Presidency of Abraham Lincoln facts for kids
The presidency of Abraham Lincoln began when he became the 16th President of the United States on March 4, 1861. It ended when he died on April 15, 1865. During his time as president, Lincoln took more power for the presidency than any president before him. This made the president's role much stronger.
When Lincoln won the 1860 election, he did not have support from any Southern states. Since the 1830s, Southern states had talked about leaving the Union. But it became a serious issue in 1860. After Lincoln was elected and before he became president in March 1861, seven states left the Union. They formed the Confederate States of America (CSA).
The American Civil War began when Confederates attacked Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Even though Lincoln had little military experience, he became a great war president. In 1863, his Emancipation Proclamation freed enslaved people in the Southern states. This led to slavery being ended in the United States. Later that year, his Gettysburg Address became one of the most important speeches in American history. In 1865, as the Civil War was ending, John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate supporter, shot and killed Lincoln. His death made Lincoln a hero for the Union cause. Many people see him as one of the greatest presidents in U.S. history.
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Lincoln's Journey to President
By 1860, Lincoln was well-known in Illinois politics. In 1858, he had debated Stephen A. Douglas for a spot in the U.S. Senate. He lost that election. At that time, state lawmakers chose senators. So, Lincoln and Douglas were trying to get their parties to win control of the Illinois legislature. Even though Illinois was a free state, the main topic of their seven debates was slavery.
Lincoln spent the next 16 months giving speeches for Republican candidates in the North. This helped him make many political friends. It also prepared him for his run for President. At first, William H. Seward of New York was the strongest candidate. Seward was strongly against slavery everywhere in the U.S. Lincoln had a more moderate view. He was against slavery spreading into new states in the West.
As Lincoln became more popular in the new Republican Party, he was asked to give speeches in many states. In October 1859, he was invited to speak in Brooklyn, New York. Lincoln spent months getting ready for this speech. It was more time than he had spent on any speech before. At the last minute, his speech was moved to the Cooper Union in Manhattan. Lincoln knew why he had been asked to speak. He was being shown as a possible choice instead of Seward and other Republican candidates. The Cooper Union speech helped Lincoln get the attention he needed to become the Republican candidate for president in 1860.
In April 1860, the Democrats held their meeting to choose a candidate. The Southern Democrats walked out. The meeting ended without choosing anyone. The two sides then held their own meetings two months later. Stephen Douglas became the candidate for the Northern Democrats. John C. Breckinridge ran for the Southern Democrats. John Bell ran for the Constitutional Union Party. The split in the Democratic party almost guaranteed Lincoln would win the presidency.
At the start of 1860, Lincoln was not a major candidate. But on November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected President. He won with 39% of the popular vote and a majority in the Electoral College. Voter turnout for this election was 81.2%, which was the second highest in American history.
States Leave the Union
In November 1860, after Lincoln won, a big problem that had been growing for ten years exploded. Southerners were very angry about Lincoln's election. He was against slavery in new territories and states. They started to act right away. James Chesnut, Jr., a Senator from South Carolina, quit just four days after the election.
President James Buchanan made things worse. In December, he wrote to Congress. He said he thought leaving the Union was illegal. But he also said the government could not stop any states from leaving. People in the North could not understand how Buchanan could say this. After that, Buchanan's team of advisors started to fall apart. Howell Cobb, the Secretary of the Treasury from Georgia, quit. A week later, Lewis Cass, the Secretary of State from Michigan, left because Buchanan did nothing to stop the crisis.
South Carolina was the first state to act. Its leaders had warned that if a Republican won the election, they would leave the Union. On December 20, 1860, in a special meeting, they all voted to leave. In January 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana followed. Texas left on February 1. Other states thought about leaving, but no more did during this time.
While Buchanan did nothing, several senators gave speeches in Congress to try and calm things down. The Peace Conference of 1861 was held in Washington on February 4, 1861. Out of 33 states, 21 sent representatives. Former President John Tyler was chosen to lead the meeting. The meeting lasted about two weeks. Many ideas were created and sent to Congress. Some compromises were worked out as proposed changes to the U.S. Constitution. But Congress did not pass any of them.
At Lincoln's inauguration, he rode in a carriage next to the outgoing president. Buchanan reportedly told Lincoln, "If you are as happy entering the presidency as I am leaving it, then you are a very happy man." Within weeks, four more slave states left the Union. Then, the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter.
Lincoln's First Speech as President
On March 4, 1861, Lincoln gave his first speech as he became the 16th President. The speech was mainly for the people of the South. He wanted to explain his plans and hopes for the South, where seven states had formed the Confederate States of America. His speech was friendly towards the states that had left.
He talked about several points. Lincoln promised not to interfere with slavery in the states where it already existed. He said the government would not be hostile towards the states that had left for now. The government would "hold, occupy, and possess" its property. It would also collect its taxes. He ended his speech with a warning:
In your hand, my fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not attack you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend it… 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 battlefield and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, 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.
