Abraham lincoln which president was he

Congressman Lincoln boldly challenged President James Polk's assertion that the Mexicans had started the war by attacking American soldiers on American soil.

In a speech on the House floor, Lincoln scathingly denounced the Polk administration for taking the country to war by misrepresenting the situation to the nation, claiming correctly that the conflict had begun on territory contested by the two sides. It was a blatant and public attack on a popular President by a young unknown congressman from a state that was solidly behind the war. Some of his friends were shocked at Lincoln's bold position, but his stand was common among congressional Whigs.

Lincoln earlier had promised not to run for a second term in order to win the party's nomination over two other aspiring candidates. He also had little chance as a Whig for election as a U. No Whig had ever obtained either position from Illinois. In , intent on keeping his name before the national audience, Lincoln campaigned in Maryland and Massachusetts for Whig presidential candidate Zachary Taylor.

Then he retired to Springfield, where he practiced law from to , becoming one of the more successful lawyers in the state, representing all kinds of clients, including railroad interests. Although elected in again to the state legislature, he promptly resigned to run for the U.

Senate, losing on the ninth ballot in the state legislature which in those days chose U. After his defeat, Lincoln abandoned the defunct Whig Party and joined the new Republican Party in This new national party was comprised of many former Whigs who opposed slavery—referred to as "Conscience Whigs"—Free-Soilers, and antislavery Democrats. The Republicans took a firm stand against slavery. They were dedicated to the repeal of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the prevention of the further extension of slavery westward.

The new party also demanded the immediate admission of Kansas into the Union as a free state, denounced the Ostend Manifesto, which called for the annexation of Cuba where slavery was legal , and called for federal support of internal improvements-especially the construction of a railroad to the Pacific.

As a favorite-son candidate from Illinois, Lincoln was placed in nomination for vice president but failed to win at the convention in Philadelphia. He thereafter aggressively stumped the state in support of John C. Although the Democratic candidate James Buchanan won the election and carried Illinois, Lincoln's Republican Party did surprisingly well, winning most of the northern counties and 30 percent of the popular vote.

This put him head-to-head in a race with the powerful Senator Stephen A. Douglas, one of Lincoln's rivals from his days in the Illinois state capital, who was running for a third term as a Democrat. There followed a series of seven debates between Lincoln and Douglas in towns across Illinois over the next seventy days. Several factors helped to attract national attention to the campaign battles.

First, Douglas, one of the key figures behind the Compromise of , enjoyed a reputation as the "Little Giant" of the Democratic Party and its best stump speaker. Second, the national debate over slavery was reaching a boiling point.

During the four years leading up to these historic debates, Americans had witnessed some incredibly violent and explosive events that were sharply dividing the nation.

Responding to the fervor, journalists accompanied the candidates, writing articles detailing the debates and offering editorial commentary that was unprecedented in American political history.

The whole country watched the debates unfold. A leader of the Democratic Party, Douglas had made himself politically vulnerable when he broke with Democratic President James Buchanan and Southern Democrats over the issue of Kansas statehood.

Douglas opposed the admission of Kansas as a slave state under the terms of the controversial, proslavery Lecompton constitution. That constitution, which was widely believed to have been the result of voter fraud by Missouri "border ruffians," would have legalized slavery in the new state. Douglas, hoping to appeal to antislavery Northern Democrats and Republicans, took a popular sovereignty stance and opposed the constitution as unrepresentative of the majority opinion in Kansas.

Enraged Southern Democrats accused Douglas of party treason. Lincoln understood that he would have to take a high moral ground to undermine the temptation of some Republicans to vote for Douglas as a means of dividing the national Democratic Party.

Recognized as one of the most important speeches in American history, his powerful message warned that the crisis over slavery would not be resolved until the nation stood either completely slave or totally free.

He then turned on Douglas by saying that the threat to the nation's unity came principally from Douglas's popular sovereignty perspective. Lincoln envisioned a dozen "Bleeding Kansas" episodes in which settlers fought over the issue of slavery in order to get the upper hand in the territories. Furthermore, Lincoln charged Douglas with being part of secret cabal to extend slavery to the free states.

He boldly announced that slavery was simply immoral and had to be dealt with forthrightly by the U. For Lincoln, slavery violated the fundamental assertion of the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal. He argued that its continued existence and support in the nation ran counter to the wishes of the founding fathers. Ultimately, only the power of the federal government could resolve the issue by extinguishing slavery from the nation.

Although Lincoln contended that there existed no constitutional way of interfering with slavery where it presently existed, he believed that it should not be allowed to expand westward. For him, the matter was a question of right and wrong, with Douglas indifferent to a moral wrong. Douglas met the challenge by trying to portray Lincoln as a radical abolitionist. He disagreed with Lincoln's claim that the founding fathers had opposed slavery, pointing out that many of them, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, had owned slaves.

