Download Prior to Abraham Lincoln`s administration, the United States of

Prior to Abraham Lincoln’s administration, the United States of America was growing
apart due to differences in regional interest. During the early 1800’s, the Northern, Southern,
and Northwestern sections of the country developed their own difference way of life. Many
Americans felt greater loyalty toward their own section or region, than to the country as a whole.
Among the most decisive differences stood the issue of states’ rights and the issue of slavery.
Many Southerners believed that since the states had created the federal government, each state
could reject federal laws within its territory or even leave the Union. Slavery, on the other hand,
which was one of the major institutions in the South, became an explosive issue that
strengthened the animosity between the North and the South and eventually led to the start of the
Civil War. President Lincoln guided the nation through one of the most crucial times in
American history.
With the end of the Civil War came the end of our most brutal practice-slavery. Many
historians thus place Lincoln on a pedestal as a champion of the constitution. In striking contrast,
other historians vilify President Lincoln. Lincoln should be viewed as America’s greatest
president because he preserved the union, ended slavery and paved the road for the Civil Rights
Movement of the 1960’s which allowed for greater equality for all Americans.
Philip Shaw Paludan a professor of Lincoln studies at the University of Illinois,
Springfield and strong believer of Lincoln wrote The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln in 1994. In
his essay Paludan argued that:
No President had larger challenges than Abraham Lincoln, and testimony to his
greatness rests in his keeping that oath, which led him responsible to two enormous
accomplishments that are folk legends as well as fact. He saved the union and freed
the slaves1.
1
Phillip Shaw Paludan, The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1994), 356.
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Professor Paludan felt __________________________________________________________
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Lincoln was able to achieve his goal of preserving the Union by “fighting and winning the war.
He chose generals, gathered armies, set the overall strategy; he restrained dissenters and
opponents of the war.2” Pauldan argues President Lincoln ______________________________
Contrary to Pauldan, Melvin Bradford a political commentator and professor of literature
at the University of Dallas contends that President Lincoln’s role deserved legal scrutiny that
would result in impeachment. In one of his writing he states:
I will only emphasize the events that he most certainly shaped according to his
relentless will, alterations in the character of our country for which he was clearly
responsible. The major charges advanced her, if proved are sufficient to impeach
the most famous and respected of public men 3.
Bradford reveals grounds for impeachment and goes on to refer to President Lincoln as a
dictator. He cites example such as that “between April 12 and July 4 of 1861 without
interference from Congress, he summoned militia, spent millions, suspended laws, defied the
Supreme Court and pledge the nations credit4” throughout his essay.
In the end, Lincoln’s achievements stand alone as our greatest inheritance. It is the great
end results of his actions that ultimately count. Lincoln must indeed be considered a great
2
Ibid, 358.
Melvin E. Bradford, Remembering Who Are: Observations of a Southern Conservative (Athens: University of
Georgia Press, 1985), 363.
4
Ibid, 367.
3
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president because the preservation of our great country, the repeal of slavery and strides toward
expanding civil right for all people to form a perfect union.
Lincoln was able to preserve the Union ________________________________________
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Lincoln was able to abolish slavery by ________________________________________
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The fact that President Lincoln was able to end slavery paved the way to _____________
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3
Bibliography
Bradford, Melvin E. Remembering Who We Are: Observations of a Southern Conservative.
Athens:University of Georgia, 1985.
Shaw Paludan, Phillip. The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Lawrence: University Press of
Kansas, 1994.
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