SPECIAL MILITARY COURTS

In my previous article, Abhorrent Aberration, I explained that the Bush Government is trying to set up a special military tribunal to try "enemy combatants." In the first version of the Bush Administration’s plan the administration decided as necessary to withhold from detainees some elements and evidence against them that would be available to the prosecution.

In other words:
The Prosecution will have a complete file.
The Detainee will have an expunged incomplete file.

That is justice the Bush way. In the good old days American were proud to be a Nation based on a great Judiciary system, well not anymore.

When their plan was heavily criticized by extremely important members of the Republican Party, the Party of the President; President Bush’s staff member Mr Hadley the National Security advisor came up with a new version of the plan for a special military tribunal.
Please fasten your seat belts, this is the amended plan:
No elements will be withheld from the lawyer of the detainee but the detainee’s lawyer must withhold from the detainee some elements.

Here is the stupidity and the crime against American Integrity:
Absolute trust between lawyer and the accused is fundamental and a primary basis for having lawyers as advocates in the American Justice System. If the accused person’s lawyer received all elements of the accusation and was then forced to withhold some information and not communicate openly with his client then it is the end of trust between lawyer and client and a complete parody of justice.
Actually with President Bush proposal the accused person lawyer is explicitly told to Betray his clients by withholding exonerating evidences.

The accused person is now settled with TWO prosecutors: The official prosecutor and now his own lawyer acting as a prosecutor.

Bottom line:
After being strong armed by President Bush and Vice President Cheney the Congress passed the law as Designed by President Bush. The voice of dissent and decency of Senator Lindsey Graham and John Mc Cain chose to remain silent and These Senators voted for the law.
If a person is labeled by the CIA or any other law enforcement agency an Enemy combatant then he or she is DENIED access to the American courts of justice as well as regular military court of Justice and is entered in the Bush system of Justice where the now detainee can be held indefinitely without a trial or can be tried with trumped up evidence.
One more time President Bush has rejected the Constitution of the USA to lower the USA to the level of a tyrannical Banana Republic. President Bush signed this Law called: "Military Commission act" in October 17, 2006


MODIFICATION OF THE GENEVA CONVENTION

The Geneva Convention is a treaty signed by 194 nations. It is the essence of the credibility of a Nation when apposing and affixing its signature on a document composed of words agreed to by all of those 194 civilized nations to of course not to change UNILATERALLY the content.

If you change ONE word (The Bush Administration defines change as “clarification.”) there is no longer a valid treaty. Even changing a Coma or a Period is a Modification of the text of a Treaty.

In addition each time the USA signs a treaty in the future the other parties signing the treaty can legitimately say:
“There is no use signing a treaty with the USA because they will modify it at their own convenience and renege on their word.”
or:
"Let us sign the Treaty we will not have to respect it anyway because the USA do not respect the Treaties they sign"

A Treaty is a contract between Nations.

When at Home an American sign a contract to buy a car, this American will be shocked if the car Dealer increase the Price of the Vehicle UNILATERALLY after the contract has been signed.

Here is the stupidity and the crime against American Integrity:
If the USA UNILATERALLY modifies ONE word of the Geneva Convention Treaty, then the Written Word of the USA is not worth anything, anywhere, anytime,anymore.

President Bush father the Previous President Bush is one of the President that worked very hard at continuing to uphold the moral ground gained by the USA during World War II and the Cold War. His son the actual President drive to modify UNILATERALLY the Geneva Convention must be an extremely painful blow as a Father and as a World War II veteran and as an American.
Make no mistake reneging on the word in a multilateral Treaty will reflect on each and every Americans.

Last News 10/17/2006:
Only when been faced a guaranteed rejection by a few members of his party who assured him that they will vote against this law and that he did not stand a chance to have his dream of torture included in his unilateral version of the Geneva Convention did President Bush abandoned his quest for allowing torture within the Geneva convention.
However he included torture in a paragraph of the "Military commission act"

Eric Lafayette

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USA TOMORROW
Bush's Abhorrent Aberrations Are Debasing the USA,
September 18, 2006
Article from our Newsletter USA TOMORROW
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Bush's Abhorrent Aberrations Are Debasing the USA

On Friday, September 11, 2006 military tribunals with new rules for trying International Terrorists as well as all prisoners of secret services like the CIA were strongly advocated by President Bush. These rules had initially been presented by the Bush White House early in September.

The Supreme Court and the US Congress had basically asked the Government to clean up its act regarding the unlawful detention of foreign enemy combatants. In September 2006, with pressure from the Supreme Court and Congress, the White House asked Republican members of Congress to rubber stamp their new demands regarding the creation and establishment of rules for special military tribunals that would deal with detainees.

The simple fact that the white House DARED to offer such a version of the rules for trying international combatants as well as anybody who had the misfortune to fall into the hands of intelligence agencies like the CIA is almost impossible to understand if you do not already know that President Bush, Vice President Cheney and their staff are insulting Democracy everyday while posturing as leaders and defenders of Democracy. You would also have to understand that they are debasing the Constitution of the USA as they pretend to make the USA stronger. President Bush and Vice President Cheney have imposed a form of Leadership on the American citizen that is a non-beneficial symbiosis of forceful tyranny and constant stupidity supported by instigating fear of terrorism which incredibly wrongly includes Iraq the Only Nation in the Middle East that had ZERO terrorists before the USA conquered it and since then the conquest of Iraq by the USA has created ten of thousands of New terrorists.

Here are the rules of the White House plan in a nut shell:

There will be two different files for the trial

· One file is complete, and it is prepared for the prosecution
· One file is incomplete and intentionally expunged, and it is prepared for the accused person.

Let's look at an example of the Bush Administration’s plan:

Mohammed John Doe was living in Lebanon near the Israeli border and was a friend of the Americans and spoke almost perfect American English. During one of the numerous recent bombings his house and papers were destroyed, and he was arrested by the Israeli Army the same day a Hezbollah rocket killed many Lebanese and one American civilian. Because he was in the village that the Hezbollah rocket came from he was arrested. He was arrested without any identification papers because they were lost in the bombings. He spoke excellent American English so the Israelis delivered him to the CIA and he is now in one their secret torture prisons around the world. These prisons have been exposed so the USA will be forced to try him.
(This example is not so far fetch, today September 18th 2006, it was reveled that a Canadian Syrian was imprisoned and tortured on incomplete files handled by the American intelligence.)

The defense file on Mohammed John Doe indicated that he was a Syrian Spy, an accusation that came from the Israelis because they had a couple of pictures where he appeared near tanks and cannons as well as one important and significant picture showing him shaking hands with a man who was an undercover CIA operative still on active duty in the Middle East. The identity of the CIA operative is a very sensitive and important intelligence issue and was therefore hidden from Israel and the soldiers. The prosecution withheld this photo of the undercover CIA agent from the accused person and his defense team.

