Abraham Lincoln's Goals

Abraham Lincoln was the president during the Civil War. His inauguration was the beginning of the war, because South Carolina left the Union. South Carolina was soon followed by other southern states and the southern states formed the Confederacy. The main goals for his presidency was to preserve the union and to stop the spread of slavery. Slavery ended at the end of the Civil War and the other states came back to the Union. Lincoln did not always stand as anti-slavery. He did not grow up around slavery, so he did not see it until he began traveling. Lincoln had to see more of slavery before he took a strong stand against it, his strong moral character and powerful way of speaking helped define him as a great president

Abraham Lincoln

This is where he first saw a slave auction in the capital, and he was disgusted by it and felt the African Americans were being treated “precisely like droves of cattle.” (208.) He then wanted to introduce a bill to Congress that would free slaves in the District of Columbia, but this never happened (208.) He voted against the expansion of slavery, yet he did not speak out against it on the Congress floor (208.) When he returned home he wrote that “he who would be no slave must consent to have no slave.” (208.) Overall Lincoln was not very outspoken about slavery, and it was not until 1858 did Lincoln take a vocal hardline stance against the progression of slavery when he was nominated to run as the Republican nominee for Senate (209.) At this time Lincoln had reached his personal view that slavery was something that should could not spread in the country, and should be

He was intelligent and dedicated to his work. As a congressman he would go to the Library of Congress and take books that Jefferson had owned so he could read them late into the night (208.) Lincoln was dedicated to understanding what was going on in Jefferson’s mind while writing the Declaration of Independence. He wanted to understand the founding fathers and was willing to read the books they had read in order to see what they thought. Lincoln was powerful speaker. In his speech of acceptance for nomination to be the Republican candidate for a Senate seat, he eloquently stated that “a house divided cannot stand” (209.). He reminded the audience that Kansas had civil unrest due to slavery and showed that he believed that slavery was tearing the nation in two (209.) Lincoln was able to prove how intelligent and articulate he was during his debate with Stephen Douglas. During this debate Lincoln was able to get Douglas to admit that popular sovereignty conflicted with the Dred Scott decision (210.) Lincoln was also able to put the law above his own personal beliefs. When he was a lawyer he defended a slave owner despite having a reputation as being anti- slavery, he believed that his lawyers oath meant he had to uphold the law despite disagreeing morally (207.) Lincoln had a strong sense of morality and the ability to articulate his