First term Secession and inauguration After Lincoln's election, secessionists implemented plans to leave the Union before he took office in March 1861.
Emancipation Proclamation File:Emancipation proclamation.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|
First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln, an 1864 portrait by
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Portrait of Andrew Jackson Two Union generals had issued emancipation orders in 1861 and 1862, but Lincoln overrode both: he found that the decision to emancipate was not within the generals' power, and that it might induce loyal border states to secede. However, in June 1862, Congress passed an act banning slavery in all federal territories, which Lincoln signed. In July, the
Confiscation Act of 1862 was enacted, allowing the seizure of slaves from those disloyal to the United States. On July 22, 1862, Lincoln reviewed a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation with his cabinet. Senator
Willard Saulsbury Sr. criticized the proclamation, stating that it "would light their author to dishonor through all future generations". By contrast,
Horace Greeley, editor of the
New-York Tribune, in his public letter, "The Prayer of Twenty Millions", implored Lincoln to embrace emancipation. In a public letter of August 22, 1862, Lincoln replied to Greeley that while he personally wished all men could be free, his first obligation as president was to preserve the Union: Buttressed by news of the recent Union victory at Antietam, on September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. On January 1, 1863, he issued the final version, freeing the slaves in the ten states not then under Union control, exempting areas under such control. Lincoln commented on signing the Proclamation: "I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper." On New Year's Eve in 1862, Black people – enslaved and free – gathered across the United States to hold Watch Night ceremonies for "Freedom's Eve", looking toward the promised fulfillment of the Proclamation. With the abolition of slavery in the rebel states now a military objective, Union armies advancing south enabled thousands to escape bondage. The Proclamation was immediately denounced by Copperheads, who advocated restoring the union by allowing slavery. It was also seen as a betrayal of his promise to Southern Unionists not to tamper with slavery;
Emerson Etheridge, then
Clerk of the House of Representatives, joined an unsuccessful plot to give the Democrats and Southern Unionists control of the House. As a result of the Proclamation, enlisting freedmen became official policy. In a letter to Tennessee military governor
Andrew Johnson, Lincoln wrote, "The bare sight of fifty thousand armed, and drilled black soldiers on the banks of the Mississippi would end the rebellion at once".
Gettysburg Address (1863) Lincoln gave the dedication for the
Gettysburg battlefield cemetery on November 19, 1863. He asserted that the nation was "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal", and that the deaths of the "brave men ... who struggled here" would not be in vain, but that the nation "shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth". The address became the most quoted speech in American history. Following Admiral
David Farragut's
capture of New Orleans in 1862, and after victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, Lincoln proclaimed a national
Thanksgiving holiday, to be celebrated on the final Thursday of November 1863.
Promoting Grant Grant's victories at the
Battle of Shiloh and in the
Vicksburg campaign impressed Lincoln. Responding to criticism of Grant after Shiloh, Lincoln said, "I can't spare this man. He fights." Following Meade's failure to capture Lee's army after Gettysburg and after Grant's success at
Chattanooga, Lincoln promoted Grant to commander of all Union armies. Grant's bloody
Overland Campaign turned into a strategic success for the Union despite a number of setbacks. But the campaign was the bloodiest in American history: approximately 55,000 casualties on the Union side (including 7,600 deaths), compared to about 33,000 on the Confederate (including 4,200 deaths). Lee's losses, although lower in absolute numbers, were proportionately higher (over 50%) than Grant's (about 45%). In early April, the Confederate government evacuated Richmond and Lincoln visited the conquered capital. Amid the turmoil of military actions, on June 30, 1864, Lincoln signed into law the
Yosemite Grant, which provided unprecedented federal protection for the area now known as
Yosemite National Park. According to Rolf Diamant and Ethan Carr, "the Yosemite Grant was a direct consequence of the war ... an embodiment of the ongoing process of remaking government ... an intentional assertion of a steadfast belief in the eventual Union victory."
Fiscal and monetary policy Lincoln and Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Chase faced a challenge in funding a wartime economy. Congress quickly approved Lincoln's request to assemble an army, even increasing his proposed 400,000 soldiers to 500,000, but both Congress and Chase initially resisted raising taxes. After the Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run, which collapsed the bond market, Congress passed the
Revenue Act of 1861. This act imposed the first
U.S. federal income tax, creating a flat tax of three percent on annual incomes above $800 ($ in current dollars). The preference for taxation based on income rather than property reflected the increasing amount of wealth held in stocks and bonds; for example, Representative
Schuyler Colfax declared during the debate, "I cannot go home and tell my constituents that I voted for a bill that would allow a man, a millionaire, who has put his entire property into stock, to be exempt from taxation, while a farmer who lives by his side must pay a tax". As the average urban worker made approximately $600 per year, many were not required to pay income taxes. Lincoln also signed increases to the
Morrill Tariff, which had become law in the final months of Buchanan's tenure. These tariffs raised import duties considerably and were designed both to increase revenue and to help manufacturers offset the burden of new taxes. Throughout the war, Congress debated whether to raise additional revenue primarily by increasing tariff rates, which most strongly affected rural areas, or by increasing
income taxes, which most affected wealthier individuals; the latter view proved more popular. The revenue measures of 1861 proved inadequate for funding the war, forcing Congress to take further action. In February 1862, Congress passed the
Legal Tender Act, which authorized the minting of $150 million in "
greenbacks"—the first
banknotes issued by the U.S. government since the end of the
American Revolution. Greenbacks were not backed by gold or silver, but rather by the government's promise to honor their value. By the end of the war, $450 million worth of greenbacks were in circulation. Congress also passed the Revenue Act of 1862, which established an
excise tax affecting nearly every commodity, as well as the first national
inheritance tax. Despite the new revenue measures, funding the war remained challenging. The government continued to issue greenbacks and borrow large amounts of money, and the U.S. national debt grew from $65 million in 1860 to over $2 billion in 1866. The
Revenue Act of 1864 represented a compromise between those who favored a more progressive tax structure and those who favored a flat tax. Hoping to stabilize the currency, Lincoln convinced Congress to pass the
National Banking Act in 1863, established the
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to oversee "national banks," which were subject to federal, rather than state, regulation. In return for investing a third of their capital in federal bonds, national banks were authorized to issue federal banknotes. After Congress imposed a tax on private banknotes in March 1865, federal banknotes became the dominant form of paper currency. Other economic policies passed under Lincoln included the
1862 Homestead Act, which made millions of acres of government-held land in the West available for purchase at low cost. The 1862
Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act provided government grants for
agricultural colleges in each state. The
Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 and 1864 granted federal support for the construction of the United States'
first transcontinental railroad, which was completed in 1869.
Foreign policy At the start of the war, Russia was the lone
great power to support the Union, while the other European powers had varying degrees of sympathy for the Confederacy. According to the historian Dean Mahin, Lincoln had "limited familiarity with diplomatic practices" but exerted "substantial influence on U.S. diplomacy" as the Union attempted to avoid war with Britain and France. Lincoln appointed diplomats to try to persuade European nations not to recognize the Confederacy. Lincoln's policy succeeded: all foreign nations were officially neutral throughout the Civil War, with none recognizing the Confederacy. Some European leaders looked for ways to exploit the inability of the U.S. to enforce the
Monroe Doctrine opposing European colonial intervention in the Americas: Spain invaded the
Dominican Republic in 1861, while France established
a puppet regime in Mexico. However, many in Europe also hoped for a quick end to the war, both for humanitarian reasons and because of the economic disruption it caused. The European aristocracy was "absolutely gleeful in pronouncing the American debacle as proof that the entire experiment in popular government had failed", according to
Don H. Doyle. Union diplomats initially had to explain that the United States was not committed to ending slavery, and instead they argued that secession was unconstitutional. Confederate spokesmen, on the other hand, were more successful by ignoring slavery and instead focusing on their struggle for independence, their commitment to free trade, and the essential role of cotton in the European economy. However, the Confederacy's hope that cotton exports would compel European interference did not come to fruition, as Britain found alternative sources and maintained economic ties with the Union. Though the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863 did not immediately end the possibility of European intervention, it rallied European public opinion to the Union by adding abolition as a Union war goal. Any chance of a European intervention in the war ended with the Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in July 1863, as European leaders came to believe that the Confederate cause was doomed.
Native Americans Lincoln appointed
William P. Dole as commissioner of the
Bureau of Indian Affairs and made "extensive use of Indian Service positions to reward political supporters", according to the historian Thomas Britten. Lincoln's policies largely focused on assimilation of Native Americans and diminishing tribal landholdings, consistent with those of his predecessors, but his direct involvement in Native American affairs was unclear. Tensions arose with the
Dakota people due to American treaty violations, unfair trading, and government practices that led to starvation. Congressman
Alexander Ramsey told Lincoln in 1864 that he would have received more re-election support in Minnesota had he executed all 303 warriors. Lincoln responded, "I could not afford to hang men for votes." Lincoln called for reform of federal Indian policy but prioritized the war and Reconstruction. Changes were made in response to the
Sand Creek Massacre of November 1864, prioritizing peaceful administration of Native affairs and condemning those encroaching on Native territory, but not until after Lincoln's death.
Second term at the nearly completed
U.S. Capitol on March 4, 1865
Re-election Lincoln ran for re-election in 1864; the Democratic nominee was former general McClellan. The Republican Party selected Andrew Johnson, a
War Democrat, as Lincoln's running mate. To broaden his coalition to include War Democrats as well as Republicans, Lincoln ran under the new label of the
National Union Party. Grant's bloody stalemates and Confederate victories such as the
Battle of the Crater damaged Lincoln's re-election prospects, and many Republicans feared defeat.
Reconstruction Reconstruction began before the war's end, as Lincoln and his associates considered the reintegration of the nation, and the fates of Confederate leaders and freed slaves. When a general asked Lincoln how the defeated Confederates were to be treated, Lincoln replied, "Let 'em up easy"; he focused not on blame for the war but on rebuilding. Determined to reunite the nation and not alienate the South, Lincoln urged that speedy elections under generous terms be held. His
Amnesty Proclamation of December 8, 1863, offered pardons to those who had not held a Confederate civil office and had not mistreated Union prisoners, if they signed an oath of allegiance. Lincoln led the moderates in Reconstruction policy and was opposed by the Radicals, under
Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner and
Benjamin Wade, who otherwise remained Lincoln's allies. As Southern states fell, they needed leaders while their administrations were being restored. In Tennessee and Arkansas, Lincoln appointed Andrew Johnson and
Frederick Steele, respectively, as military governors. In Louisiana, Lincoln ordered
Nathaniel P. Banks to promote a plan that would reestablish statehood when 10 percent of the voters agreed, but only if the reconstructed states abolished slavery. Democratic opponents accused Lincoln of using the plan to ensure his and the Republicans' political aspirations. The Radicals denounced his policy as too lenient and passed their own plan, the 1864
Wade–Davis Bill, but Lincoln
pocket-vetoed it. The Radicals retaliated by refusing to seat elected representatives from Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee. , a former tailor, sewing with needle and thread, and Lincoln, the
rail splitter, applying a rail leverage to repair the globe. After implementing the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln increased pressure on Congress to outlaw slavery nationwide with a constitutional amendment. By December 1863 an amendment was brought to Congress. The Senate passed it on April 8, 1864, but the first vote in the House of Representatives fell short of the required two-thirds majority. Passage became part of Lincoln's re-election platform, and after his re-election, the second attempt in the House passed on January 31, 1865. After ratification by three-fourths of the states in December 1865, it became the
Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, abolishing "slavery [and] involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime". Lincoln announced a Reconstruction plan that involved short-term military administration, pending readmission under the control of southern Unionists. He also signed Senator Charles Sumner's
Freedmen's Bureau bill that set up a temporary federal agency designed to meet the immediate needs of former slaves. The law opened land for a lease of three years with the ability for the freedmen to purchase title. In signing it, according to the historian
Richard Carwardine, Lincoln "acknowledged that the government had at least some responsibility for the material needs of millions of ex-slaves", although it fell short of the "
forty acres and a mule" that many slaves understood they would receive from confiscated property.
Eric Foner argues that "Lincoln did not see Reconstruction as an opportunity for a sweeping political and social revolution beyond emancipation. He had long made clear his opposition to the confiscation and redistribution of land." However, the Lincoln scholar
Phillip S. Paludan suggests that at the end of his life Lincoln was moving towards a more radical position, particularly with regards to freedmen's rights. Foner adds that, had Lincoln lived into the
Reconstruction era, "It is entirely plausible to imagine Lincoln and Congress agreeing on a Reconstruction policy that encompassed federal protection for basic civil rights plus limited black suffrage, along the lines Lincoln proposed just before his death." ==Assassination==