Lincoln Home National Historic Site ⓘ

Abraham Lincoln is considered one of the nation's greatest presidents. As a nation is often judged by its heroes, so America should be judged by the character of Abraham Lincoln.

Why? In the 21 st Century why should we honor Abraham Lincoln? The easy answer is Abraham Lincoln “Saved the Union” and “Freed the Slaves.” But what did that really entail? For Lincoln “Saving the Union” and “Freeing the Slaves” were linked together; “The Union must be preserved in the purity of its principles as well as the integrity of its territorial parts” he once proclaimed. One historian has explained the link between Union and Principles in a story similar to this: Lincoln thought of the United States as a train, a train with 34 cars [there were 34 states in the Union when Lincoln was inaugurated]. If the train was pulled apart, if some of the cars tried to leave the train the cars would overturn losing their cargo. For Lincoln the “cargo” the Union carried was the Principles of the Declaration of Independence: The principles of democracy, liberty, and equality. So in saving the Union Lincoln felt he was saving the Principles of the Declaration of Independence for his generation and for future generations. Lincoln knew that in his time true democracy did not exist in the United States because not every citizen could vote. The nearly four million slaves certainly didn’t have liberty. And not all, including women, had equality of opportunity. But Lincoln felt that if the Union was preserved eventually improvements would be made so that all citizens could vote, all people would enjoy liberty and opportunity. This is reflected in this Lincoln sentiment, “I say in relation to the principle that all men are created equal, let it be nearly reached as we can.”

What? What should we remember about Abraham Lincoln? We should remember Abraham Lincoln’s deeds and words. President Lincoln could have chosen to allow the original seven seceding states to leave the Union. Or he could have compromised and allowed slavery to expand to some or all of the western states or even the whole United Sates so the seven states would change their mind about secession. He could have retracted his statement that slavery was morally wrong and should be put on a course of ultimate extinction, therefore, removing, the statement that insulted so many in the seceding states. He didn’t have to call for 75,000 volunteers to put down the insurrection after Fort Sumter was fired upon. He could have continued to fight the Civil War without issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. He could have, as many recommend, rescinded the Emancipation Proclamation when the War was going poorly for the United Sates of America. He could have agreed to an end of the Civil War leaving the slaves in bondage. He didn’t have to use all the might of office of President to influence Congressman to pass the 13 th Amendment to the Constitution outlawing slavery. In each of these situations Abraham Lincoln had a choice; Lincoln always chose saving the union with the purity of its principles . These are just some of the deeds we should remember him for. While Lincoln’s words are everywhere maybe this statement that defines what the United States should be is his most lasting influence, “This is essentially a People's contest. On the side of the Union, it is a struggle for maintaining in the world, that form, and substance of government, whose leading object is, to elevate the condition of men---to lift artificial weights from all shoulders---to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all---to afford all, an unfettered start, and a fair chance, in the race of life . Yielding to partial, and temporary departures, from necessity, this is the leading object of the government for whose existence we contend.”

How? How do we honor Abraham Lincoln? There are six units in the National Park Service wholly or partially dedicated to Abraham Lincoln: Abraham Lincoln National Historic Site, Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, Lincoln Home National Historic Site, Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site, the Lincoln Memorial, and Mount Rushmore National Monument. In Illinois alone there are 10 State Historic Sites dedicated to Abraham Lincoln. Kentucky, Indiana, and other states also have state administered sites dedicated to Abraham Lincoln. There are also a number of sites in private hands that are dedicated to Abraham Lincoln. There is a statue of Abraham Lincoln in Edinburgh, Scotland; another in Manchester, England; still another on Westminster Square in London, England; nine statues or busts in Washington D. C.; four statues or busts in Gettysburg, PA; at least seven statues or busts in Springfield, IL; three in Hollywood, CA; and countless others around the world. There are also numerous cities, counties, schools, universities, housing sub-divisions, and businesses named for Abraham Lincoln.

On August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King, Jr. began his ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech with these words: “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.”

McPherson, James. 1991. Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution . New York: Oxford University Press.

McPherson, James. 1991. “Who Freed the Slaves?” Abraham Lincoln and the Crucible of War: Papers from the Sixth Annual Lincoln Colloquium. Springfield, Illinois: Lincoln Home NHS.

Boritt, Gabor. 1978. Abraham Lincoln and the Politics of the American Dream . Memphis, TN: Memphis State University Press.

It is in Abraham Lincoln’s home on 8 th & Jackson streets that Abraham Lincoln raised a family, saw three of his children born, and one of them pass away. A house is not a home without a family, and this was certainly true of the Lincoln Home. In this house, Abraham Lincoln lived here with his wife, Mary Todd, and his sons--Robert, Edward (“Eddie”), William (“Willie”), and Thomas (“Tad”). Learn more about the Lincoln Family in the resources below!

Intelligent, ambitious, and often misunderstood, Mary Lincoln remains one of the most famous first ladies today. Learn more about Mary and her relationship with the 16th president:

Robert Todd Lincoln was the first-born son of Abraham and Mary Lincoln. Born in 1843, he was the only child of the Lincolns to reach adulthood and grew to lead a successful career in law, business, and government. Although never as famous as his father, Robert Lincoln left his own mark on the country.

The Lincolns' second child, Eddie, was born in 1846 but sadly only lived a few years before passing away in the Lincoln Home. Because he passed away at a young age, little is known about Eddie, but his death still had a profound impact on the future president of the United States.

The third son of the Lincoln family, Willie was born in December of 1850. Willie was known as a intelligent and mature child, although he still got in his share of pranks with his younger brother, Tad. Willie died in the White House at age 11, causing much grief for the Lincoln family.

In addition to Abraham, Mary, and the children, sometimes individuals who were hired to help with chores and tasks around the house also lived in the Lincoln Home. These individuals, often young women, are known as the "hired girls." These girls did everything from cooking, cleaning, and serving to childcare and laundry.

Abraham Lincoln's love of animals was famous during his lifetime and was known by many firends to adore animals and treat them kindly. It is no surprise then that were quite a few animals in the Lincoln household, from dogs to cats to horses.

Abraham Lincoln was born as the son of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks. His mother passed away when he was very young, and his father remarried to Sarah Bush Johnson, who although she was not his birth mother, developed a very close relationship with Lincoln. Learn more about Abraham Lincoln's parents:

The United States Constitution was created in 1787 as the framework for American government. Seventy four years later, that framework threatened to crumble as several states seceded from the rest of the country. The resulting Civil War tested the Constitution, as both the north and the south interpreted the document to defend their moral, social, and political opinions. The task of preserving the Union and holding the American framework together thus fell onto the shoulders of one man: President Abraham Lincoln.

During Abraham Lincoln’s early political career, he stated that he was not an abolitionist and believed that the United States Constitution protected slavery where it already existed. But, he also believed that the Founding Fathers had paved the way for the ultimate extinction of slavery by preventing its spread to new territories. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, passed by Congress in 1854, made it possible for slavery to spread into western territories by allowing the residents of those areas to vote on whether or not to permit slavery (the idea of popular sovereignty). Lincoln did not agree with this new legislation and began to speak out against the morality of slavery. With Lincoln’s election as President of the United States in 1860, southern states believed that his opposition to the spread of slavery would ultimately break the economic backbone of the south. Stating the “frequent violations of the Constitution of the United States, by the Federal Government, and its encroachments upon the reserved rights of the States,” as reason for secession, South Carolina officially left the Union on December 24, 1860. Eventually ten more states would follow. A myriad of questions dominated political discussion: Did states have a Constitutional right to seceed? Did the President have the authority to interfere with the institution of slavery? And when Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, what Constitutional liberties could the President take in attempting to quell the rebellion?

