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[3228] Timothy O’Sullivan, Incidents of the War. A Harvest of Death, Gettysburg, July, 1863, courtesy of the Library of Congress [LC-B8184-7964-A DLC].
Lincoln’s election to the presidency was the result of the complicated American political situation of the 1840s and 1850s, centered on the divisive issue of slavery. While Lincoln is often celebrated for his decision to free the slaves, he in fact came to his commitment to total emancipation only by degrees. Never an actual supporter of slavery, he was still somewhat ambivalent about its place within the country through much of his career: he fought to ban it from the western territories and new states but was reluctant to advocate abolition within the South itself. Lincoln’s primary commitment was always to the preservation of the Union, and he was willing to reject abolitionist measures if they seemed to threaten that goal. Despite his attempts to seem flexible and moderate on the issue of slavery, however, his election to the presidency in 1860 polarized the nation. Seven southern states immediately seceded to form the Confederacy. Within a month of Lincoln’s inauguration, the Civil War had begun. By 1863, Lincoln was ready to adopt a more radical position and signed the Emancipation Proclamation, finally committing the Union to the total abolition of slavery.
Lincoln’s extraordinary skills as a writer and orator were crucial to his political successes and his ability to lead the country effectively through the war. In the early speeches of his career, he worked to connect with the “common man” in the audience, employing a clear, almost legalistic, logic and a satirical sense of humor. As he grew in confidence as a statesman, his speeches retained their clarity but became more powerful and resonant, often drawing upon biblical references and even the cadences of biblical prose. By turning to Christian rhetoric, Lincoln tried to unite the bitterly divided American populace and to garner popular support for a war that turned out to be longer and bloodier than anyone had anticipated. Since Lincoln’s tragic assassination one month into his second term in office in 1865, his speeches have come to be revered as enduring expressions of formative American cultural ideals.
[1708] Brady National Photographic Art Gallery, Abraham Lincoln (1864),
courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-B816-1321].
This portrait photograph from January 1864, between the Gettysburg address and the second inaugural address, resembles most memorial images.
[1803] Abraham Lincoln, Emancipation Proclamation (1863),
courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.
This 1863 proclamation emancipated slaves held in areas in rebellion against the United States, but not those in Union-controlled areas.
[3228] Timothy O’Sullivan, Incidents of the War. A Harvest of Death, Gettysburg, July, 1863,
courtesy of the Library of Congress [LC-B8184-7964-A DLC].
Dead Federal soldiers on the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Graphic war photographs like this one inspired postwar literary realism.
[7163] Esther Bubley, Inside the Lincoln Memorial (1943),
courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USW3-040346-D].
After his assassination, Abraham Lincoln’s image became iconic in the North and among African Americans, through ceremonies, popular songs and prints, statuary, and poetry such as Walt Whitman’s “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.”