Because he knew the CIA operative only by his covert name nobody believed him.
It was thus easy to label Mohamed John Doe as a Syrian Spy and have him condemned.
Under Bush’s new rules which are only fit for barbaric countries he would be condemned and executed by the new military tribunals.
Under the laws and principles of justice created by the Founding Fathers under the US Constitution these new rules for military tribunals are nothing more than a kangaroo court that makes a mockery of the system of justice that the US has honored and adhered to in the past.
However a few good men: Republican Senators John McCain, John Warner and others along with former Secretary of Defense and State, General Colin Powel crafted a very good sets of rules that respect and reflect of the Spirit of the US Constitution. Here they are:

· Military judges evaluate sensitive materials and decide if they should eliminate them totally.
· Or they are not given to either the prosecution or the defense.
· Or they are given to both parties if they are not too sensitive.
· In addition they remain secret because only a Military judge sworn to secrecy on these matters will have seen them.

But instead President Bush again said that it was his way or the highway thus spitting in the face of the Founding Fathers and making a mockery of US Justice and Democracy.

There is no way that this kind of debasement of the Principles of Law will be accepted by the United States Supreme Court. By demonstrating total contempt for the US Constitution, President Bush shows that he does not and has never understood what Democracy is. The Founding Fathers were very serious about due process and US Constitutional Law because they wrote not one but two Amendments about it.
The fundamental principle of Law in Modern Democratic Countries is the promise of A FAIR trial.

Only in the worst of barbaric dictatorships such as Stalin's or Saddam Hussein’s and in the most barbaric countries does the defense not have the same access to evidence and information that the prosecution has. It is absolute folly to show the WORLD that the USA has forever abandoned the ethical high ground and placed itself at the lowest possible levels along with other infamous criminal countries in the history of the world.

If that was not enough, President Bush is asking Congress to approve a UNILATERAL rewriting of the Geneva Convention. The Geneva Convention is a treaty signed by almost all nations in the world (194 Nations) that guarantees certain rights to prisoners. The important word is UNILATERAL.

As if everything else mentioned was not enough, the President has asked the Congress to approve a UNILATERAL rewriting of the Geneva Convention because in President Bush’s words, “the wording is too vague.” Specifically President Bush wants to rewrite the following passage that prohibits: (c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment.
What is there to clarify except if you want to modify the Geneva Convention to authorize TORTURE?

Shocking as this is the main point is in the word UNILATERAL: You DO NOT modify a treaty unilaterally if it is signed by other Nations. A treaty is a Document whose text is set and has been approved jointly by all the other Nations. Modifying it UNILATERALLY is absurd and means a UNILATERAL withdrawal from the treaty itself.

In recent history, the USA has been involved in huge confrontations between ideologies - Fascism and Totalitarian Communism - and it has always tried to take the high moral ground. It is because of this position that the USA won against Hitler and the Nazi Regime and Fascist Imperial Japan, both nations guilty of war crimes.
Later the USA brought down Totalitarian Communism by adhering to the moral high ground.

The USA can be considered a Founding Member of the Geneva Convention.
UNILATERALLY modifying the Geneva Convention which is in fact a withdrawal from the Geneva Convention is absolute folly and shows that President Bush’s leadership is unethical and a debasement of the integrity of the USA which could reduce it to the level of Criminal Nations. Any intelligent person discovered this about the Bush Administration years ago and that the administration’s plans and policies take the USA lower and lower and represent an imminent threat to Democracy while shocking and tragic is no surprise.

Eric Lafayette
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ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Abraham Lincoln: A Lesson in Honesty and Courage.

In 1908 in a wild and remote area of the North Caucasus (Russia), Leo Tolstoy the great writer of his age, was the guest of a tribal chief "living far away from civilized life in the mountains." Gathering his family and neighbors, the local chief asked Tolstoy to tell stories about famous men in history. Tolstoy told how he entertained the eager crowd for hours with tales of Alexander the Great, Caesar, Frederick the Great and Napoleon. When he was winding down to a close, the chief stood and said, "But you have not told us a syllable about the greatest general and greatest ruler of the world. We want to know something about him. He was a hero. He spoke with a voice of thunder, he laughed like the sunrise and his deeds were strong as the rock.... His name was Lincoln and the country in which he lived is called America ....."
I looked at them; Tolstoy recalled and saw their faces all aglow, while their eyes were burning. I saw that those rude barbarians were really interested in a man whose name and deeds had already become a legend.
Tolstoy went on and told the story about the life and great deeds of Abraham Lincoln.
He then thought about what made Lincoln such a great man and deducted that Abraham Lincoln’s supremacy expressed itself through his inimitable moral power and the greatness of his character.

In the words of the American people Abraham Lincoln was, "Honest Abe."

Below is a quote from Abraham Lincoln which reflects his honesty.
"I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong."

Sometimes the leaders of the Bush Republican party claim Abraham Lincoln as one of their own, a modern Republican.
There is nothing more false and disingenuous.
The moral values of the modern Republican Party are the opposite of the values embodied by the Republican Party during Abraham Lincoln’s era, particularly regarding civil rights, racism and the economy. Abraham Lincoln was a Liberal, a stickler for respect for the United States Constitution, a friend of humble working men and an opponent to the powerful and the greedy.
In the entire history of the USA there are no two United States Presidents whose core values, behavior and policies are in greater opposition to each other than President George Bush the younger and President Abraham Lincoln.

Here are four quotations from Abraham Lincoln that illustrate his values.
----“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”
----“These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people.”
----“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”
----“Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.”

If you have been awake during the years of President Bush’s absolute Dictatorship (2000- 2006) you will have witnessed Bush Cronies filling their pockets with taxpayers’ money and the Leaders of the Republican Party preventing a long overdue raise of the minimum wage for the poorest laborers.

In addition the debasement of the US Constitution has been constant and forceful.
President Bush circumvented the Constitution by unlawfully disrespecting and disregarding the following amendments and articles.
-------THE COURTS: The right to a fair and speedy trial guaranteed by the United States Constitution: Amendment VI
------- PRIVACY RIGHTS: No spying on anyone’s private life: Amendment IV
------ LEGISLATING PER ORDINANCES (EXECUTIVE ORDERS): President Bush has made going around the Congress a trademark of his Presidency.

Never in the History of the United States has a President, President George W. Bush, worked so forcefully to destroy what the most beloved President of the USA, Abraham Lincoln, had built.

Abraham Lincoln believed honesty was a way of life, and his thinking is epitomized in this quote
”You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.”

This is in sharp contrast with President Bush’s continuous lying over the last 6 years after being elected on promising there would be no more lying.
From the beginning of his Presidency until the present, President Bush and his cronies have lied more to the American people than any other President with the possible exception of President Nixon.
It took six years for the American People to open their eyes proving that President Lincoln was right again.