One of the most controversial things Lincoln did while he was President involved the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus: a Constitutional guarantee of one’s right to take legal action against unlawful detention. On April 27, 1861, in an attempt to quell the southern rebellion, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus for “disloyal persons” who could not be “adequately restrained by the ordinary processes of law.” Though the Constitution states that the “privilege of the writ of habeas corpus” may be suspended in “cases of rebellion or invasion,” many believed that President Lincoln had gone too far without Congressional approval.

Abraham Lincoln held the utmost respect for the Constitution, and believed that any of his controversial actions in relation to the Constitution were necessary for the preservation of the Union during the extraordinary times of the Civil War. Throughout his career he spoke of the importance of the Constitution. 1856 “Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.” 1858 “[The prosperity of the United States] is not the result of accident. It has a philosophic cause. Without the Constitution and the Union , we could not have attained the result.” 1861 “I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that struggle was made.”

President Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, and then on January 1, 1863, issued the official Emancipation Proclamation declaring freedom for the slaves in ten Confederate states. Lincoln, anticipating backlash challenging his authority on the matter, issued the Executive Order by his authority as “Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy,” cited under Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution.

Abraham Lincoln feared that the Emancipation Proclamation would be regarded as merely a temporary war measure and may not be honored after the end of the Civil War. To permanently abolish slavery in the United States, the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was proposed on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865. Though the amendment was not ratified until after his death in April 1865, President Lincoln enthusiastically added his signature to the Congressional resolution passed on February 1, 1865.

With the Emancipation Proclamation and Thirteenth Amendment, President Lincoln initiated a course of events that would eventually lead to the Constitutional protection of equal rights for former slaves. The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified on July 9, 1868, ensured that all former slaves were granted automatic United States citizenship and that they would have all of the rights and privileges enjoyed by any other citizen.

Loopholes in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments were exploited by those wanting to limit the liberties of newly-freed slaves. In an attempt to close these loopholes, Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution on February 26, 1869. The amendment, which was ratified on February 3, 1870, specified that United States citizens could not be denied the right to vote based on “race, color, or previous conditions of servitude.”

Today we most often see Lincoln in the form of larger-than-life statues, such as this one that sits in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. Yet through most of his life Lincoln was just one of many frontier boys, or militia members, or attorneys, or, as he was in 1809, just one of many Americans entering the world on the frontier of a young nation.

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 near Hodgenville Kentucky, in a one room log cabin. It had a dirt floor and no glass windows. Lincoln was the second of three children born to Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. Lincoln's older sister, Sarah, was born in 1807 and his younger brother, Thomas, who died in infancy, was born in 1812. Abraham Lincoln was the first president born in a log cabin, and the first born outside the original thirteen states.

Lincoln's father was a farmer who spent much of his life on the frontier continually pushing west for better opportunities. Lincoln lived with his family on the farm of his birth until 1811 when they moved several miles away to a farm on Knob Creek.

The Lincoln family stayed on the Knob Creek place another five years until December 1816 when they moved approximately 90 miles to the northwest, to southern Indiana. As Lincoln wrote later in life: "This removal was partly on account of slavery; but chiefly on account of the difficulty in land titles in Ky."

Abraham, though very young, was large of his age and had an axe put into his hands at once; and from that till within his twentythird year, he was almost constantly handling that most useful instrument -- less, of course, in plowing and harvesting seasons.

As for education, Lincoln found that "There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for eduction" and, as for the teachers, he wrote that "no qualification was ever required of a teacher, beyond readin', writin', and cipherin', to the Rule of Three."

On October 5, 1818, Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks, died of "Milk Sickness" an often terminal illness that occurred when one drank the milk from a cow that had eaten a toxic plant -- white snakeroot. Lincoln was only nine years old when she died, and he wrote little about her. When he referred to her in later years, he described her as his "Angel Mother," that is, his deceased mother. The death of Lincoln's mother left young Lincoln and his sister responsible for the great amount of work involved with maintaining a frontier home and farm.

On December 2, 1819, Thomas Lincoln married again to widow Sarah Bush Johnston and returned home with his new wife and her three children. "She proved a good and kind mother to A[braham]." The new Lincoln family continued to farm and the children attended school when they could. Lincoln later recalled that he "went to A.B.C. schools by littles" and 'the agregate of all his schooling did not amount to one year."

Tragedy again befell the Lincoln family on January 20, 1828 when Lincoln's sister Sarah, who had married Arron Grigsby in 1826, died while in childbirth. Lincoln experienced the death of two close family members within ten years of one another on this harsh frontier. It was also in Indiana that "in his tenth year he [Lincoln] was kicked by a horse, and apparently killed for a time." but, after several minutes, Lincoln regained consciousness.

The following year Lincoln again hired himself out to take a flat boat to New Orleans. He completed the trip in July 1831. Upon his return, he moved to New Salem, Illinois to live on his own for the first time. Within a year of Lincoln's arrival at New Salem, he began his political career by campaigning for the Illinois state legislature. But his campaign was interrupted when he joined other volunteers in the 31st Regiment, Illinois Militia, formed to quell an Indian uprising.

The company elected Lincoln as their captain and Lincoln later recalled that "he has not since had any success in life which gave him so much satisfaction." Lincoln traveled throughout northern Illinois during his four-month service in the Black Hawk War and had "a good many bloody struggles with the musquetoes; and, although I never fainted from loss of blood, I can truly say I was often very hungry."

Upon his return to New Salem in July 1832, Lincoln made a last minute attempt to win the legislative seat but he came in eighth out of thirteen candidates. In 1833 he invested in a New Salem store, with William Berry as his partner. Later that year, he was appointed postmaster of New Salem.

In 1834 he took up land surveying and won his first election to public office as a representative in the Illinois legislature. Lincoln was reelected in 1836 and it was during this time, under the persuasion of John Todd Stewart, that Lincoln began to study law.

It was also during the New Salem years that Lincoln's first associations with women are recorded. The best known was his relationship with Ann Rutledge. While there are variations, the core of the story consists of the following: Lincoln and Rutledge became romantically involved sometime after Ann's fiancée, a Mr. McNamara, went back east to tend to family business. In the summer of 1835, nearly three years after McNamara's departure, Ann died of what was referred to as a "brain fever," either typhoid or malaria. The degree of Lincoln's grief following Ann's death is debated and ranges from his wanting to be buried with her, to stating that his heart is buried with her, to feeling sad at the loss of a friend. Another, better documented, romance of Lincoln's during this time was his relationship with Mary Owens. Lincoln proposed to Owens in the fall of 1837, but much to his relief she turned him down. She later recalled that "Mr. Lincoln was deficient in those little links which make up the great chain of womans happiness."

While Lincoln didn't have much luck in his romantic life, his political fortunes continued to succeed. In February 1837, the Illinois legislature approved the transfer of the Illinois capital from Vandalia to Springfield. This move was the culmination of intense political efforts by Lincoln and other Springfield area legislators, known collectively as the "Long Nine," all of whom--like Lincoln--were over six feet tall.

Lincoln moved to Springfield in April of 1837 and began practicing law with John T. Stuart. He roomed with Springfield merchant Joshua Speed above Speed's downtown store and developed what would become a life-long friendship. For the next several years, Lincoln continued to practice law and was reelected to the Illinois legislature in 1838 and again in 1840.