Lincoln's Time as President
Lincoln's presidency lasted about four years. It ran from March 4, 1861, until he died on April 15, 1865. Almost all of his time in office was spent dealing with the Civil War. From his election on February 15 to his inauguration on March 4, Lincoln had little time to choose his cabinet.
Lincoln's Cabinet Members
Lincoln's cabinet was special in American history. It included all of his main rivals for the 1860 Republican nomination. As part of the political talks before the nomination, some had been promised a job in the cabinet. It was not a friendly group, as most of them did not like each other. They had different ideas about running the country, different beliefs, and different personalities. Simon Cameron, for example, was forced on Lincoln because of a deal made with Pennsylvania representatives. He was known for being not good at his job and corrupt. He became Lincoln's Secretary of War.
Members included:
- Hannibal Hamlin, Lincoln's first Vice President (1861–1865).
- Andrew Johnson, Lincoln's second Vice President (1865) and later the 17th President.
- Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury. In 1864, he became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
- Simon Cameron, Secretary of War (1861–1862).
- Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War (1862–1865).
- William H. Seward, Secretary of State (1861–1865).
- Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy (1861–1865).
- Montgomery Blair, Postmaster General (1861–1864).
- Edward Bates, Attorney General (1861–1864).
Challenges at Home
Lincoln's government had to lead the country through its hardest times. He took over problems from the previous president, James Buchanan. Four years earlier, Buchanan had called the issues of slavery "happily, a matter of but little practical importance." Buchanan believed he did not have the power to do anything about the coming civil war. He said: "It is beyond the power of any president... to restore peace and harmony among the states." As the civil war got closer, the country went into a recession under Buchanan.
Instead of ignoring the situation, Lincoln had to fix a broken nation or watch it fall apart. Between his election and his inauguration, the seven states that left formed the Confederate States of America. Their constitution was similar to the U.S. Constitution but had four main differences. It supported states' power. It guaranteed slavery would always exist in the Confederate states. It did not let the Southern Congress set up protective tariffs (taxes on imported goods). It also limited the Confederate president's term to 6 years.
Jefferson Davis was elected as president of the CSA. He was a slave owner from Mississippi, a U.S. senator, and had been secretary of war. The CSA believed the United States was just a group of independent states, like they were under the Articles of Confederation. They thought each state was free to leave the group. The North saw the Union as a permanent country. Lincoln said that each state gave up its independence when it agreed to the Constitution. He also argued that no state had the right to rebel against their country.
But Lincoln stayed quiet about the CSA from their formation until his inauguration. He repeated his promise that as President, he would not stop or limit slavery in states where it already existed. However, he did not accept the ideas made by the Peace Commission. To show his peaceful intentions, his first speech aimed to stop other Southern states from joining the CSA. He said they were not enemies. He would not attack the CSA but would keep all U.S. government property in the Southern states.
A day after his inauguration, Lincoln got a message from Major Robert Anderson. He was the commander of Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. He told Lincoln that if the fort was not resupplied soon, he and his men would have to leave. Lincoln thought of a way to resupply the fort without starting a fight. He would send unarmed supply ships to Fort Sumter. He told CSA President Davis about his plans. This way, the U.S. would not start any fighting but would keep the fort, as Lincoln had promised.
Immediately, Davis sent General P. G. T. Beauregard to force the fort's surrender before the supply ships could arrive. At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, Confederate guns began firing on Fort Sumter. After 33 hours, Major Anderson surrendered the fort. This was the start of the Civil War.
The war lasted for four years. The North did not expect the South to fight so hard to defend its "freedom." The South did not know that the North, led by Lincoln, would be so determined to keep the Union together at all costs.
Dealing with Other Countries
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One of Lincoln's military plans was to blockade the South's ports and about 3500 miles of coastline. At the start of the war, with only a few ships, this was almost impossible. By the end of the war, the Union had caught or destroyed 1500 blockade runners. But since nearly 5 out of 6 ships could get past the blockade, Great Britain said it was not a real blockade under international law.
The Confederacy could only ship a small part of its main crop, cotton, to England during the war. Three years before the war, the South had shipped 10 million bales of cotton a year. During the war, they shipped only 500,000 bales in total. But English factories had stored large amounts of Southern cotton from the huge exports before the war. What they had lasted them through most of the war.
In 1861, both the Confederacy and the Union wanted Great Britain's help. The North counted on them because Britain was against slavery. The Confederacy counted on their help because their cotton was very important to Britain's economy. So both sides had talks with Great Britain. The South needed Britain's help to win the war. Also, without Britain's help, France would not dare interfere, even though they were friendly with the South.
On May 4, 1861, Queen Victoria announced that Britain would be neutral in the war. She also recognized the Confederacy as a fighting side. This made Lincoln very angry. Seward, his Secretary of State, had already told the new minister to Britain to quit and come home if the Queen recognized the Confederacy. France followed with a similar announcement, also recognizing the CSA as a nation. Seward warned both nations that this could lead to war with the United States.
British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston sent a fleet of warships to the western Atlantic Ocean. They were getting ready for a surprise attack on New York City. They planned to use the world's largest ship, the SS Great Eastern, to carry troops. They saw an attack on New York as an attack on the U.S. center of business. But in the spring of 1862, the British learned about the Union's ironclad warship, the USS Monitor. This canceled any invasion plans. While the British Navy had ironclad warships, they needed deep water to move. The Monitor and Northern ships like it could destroy British ships if they tried to blockade Northern ports.
Russia was also worried that the British or French might get involved. In the summer of 1862, a group of nations thought about stepping in to help end the war. These included Britain, France, Prussia, Austria, and Russia. But in the fall of 1863, Tsar Alexander II of Russia sent his navy to protect the United States from any invasion by Great Britain and France. Their Baltic fleet started arriving in New York harbor on September 24, 1863. The Russian Far East fleet was sent to San Francisco.
For the rest of the war, most European countries had little to gain by recognizing the Confederacy as a country. Lincoln handled a situation diplomatically when two Confederates were arrested on the British ship the Trent. He ordered them both released. Crop failures in Europe made Union farm products popular. Egypt and India were able to supply the cotton that was once bought from the South. The Union was also a good customer for small arms and other manufactured goods from Europe. However, many blockade runners and warships were built for the Confederate Navy by English shipbuilders during the war.
Lincoln as War Leader
In 1861, the American Civil War was the first modern "total war." And in 1861, no one in the United States knew how to fight one. Men could be enlisted, and war goods could be made, but generals took time to train. The head general of the army in 1861 was Winfield Scott. He was in charge of an army of only about 16,000 men. Scott was old and had old-fashioned training.
Many officers had been trained at West Point. But at that time, West Point taught engineering, math, and building forts. It taught very little about strategy or leading large groups of soldiers in the field. Few had learned about managing an army, except those who could read French or had military experience in Europe. One of the worst problems was that field commanders did not even have accurate maps of the areas they had to move and fight in. Except in the West, local maps did not exist for many parts of the country. Unlike Jefferson Davis, who had military experience, Lincoln had almost none.
Lincoln faced a very steep learning curve when the war started. But Lincoln learned quickly. He had taught himself to be a lawyer. Learning military strategy turned out to be something else he could do very well. He read books on strategy and military history. He learned from the successes and failures of his troops. He also learned from the enemy's military tactics. He learned so well that by 1862, historian T. Harry William said about him: "Lincoln stands out as a great war president, probably the greatest in our history, and a great natural strategist, a better one than any of his generals."
Although there is no proof he ever read Karl von Clausewitz's On War, his actions followed the book's main idea: "The political objective is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and means can never be considered in isolation from their purpose. Therefore, it is clear that war should never be thought of as something separate but always as a tool of policy."
Images for kids
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"The Rail Candidate"—Lincoln's 1860 candidacy is shown as supported by the slavery issue (a slave on the left) and party organization (on the right).
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After Kansas joined in 1861, there were 19 free states and 15 slave states.
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Gustavus Fox, a U.S. Navy veteran, became a key person in the Navy Department after his role in the Fort Sumter crisis.
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"Running the 'Machine'": An 1864 political cartoon about Lincoln's government—featuring William Fessenden, Edwin Stanton, William Seward, Gideon Welles, Lincoln, and others.
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Lincoln and George McClellan after the Battle of Antietam in 1862.
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President Lincoln (center right) with, from left, Generals Sherman and Grant and Admiral Porter – 1868 painting of events aboard the River Queen in March 1865.
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Lincoln and Johnson campaign poster.
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Lincoln met with his Cabinet for the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation draft on July 22, 1862. L–R: Edwin Stanton, Salmon P. Chase, Abraham Lincoln, Gideon Welles, Caleb Smith, William H. Seward, Montgomery Blair, and Edward Bates.
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A political cartoon of Vice President Andrew Johnson (a former tailor) and Lincoln, 1865, titled The 'Rail Splitter' At Work Repairing the Union. The caption reads (Johnson): "Take it quietly Uncle Abe and I will draw it closer than ever." (Lincoln): "A few more stitches Andy and the good old Union will be mended."
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While Lincoln is usually shown with a beard, he first grew one in 1860 after an 11-year-old girl named Grace Bedell suggested it.
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The Last Hours of Abraham Lincoln, painted by Alonzo Chappel (1868), showing those who visited the dying president throughout the night and early morning of April 14–15, 1865.
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Lincoln's image is carved into the stone of Mount Rushmore.
See also
In Spanish: Presidencia de Abraham Lincoln para niños
