Curwen best biography of abraham lincoln

Only in the final months of the campaign did the exertions of Ulysses S. Grantthe quiet general now in command of all of the Union armies, begin to bear fruit. A string of heartening victories buoyed Lincoln's ticket and contributed significantly to his re-election. In his second inauguration speechMarch 4,he set the tone he intended to take when the war finally ended.

The Lincoln administration did more than just manage the Civil War, although its reverberations could still be felt in a number of policies. The Revenue Act of established the United States' first income tax, largely to pay the costs of total war. The Morrill Act of established the basis of the state university system in this country, while the Homestead Act, also passed inencouraged settlement of the West by offering acres of free land to settlers.

Lincoln also created the Department of Agriculture and formally instituted the Thanksgiving holiday. Internationally, he navigated the "Trent Affair," a diplomatic crisis regarding the seizure of a British ship carrying Confederate envoys, in such a way as to quell the saber-rattling overtures coming from Britain as well as the United States. In another spill-over from the war, Lincoln restricted the civil liberties of due process and freedom of the press.

The assassination was part of a larger plot to eliminate the Northern government that also left Secretary of State William Seward grievously injured. Lincoln died the following day, and with him the hope of reconstructing the nation without bitterness. Civil War Biography. Abraham Lincoln. In it was the germ which has vegetated, and still is to grow and expand into the universal liberty of mankind.

In the most troubled of times, here was a man who led the country out of slavery and preserved a shattered Union — in short, one of the greatest presidents this country has ever seen. On May 18,William H. Seward, Salmon P. When Lincoln emerged as the victor, his rivals were dismayed and angry. Throughout the turbulent s, each had energetically sought the presidency as the conflict over slavery was leading inexorably to secession and civil war.

That Lincoln succeeded, Goodwin demonstrates, was the result of a character that had been forged by experiences that raised him above his more privileged and accomplished rivals. He won because he possessed an extraordinary ability to put himself in the place of other men, to experience what they were feeling, to understand their motives and desires.

It was this capacity that enabled Lincoln as president to bring his disgruntled opponents together, create the most unusual cabinet in history, and marshal their talents to the task of preserving the Union and winning the war. We view the long, horrifying struggle from the vantage of the White House as Lincoln copes with incompetent generals, hostile congressmen, and his raucous cabinet.

He overcomes these obstacles by winning the respect of his former competitors, and in the case of Seward, finds a loyal and crucial friend to see him through. All of American history was pivoting, in these three minutes, from a states-based way of thinking about our society to a nation-based way of thinking.

Curwen best biography of abraham lincoln: Rev. George Curwen was born

In this speech, Lincoln re-dedicated the United States to citizenship for all of its people. Up until this point, African-Americans were largely excluded from citizenship. In this speech, Wills shows Lincoln is realigning the stars of our country to make us a federal union that is stronger than the states and dedicated to the rights of all of citizens, including African-Americans.

It was a big step forward. Those words were crucial, and they refer, I believe, to the Emancipation Proclamation which had already happened, also to the ongoing process of emancipating African Americans and working toward the reconstruction amendments that would follow the Civil War. The 13th Amendment, which abolishes involuntary servitude, happens while Lincoln is still alive.

The 14th Amendment comes into force a few years later.

Curwen best biography of abraham lincoln: In its present shape

Emancipating Lincoln is very cogent and relatively short. Three chapters from three talks he gave at Harvard, about what made the Emancipation Proclamation such a remarkable document. And Holzer is also restoring how hard it was for Lincoln to do that. That is important because we sometimes take him for granted, or worse, take potshots at him.

Recently statues of him have been torn down and his name has been stripped from public schools. It is possible to find imperfect things that were not racially sensitive to our pitch-perfect ears. But what Harold Holzer brilliantly demonstrated is that emancipation was politically difficult to achieve, and had a huge impact, as African-Americans, in particular, understood.

Revisionism, needless to say, is nothing new. The only text my middle schooler receives, in a social studies class focused on onwards, casts Lincoln as a cynical politician who was adamantly opposed to equal rights for Black Americans. That statue was built after Lincoln died; he had nothing to do with it.

Curwen best biography of abraham lincoln: Story ofa Great Life. The History

Douglass was skeptical when Lincoln won. Lincoln moved slowly against slavery at first. But four years later, when he saw what Lincoln had done, he was filled with praise for him. Finally, please tell me about the last Abraham Lincoln book on your list, John E. The book was recently republished with an excellent introduction by historian Kate Masur.

John E. Washington gathered a lot of fantastic oral history and documents to tell the untold story of the African Americans who knew Lincoln. Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount. Black Americans from many walks of life came into contact with Lincoln.

There were African Americans working in the White House. He was friendly with a young man named William Johnson who worked in the Treasury Department. His barber back in Illinois, William De Fleurville, was born in Haiti and they knew one another well. The stories in this book deepen our understanding of Lincoln and his presidency. By reconstructing the lives of the African American people who knew Lincoln is Washington originating social history of the sort that became popular in the s?

Brian Lamb Goodreads Author. Carlos Rivera Goodreads Author. Elizabeth Mitchell Goodreads Author. Daniel Mark Epstein. Thomas J. Anne E. Martin Lubin Editor. Julia Taft Bayne. Donald T. John Charles Berry. Stephen Harrigan Goodreads Author. John C. Fazio Goodreads Author. Philip K. Harry Williams. Harold Holzer. Thomas Keneally. Nikki Giovanni.

Alexander del Mar. Mary Pope Osborne. Benjamin P. Gustav Niebuhr. Timothy Ballard. Jerome Charyn. Dale Carnegie. Stephen W. William Safire. Martha Hodes. Louis Bayard. Clyde Robert Bulla.

Curwen best biography of abraham lincoln: The Corwin Genealogy (Curwin,

Jon Meacham. Charles Bracelen Flood. Edward Steers Jr. Susan B. David W. Ted Widmer. Anthony S. John J. Michael Gerhardt Goodreads Author. Chuck Wills. Charles Lachman Goodreads Author. Classics Illustrated. Elizabeth Van Steenwyk. John F. Joshua Zeitz Goodreads Author. Leroy Hayman. Michael Burlingame. Virginia Frances Voight.