At the beginning of the Civil War a tremendous amount of work was imposed on Abraham Lincoln when he supervised the war himself because he had terrible generals in the beginning. Abraham Lincoln very often went to visit and comfort as many wounded soldiers as he could. In contrast President Bush has to be told to go and see the wounded.
Once elected President, he chose all of his opponents in the race to the Presidency as members of his cabinet, nominating them for the highest offices. They were Cabinet Secretaries Seward, Chase, Bates and Blair.
During the campaign they had attacked him relentlessly and the least of the attack was that he was a "rail splinter, a farm boy, a second rate lawyer from Ohio, etc.”
In addition within a year he nominated Edward Stanton as Secretary of War. Stanton had scorned him and put him down in a most rude way when they were supposed to work together on a legal case.
Without one exception all of the men named above had absolute contempt for Lincoln and some had hostility when they came to Lincoln’s Cabinet. After a few months or a couple of years all except Chase admired, loved and even worshipped that great man.
Lincoln had the courage and the bravery to hire fierce opponents because he knew that they were competent and that they would keep the nation together.
The more People knew Lincoln, the more they loved him.
While he was President Lincoln met and shook hands with tens of thousands of American people of humble origins.
In contrast President Bush hired his Daddy’s staffers putting obedience over competence, and when the destitute in the New Orleans were faced with the catastrophe of the Katrina Disaster and its aftermath he flew over their heads and never shook the hand of one victim during the crisis, instead he again sent in his Mom and Dad.

It was impossible to write a Biography of Abraham Lincoln highlighting the specific qualities that made him a legend and endeared him to all American People as well as people all over the world without contrasting him with President Bush whose specific deeds could be summarized by: How can I destroy the American Constitution, scorn poor Americans, make my country disliked by the majority of the world’s inhabitants and rip it apart from within?
.
President Bush is the perfect example of the worst President ever, his debasing of the United States Constitution and the Nation should be a constant reminder that only men with Abraham Lincoln’s honesty and integrity cherished Democracy and their countries above their own electoral interests, so much so that Lincoln is remembered for saving his country from disaster while President Bush has led his country into disaster.
Here is another Lincoln quote:
"A statesman is he who thinks in the future generations, and a politician is he who thinks in the upcoming elections"

President Lincoln was also a man of great vision and predicted President George W. Bush’s era with this following quote.
“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.”

In Conclusion:
Reading a book about the life of Abraham Lincoln is an exceptional experience. One such book A Team of Rivals about Lincoln during the war years gives a fascinating vision into the courage of this extremely kind man.
Anybody on earth should be proud to say I would like to follow in the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln.

From Wikipedia

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abraham Lincoln
Born February 12, 1809
Hardin County, Kentucky
Died April 15, 1865, age 56
Washington, D.C.
Political party Whig, Republican
Spouse Mary Todd Lincoln
Religion no affiliation

Lincoln had a lasting influence on U.S. political values by redefining republican values, promoting nationalism, and enlarging the powers of the federal government. His assassination, in 1865, made him a martyr for the ideal of national unity.

Scholars rank Lincoln among the top three U.S. Presidents, with the average of those surveys placing him unambiguously at number one. His life and influence have made him an icon of cherished American political freedoms and aspirations.

Lincoln 1809 to 1854

Early life

Symbolic log cabin at Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site
Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, to Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, two uneducated farmers. He was born in a one-room log cabin on the 348 acre (1.4 km²) Sinking Spring Farm. The farm was in Nolin Creek, three miles (5 km) south of Hodgenville, Kentucky. This was the southeast part of Hardin County (now part of LaRue County), and was at that time considered the "frontier." Lincoln was named after his grandfather, who was killed in 1786 in an American Indian raid.[1] He had no middle name. Lincoln had one elder sister, Sarah Lincoln, who was born in 1805. He also had a younger brother, Thomas Jr, who died in infancy. Thomas Lincoln was a respected and relatively affluent citizen of the Kentucky backcountry, for a period of time. He had purchased the Sinking Spring Farm in December 1808 for $200 cash and assumption of a debt.[2] Thomas however, lost all his property in court cases, and when Lincoln was a child the family was living in a dugout on the side of a hill in Indiana, without even a log cabin to shelter them. His parents belonged to a Baptist church that had pulled away from a larger church because they refused to support slavery. From a very young age, Lincoln was exposed to anti-slavery sentiment. However, he never joined his parents' church, or any other, and as a youth he ridiculed religion.[3]

In 1816, when Lincoln was seven years old, his impoverished family moved to Perry County (now in Spencer County), Indiana. He later noted that this move was "partly on account of slavery," and partly because of economic difficulties in Kentucky. In 1818, Lincoln's mother died of "milk sickness" at age thirty four, when Abe was nine. Soon afterwards, Lincoln's father remarried to Sarah Bush Johnston. Sarah Lincoln raised young Lincoln like one of her own children. Years later she compared Lincoln to her own son, saying "Both were good boys, but I must say — both now being dead that Abe was the best boy I ever saw or ever expect to see." Lincoln was affectionate toward his step-mother, but distant from his father.[4]

In 1830, after more economic and land-title difficulties in Indiana, the family settled on public land in Macon County, Illinois. The following winter was desolate and especially brutal, and the family nearly moved back to Indiana. When his father relocated the family to a new homestead in Coles County, Illinois the following year, the 22-year-old Lincoln struck out on his own, canoeing down the Sangamon River to Sangamon County, Illinois, in the village of New Salem. Later that year, hired by New Salem businessman Denton Offutt and accompanied by friends, he took goods from New Salem to New Orleans via flatboat on the Sangamon, Illinois and Mississippi rivers. While in New Orleans, he may have witnessed a slave auction that probably left an indelible impression on him for the rest of his life.[clarify] Whether he actually witnessed a slave auction at that time or not, he visited Kentucky often and he had opportunity to see similar sales from time to time.[5]

His formal education consisted of about 18 months of schooling from unofficial teachers. In effect he was self-educated, studying every book he could borrow. He mastered the Bible, William Shakespeare's works, English history and American history, and developed a plain style that puzzled audiences more used to grandiloquent oratory. He was a local wrestler and skilled with an axe; some rails he had allegedly split in his youth were exhibited at the 1860 Republican National Convention, as the party celebrated the poor-boy-made-good theme. He avoided hunting and fishing because he did not like killing animals even for food and, though unusually tall and strong, spent so much time reading that some neighbors suspected he must be doing it to avoid strenuous manual labor.

Early career

Young Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln began his political career in 1832, at age 23, with a campaign for the Illinois General Assembly as a member of the Whig Party. The centerpiece of his platform was the undertaking of navigational improvements on the Sangamon River in the hopes of attracting steamboat traffic to the river, which would allow sparsely populated, poor areas along and near the river to grow and prosper. He served as a captain in a company of the Illinois militia drawn from New Salem during the Black Hawk War, although he never saw combat. He wrote after being elected by his peers that he had not had "any such success in life which gave him so much satisfaction."[6]

For a few months he operated a small store in New Salem, Illinois, selling tea, coffee, sugar, salt, blue calico, brown muslin, straw hats--and whiskey.[7] After coming across the second volume of Sir William Blackstone's four-volume Commentaries on the Laws of England, he taught himself law and was admitted to the bar in 1837. That same year, he moved to Springfield, Illinois, and began to practice law with Stephen T. Logan. He became one of the most respected and successful lawyers in Illinois and grew steadily more prosperous. Lincoln served four successive terms in the Illinois House of Representatives, as a Whig representative from Sangamon County, beginning in 1834. He became a leader of the Whig party in the legislature. In 1837, he made his first protest against slavery in the Illinois House, stating that the institution was "founded on both injustice and bad policy."[8]

It was in 1837, that Lincoln met his most intimate friend, Joshua Fry Speed, with whom he shared a bed for the next four years, a common practice on the frontier at the time (Donald). ."..it is hardly too much to say that he was the only — as he was certainly the last — intimate friend that Lincoln ever had."(Nicolay and Hay) When Speed married in February, 1842, Lincoln wrote from Springfield: "I feel somewhat jealous of both of you now; you will be so exclusively concerned for one another, that I shall be forgotten entirely."[9]

In 1842, Lincoln wrote a series of anonymous letters which were published in the Sangamo Journal, mocking prominent Democrat and State Auditor James Shields. When Shields found out it was Lincoln, he challenged him to a duel. Since Shields was the challenger, Lincoln chose the weapon and specified "Cavalry broad swords of the largest size." Lincoln, much taller with long arms, had an overwhelming advantage; the duel was called off at the last minute.[10]

In 1841, Lincoln entered law practice with William Herndon, a fellow Whig. In 1854, both men joined the fledgling Republican Party. Following Lincoln's death, Herndon began collecting stories about Lincoln from those who knew him in central Illinois, and published them in Herndon's Lincoln.

Family
On November 4, 1842, at the age of 33, Lincoln married Mary Todd. She came from a prominent slave-owning family from Kentucky and allowed his children to spend time in Kentucky surrounded by slaves. The couple had four sons:

Robert Todd Lincoln (August 1, 1843 - July 26, 1926): born in Springfield, Illinois, and died in Manchester, Vermont.
Edward Baker Lincoln (March 10, 1846 - February 1, 1850): born and died in Springfield.
William Wallace Lincoln (December 21, 1850 - February 20, 1862): born in Springfield and died in Washington, D.C..
Thomas "Tad" Lincoln (April 4, 1853 - July 16, 1871): born in Springfield and died in Chicago.
Only Robert survived into adulthood. Lincoln greatly admired the science that flourished in New England and was one of the few men in Illinois at the time to send a son to elite eastern schools; he sent Robert Todd Lincoln to Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard College. Robert had three children and three grandchildren, but none of these had children, so Abraham Lincoln's bloodline ended when Robert Beckwith (Lincoln's great-grandson) died on December 24, 1985.[11]

Among his wife's family, four of his brothers-in-law fought for the Confederacy with one wounded and another killed in action. Lieutenant David H. Todd, a half-brother of Mary Todd Lincoln, served as commandant of the Libby Prison camp during the war.

Antiwar activist

Lincoln in the 1840s
In 1846, Lincoln was elected to a term in the U.S. House of Representatives. A staunch Whig, Lincoln often referred to party leader Henry Clay as his political idol. As a freshman House member, Lincoln was not a particularly powerful or influential figure in Congress. He spoke out against the Mexican-American War, which he attributed to President Polk's desire for "military glory — that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood." Besides this rhetoric, he also directly challenged Polk's claims as to the boundary of Texas.[12] Lincoln was among the 82 Whigs in January 1848 who defeated 81 Democrats in a procedural vote on an amendment to send a routine resolution back to committee with instructions for the committee to add the words "a war unnecessarily and unconstitutionally begun by the President of the United States." The amendment passed, but the bill never reemerged from committee and was never finally voted upon.[13]

Lincoln damaged his reputation by an intemperate speech in the House. He announced, "God of Heaven has forgotten to defend the weak and innocent, and permitted the strong band of murderers and demons from hell to kill men, women, and children, and lay waste and pillage the land of the just." Two weeks later, Polk sent a peace treaty to Congress. No one in Washington paid any attention to Lincoln, but the Democrats orchestrated angry outbursts from all over his district, where the war was popular and many had volunteered. In Morgan County, resolutions were adopted in fervent support of the war and in wrathful denunciation of the "treasonable assaults of guerrillas at home; party demagogues;" slanderers of the President, defenders of the butchery at the Alamo, traducers of the heroism at San Jacinto. Lincoln's law partner William Herndon warned Lincoln that the damage was mounting and irreparable; Lincoln himself was despondent, and he decided not to run for reelection. In the fall 1848 election, he campaigned vigorously for Zachary Taylor, the successful general whose atrocities he had denounced in January. Lincoln's attacks on Polk and Taylor came back to haunt him during the Civil War and indeed was held against him when he applied for a major patronage job from the new Taylor administration. Instead Taylor offered Lincoln a minor patronage job in remote Oregon Territory. Acceptance would end his career in the fast-growing state of Illinois, so he declined. Returning instead to Springfield, Lincoln gave up politics and turned his energies to making a living as an attorney, which involved grueling travels on horseback from county courthouse to county courthouse.[14]

Prairie lawyer
By the mid-1850s, Lincoln faced competing transportation interests — both the river barges and the railroads. In 1849, he received a patent related to buoying vessels. Lincoln represented the Alton & Sangamon Railroad in an 1851 dispute with one of its shareholders, James A. Barret. Barret had refused to pay the balance on his pledge to the railroad on the grounds that it had changed its originally planned route. Lincoln argued that as a matter of law a corporation is not bound by its original charter when that charter can be amended in the public interest, that the newer proposed Alton & Sangamon route was superior and less expensive, and that accordingly the corporation had a right to sue Mr. Barret for his delinquent payment. He won this case, and the decision by the Illinois Supreme Court was eventually cited by several other courts throughout the United States.[15]

An important example of Lincoln's skills as a railroad lawyer was a lawsuit over a tax exemption that the state had granted to the Illinois Central Railroad. McLean County argued that the state had no authority to grant such an exemption, and it sought to impose taxes on the railroad notwithstanding. In January 1856, the Illinois Supreme Court delivered its opinion upholding the tax exemption.

Lincoln's most notable criminal trial came in 1858 when he defended William "Duff" Armstrong, who was on trial for murder. The case is famous for Lincoln's use of judicial notice, a rare tactic at that time, to show that an eyewitness had lied on the stand. After the witness testified to having seen the crime by the light of the moon, Lincoln produced a Farmer's Almanac to show that the moon on that date was at such a low angle that it could not have provided enough illumination to see anything clearly. Based upon this evidence, Armstrong was acquitted.

Lincoln was involved in more than 5,100 cases in Illinois alone during a 23-year legal practice. Amounting to about one case per business day, many cases involved little more than filing a writ, while others were more substantial and drawn-out. Lincoln and his partners appeared before the Illinois State Supreme Court more than 400 times.

Republican politics 1854–1860
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which expressly repealed the limits on slavery's spread that had been part of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, drew Lincoln back into politics. Illinois Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, the most powerful man in the Senate, proposed popular sovereignty as the solution to the slavery impasse, and he incorporated it into the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Douglas argued that in a democracy the people of a territory should decide whether to allow slavery and not have a decision imposed on them by Congress.[16]

It was a speech against the act, on October 16, 1854, in Peoria, that caused Lincoln to stand out among the other free soil orators of the day. In the speech, Lincoln commented upon the Kansas-Nebraska Act:

“ [The Act has a] declared indifference, but as I must think, covert real zeal for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world—enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites—causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity, and especially because it forces so many really good men amongst ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty—criticizing the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest.[17] ”

He helped form the new Republican Party, drawing on remnants of the old Whig, Free Soil, Liberty and Democratic parties. In a stirring campaign, the Republicans carried Illinois in 1854 and elected a senator. Lincoln was the obvious choice, but to keep the new party balanced he allowed the election to go to an ex-Democrat Lyman Trumbull.

In 1857-58, Douglas broke with President Buchanan, leading to a fight for control of the Democratic Party. Some eastern Republicans even favored the reelection of Douglas in 1858, since he led the opposition to the administration's push for the Lecompton Constitution which would have admitted Kansas as a slave state. Accepting the Republican nomination for the Senate in 1858, Lincoln delivered a famous speech in which he stated, "'A house divided against itself cannot stand.'(Mark 3:25) 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."[18] The speech created a lasting image of the danger of disunion because of slavery, and rallied Republicans across the north.

The 1858 campaign featured the Lincoln-Douglas debates, a nationally famous contest on slavery. Lincoln warned that the Slave Power was threatening the values of republicanism, while Douglas emphasized democracy, as in his Freeport Doctrine, which said that local settlers should be free to choose slavery or not. Though the Republican legislative candidates won more popular votes, the Democrats won more seats, and the legislature reelected Douglas to the Senate. Nevertheless, Lincoln's eloquence transformed him into a national political star.

During the debates of 1858, the issue of race was often discussed. During a time period when racial egalitarianism was considered politically incorrect, Stephen Douglas informed the crowds, "If you desire Negro citizenship… if you desire them to vote on an equality with yourselves… then support Mr. Lincoln and the Black Republican party, who are in favor of the citizenship of the negro."[19] On the defensive, Lincoln countered that he was "not in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races."[20] Lincoln's opposition to slavery was opposition to the Slave Power, and he was not an abolitionist in 1858. But the Civil War changed many things, including Lincoln's beliefs in race relations.[21]

Election of 1860

"The Rail Candidate," Lincoln's 1860 candidacy is held up by slavery issue (slave on left) and party organization (New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley on right)
Entering the presidential nomination process as a distinct underdog, Lincoln was eventually chosen as the Republican candidate for the 1860 election for several reasons. His expressed views on slavery were seen as more moderate than the views of rivals William H. Seward and Salmon Chase. His "western" origins also appealed to the newer states. Other contenders, especially those with more governmental experience, had acquired enemies within the party and were weak in the critical western states. Lincoln was seen as a moderate who could win the West. Most Republicans agreed with Lincoln that the North was the aggrieved party as the Slave Power tightened its grasp on the national government. Despite his Southern connections (his in-laws owned slaves), Lincoln misunderstood the depth of the revolution underway in the South and the emergence of Southern nationalism. Throughout the 1850s he denied there would ever be a civil war. His supporters repeatedly denied that his election would be a spark for secession.[22]

Lincoln did not campaign or give speeches. The campaign was handled by the state and county Republican organizations. They were thorough and used the newest techniques to sustain the enthusiasm of party members and thus obtain high turnout. There was little effort to convert non-Republicans, and there was virtually no campaigning in the South except for a few border cities such as St. Louis, Missouri, and Wheeling, Virginia; indeed the party did not run a slate of electors in most of the South. In the North, there were thousands of Republican speakers, tons of campaign posters and leaflets, and thousands of newspaper editorials. They focused first on the party platform, and second on Lincoln's life story, making the most of his boyhood poverty, his pioneer background, his native genius, his rise from obscurity to fame. His nicknames, "Honest Abe" and "the Rail-Splitter," were exploited to the full. The point was to emphasize the superior power of "free labor," whereby a common farm boy could work his way to the top by his own efforts.[23]

On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected the 16th President of the United States, beating Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, John C. Breckinridge of the Southern Democrats, and John C. Bell of the new Constitutional Union Party. Lincoln was the first Republican president. He won entirely on the strength of his support in the North: he was not even on the ballot in nine states in the South — and won only 2 of 996 counties in the other Southern states. Lincoln gained 1,865,908 votes (39.9% of the total,) for 180 electoral votes; Douglas 1,380,202 (29.5%) for 12 electoral votes; Breckenridge 848,019 (18.1%) for 72 electoral votes; and Bell 590,901 (12.5%) for 39 electoral votes. There were fusion tickets in some states, but even if his opponents had combined in every state, Lincoln had a majority vote in all but two of the states in which he won the electoral votes and would still have won the electoral college and the election.

Civil War

Secession winter 1860–1861
As Lincoln's election became more probable, secessionists made it clear that their states would leave the Union. South Carolina took the lead followed by six other cotton-growing states in the deep South. The upper South (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Arkansas) listened to and rejected the secessionist appeal. They decided to stay in the Union, though warning Lincoln they would not support an invasion through their territory. The seven Confederate states seceded before Lincoln took office, declaring themselves an entirely new nation, the Confederate States of America. President Buchanan and President-elect Lincoln refused to recognize the Confederacy, which became the immediate cause of the war.

President-elect Lincoln evaded possible assassins in Baltimore and on February 23, 1861, arrived in disguise in Washington, D.C. At Lincoln's inauguration on March 4, 1861, the Turners formed Lincoln's bodyguard; and a sizable garrison of federal troops was also present, ready to protect the capital from Confederate invasion or insurrection from Confederates in the capital city.

Photograph showing the March 4, 1861, inauguration of Abraham Lincoln in front of U.S. Capitol Building
In his First Inaugural Address, Lincoln declared, "I hold that in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments," arguing further that the purpose of the United States Constitution was "to form a more perfect union" than the Articles of Confederation which were explicitly perpetual, and thus the Constitution too was perpetual. He asked rhetorically that even were the Constitution a simple contract, would it not require the agreement of all parties to rescind it?

Also in his inaugural address, in a final attempt to unite the Union and prevent the looming war, Lincoln supported the pending Corwin Amendment to the Constitution, which had passed Congress. It explicitly protected slavery in those states in which it already existed, and was designed to appeal not to the Confederacy but to the critical border states. Lincoln adamantly opposed the Crittenden Compromise, however, which would have permitted slavery in the territories. Despite support for the Crittenden compromise among some Republicans, Lincoln denounced it saying it "would amount to a perpetual covenant of war against every people, tribe, and state owning a foot of land between here and Tierra del Fuego [at the far end of South America]."

By the time Lincoln took office, the Confederacy was an established fact, and no leaders of the insurrection proposed rejoining the Union on any terms. No compromise was found because no compromise was possible. Lincoln perhaps could have allowed the southern states to secede, and some Republicans recommended that. However, conservative Democratic nationalists, such as Jeremiah S. Black, Joseph Holt, and Edwin M. Stanton had taken control of Buchanan's cabinet around January 1, 1861, and refused to accept secession. Lincoln and nearly all Republican leaders adopted this nationalistic position by March 1861: the Union could not be broken. However, Lincoln being a strict follower of the constitution, would not take any action against the South unless the Unionists themselves were attacked first. It finally happened in April 1861.

Fighting begins: 1861–1862
Main article: American Civil War
After Union troops at Fort Sumter were fired upon and forced to surrender in April 1861, Lincoln called on governors of every state to send detachments totaling 75,000 troops to recapture forts, protect the capital, and "preserve the Union," which in his view still existed intact despite the actions of the seceding states. Virginia, which had repeatedly warned Lincoln it would not allow an invasion of its territory or join an attack on another state, then seceded, along with North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas.

Nevins[24] argues that Lincoln made three serious mistakes at this point. He at first underestimated the strength of the Confederacy, assuming that 75,000 troops could end the insurrection in 90 days. Second, he overestimated the strength of Unionist sentiment in the South and border states; he assumed he could call the bluff of the insurrectionists and they would fade away. Finally he misunderstood the demands of Unionists in the border states, who warned they would not support an invasion of the Confederacy.

The slave states of Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware did not secede, and Lincoln urgently negotiated with state leaders there, promising not to interfere with slavery in loyal states. After the fighting started, he had rebel leaders arrested in all the border areas and held in military prisons without trial; over 18,000 were arrested. None were executed; one — Clement Vallandingham — was exiled; all were released, usually after two or three months. See Ex parte Merryman.

Emancipation Proclamation
Main articles: Abraham Lincoln on slavery and Emancipation Proclamation

Lincoln met with his Cabinet for the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation draft on July 22, 1862. L-R: Edwin M. Stanton, Salmon P. Chase, Abraham Lincoln, Gideon Welles, Caleb Smith, William H. Seward, Montgomery Blair and Edward Bates
Congress in July 1862 moved to free the slaves by passing the Second Confiscation Act. The goal was to weaken the rebellion, which was led and controlled by slave owners. This did not abolish the legal institution of slavery (the 13th Amendment did that), but it shows Lincoln had the support of Congress in liberating the slaves owned by rebels. Lincoln implemented the new law by his "Emancipation Proclamation."

Lincoln is well known for ending slavery in the United States. In 1861-62, Lincoln made it clear that the North was fighting the war to preserve the Union, not to abolish slavery. Freeing the slaves became, in late 1862, a war measure to weaken the rebellion by destroying the economic base of its leadership class. Abolitionists criticized Lincoln for his slowness, but on August 22, 1862, Lincoln explained:

“ I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." ... My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to 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.[25] ”

The Emancipation Proclamation, announced on September 22 and put in effect January 1, 1863, freed slaves in territories not under Union control. As Union armies advanced south, more slaves were liberated until all of them in Confederate hands were freed (over three million). Lincoln later said: "I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper." The proclamation made abolishing slavery in the rebel states an official war goal. Lincoln then threw his energies into passage of the 13th Amendment to permanently abolish slavery throughout the nation.[26]

Lincoln had for some time been working on plans to set up colonies for the newly freed slaves. He remarked upon colonization favorably in the Emancipation Proclamation but all attempts at such a massive undertaking failed. As Frederick Douglass observed, Lincoln was, "The first great man that I talked with in the United States freely who in no single instance reminded me of the difference between himself and myself, of the difference of color."[27]

Domestic measures

While Lincoln is usually portrayed bearded, he first grew a beard in 1860 at the suggestion of 11-year-old Grace Bedell
Lincoln believed in the Whig theory of the presidency, which left Congress to write the laws while he signed them, vetoing only bills that threatened his war powers. Thus, he signed the Homestead Act in 1862, making available millions of acres of government-held land in the west for purchase at very low cost. The Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act, also signed in 1862, provided government grants for agricultural universities in each state. Lincoln also signed the Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 and 1864, which granted federal support to the construction of the United States' first transcontinental railroad, which was completed in 1869. Other important legislation involved money matters, including the first income tax and higher tariffs. Also included was the creation of the system of national banks by the National Banking Acts of 1863, 1864, and 1865 which allowed the creation of a strong national financial system.

Lincoln sent a senior general to put down the "Sioux Uprising" of August 1862 in Minnesota. Presented with 303 death warrants for convicted Santee Dakota who had massacred innocent farmers, Lincoln affirmed 39 of these for execution (one was later reprieved).

1864 election and second inauguration
After Union victories at Gettysburg, Vicksburg and Chattanooga in 1863, victory seemed at hand. Lincoln promoted Ulysses S. Grant General-in-Chief on March 12, 1864. When the spring campaigns all turned into bloody stalemates, Lincoln strongly supported Grant's strategy of wearing down Lee's army at the cost of heavy Union casualties. Lincoln easily defeated efforts to deny his renomination, and selected Andrew Johnson, a War Democrat from the Southern state of Tennessee as his running mate in order to form a broader coalition. They ran on the new Union Party ticket; it was a coalition of Republicans and War Democrats.

Republicans across the country had the jitters in August, fearing that Lincoln would be defeated. Acknowledging those fears, Lincoln wrote and signed a pledge that, if he should lose the election, he would nonetheless defeat the Confederacy by an all-out military effort before turning over the White House.[28]:

“ 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 cannot possibly save it afterwards.[29] ”

Lincoln did not show the pledge to his cabinet, but asked them to sign the sealed envelope.

The Democratic platform followed the Peace wing of the party, calling the war a "failure." However their candidate, General George McClellan, supported the war and repudiated the platform.

Lincoln provided Grant with new replacements and mobilized the Union party to support Grant and talk up local support for the war. Sherman's capture of Atlanta in September ended defeatist jitters; the Democratic Party was deeply split, with some leaders and most soldiers openly for Lincoln; the Union party was united and energized, and Lincoln was easily reelected in a landslide. He won all but two states, capturing 212 of 233 electoral votes.

On March 4, 1865, he delivered his second inaugural address, which was his favorite of all his speeches. At this time, a victory over the rebels was at hand, slavery was dead, and Lincoln was looking to the future.