During this time Lincoln also began courting Mary Ann Todd. Mary was from Lexington, Kentucky and was in Springfield visiting her sister Elizabeth Todd Edwards. Lincoln and Mary became engaged but the wedding was called off on "the fatal first of January," 1841, which threw Lincoln into a severe depression.

Lincoln and Mary both stayed in Springfield for over a year, but avoided each other, until mutual friends brought them back together. They courted in secret until the day of the their wedding, November 4, 1842, when they were married at the home of Elizabeth and Ninian Edwards, Mary's sister and brother in law. Lincoln later corresponded to a friend saying "Nothing new here, except my marrying, which to me, is matter of profound wonder."

The newlyweds moved into a rooming house known as the Globe Tavern in downtown Springfield. Their first son, Robert Todd Lincoln, was born in the Globe on August 1, 1843. Robert was the only one of their sons who lived beyond the age of eighteen.

After Robert's birth, the Lincoln family briefly lived in a rented house in downtown Springfield, and on May 1, 1844 moved into a small 1 1/2-story cottage at the corner of Eighth and Jackson Streets. This would be the only home Lincoln ever owned. Two years later, on March 10, 1846, Lincoln's second son, Edward Baker Lincoln was born.

Lincoln continued his legal and political careers and traveled extensively throughout central Illinois on the Eighth Judicial Circuit. As a circuit-riding attorney, Lincoln was better able to make a name for himself as an attorney and politician.

Lincoln and Stuart dissolved their partnership in April 1841 and Lincoln formed a partnership with Stephen T. Logan. The firm of Logan and Lincoln continued until 1844, when the firm was dissolved amicably because Logan wished to bring his son into the firm.

In 1844 Lincoln became the senior partner of the law firm of Lincoln & Herndon with William H. Herndon. They would continue to actively work as partners until Lincoln's departure in 1861. Although in many law firms the senior partner would receive a majority of the fees, Lincoln operated his firm as a true partnership by splitting the fees equally with Herndon.

In 1846 Lincoln was elected as a representative in the 30th U.S. Congress. The following year Lincoln brought his family with him to Washington for the beginning of his term. Mary and the boys eventually left Washington in part because Lincoln thought Mary "hindered me some in attending to business." A few months later, however, Lincoln wrote that "having nothing but business - no variety" made life "exceedingly tasteless." Lincoln's term in Congress was fairly uneventful and upon its completion he returned to Springfield and his law practice.

In an autobiographical statement, Lincoln later wrote, "Mr. L. was not a candidate for re-election. This was determined upon, and declared before he went to Washington, in accordance with an understanding among whig friends, by which Col. Hardin, and Col. Baker had each previously served a single term in the same District. Upon his return from Congress he went to the practice of the law with greater earnestness than ever before."

On February 1, 1850, Eddie Lincoln died of "consumption," probably tuberculosis, after a fifty-two day illness. A funeral service was held in the Lincolns' parlor the following day. Several days later an anonymously submitted poetic tribute titled "Little Eddie" appeared in the Illinois Daily Journal. Many believe it was written by Abraham Lincoln. The sadness at the loss of Eddie must have been lessened somewhat with the arrival of Lincoln's third son, William Wallace, on December 21, 1850. The family greeted their fourth son, Thomas (Tad) on April 4, 1853.

Since his 1847-49 term in the U.S. Congress, Lincoln had largely devoted himself to his law practice. He had continued to ride the Eighth Circuit, only now he was able to afford to take the train to many of the county seats. Lincoln became one of the most successful and sought after attorneys in the state and his client list was made up of individuals as well as corporations and powerful railroad companies.

This success led to increased prosperity which was reflected in the Lincoln family home which by 1856 had grown to a full two-story house. It was decorated with some of the most stylish furnishings, wallpaper, and draperies available.

The nation's sectional slavery crisis thrust Lincoln back into politics with the 1854 passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This act allowed the inhabitants of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide the slavery issue through election. This in effect repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had admitted Maine as a free state, Missouri as a slave state, and prohibited slavery in the old Louisiana Purchase Territory above 36° 30'. "In 1854, his profession had almost superseded the thought of politics in his mind, when the repeal of the Missouri compromise aroused him as he had never been before." Lincoln took to the stump and was elected to the Illinois legislature in 1854. He resigned that seat, however, so that he could run for the U.S. Senate. The Senate had long been Lincoln's ultimate political goal. Lincoln, however, withdrew his name from consideration and supported another Whig candidate in order to prevent the election of a rival.

Throughout 1855-57, Lincoln continued to practice law, but also traveled extensively giving political speeches. In 1858, he again ran for the U.S. Senate, this time against Stephen A. Douglas. On June 16, 1858 Lincoln accepted the Republican nomination to run against Douglas and delivered his famous "House Divided Speech" in the Illinois state house. "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved---I do not expect the house to fall---but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new---North as well as South."

With that speech Lincoln began what came to be known as the Lincoln-Douglas Debates which included stops at seven communities across the state of Illinois. While Lincoln lost the Senate race to Douglas, he gained valuable exposure that helped propel him to a higher office two years later. He was not convinced of his presidential potential, but admitted, "the taste is in my mouth a little."

On May 18, 1860 he was chosen as the Republican nominee for the presidency and received official notification of his nomination in his Springfield home. Given that the Democratic party was split with three candidates, Lincoln's presidency was all but assured.

Lincoln became the first Republican elected to the presidency on November 4, 1860. He spent the next three months selecting cabinet members, writing his inaugural speech, and greeting numerous well wishers and favor seekers.

He also took time at the end of January 1861 to travel to Coles County, Illinois, to visit his father's grave and to see his stepmother, with whom he had an excellent relationship. He had always referred to her as "Mother" in his letters and he wrote of her--"she proved a good and kind mother."

Back in Springfield, the Lincoln family packed their belongings and made arrangements to rent out their home during their absence. When finally packed, Lincoln wrapped the trunks and wrote on them, "A. Lincoln, The White House, Washington, D.C."

Throughout this hectic time, Lincoln had the weight of the impending crisis of Civil War on his shoulders. South Carolina had seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860. Ultimately twelve states would secede. The Confederacy would include South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Lincoln's inaugural trip to Washington took twelve days during which he made several stops and public appearances. He arrived in Washington on February 23.

On March 3 Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as the sixteenth president of the United States thus beginning what would prove to be the most difficult presidency in history. Even during this time of crisis, Lincoln held out the hope for peace in his inaugural address: "I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and heath-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

This last minute appeal failed to stop the approaching war and on April 12, 1861 Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina was fired upon by the Confederacy. The fort surrendered two days later. In response, Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 volunteers, the first of many calls that Lincoln would make during his presidency. The "House Divided" crisis that Lincoln had predicted two years earlier had come to pass.

Amid the pressures of war and the unending stream of favor seekers, Lincoln found time for his children. His oldest son Robert regularly visited from Harvard College and Willie and Tad were allowed to interrupt meetings at their whim. This was the first time that White House staff had to deal with children in a presidential family and to make matters worse, the Lincolns did not believe in strict discipline. The Lincoln family felt the tragedy of the Civil War in many ways and was especially struck when, on February 20, 1862, their son Willie died in the White House, probably of typhoid fever.

In the summer of 1862 Lincoln had made the decision to issue an emancipation proclamation that would free slaves in the Confederate States. His cabinet suggested that he should wait for a Union victory so that the proclamation did not have the appearance of an act of desperation.