He played down the moral issue in favor of his commitment to a Jacksonian egalitarianism for white Americans, saying that the power to decide about the existence of slavery should be left to each community and on the local level. And he argued that slavery in any case would never survive outside of the South for simple economic reasons. Douglas asserted in his Freeport Doctrine delivered at Freeport, Illinois that the people could keep slavery out of their territories.

Lincoln did not see direct combat during the short conflict, but the sight of corpse-strewn battlefields at Stillman's Run and Kellogg's Grove deeply affected him. As a captain, he developed a reputation for pragmatism and integrity. Once, faced with a rail fence during practice maneuvers and forgetting the parade-ground instructions to direct his men over it, he simply ordered them to fall out and reassemble on the other side a minute later.

Another time, he stopped his men before they executed a wandering Native American as a spy. Stepping in front of their raised muskets, Lincoln is said to have challenged his men to combat for the terrified native's life.

His men stood down. After the war, he studied law and campaigned for a seat on the Illinois State Legislature. Although not elected in his first attempt, Lincoln persevered and won the position in , serving as a Whig. Only one lived to adulthood.

The deep melancholy that pervaded the Lincoln family, with occasional detours into outright madness, is in some ways sourced in their close relationship with death. Lincoln, a self-described "prairie lawyer," focused on his all-embracing law practice in the early s after one term in Congress from to He joined the new Republican party—and the ongoing argument over sectionalism—in A series of heated debates in with Stephen A.

Douglas , the sponsor of the Kansas-Nebraska Act , over slavery and its place in the United States forged Lincoln into a prominent figure in national politics.

On November 6, , Lincoln won the presidential election without the support of a single Southern state. Talk of secession, bandied about since the s, took on a serious new tone. Rather, he felt it was his sacred duty as President of the United States to preserve the Union at all costs. His first inaugural address was an appeal to the rebellious states, seven of which had already seceded, to rejoin the nation.

On November 19, , Lincoln delivered what would become his most famous speech and one of the most important speeches in American history, the Gettysburg Address. Addressing a crowd of around 15, people, Lincoln delivered his word speech at one of the bloodiest battlefields of the Civil War, the Gettysburg National Cemetery in Pennsylvania.

The Civil War, Lincoln said, was the ultimate test of the preservation of the Union created in , and the people who died at Gettysburg fought to uphold this cause. A common interpretation was that the President was expanding the cause of the Civil War from simply reunifying the Union to also fighting for equality and abolishing slavery. But by , the Confederate armies had eluded major defeat and Lincoln was convinced he'd be a one-term president.

His nemesis, George B. McClellan , the former commander of the Army of the Potomac, challenged him for the presidency, but the contest wasn't even close. Lincoln received 55 percent of the popular vote and of Electoral votes. On April 9, , General Robert E. The Civil War was for all intents and purposes over. Reconstruction has already began during the Civil War as early as in areas firmly under Union military control, and Lincoln favored a policy of quick reunification with a minimum of retribution.

He was confronted by a radical group of Republicans in the Senate and House that wanted complete allegiance and repentance from former Confederates. Before a political debate had any chance to firmly develop, Lincoln was assassinated. He was taken to the Petersen House across the street and laid in a coma for nine hours before dying the next morning.

His death was mourned by millions of citizens in the North and South alike. Lincoln's body lay in state at the U. Capitol before a funeral train took him back to his final resting place in Springfield, Illinois. Lincoln is frequently cited by historians and average citizens alike as America's greatest president. An aggressively activist commander-in-chief, Lincoln used every power at his disposal to assure victory in the Civil War and end slavery in the United States. Some scholars doubt that the Union would have been preserved had another person of lesser character been in the White House.

According to historian Michael Burlingame, "No president in American history ever faced a greater crisis and no president ever accomplished as much. Lincoln's philosophy was perhaps best summed up in this Second Inaugural Address, when he stated, "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Subscribe to the Biography newsletter to receive stories about the people who shaped our world and the stories that shaped their lives. Ulysses S. Grant served as U. Robert Todd Lincoln was an American lawyer and secretary of war best known as the first-born son of President Abraham Lincoln.

William Seward was a New York governor and U. James Garfield is best known as the 20th president of the United States. He was assassinated after only a few months in office. Thaddeus Stevens, a member of the U. House of Representatives during Abraham Lincoln's presidency, fought to abolish slavery and helped draft the 14th Amendment during Reconstruction. James Buchanan was the 15th president of the United States. He served from to , during the build-up to the Civil War. Jefferson Davis was a 19th century U.

Dwight D. Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States. He preserved the Union during the U. Civil War and brought about the emancipation of slaves. Olivia Rodrigo —. Megan Thee Stallion —. Bowen Yang —.