“ Fondly do we hope — fervently do we pray — that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether." 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[30] ”

Conducting the war effort

The Running Machine
An 1864 cartoon featuring Lincoln, William Fessenden, Edwin Stanton, William Seward and Gideon Welles takes a swing at the Lincoln administration
The war was a source of constant frustration for the president, and it occupied nearly all of his time. Lincoln had a contentious relationship with General George B. McClellan, who became general-in-chief of all the Union armies in the wake of the embarrassing Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run and after the retirement of Winfield Scott in late 1861. Lincoln wished to take an active part in planning the war strategy despite his inexperience in military affairs. Lincoln's strategic priorities were twofold: first, to ensure that Washington, D.C., was well defended; and second, to conduct an aggressive war effort in hopes of ending the war quickly and appeasing the Northern public and press, who pushed for an offensive war. McClellan, a youthful West Point graduate and railroad executive called back to military service, took a more cautious approach. McClellan took several months to plan and execute his Peninsula Campaign, which involved capturing Richmond by moving the Army of the Potomac by boat to the peninsula between the James and York Rivers. McClellan's delay irritated Lincoln, as did McClellan's insistence that no troops were needed to defend Washington, D.C. Lincoln insisted on holding some of McClellan's troops to defend the capital, a decision McClellan blamed for the ultimate failure of his Peninsula Campaign.

McClellan, a lifelong Democrat who was temperamentally conservative, was relieved as general-in-chief after releasing his Harrison's Landing Letter, where he offered unsolicited political advice to Lincoln urging caution in the war effort. McClellan's letter incensed Radical Republicans, who successfully pressured Lincoln to appoint fellow Republican John Pope as head of the new Army of Virginia. Pope complied with Lincoln's strategic desire for the Union to move towards Richmond from the north, thus guarding Washington, D.C. However, Pope was soundly defeated at the Second Battle of Bull Run during the summer of 1862, forcing the Army of the Potomac back into the defenses of Washington for a second time. Pope was sent to Minnesota to fight the Sioux.

An 1864 Mathew Brady photo depicts President Lincoln reading a book with his youngest son, Tad.
Panicked by Confederate General Robert E. Lee's invasion of Maryland, Lincoln restored McClellan to command of all forces around Washington in time for the Battle of Antietam in September 1862. It was the Union victory in that battle that allowed Lincoln to release his Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln relieved McClellan of command shortly after the 1862 midterm elections and appointed Republican Ambrose Burnside to head the Army of the Potomac, who promised to follow through on Lincoln's strategic vision for an aggressive offensive against Lee and Richmond. After Burnside was stunningly defeated at Fredericksburg, Joseph Hooker was given command, despite his idle talk about becoming a military strong man. Hooker was routed by Lee at Chancellorsville in May 1863 and relieved of command early in the subsequent Gettysburg Campaign.

After the Union victory at Gettysburg, Meade's failure to pursue Lee, and months of inactivity for the Army of the Potomac, Lincoln decided to bring in a western general: General Ulysses S. Grant. He had a solid string of victories in the Western Theater, including Vicksburg and Chattanooga. Earlier, reacting to criticism of Grant, Lincoln was quoted as saying, "I cannot spare this man. He fights." Grant waged his bloody Overland Campaign in 1864, using a strategy of a war of attrition, characterized by high Union losses at battles such as the Wilderness and Cold Harbor but by proportionately higher losses in the Confederate army. Grant's aggressive campaign eventually bottled up Lee in the Siege of Petersburg, took Richmond, and brought the war to a close in the spring of 1865.

Lincoln authorized Grant to destroy the civilian infrastructure that was keeping the Confederacy alive, hoping thereby to destroy the South's morale and weaken its economic ability to continue the war. This allowed Generals William Tecumseh Sherman and Philip Sheridan to destroy farms and towns in the Shenandoah Valley, Georgia, and South Carolina. The damage in Sherman's March to the Sea through Georgia totaled in excess of $100 million.

Lincoln had a star-crossed record as a military leader, possessing a keen understanding of strategic points (such as the Mississippi River and the fortress city of Vicksburg) and the importance of defeating the enemy's army, rather than simply capturing cities. However, he had limited success in motivating his commanders to adopt his strategies, until in late 1863 he found in Grant a man who shared his vision of the war, his insistence on using black troops, and was able to bring that vision to reality with his relentless pursuit of coordinated offensives in multiple theaters of war.

Lincoln showed a keen curiosity with military campaigning during the war. He spent hours at the War Department telegraph office, reading dispatches from his generals on many nights. He frequently visited battle sites and seemed fascinated by watching scenes of war. During Jubal A. Early's raid into Washington, D.C., in 1864, Lincoln had to be told to duck his head to avoid being shot while observing the scenes of battle.

Homefront

Rhetoric mobilizes the nation
Lincoln was more successful in giving the war meaning to Northern civilians through his oratorical skills. Lincoln possessed an extraordinary command of the English language, as evidenced by the Gettysburg Address, a speech dedicating a cemetery of Union soldiers from the Battle of Gettysburg that he delivered on November 19, 1863. Lincoln's choice of words resonated across the nation and across history, defying Lincoln's own prediction that "the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here." Lincoln's second inaugural address is also greatly admired and often quoted. In these speeches, Lincoln articulated better than anyone the rationale behind the Union effort.

Civil liberties suspended

Lincoln, in stovepipe hat, with Allan Pinkerton and Gen. John McClernand at Antietam
During the Civil War, Lincoln appropriated powers no previous President had wielded: he used his war powers to proclaim a blockade, suspended the writ of habeas corpus, spent money without congressional authorization, and imprisoned 18,000 suspected Confederate sympathizers without trial. Nearly all of his actions, although vehemently denounced by the Copperheads, were subsequently upheld by Congress and the Courts.

Reconstruction
Reconstruction began during the war as Lincoln and his associates pondered the questions of how to reintegrate the Southern states back into the Union, and what to do with Confederate leaders and with the freed slaves. Lincoln was the leader of the "moderates" regarding Reconstruction policy, and usually was opposed by the Radical Republicans led by Thaddeus Stevens in the House and Charles Sumner and Benjamin Wade in the Senate (though he cooperated with those men on most other issues). Lincoln was determined to find a course that would reunite the nation as soon as possible and not permanently alienate the Southerners, and throughout the war Lincoln urged speedy elections under generous terms in areas behind Union lines. Critical decisions had to be made during the war, as state after state was reconquered. Of special importance were Tennessee, where Lincoln appointed Andrew Johnson as governor, and Louisiana where Lincoln tried a plan that would restore the state when 10% of the voters agreed. The Radicals thought that policy was too lenient, and passed their own plan, the Wade-Davis Bill in 1864. Lincoln vetoed Wade-Davis, and the Radicals retaliated by refusing to seat representatives elected from Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee.[31]