On September 17, 1862, what would prove to be the bloodiest single day of the Civil War, Union General George B. McClellan met Robert E. Lee's Confederate forces at Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland. The following day, Lee began retreating into Virginia.

Five days later Lincoln used his victory as this opportunity to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. The final Proclamation was signed and took effect on January 1, 1863. Lincoln took special pains to write a steady signature so that no one would think that he was not resolved in issuing the document.

"And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons."

On November 2, 1863 Lincoln received an invitation to give a speech at the dedication of a military cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He was not to be the main speaker. Edward Everett was invited a month before Lincoln received his inviation, leaving the President with less than two weeks to prepare his remarks.

Lincoln prepared his "few appropriate remarks" in the White House prior to the November 19 ceremony and added some finishing touches in Gettysburg the night before. Following the two-hour oration from the featured speaker Edward Everett, Lincoln rose and gave his two-minute "Gettysburg Address."

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate - we can not consecrate - we can not hallow - this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Lincoln returned to Washington feeling that his speech was a failure and responded to a letter from Edward Everett with, "I am pleased to know that, in your judgment, the little I did say was not entirely a failure."

Lincoln had decided that he would run for reelection in 1864. On June 8, 1864, the National Union Party (the temporarily renamed Republican Party) nominated Lincoln as their presidential candidate and on November 8, he was overwhelmingly reelected, defeating former General George B. McClellan. However, the outcome had been in great doubt. Lincoln believed his chances were so poor, because of Union military setbacks and the nation's growing war weariness, that on August 23, he wrote a memorandum, folded it so that the contents were not visible, and asked his cabinet members to sign it. They all did without question. After the election one cabinet member asked about the contents of the memo. Lincoln had written: "This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he can not possibly save it afterwards."

By the time Lincoln gave his Second Inaugural Address on March 4, 1865, Union victory was all but assured and Lincoln used the inaugural address to begin to reunite the nation. "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."

Now that Lincoln had guided the country through the Civil War, he began to concentrate on reconstruction of the Union and life with his family following the presidency. On April 14th he and Mary took a carriage ride and talked of the future. He seemed more cheerful than he had been in a long time.

Later that evening Lincoln and Mary attended a play at Ford's Theatre. At 10:30 p.m. southern sympathizer John Wilkes Booth entered the presidential theater box, put a derringer pistol to the back of Lincoln's head, and fired.

Lincoln was immediately taken to the Petersen House, a rooming house across the street from the theater. He remained alive for nearly nine hours after being shot, although he was unconscious the entire time. On April 15, 1865, at 7:22 a.m., Abraham Lincoln died. He was the first American president to be assassinated.

A shocked nation was thrown into mourning. On April 21, after funeral services in Washington, the Lincoln funeral train, with Lincoln's remains and those of his son Willie, departed Washington and began a 12-day trip back to Springfield.

The funeral train reversed Lincoln's 1861 inaugural train route to bring him back home. The citizens of the United States responded with a variety of gestures to express their feelings of grief. Throughout the nation, eulogies were given, poems and songs were written, artwork was produced, and cities located along the funeral train route were draped in black. Each city hoped to outdo the others in its attempt to show the rest of the nation how much it felt the loss of the president. The Lincoln funeral train arrived in Springfield on May 3rd and Lincoln's remains were laid in state in representative's hall of the statehouse, where he had given his "House Divided" speech seven years earlier.

At 11:30 a.m. the following day, the Lincoln funeral procession, led by Lincoln's horse "Old Bob," left the statehouse and passed buildings associated with Lincoln's life--including the Lincoln home--on its way to Oak Ridge Cemetery.

Lincoln's remains, along with the remains of Willie, were laid to rest in a temporary vault. The dramatic sixteen day funeral had come to an end. Six years later, Lincoln's, Willie's, and Tad's remains were transfered to a new tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery.

Tragedy continued to befall the Lincolns after 1865. Tad died in 1871 and Mary passed away in 1882. But Robert lived until 1926 and was alive and present in 1922, to witness the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial. And the Lincoln Memorial was just one of many memorials dedicated to the memory of the 16th President. Historic sites, libraries, and museums, including Lincoln Home National Historic Site, receive visitors from across the nation and the world.

"Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible." These determined words of advice were given to General Grant as reassurance and approval of his costly plans for defeat of the Confederate army from a war-weary President Lincoln, just months before the 1864 presidential election that seemed unwinnable at the time.

The last year of the Civil War brings to mind a turn in fortunes for the Union and for the retreating Confederate army--of Lincoln planning for reconstruction as General Grant finishes the war by crushing Lee's rag-tag force. What adds an even more fascinating twist to the chain of events is that a national presidential election was held in the midst of Civil War.

A work of fiction couldn't be written to match the events of the American Civil War. Especially when one considers the way Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant came together from obscurity to end the nation's bloodiest conflict. This essay will take a closer look at the events that brought these two leaders to prominence and how they worked and thought in concert to achieve their goals--victory in the 1864 election and victory in the war.

Illinois attorney Abraham Lincoln's 1860 election to the presidency was the result of the nation's turmoil. Lincoln was outraged at the passage of the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act. Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas championed this law as a way to end the ongoing debate in Congress on whether to admit states as free states or slave states.

According to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the people living in the Kansas and Nebraska territories could decide whether Kansas and Nebraska entered the Union as slave states or free states. This was also known as popular sovreignty. Lincoln opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act because he believed that Congress had already prohibited slavery from these territories. Lincoln saw this, and the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision, as steps toward the nationalism of slavery.

In an autobiographical statement, Lincoln wrote in the third person of his reaction to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, "In 1854, his profession had almost superseded the thought of politics in his mind, when the repeal of the Missouri compromise aroused him as he had never been before." His law partner, William Herndon, described Lincoln as being "astounded," "thunderstruck," and "stunned" when he heard of the Act.

Throughout 1855-57, Lincoln traveled extensively giving political speeches. On June 16, 1858, he accepted the Republican nomination to run against incumbent Stephen A. Douglas for the U.S. Senate, and delivered his famous "House Divided Speech" in the Illinois state house: "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved--I do not expect the house to fall--but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new--North as well as South."

With that speech, the famous Lincoln-Douglas Debates commenced. They included stops at seven communities across the State of Illinois. In November, Lincoln lost the senate race to Douglas, but he later wrote: "I am glad that I made the last race. It gave me a hearing on the great and durable question of the age, which I could have had in no other way; and though I now sink out of view, and shall be forgotten, I believe I have made some marks which will tell for the cause of liberty long after I am gone."

Building on the national popularity that he gained in the debates, Lincoln spent the next two years giving speeches throughout the country. Gradually, he began to have the prominence of a presidential candidate. But, Lincoln was not entirely convinced of his presidential potential, although he did admit, "the taste is in my mouth a little."

On May 18, 1860 Abraham Lincoln was chosen by the Republican Party to be its presidential nominee. With the Democratic Party split among two presidential candidates and an additional candidate running, Lincoln's presidential election was all but assured.

While Lincoln was observing events from his home in Springfield, Illinois during the 1860 campaign, Ulysses S. Grant was clerking at his father's leather goods store in Galena, Illinois.

After having attended West Point from 1839-1843, Grant saw military action in the 1846-48 Mexican War and spent the next several years in mundane service at several remote military outposts. Grant resigned his commission in 1854, and worked a variety of jobs including farming a portion of his father-in-law's St. Louis farm.

