy ship to bear his name.