On April 9, 1865, General Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House in Virginia; the war was effectively over. The other rebel armies surrendered and there was no guerrilla warfare. Lincoln went to Richmond to make a public gesture of sitting at Jefferson Davis's own desk, symbolically saying to the nation that the President of the United States held authority over the entire land. He was greeted at the city as a conquering hero by freed slaves, whose sentiments were epitomized by one admirer's quote, "I know I am free for I have seen the face of Father Abraham and have felt him." When a general asked Lincoln how the defeated Confederates should be treated, Lincoln replied, "Let 'em up easy."[32]

Assassination
Main article: Abraham Lincoln assassination
Further information: Abraham Lincoln's burial and exhumation

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln. From left to right: Henry Rathbone, Clara Harris, Mary Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth
Originally, John Wilkes Booth had formulated a plan to kidnap Lincoln in exchange for the release of Confederate prisoners. In April he changed to a plan for assassination.[33]

Booth, a well-known actor and a Confederate spy from Maryland, heard that the President and Mrs. Lincoln, along with the Grants, would be attending Ford's Theatre. Having failed in a plot to kidnap Lincoln earlier, Booth informed his co-conspirators of his intention to kill Lincoln. Others were assigned to assassinate vice-president Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William H. Seward.

Without his main bodyguard Ward Hill Lamon, to whom he related his famous dream of his own assassination, Lincoln left to attend the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater. As a lone bodyguard wandered, and Lincoln sat in his state box (Box 7) in the balcony, Booth crept up behind the President's box and waited for the funniest line of the play, hoping the laughter would cover the noise of the gunshot. On stage, a character named Lord Dundreary (played by Harry Hawk) who has just been accused of ignorance in regards to the manners of good society, replies, "Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal — you sockdologizing old man-trap..." When the laughter came Booth jumped into the box with the President and aimed a single-shot, round-slug .44 caliber Deringer at his head, firing at point-blank range. The bullet entered behind Lincoln's left ear and lodged behind his right eyeball. Major Henry Rathbone momentarily grappled with Booth but was cut by Booth's knife. Booth then leapt to the stage and shouted "Sic semper tyrannis!" (Latin: "Thus always to tyrants") and escaped, despite a broken leg suffered in the leap. A twelve-day manhunt ensued, in which Booth was chased by Federal agents (under the direction of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton), until he was finally cornered in a barnhouse in Virginia and shot, dying soon after.

An army surgeon, Doctor Charles Leale, initially assessed the wound as fatal. The President was taken across the street from the theater to the Petersen House, where he lay in a coma for nine hours before he died. Several physicians attended Lincoln, including U.S. Army Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes of the Army Medical Museum. Using a probe, Barnes located some fragments of Lincoln's skull and the ball lodged 6 inches (15 cm) inside his brain. Lincoln never regained consciousness and was officially pronounced dead at 7:22 a.m. April 15, 1865. There is some disagreement among historians as to Stanton's words after Lincoln died. All agree he began "Now he belongs to the..." with some stating he said "ages," while others believe he said "angels." After Lincoln's body was returned to the White House, his body was prepared for his lying in repose in the East Room. He was the first president to lie in state.

The Army Medical Museum, now named the National Museum of Health and Medicine, has retained in its collection several artifacts relating to the assassination. Currently on display in the museum are the bullet that was fired from the Deringer pistol, the probe used by Barnes, pieces of Lincoln's skull and hair, and the surgeon's cuff stained with Lincoln's blood.

Lincoln's funeral train carried his remains, as well as 300 mourners and the casket of his son William, 1,654 miles (2,661 km) to Illinois
Lincoln's body was carried by train in a grand funeral procession through several states on its way back to Illinois. The nation mourned a man whom many viewed as the savior of the United States. Copperheads celebrated the death of a man they considered an unconstitutional tyrant. He was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois, where a 177 foot (54 m) tall granite tomb surmounted with several bronze statues of Lincoln was constructed by 1874. To prevent repeated attempts to steal Lincoln's body and hold it for ransom, Robert Todd Lincoln had Lincoln exhumed and reinterred in concrete several feet thick in 1901.

Religious beliefs
Although Lincoln's parents were fundamentalist Regular Baptists, historian Dr. Mark A. Noll states that "Lincoln never joined a church nor ever made a clear profession of standard Christian belief." Nevertheless, Christian traditions had a profound effect on Lincoln, as seen in his familiarity with the Bible. Noll agrees with biographer Jesse Fell that Lincoln rejected orthodox views on the innate depravity of man, the character and office of Jesus, the Atonement, the infallibility of the Bible, miracles, and heaven and hell. Noll argues Lincoln was turned against organized Christianity by his experiences as a young man who saw how excessive emotion and bitter sectarian quarrels marked yearly camp meetings and the ministry of traveling preachers. [34]

When a pious minister told Lincoln he "hoped the Lord is on our side," the president responded, "I am not at all concerned about that.... But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side." This anxiety and religious imagery were prominent in Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address in March 1865:

“ Both [North and South] read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. ”

In 1846, when Lincoln ran for congress against Peter Cartwright, the noted evangelist, Cartwright tried to make Lincoln's religion or lack of it a major issue of the campaign. Responding to accusations that he was an "infidel" (atheist), Lincoln defended himself, without denying that specific charge, by publishing a hand-bill in which he stated:

“ That I am not a member of any Christian church is true; but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures; and I have never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion in general, or of any denomination of Christians in particular....I do not think I could myself be brought to support a man for office whom I knew to be an open enemy of, or scoffer at, religion. [35] ”

As Carl Sandburg recounts in Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years, Lincoln attended one of Cartwright's revival meetings. At the conclusion of the service, the fiery pulpiteer called for all who intended to go to heaven to please rise. Naturally, the response was heartening. Then he called for all those who wished to go to hell to stand. Not many takers. Lincoln had responded to neither option. Cartwright closed in. "Mr. Lincoln, you have not expressed an interest in going to either heaven or hell. May I enquire as to where you do plan to go?" Lincoln replied: "I did not come here with the idea of being singled out, but since you ask, I will reply with equal candor. I intend to go to Congress."

Presidential appointments

Administration and Cabinet
Lincoln was known for appointing his political rivals to high positions in his Cabinet to keep in line all factions of his party — and to let them battle each other and not combine against Lincoln. Historians agree that except for Cameron, it was a highly effective group.

Portrait of Abraham Lincoln
Office Name Term

President Abraham Lincoln 1861–1865
Vice President Hannibal Hamlin 1861–1865
Andrew Johnson 1865

Secretary of State William H. Seward 1861–1865

Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase 1861–1864
William P. Fessenden 1864–1865
Hugh McCulloch 1865

Secretary of War Simon Cameron 1861–1862
Edwin M. Stanton 1862–1865

Attorney General Edward Bates 1861–1864
James Speed 1864–1865

Postmaster General Montgomery Blair 1861–1864
William Dennison 1864–1865

Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles 1861–1865

Secretary of the Interior Caleb B. Smith 1861–1862
John P. Usher 1863–1865

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