Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Abraham Lincoln |
Abraham LincolnNoun1. 16th President of the United States; saved the Union during the Civil War and emancipated the slaves; was assassinated by Booth (1809-1865). Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
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Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 - April 15, 1865) was the 16th (1861-1865) President of the United States, and the first President from the Republican Party. He is well praised for successfully restoring the federal unity of the nation by defeating the secessionist Confederate States of America and along the way, playing in an important role in ending chattel slavery in the United States. However, a number of states' rights supporters view Lincoln as a tyrant who suspended civil liberties and suppressed the legitimate right to secede for which Lincoln himself had argued in 1848.
Born on February 12, 1809, in Kentucky, Lincoln moved at a young age to Indiana then later to New Salem, Illinois. He served as a captain in the U.S. Army during the Black Hawk War. He later tried his hand at several business and political ventures. He was highly regarded as a practicing lawyer. Lincoln served four terms in the Illinois State Legislature, was briefly elected to Congress (1846) and had a successful law practice in Illinois both before and after his single term in the House of Representatives. It is commonly held that Lincoln had turbulent mood swings alternating between grandiosity and depression, which greatly moderated after his marriage to Mary Ann Todd in 1842.
First elected to the House of Representatives, Lincoln spent most of his time in Washington, DC alone and made a less than spectacular impression on his fellow politicians. During his unsuccessful campaign for the United States Senate against Stephen A. Douglas, it was Lincoln's well-known gift of oratory that brought public support to an otherwise unimpressive candidate. Lincoln debated Douglas in a series of events which represented a national discussion on the issues that were about to split the nation in two. The Lincoln-Douglas debates presaged the Presidential election of 1860, in which Douglas and Lincoln were once again opponents. On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected as the 16th President of the United States, the first Republican to hold that office.
Shortly after his election, the South made it clear that secession was inevitable which greatly increased tension across the nation. President-elect Lincoln survived an assassination attempt in Baltimore, Maryland and on February 23, 1861 arrived secretly in disguise to Washington, DC. The South ridiculed Lincoln for this seemingly cowardly act, but the efforts at security may have been prudent. At Lincoln's inauguration on March 4, 1861, the Turners formed Lincoln's bodyguard, and a sizable garrison of Union troops was always present, ready to protect the president and the capital from rebel invasion.
During his presidency, Lincoln is credited with freeing the slaves with the Emancipation Proclamation, though this only freed the slaves in areas of the Confederacy not yet controlled by the Union. However, the proclamation made abolishing slavery in the rebel states an official war goal which became the impetus for the enactment of the 13th and 14th Admendments of the United States Constitution which respectively abolished slavery and established the federal enforcement of civil rights. During the Civil War Lincoln held powers no previous president had wielded; he suspended the writ of habeas corpus and frequently imprisoned Southern spies and sympathizers without trial. On the other hand, he often commuted executions.
He showed tremendous leadership to the Union populace during the war as evidenced by the Gettysburg Address, a speech dedicating a cemetery of union soldiers from the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. While most of the speakers—eg Edward Everett—at the event spoke at length, some for hours, Lincoln's few choice 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." While there is little documentation of the other speeches of the day, Lincoln's address is regarded as one of the great speeches in history.
The war was a source of constant frustration for the president, and it occupied nearly all of his time. After repeated frustrations with General George McClellan and a string of other unsuccessful commanding generals, Lincoln made the fateful decision to appoint a radical and somewhat scandalous army commander: General Ulysses S. Grant. Grant would apply his military knowledge and leadership talents to bring about the close of the Civil War.
When Richmond, the Confederate capital, was at long last captured, Lincoln went there to make a public gesture of sitting behind Jefferson Davis's desk in Davis's own chair, symbolically saying to the nation that the President of the United States, and the U.S. constitution, 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."
The reconstruction of the Union weighed heavy on the President's mind. He was determined to take a course that would not permanently alienate the former Confederate states.
In 1864, Lincoln faced a presidential election, an unprecedented situation considering it was during a civil war. The long war and the issue of emancipation appeared to be severely hampering his prospects and an electoral defeat appeared likely against George McClellan. However, a series of timely Union victories shortly before election day changed the situation dramatically and Lincoln was reelected.
Lincoln met frequently with Grant as the war ended. The two men planned matters of reconstruction, and it was evident to all that the two men held one another in high regard. During their last meeting, on April 14, 1865, Lincoln invited General Grant to a social engagement for that evening. Grant declined (his wife was not eager to spend time with Mary Todd Lincoln).
Without the General and his wife, the Lincolns left to attend a play at Ford's theater. The play was Our American Cousin, a musical comedy. As Lincoln sat in the balcony, John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Southern sympathizer from Virginia, aimed a single-shot, round-slug .44 caliber derringer at the President's head and fired. He shouted "Sic semper tyrannis!" (Latin: "Thus always to tyrants," and Virginia's state motto; some versions say he said "The south is avenged!") and jumped from the balcony to the stage below, breaking his leg in the process.
Booth managed to limp to his horse and escape, and the mortally wounded president was taken to a house across the street where he lay in a coma for some time before he quietly expired. Booth and several of his companions (some of whom were later shown to be innocent) were eventually captured and either hanged or imprisoned.
Lincoln's body was carried by train in a grand funeral procession through several states. The nation mourned a man who many viewed as the savior of the United States and protector and defender of what Lincoln himself called "the government of the people, by the people, and for the people." Critics say that it was in fact the Confederates that were defending the right of "government for the people" and Lincoln who was suppressing that right. They further insist that Lincoln only preserved the union in a geographical sense while destroying its voluntary nature.
President Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln had four sons. Only one survived into adulthood.
One of the most respected and beloved presidents, Lincoln has been memorialized in many city names, notably the capital of Nebraska, with the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C, on the U.S. $5 bill and the 1 cent coin, and as part of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial.
On February 12, 1892 Abraham Lincoln's birthday was declared to be a federal holiday in the United States, though it was later combined with Washington's birthday in the form of President's Day.
The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln was named in his honor.
Early life
Early political career
Presidency
Emancipation Proclamation
Gettysburg Address
The Civil War
Assassination
Lincoln's funeral train
The train that carried Lincoln's remains from Washington, D.C. to Illinois was viewed by over seven million people, almost one-fifth the population of the U.S. at the time.Lincoln family
Lincoln memorialized
Daniel Chester French sculpture of Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial.Supreme Court appointments
Related articles
Further reading
External links
Preceded by:
James BuchananPresidents of the United States
Succeeded by:
Andrew Johnson
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Abraham Lincoln."
Synonyms: Abraham LincolnSynonyms: Lincoln (n), President Lincoln (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Abraham Lincoln |
| English words defined with "Abraham Lincoln": Carl Sandburg ♦ Daniel Chester French, Decatur, Douglas ♦ February 12, French ♦ Gettysburg Address ♦ Lincoln Memorial, Lincolnesque, Lincolnian, Lincoln's Birthday ♦ representative, Republican Party ♦ Sandburg, Stephen A. Douglas, Stephen Arnold Douglas ♦ The Little Giant ♦ ungrateful. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Abraham Lincoln was president during the Civil War. He helped free the slaves and wrote the Gettysburg address (Muppet Babies; writing credit: Katherine Lawrence; Jeffrey Scott) This is the sword that killed Abraham Lincoln. (First Wave; writing credit: Tunde Babalola) | |
Clever | Everybody likes a compliment. (references; author: Abraham Lincoln) I laugh because I must not cry. (references; author: Abraham Lincoln) Whatever you are, be a good one. (references; author: Abraham Lincoln) The only gift is a portion of thyself. (references; author: Abraham Lincoln) The ballot is stronger than the bullet. (references; author: Abraham Lincoln) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Abraham Lincoln (1930) The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln (1924) Forever Activists: Stories from the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (1990) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site. Credit: NPS. |  | Coming alongside USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) during underway replenishment operations in the Atlantic, 30 November 1989. Photographed by PHAA Eric Dove. Note that Suribachi's guns had been removed at this time. Credit: NAVY. |
 | Design for a columnar monument to Abraham Lincoln. Monument, perspective rendering. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Abraham Lincoln, Republican candidate for president of the United States. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | The Union must and shall be preserved. For President Abraham Lincoln of Illinois. For Vice President Hannibal Hamlin of Maine. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Man, possibly Abraham Lincoln, talking to Civil War officer and troops. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Abraham Lincoln. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Allegorical painting of Franklin D. Roosevelt and eleven other people representing different professions seated around table; behind them is the spirit of Abraham Lincoln; before them is Christ blessing Roosevelt. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Abraham Lincoln statue, sculpted by Pietro Mezzara, located in front of a grammar school in San Francisco, California. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Letter from Mathew Brady to President Abraham Lincoln, asking Lincoln to sit for a photograph. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Abraham Lincoln | Everybody likes a compliment. |
| I laugh because I must not cry. | |
| Whatever you are, be a good one. | |
| The only gift is a portion of thyself. | |
| Towering genius disdains a beaten path. | |
| The ballot is stronger than the bullet. | |
| I'm a slow walker, but I never walk back. | |
| Avoid popularity if you would have peace. | |
Abraham Lincoln. | I walk slowly, but I never walk backward. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
The Emancipation Proclamation | 1862 | Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-In-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for supressing said rebellion, do, on this 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the first day above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States the following, to wit: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Palquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terrebone, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northhampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued. (Abraham Lincoln) |
Abraham Lincoln | 1863 | We are met on a great battlefield of that war. (The Gettysburg Address) |
| 1863 | It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. (The Gettysburg Address) | |
| 1863 | But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. (The Gettysburg Address) | |
| 1863 | The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. (The Gettysburg Address) | |
| 1863 | The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. (The Gettysburg Address) | |
| 1863 | Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. (The Gettysburg Address) | |
| 1863 | It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. (The Gettysburg Address) | |
| 1863 | We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. (The Gettysburg Address) | |
| 1863 | Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. (The Gettysburg Address) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Abraham Lincoln | 1861-1865 | There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives from service or labor. |
| The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. | ||
| As a general rule, I abstain from reading the reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I can not properly offer an answer. | ||
| I have been shown a letter on this subject, supposed to be an able one, in which the writer expresses regret that my mind has not seemed to be definitely fixed on the question whether the seceded States, so called, are in the Union or out of it. | ||
| Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial whether they had ever been abroad. | ||
Jimmy Carter | 1977-1981 | We must have what Abraham Lincoln wanted, a government for the people. |
Ronald Reagan | 1981-1989 | Whoever would understand in his heart the meaning of America will find it in the life of Abraham Lincoln. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-a-b-c-h-i-l-l-m-n-n-o-r" | |
-4 letters: monarchial. | |
-5 letters: anchorman, branchial, bronchial, camarilla, carambola, carbamino, carbanion, cobalamin, harmonica, monarchal, nonracial. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)41 62 72 61 68 61 6D 4C 69 6E 63 6F 6C 6E |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000001 01100010 01110010 01100001 01101000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01001100 01101001 01101110 01100011 01101111 01101100 01101110 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)A b r a h a m   L i n c o l n |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0041 0062 0072 0061 0068 0061 006D 004C 0069 006E 0063 006F 006C 006E |
Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)35688467746779246758069817880 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Familiar | 9. Quotations: Historic 10. Quotations: Speeches 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Anagrams | 13. Orthography 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