In 1860 Grant and his family moved to Galena. In his memoirs, Grant wrote of the 1860 election: "It was evident, from the time of the Chicago nomination to the close of the canvass, that the election of the Republican candidate would be the signal for some of the Southern States to secede. I still had hopes that the four years which had elapsed since the first nomination of Presidential candidate by party distinctly opposed to slavery extension, had given time for the extreme pro-slavery sentiment to cool down; for the Southerners to think well before they took the awful leap which they had so vehemently threatened. But I was mistaken."

Republican Abraham Lincoln received 40% of the popular vote to northern Democrat Stephen A. Douglas' 29%, southern Democrat John C. Breckenridge's 18%, and Constitutional Union John Bell's 13%.

Lincoln left Springfield, Illinois on February 11, 1861 and arrived in Washington, D.C. on February 23. On March 3 he was inaugurated as the sixteenth President of the United States, beginning one of the most difficult presidencies in American history. Even during this time of crisis, Lincoln extended a message of peace in his inaugural address: "I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

This last-minute appeal failed to stop the approaching war. On April 12, 1861 southern forces fired upon Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. The fort surrendered two days later. In response, Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 volunteers. The "House Divided" crisis that Lincoln had predicted two years earlier had come to pass.

Grant recalled that a company of volunteers was raised in Galena and, while he declined a captaincy, he offered his services by overseeing the company's drill and escorted the group to Springfield. Once at the state capitol, Grant felt that he had completed his duties and was preparing to return to Galena when Illinois Governer Yates convinced him to assist in the Illinois Adjutant-General's office. Grant's military experience came in handy for the state of Illinois and he remained in state service until Lincoln's call for 300,000 more troops in July of 1862. At this time, Grant ended his state service and enlisted in the federal army.

Once at the state capitol, Grant felt that he had completed his duties and was preparing to return to Galena when Illinois Governer Yates convinced him to assist in the Illinois Adjutant-General's office. Grant's military experience came in handy for the state of Illinois and he reamined in state service until Lincoln's call for 300,000 more troops in July of 1862. At this time, Grant ended his state service and enlisted in the federal army.

Over the course of the next several years Grant steadily moved up in rank. His western theater victories at Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, and Vicksburg won the appreciation and admiration of the nation and President Lincoln. But while Grant was steadily moving up in rank by winning battle after battle, on the eastern front, Lincoln was constantly replacing generals.

In the summer of 1861, General Irvin McDowell led the Union soldiers south from Washington, D.C. with all expectations that it would be a ninety day war. McDowell's devastating defeat at the Battle of First Manassas on July 21, 1861, ended that notion and left Lincoln to search for a new general.

Lincoln's next choice, General George B. McClellan, displayed remarkable organizational skill in forming a new army - The Army of the Potomac. Unfortunately, his tactical skill was not as impressive. McClellan's campaign against Richmond, Virginia, although successful in moving the Army within twenty miles of the Confederate capital, ended with withdrawal to the banks of the James River where the advance had begun, and eventually a full withdrawal back to Maryland.

After McClellan's failed Penninsula Campaign, General John Pope attempted to take Richmond by advancing, not from the east as McClellan had, but from the north. He failed too. The Confederate General Robert E. Lee defeated him at the Second Battle of Manassas, although Lee had 10,000 fewer soldiers under his command.

Against the recommendations of some of his cabinet members, Lincoln re-appointed McClellan to command of the Army of the Potomac. In September of 1862, McClellan successfully defeated Lee at Antietam, although he failed to pursue Lee as Lincoln had wished, causing the President to remove McClellan from command again.

On Novemer 7, 1862, Lincoln gave the command of the army to General Ambrose Burnside. Burnside considered himself unfit to command the army, and in practice, this proved true. At the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Union Army reported 13,000 casualties while the Confederates had suffered less than 5,000.

In early 1863, the President appointed Joseph Hooker to command of the army. Lincoln wrote him: "I have heard, in such as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the Army and the Government needed a Dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those generals who gain successes, can set up dictators. What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship." The risk proved relatively small. Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson handily defeated the Army of the Potomac under Hooker's command at the Battle of Chancellorsville.

On June 28, 1863, Lincoln appointed George Gordon Meade to command the Army of the Potomac. Although Meade had achieved victory at the decisive Battle of Gettysburg, his failure to pursue the Confederates as they retreated exasperated Lincoln. In the Spring of 1864, Lincoln made one final change.

In the Spring of 1864, Lincoln had Congress revive the rank of Lieutenant General, a rank last held by George Washington. Lincoln appointed Grant to this rank, and in the summer of 1864, although Meade remained with the Army of the Potomac, it was Grant who now decided the course and tactics of those Union soldiers. Lincoln's promotion of Grant was the culmination of a growing confidence in this general. As early as 1862 when Grant received criticism for the heavy losses at Shiloh, Lincoln responded, "I can't spare this man, he fights!" However, along with saving the Union, there was another issue that Lincoln and Grant considered crucial: the issue of slavery.

Slavery, the divisive issue that thrust the nation into the Civil War, remained contenious throughout the conflict, and was very much a part of the national conversation. Both Grant's and Lincon's views on the need for, and timing of emancipation coincided closely.

Grant included his views on abolition in a November, 1861 letter to his father: "My inclination is to whip the rebellion into submission, preserving all constitutional rights. If it cannot be whipped in any other way than through a war against slavery, let it come to that legitimately. If it is necessary that slavery should fall that the Republic may continue its existence. Let slavery go. But the portion of the press that advocates the beginning of such war now, are as great enemies to their country as if they were open and avowed secessionists."

Lincoln wrote a response to New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley on August 22, 1862, a response almost identical in sentiment to Grant's: "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any 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 and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union."

Early in the war, Lincoln only wanted to restore the Union, but he continued to push for compensated emancipation with colonization. By the summer of 1862 Lincoln told a group of border state representatives: "If the war continue long, as it must, if the object be not sooner attained, the institution in your states will be extinguished by mere friction and abrasion--by mere incidents of the war. It will be gone, and you will have nothing valuable in lieu of it. Much of it's value is gone already. How much better to thus save the money which else we sink forever in the war. How much better for you, as seller, and the nation as buyer, to sell out, and buy out, that without which the war could never have been, than to sink both the thing to be sold, and the price of it, in cutting one another's throats."

The border state delegation rejected Lincoln's proposal, but the President was undertaking an alternative course of action. He had already drafted an Emancipation Proclamation that would free slaves in the Confederate States. Lincoln read the proclamation to his cabinet on July 22nd, and one member, Secretary of State William Seward, recommended that he wait for a Union victory. Lincoln took Seward's advice and waited.

Lincoln waited two months until September 17, 1862, the bloodiest single day of the Civil War, when the Union forces halted the Confederates at a creek named Antietam. The Confederates retreated south of the Potomac and five days later, Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. The final one was signed and took effect on January 1, 1863.

As with other issues and questions of the war, Grant agreed with Lincoln about emancipation, although he evaluated it with a decidedly military slant. In August 1863 he wrote Lincoln: "I have given the subject of arming the negro my hearty support. This with the emancipation of the negro, is the heaviest blow yet to the Confederacy. The South rave a great deal about it and profess to be very angry. But they were united in their action before and with the negro under subjection could spare their entire white population for the field. Now they complain that nothing can be got out of their negroes."

Grant wrote further: "By arming the negro we have added a powerful ally. They will make good soldiers and taking them from the enemy weaken him in the same proportion they strengthen us. I am therefore most decidedly in favor of pushing this policy to the enlistment of a force sufficient to hold all the South falls into our hands and to aid in capturing more."

These sentiments, combined with Grant's military successes led to his eventual selection as General-in-Chief by Lincoln. Ironically, the military success that gave him the most prominence occurred at the same time as the Union victory at Gettysburg, although Grant was hundreds of miles away trying to capture Vicksburg. The Vicksburg siege had come at the end of a seven month military campaign. Some criticised Grant, but Lincoln defended him, "Whether Gen. Grant shall or shall not consumate the capture of Vicksburg, his campaign from the beginning of this month up to the twenty second day of it, is one of the most brilliant in the world."

On July 4, the day after the Battle of Gettysburg concluded, Confederate General Pemberton surrendered his force to General Grant. The surrender was a stunning victory for the Union: the Federals gained control of the vital Mississippi River, and captured thousands of Confederate soldiers.

Following the victory at Vicksburg, Lincoln wrote Grant: "I do not remember that you and I ever met personally. I write this now as a grateful acknowledgement for the almost inestimable service you have done the country. I wish to say a word further. When you first reached the vicinity of Vicksburg, I thought you should do, what you finally did - march the troops across the neck, run the batteries with the transports, and thus go below; and I never had any faith, except a general hope that you knew better than I, that the Yazoo Pass expedition, and the like, could succeed. When you got below, and took Port-Gibson, Grand Gulf, and vicinity, I thought you should go down the river and join Gen. Banks; and when you turned Northward East of the Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. I now wish to make the personal acknowledgment that you were right and I was wrong."

Lincoln, well aware of the differences in performance between the eastern and western armies, wanted to place Grant in command of the entire Union Army. Prior to this appointment, however, he wanted some assurances that Grant would not do what his predecessor McClellan was doing--run for the Presidency.

Talk of Grant's candidacy was circulating in both parties and there was some enthusiasm for this successful commander. Following the Vicksburg victory, a Union captain wrote, "The backbone of the Rebellion is this day broken. The Confederacy is divided - Pemberton is a prisoner. Vicksburg is ours. The Mississippi is opened, and Gen. Grant is to be our next president."

During late 1863 Grant wrote of this enthusiasm for his potential candidacy: "Nothing likely to happen would pain me so much as to see my name used in connection with a political office. I am not a candidate for any office nor for favors from any party. Let us succeed in crushing the rebellion in the shortest possible time, and I will be content with whatever credit may be given me, feeling assured that a just public will award all that is due."

In another letter, Grant wrote: "Everybody who knows me knows that I have no political aspirations either now or for the future. I hope to remain a soldier as long as I live, to serve faithfully any and every administration that may be in power, and which may be striving to maintain the integrity of the whole Union, as long as I do live. . . . Under no circumstances would I use power for political advancement, nor whilst a soldier take part in politics. If, in the conventions to meet, one candidate whos election I would regard as dangerous to the country, I would not hesitate to say so freely however. Further than this I could take not part."

Unlike Grant, McClellan did have political aspirations for the presidency. By the fall of 1863 McClellan was making public political statements and endorsements of candidates. He agreed with Lincoln about the need to preserve the Union but did not feel that the slavery issue needed to be addressed. McClellan was courted by the Democratic Party for the 1864 presidential contest and became their candidate while still serving in the army. McClellan found himself in the unique position of being a candidate who felt that the war should be fought to preserve the Union, while running on a Democratic platform that advocated peace, and concluded that the war was a failure.

The Democratic platform read, in part, "That this convention does explicitly declare, as the sense of the American people that after four years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war . . . the public welfare demands that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities, with a view to an ultimate convention of the States." The progress of the Union armies slowed following the two victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. A growing weariness of the war and dissatisfaction with its progress developed, and the tenuous alliance of northern war Democrats, abolitionists, and former Whigs that helped to elect Lincoln in 1860 began to unravel.

Despite the stress and strain of the office, Lincoln wanted to retain the presidency for another term. When asked about his intentions, Lincoln wrote to Illinois Congressman Elihu Washburne in the fall of 1863: "A second term would be a great honor and a great labor, which together, perhaps I would not decline, if tendered."

However, several high profile Republicans were also vying for the presidency, or at least were working for support. These included Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase and 1856 Republican candidate and failed military commander John Charles Fremont. In anticipation of a close election, the Republican Party, to appeal to war Democrats, changed its name to the National Union Party for the 1864 election.

The Confederacy was also very interested in the outcome of the presidential election. And, as Grant wrote to one of his commanders in August of 1864, the Confederates also had a preferred candidate: "The rebellion is now fed by the bickering and differences North. The hope of a counter-revolution over the draft or the Presidential election keeps them together. Then too, they hope for a Peace candidate who would let them go. A 'peace at any price' is fearful to contemplate. It would be but the beginning of war." By August of 1864, Lincoln's political insiders advised him that his reelection was in jeopardy. Republican leader Thurlow Weed wrote to Secretary of State William Seward, "I have told Mr. Lincoln that his re-election was an impossibility."

Lincoln seemed to agree that his administration was not going to be re-elected. On August 23 Lincoln called his cabinet together and asked them to sign the back of a sealed document. The document was a memorandum that stated: "This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probably that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President-elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he can not possibly save it afterwards."

The close election demanded attention to every political constituency, especially the Union soldiers. Each individual state determined on their own the process by which soldiers' vote was to be handled. Wisconsin was the first to permit their soldiers to vote in the field through absentee ballots. California, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania all followed suit. However, Illinois, Indiana, and New Jersey, which all had Democratic-controlled state legislatures, did not pass legislation allowing soldiers to vote in the field. Likewise Delaware, Rhode Island, Nevada, and Oregon failed to permit absentee voting. Whenever possible in these cases, soldiers were granted leave so that they could return home to vote.

The presidential candidates offered the soldiers two distinct choices. A victory for the current Lincoln administration would mean the continuation of the war. A victory for General McClellan, offered the hope for immediate cessation of hostilies and the possibility of permanent disunion. It might seem that the soldiers would rather vote to end the war so that they could return home. But a vote for McClellan would invalidate all of the sacrifices that they and their comrades had made. As one soldier put it, "I can not vote for one thing and fight for another." Another wrote saying, "I do not see how any soldier can vote for such a man, nominated on a platform which acknowledges that we are whipped."

What would have been the normal boredom of camp life was stirred up with the coming election. One soldier wrote in his diary "politics keep up quite an excitement on our company." Grant, while supportive of the soldier vote, wrote to the Secretary of War with the following guidelines for the election season, "No political meetings, no harangues from soldiers or citizens and no canvassing of camps or regiments for votes."

On August 31, 1864, Lincoln spoke to members of the 148th Ohio Regiment, who were their way home after completing their term of service. In his remarks, Lincoln stressed the importance of their service to protect the American system of democratic government, and at the same time promoted his candidacy for re-election: "We are striving to maintain the government and institutions of our fathers, to enjoy them ourselves, and transmit them to our children and our children's children forever. To the humblest and poorest amongst us are held out the highest privileges and positions. The present moment finds me at the White House, yet there is as good a chance for your children as there was for my father's. Again I admonish you not to be turned from your stern purpose of defending your beloved country and its free institutions by any arguments urged by ambitious and designing men, but stand fast to the Union and the old flag. Soldiers, I bid you God-speed to your homes."

Most historians agree that two factors carried Lincoln to victory: first, the progress of the Union military in 1864, especially General Sherman's capture of Atlanta, and secondly, Lincoln's supporters successfully conducted a campaign that portrayed the Democratic platform as traitorous.

Republican Abraham Lincoln received 55% of the popular vote to George B. McClellan's 45%. The soldier vote only accounted for 4% of the total vote cast. Despite Lincoln's fears in August, he overwhelmingly defeated McClellan in the popular vote by receiving 78% of it compared to 22% for his opponent. Lincoln interpreted his re-election as a mandate that the war should continue with the outcome of reunification of the nation without slavery as the only acceptable result.

Following the election, Grant wrote to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton: "Enough now seems to be known to say who is going to hold the reins of Government for the next four years. Congratulate the President for me for the double victory. The election having passed off quietly, no bloodshed or riot throughout the land, is a victory worth more to the country than a battle won. Rebeldom and Europe will so construe it." Grant also wrote that the results would help to end the war and secure the nation's place in the world: "The overwhelming majority received by M. Lincoln, and the quiet with which the election went off, will prove a terrible damper to the rebels. It will be worth more than a victory in the field both in its effects on the rebels and in its influence abroad."

The importance of the 1864 election cannot be overemphasized. The fact that during a civil war, when Lincoln could have made a case to retain his presidency without an election, the democratic process continued unimpaired was a testimony to the democratic system of government. The election of McClellan and the peace Democrats would have ended the war, but reversed the progress that was made toward emancipation and the end of slavery. Historian Mark E. Neely Jr., went so far as to write that "Had he [McClellan] won, slavery would doubtless have survived the war, and the history of American racial relations might be a good deal more like South Africa's."

Thankfully we can only speculate about Neely's conclusion. Because of the resolve of Lincoln and Grant, two western heroes who were relatively unknown a decade earlier, the war was pushed. They pushed relentlessly with the same vision on two fronts: by Lincoln in Washington, D.C., on the political front and by Grant in the field at the military front.

It is late November. A few stubborn leaves still cling to their branches. We gather with our families around the dining room table. The turkey is carved, the cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes are passed around, the smell of pumpkin pie fills the air. There are parades and football games on the television. We gather and give thanks for all we have, with family and friends. How did we reach this Thanksgiving Day tradition? How did we get from traditional harvest celebrations to eating turkey and watching football? Is Mr. Lincoln responsible?

In July 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg resulted in more than 50,000 American casualties. Despite these losses, the United States gained a great victory during these three days. On October 3, 1863, with this victory in mind, as well as its cost, President Lincoln issued a proclamation:

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, …to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving... And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him …, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union. This proclamation is viewed as the beginning of the national holiday of Thanksgiving Day. It was one of nine similar proclamations that Mr. Lincoln issued during the Civil War. Mr. Lincoln issued the proclamation, but he did not author it. Secretary of State William Seward penned the October 1863 proclamation.

President Lincoln's proclamation may have never been issued had it not been for Sarah Josepha Hale.

Mrs. Hale is known for her work as editor of Godey's Lady's Book , and as the author of Mary Had a Little Lamb . Mrs. Hale also played a very large role in making Thanksgiving Day, a annual national holiday.

In 1827, as editor of Boston's Ladies' Magazine , she began to write essays calling for the national holiday. In 1846, now as the editor of Godey's Lady's Book , Mrs. Hale launched a letter-writing campaign to support her cause. Finally on September 28, 1863, she wrote directly to President Lincoln, asking him to use his powers to create the holiday. Her 36-year quest was finally fulfilled. Learn more about the rise of Thanksgiving in the 1800s .

Most elementary level students are familiar with the story of the "First Thanksgiving." They learn that the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620. To celebrate their first harvest they held a feast; inviting the Wampanoag Indians, who had helped them adapt and survive, to join them.

The Pilgrim's Thanksgiving in 1621 was really just a continuation of a tradition they had experienced in Europe. In most agricultural societies it has been common throughout history to hold feasts and ceremonies during the time of the harvest.

The "First Thanksgiving," in the Americas may have actually taken place between Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and the Teya Indians at Palo Duro Canyon, Texas on May 23, 1541.

It can be said that his life embodied the “American Dream.” His story has been told countless times, through books, movies, still images, and the spoken word. With all the attention given to Mr. Lincoln’s life, it sometimes becomes hard to distinguish fact from fiction. Some have tried to not only give Mr. Lincoln credit for creating Thanksgiving Day, but also the distinction of being the first President to pardon a turkey reserved for Thanksgiving Day dinner. Mr. Lincoln did pardon a turkey. It was Tad Lincoln’s turkey Jack, but it was slated for Christmas dinner, not Thanksgiving dinner. Who deserves credit for making Thanksgiving Day a national holiday? Do we need to assign the credit to one person? If so, is it Mr. Lincoln? Is it Mr. Seward or Sarah Joespha Hale? Or one of the many presidents before him? Lincoln issued nine proclamations while in office calling for days of thanksgiving. A few Presidents had issued similiar proclamations before Mr. Lincoln, but it was not done consistently. Every year since Mr. Lincoln’s proclamation of 1863, the United States has celebrated Thanksgiving Day. It is for this reason that Mr. Lincoln receives the credit.

1541: Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and the Teya Indians hold a feast in Palo Duro Canyon (Texas). 1621: The Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians hold a feast at Plymouth Colony (Massachusetts). 1777: All 13 Colonies hold thanksgiving celebrations. 1789: President George Washington declares November 26th, a national day of thanksgiving. 1815: President James Madison declares a national day of prayer and thanksgiving. 1827: Sarah Josepha Hale writes essays calling for an annual national celebration of thanksgiving. 1846: Mrs. Hale conducts a letter-writing campaign to make the last Thursday of November a national day of thanksgiving. 1863: President Lincoln issues a proclamation calling for the last Thursday of November to be set aside as a day of “Thanksgiving and Praise.” 1920: The first Thanksgiving parade is held in Philadelphia. 1922: The National Football League plays its first games on Thanksgiving Day 1924: The first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held in New York City. 1934: The National Football League holds its first game on Thanksgiving Day. 1941: After altering the date of Thanksgiving, President Franklin Roosevelt reestablishes the fourth Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day. 1947: President Harry Truman pardons a turkey that is marked for Thanksgiving dinner at the White House.

Two of the four faces carved into South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore are the 16 th President of the United States: Abraham Lincoln, and the 26 th President: Theodore Roosevelt. Though Roosevelt was only two years old when Lincoln was elected President in 1860, he shared many of Lincoln’s same political philosophies. These two men came from different backgrounds, but their lives shared several interesting parallels. Both Lincoln and Roosevelt endured great personal loss, both were familiar with the tragedy of war, and both left lasting impressions on the face of their country.

After Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865, the country mourned his death as his body made its way back to Springfield, Illinois during a 13-day, 1,654-mile train journey through seven states. In several cities, including New York City, public funeral services were held. Six-and-a-half year old Teddy Roosevelt witnessed, from the window of his grandfather’s home, the somber funeral procession making its way through the streets of New York City on April 25, 1865.

Lesser-known than the Lincoln assassination is the attempted assassination of Theodore Roosevelt. While campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on October 14, 1912, Roosevelt was shot by John Schrank. Roosevelt said to the crowd, “I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.” The non-fatal bullet, lodged in Roosevelt’s chest, was never removed.

Theodore Roosevelt was President of the United States during the 1909 Abraham Lincoln Centennial celebrations. On February 12, 1909, President Roosevelt spoke at the Lincoln Birthplace cornerstone ceremony in Hodgenville, Kentucky. He declared: “As the years roll by, and as all of us, wherever we dwell, grow to feel . . . a peculiar sense of pride in the mightiest of the mighty men . . . the man whose blood was shed for the union of his people and for the freedom of a race, Abraham Lincoln.” On June 4, 1903, Roosevelt visited the Lincoln Tomb in Springfield, Illinois. Several years later he paid another visit to Lincoln’s hometown. The New York Times reported that, on April 7, 1912, Roosevelt “sat in Abraham Lincoln’s old pew” at the First Presbyterian Church before placing a wreath at the Lincoln Tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery. He then “went to the old frame house which was Lincoln’s home for many years.”

Theodore Roosevelt admired Abraham Lincoln as a man and a politician. Shortly after being elected President, Roosevelt ignited racial tension throughout the country by inviting African American author and educator Booker T. Washington to the White House. Roosevelt defended his actions by saying, “If I have erred, I err in company with Abraham Lincoln.” Roosevelt was also known to frequently refer to Lincoln when he addressed the public.

“It is a good thing for us, by speech, to pay homage to the memory of Abraham Lincoln, but it is an infinitely better thing for us in our lives to pay homage to his memory in the only way in which that homage can be effectively paid, by seeing to it that this repulic’s life, social and political, civic and industrial, is shaped now in accordance with the ideals which Lincoln preached.”

“Lincoln, himself a man of Southern birth, did not hesitate to appeal to the sword when he became satisfied that in no other way could the Union be saved, for high though he put peace he put righteousness still higher. He warred for the Union; he warred to free the slave and when he warred he warred in earnest.” Journalist Alfred Henry Lewis, who compiled a volume of President Roosevelt’s speeches, remarked: “More than any other book or books, President Roosevelt has read and re-read the Life of Lincoln . Lincoln is his North Star; he steers by him. In those tangles which beset a president, his first silent inquiry is, ‘What would Lincoln have done?’”

Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt both have six national parks dedicated to their memory. The Lincoln parks include: Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site (Kentucky); Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial (Indiana); Lincoln Home National Historic Site (Illinois); Mount Rushmore National Memorial (South Dakota); Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site (Washington, D.C.); and the Lincoln Memorial (Washington, D.C.). Roosevelt’s parks include: Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site (New York); Sagamore Hill National Historic Site (New York); Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site (New York); Theodore Roosevelt National Park (North Dakota); Theodore Roosevelt Island (Washington, D.C.); and Mount Rushmore National Memorial (South Dakota). Though the National Park Service was not officially founded until after President Roosevelt’s administration, he was instrumental in laying the groundwork for such an organization. Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act of June 8, 1906, which allowed the President to designate historic landmarks, structures, or other objects of historic, scientific, or natural importance as national monuments.While President from 1901-1909, Roosevelt signed legislation creating five national parks and four national monuments. He also had a large portion of the Grand Canyon declared a national monument in 1908. Of the Grand Canyon he said, “Keep it for your children and your children’s children, and for all who come after you, as one of the great sights which every American . . . must see.”

Mary was occasionally accused of having greater loyalty to the Confederacy than to the Union. These accusations were based on the actions of her slaveholding Kentucky relatives. Lincoln offered a commission to the husband of one of Mary's half sisters, Ben Hardin Helm, only to have him reject it and then join the Confederate Army. He was one of six of Mary's relatives who served the Confederacy. When Helm died in battle, Lincoln provided a pass for his widow to cross the lines. He also granted passes to Mary's half sister, who was subsequently accused of smuggling medicines to the Confederacy. However Mary's loyalty was beyond question. She called the enemy "rebels" and "traitors". The influence of the abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, and that of her mulatto seamstress, Elizabeth Keckley, who became a confidante of hers, probably helped change the attitude of a woman who was raised on a slave plantation. Source: The Lincoln Encyclopedia by Mark E. Neely, Jr., 1982.

Their backgrounds could not have been more different. Abraham Lincoln was born and raised in a one-room log cabin; Mary Todd was born and raised in a fourteen-room house. Abraham received less than one year of formal schooling; Mary received education throughout her childhood. Despite these opposite backgrounds, they met one night at a dance in Springfield, Illinois. Abraham approached Mary, and told her that he wanted to dance with her "in the worst way." As she later related the story, she said he did just that - danced with her in the worst way. She overlooked his two left feet and they began courting. However, her eldest sister - Elizabeth - and Elizabeth's husband - Ninian - disapproved of the uncultured Mr. Lincoln. The young couple broke off their courtship on what Lincoln referred to as the "fatal first of January" 1841.

For over a year, Abraham and Mary avoided each other, until mutual friends brought them back together. They dated in secret. Mary did not tell Elizabeth until their wedding day, November 4, 1842, that the couple was courting again. Elizabeth apparently gave in, and permitted the wedding to be held in her house. Afterward, the couple went to the place where they spent their first year of marriage- a single room on the second floor of a rooming house. In those humble conditions, Mary gave birth to their first child - Robert Todd Lincoln. After renting a small house for a time, Abraham Lincoln purchased his first and only house. In May of 1844, Abraham, Mary, and Robert moved into a one-and-a-half-story cottage - a house which they eventually expanded into two stories, and a home where they lived as a family for the next seventeen years.

After the assassination, Mary plummeted into a grief so deep that she took no part in the funeral ceremonies and did not leave the White House until over a month after her husband's death. As time passed, she became more and more difficult for Robert. He was continually embarrassed by her many letters begging money from President Lincoln's friends and completely mortified by her attempt to sell her old clothes in 1867. Robert found it "very hard to deal with one who is sane on all subjects but one," money. His mother bought gaudy jewelry, which she never wore because she always dressed in black mourning, took expensive jewelry on approval and neither paid for it or returned it, carried large amounts of securities on her person for fear that people would steal it from her, and had a fear of fire that might have led her to leap from a building. By 1875 Robert feared "probable tragedy" in his mother's bizarre behavior and instigated an insanity hearing, at which he gave emotional testimony, and during which he broke down in tears. The court judged her insane and committed her to a private sanitarium called Belleview in Batavia, Illinois. The night after the trial she tried to commit suicide. Robert gained control of her finances and returned some of the jewelry for which she had not paid. After less than four months at Belleview, Mary was released to the custody of her sister and brother-in-law, Elizabeth and Ninian Edwards. On June 15, 1876, a second trial was held and she was judged sane. Source: The Lincoln Encyclopedia by Mark E. Neely, Jr., 1982.

Plant life at Lincoln Home National Historic Site reflects the native and nonnative species that occured during Mr. Lincoln’s residency, from 1844 – 1861. At that time, the tallgrass prairie of pre-settlement times had been developed into agricultural lands and small urban centers like Springfield.

The plant life of the prairie was replaced with farm crops and commercial plants available in local nurseries. Victorian gardens, ornamental shrubs, fruit trees, and fragrant flowers, purchased from local merchants, flourished in Mr. Lincoln’s neighborhood. Springfield was praised in the Illinois Journal in 1856 as “a bright gem of the prairie” recognized for its beautiful gardens and tree-lined streets.

Today, the site represents Mr. Lincoln’s neighborhood in the year 1860. Stately shade trees and ornamental fruit trees are reminiscent of the past. Many of the trees and shrubs on site provide habitat for current wildlife – the American Robin ( Turdus migratorius ) nests in the Beautybush ( Kolkwitzia amabilis ) and a Raccoon ( Procyon lotor ) finds refuge in the old Silver Maple ( Acer saccharinum ). The tallgrass prairie plants of pre-settlement times are reflected in the wild strawberries ( Fragaria virginiana ) growing in the Legacy Gardens and the bur oak trees ( Quercus macrocarpa ) on site.