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= Abraham Lincoln =

Full Name: Abraham Lincoln (Born February 12, 1809 - Died April 15, 1865)

Political Party: Republican

Terms of Office: March 4, 1861 - April 15, 1865

Vice Presidents: Hannibal Hamlin, first term; Andrew Johnson, second term

The name most often associated with the Civil War and slavery, Abraham Lincoln is perhaps one of the most well-known presidents because of his active campaign against the forced labor of Africans and the qualities he displayed while guiding the divided United States through four long years of inner turmoil. Due to his combination of careful yet assertive decision-making during the Civil War, Lincoln deserves little less than an A.

In the words of the man himself, Lincoln's priority was first and foremost to "preserve the Union". Like others in his party, Lincoln believed that the southern states could not truly secede from the Union, and he would seek to bring them to their senses by any means. To do this Lincoln greatly exercised his powers as commander-in-chief, performing such actions as spending war funds before consulting Congress and suspending the writ of habeas corpus. His military decisions were also paramount in bringing the southern states back; replacing the passive General McClellan with Ambrose Burnside likely spared Lincoln further headache after the Battle of Antietam. Perhaps the most effective method of defeating the Confederates was his emancipation of the slaves, which began with Congress's passing of the Second Confiscation Act - this freed any slaves of men convicted of aiding the rebellion. Lincoln followed the act with his landmark Emancipation Proclamation, freeing any slaves in rebellious states that were not controlled by the North. By freeing what slaves he could, Lincoln was removing the South's only method of harvesting their crops, and therefore crippling their economy. In emancipating the slaves and making wise decisions, he successfully wound his way to victory.

For the most part, Congress did not oppose Lincoln's decisions during the Civil War; most of them were very effective in instrumenting the Confederate defeat. Lincoln left them well enough alone as well in the same time period, adopting the view that he would veto no bill unless it interfered with his war powers as commander-in-chief. Just before the end of the war when victory was imminent, Reconstruction policies began to come about; at this point Lincoln and the Radical Republicans of Congress clashed. Lincoln, being a moderate, wished to readmit the Southern states posthaste, while the Radicals wanted stiff reprimands. The Radical ideals manifested themselves in the Wade-Davis Bill of 1864, which Lincoln pocket-vetoed in favor of his own "ten-percent" policy, which provided that states that had seceded would be readmitted into the Union should ten percent of the population swear allegiance to it. Overall, Lincoln and Congress had a fairly stable relationship; the views of the Radicals versus Lincoln's moderate ones would likely have been further exacerbated had Lincoln not been assassinated.

Most of the positive aspects of Lincoln's administration, although important in their own rights, pale in the face of his Emancipation Proclamation. The executive order provided that all slaves were to be freed in Confederate states that did not return to the Union by January 1, 1863. In addition to the obvious moral victory the order proclaimed, the Confederate loss of slaves would be greatly detrimental to their economy, which heavily relied upon slave labor to function. The Proclamation also played precursor to the Thirteenth Amendment, which ended slavery outright after its ratification. It is difficult to say which of Lincoln's actions resulted in the most negative consequence, as the Civil War would have come to a bloody end with or without him. From a moral standpoint, Lincoln's worst action was his support of Grant's war of attrition; although an effective strategy that led to Confederate defeat, it also led to heavy Union casualties due to its emphasis on wearing down the enemy with superior numbers. It certainly worked, but at what price?

The fact that the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in Confederate states alone would make it life-changing for those slaves that were able to break free from their bondage by itself, but Lincoln's historic executive order would do much more than that. The slaves that were free men under its provisions left their masters high and dry, leading to the South becoming even more handicapped in its economy compared to the North and perhaps their surrender at Appomattox. The greatest effect that the proclamation had, however, was fostering the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which effectively eradicated slavery from the face of the United States. Much of the idea of Reconstruction was centered around what to do with the newly free men, which in turn led to a great deal of legislation, confusion, and in some cases wrongdoing. Essentially, the Emancipation Proclamation began what the Thirteenth Amendment ended.

The United States was certainly not in the best state after Lincoln's assassination, but Lincoln definitely did what he thought best to guide the nation through the Civil War. There was little that he could have done to prevent the war, save accept the southern states' secession from the Union, but it is likely that the South would have wanted to fight regardless. In any case, Lincoln's infinite wisdom proved to be indispensable during the time of the war; it is unlikely that there was a better choice for president. Perhaps the best quality of Lincoln was that he was not a radical, like many of his fellow Republicans - had he been, the nation would surely have taken a very unfortunate turn. Sources http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln/ - Abraham Lincoln on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln_and_the_Civil_War - Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War on Wikipedia __The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents__ by William A. Degregorio