The Most Consequential Elections in History: Abraham Lincoln's Victory in 1864 Led to the End of the Civil War
Lincoln's victory in 1860 triggered the Civil War, and his victory in 1864 allowed him to win it
On March 4, 1865—in his second inaugural address—Lincoln gave one of the most eloquent and stirring speeches in history. "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right," he said, "let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
The following month, five days after Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate forces at Appomattox, Lincoln was shot by an assassin. He died the next morning, on April 15, 1865.
In the end, Lincoln's profound legacy was created and propelled by two elections—the one in 1860, which triggered the war, and the election of 1864, which enabled Lincoln to win it. Historian Henry Adams once wrote that a president "resembles the commander of a ship at sea. He must have a helm to grasp, a course to steer, a port to seek." Lincoln understood this to his core. Added historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr.: "The Constitution offers every president a helm, but the course and the port constitute the first requirement for presidential greatness. Great presidents possess, or are possessed by, a vision of an ideal America. Their passion is to make sure the ship of state sails on the right course." Defining that vision and setting that course are what Lincoln's presidency was all about.
More from our Most Consequential Elections series:
George Washington and the Election of 1788
Thomas Jefferson and the Election of 1800
Andrew Jackson and the Election of 1828
Abraham Lincoln and the Election of 1860
Theodore Roosevelt and the Election of 1904
Woodrow Wilson and the Election of 1912
Franklin Roosevelt and the Election of 1932
Lyndon Johnson and the Election of 1964
Ronald Reagan and the Election of 1980
Reader Comments
the 10 causes of the civil war
could you send me a copy of the above article ?
Simple Reality
It is simple. The so called intellectual arguments posted here by the likes of James W. King of GA are thinly veiled diatribes of ignorance and racism. Most historians don't spend a lot of time sympathizing for the losses of the Germans during World War II. Hmm, I wonder why?
Regardless of the endless finer points of the Slave-Master Sympathy, the South was a bankrupt and immoral culture so much so to make Saddam and Gomorrah look like Mayberry. The atrocities of the war were certainly necessary to end the atrocities of the system; much the same as with Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Sympathy of Southern losses more than 140 years later simply shows a disrespect for fact and for the sacrifices necessary to guarantee freedom to all Americans. More so it lays-bare the true motivations of its perpetrators, racism, bigotry and a longing to return to the bankruptcy that was the "Peculiar Institution."
In Germany it is a crime to be a Nazi sympathizer; and for good reason. There are some beliefs so awful that they truly are beyond personal freedom...much say like modern terrorism ideology. Personal beliefs such as racism while despicable, are certainly an individual right. However, there is no right to act upon such beliefs towards others. Southerners who so viciously attack the victory of the Union in securing our freedoms, even if imperfect, strike me as Germans claiming to be the victims of the Holocaust. It's despicable. If you want to be a racist stand up and claim your beliefs. Don't veil them under ideology of a corrupt history.
SUBJUGATION
To Julie of MD -
If you think Karl Marx was the "father of subjugation of people," you are in desperate need of a history lesson. Subjugation, oppression, and general unpleasantness by the powerful toward the weak are as old as humanity, and will no doubt continue to plague mankind in the future.
Also, if you truly believe that the civil war was "about slavery and nothing else," I suggest you pick up one of the thousands of volumes written on the origins of the war. You might discover that what seems simple and straightforward on first glance is actually very complicated once you dig a little deeper.
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