Josh+-+AL+-+SP09

=Abraham Lincoln=
 * [[image:george-story-abraham-lincoln.jpg align="center" caption="http://imagecache5.art.com/p/LRG/8/846/26MY000Z/george-story-abraham-lincoln.jpg"]] || ===Abraham Lincoln===

Born: February 12, 1809 Birthplace: Hardin County, Kentucky Died: April 15, 1865 Political Party: Whig(~1854) and Republican(~64) In Office: March 4, 1861, April 15, 1865 (Ended early, assassinated) Vice President: Hannibal Hamlin (1861-1865) Andrew Johnson (1865) || there is only a limitless foundation of admiration set up for those actions by the man. Abraham managed to lead the nation through the single largest internal affair our nation had ever been involved in, the civil war. Lincoln managed to pull the union through to success and preserved our nation's power and fundamental ideas true. Lincoln also managed to end slavery in the process, a large evil of which very few do not regret ever being put in place due to the horrors and treatment of human beings. Also, Lincoln, with all his good deeds, was killed in action as he was assassinated during the very first part of his second term for doing good in the nation. As far as success in the nation is concerned, an the ending result of the nation as a result of Abraham being president, Abraham Lincoln deserves the grade that could be contested against, but still deserved, A+. This is because no other president better matches the goals and successes the president is supposed to make to benefit the nation. No president has ever really faced such a huge threat, and no president would have been able to handle it with such great accomplishment. So if we don't give who is thought to be the best president an A+, then who DO we give it to?
 * There are presidents that are remembered for their outstanding actions in their presidency. As far as the success of an Abraham Lincoln is concerned,

Lincoln stated that his goals for being elected were to preserve the Union, as stated in his Gettysburg Address. In this goal managed with outstanding realism. The United States was split apart as a result of on of the worst presidents ever having little attempts to make the US a better place. So, with Abraham Lincoln coming of power, he had many issues to deal with in the preservation of the Union. However, under his very direct style of government he managed to re-unite the U.S.A. and keep the nation as a whole and not utterly and constantly divided. So as far as keeping the Union together when he was directly elected, this was absolutely impossible. However, he pulled through and made the Union one again. For that he receives 100% for his finished successes in his ending presidency. Abraham Lincoln, although not stated, had many goals involving the issue of slavery. With his Emancipation Proclamation, he freed slaves and kept them free after the war was finished.

With southern "secession" the Congress had very little problems with Abraham Lincoln. Many of them were now Republican and shared most, if not all, of the views that Lincoln held in high standards. This is why many of the decisions that Lincoln made were not questioned, such as his acts during the war that pulled many of the fundamental American laws into question. However, all of these acts were nessesary to promote the rejoining of the south in the future and so Congress never opposed him during the war. When the south rejoined, however, things became more difficult as key differences could be seen riveting the government's newly unstable relationship with it's president. Much of the southern congress members still felt that secession was a needed thing and so they proposed ideas such as a 50% rejoining plan as opposed to the already instated 10% plan. Abraham still managed to keep his head over the new Congress with a pocket veto of this bill.

In positive ideas of the Lincoln administration, they were very numerous in the War as the fact that all of the ideas had the basic plan to help the South rejoin the Union. I think as far as Lincoln was concerned, his speech, the Gettysburg Address really gave way to the most innovative actions of the Union. This speech allowed Lincoln himself to show his love of his country and turned the people en masse to his side. I think that while a very daring move to avoid the matter of Slavery in this speech, it still gave everyone what they wanted. It was such a diplomatic situation that Lincoln managed to pull off that it really wasworthy of one of the most positive influencing parts of his presidency. Lincoln had only a small handful of negatively impacting decisions in his leadership role as president. One that stands out a bit though, is his direct disregaurd for the constitution. Lincoln threw ou many of the American ideals in his statement that there was no reason to uphold a constitution for a nation that was not unified and could not uphold the ideals themselves. Therefore Lincoln did many acts on his own, such as starting a war without an official congress approval or even beginning meeting session. This caused the entire checks and balances system to be overthrown while he was in office and so his demanding leadership allowed for none other than pure power in the hands of himself. Though, if it were not for these "unjust" actions, the Union would not be the entirety of the United States of America as it is today.

Abraham Lincoln and his administration had many very controlling factors for the future of the Nation. In his preseidency he managed to define the role of a dire president with supreme control and so his ideas during this time managed to take roots in other forms of presidential leadership. Lincolns actions showed the main point that the president's real role for being elected is to benefit the nation, and contain the entirety of it's beleifs through even harsh times. To preserve and protect was Abraham Lincolns lasting legacy to the later generations of presidency.

When Lincoln was elected, the nation was in probably the worst shape it was, or ever will come to be. Never in the history of the Nation has such a large section of land seceeded from the majority of the Union and so with that Lincoln was facing the absolute worst problems a nation could face. The probelms of disunification. And therefore, through Abraham Lincoln, the Nation managed to suceed and prosper to a later age. Lincoln did not have any choice to be assassinated, and so the fact that the nation had problems at the end of his presidency were mere coincidence and should not therefore be factored into his final grade. His actions that he accomplished during his life are what really mattered into his presidency. And so, bringing this completely seceeded, slave ridden, torn up peice of trash country, and managing to put it back into the tracks of future success is really what I would consider a successful presidency. Therefore the grade of an A+ is appropriate for describing who is to be considered the best president ever. || http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/abrahamlincoln/ http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/lincoln ||
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln