42
votes
Accepted
Why did Lincoln's election prompt the Southern states to secede?
The tensions between North and South had been growing since long before Lincoln was elected. While it is true than many in the South believed that Lincoln supported the forced suppression of slavery, ...
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37
votes
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Where does Lincoln say the South wants us to believe as they believe?
The speech was in 1860 when Lincoln was seeking the Republican nomination for president. He was addressing the problem of the slave states, whose rebellion was already foreseen.
These natural, and ...
- 14.3k
25
votes
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What is the context of Lincoln saying: "if I could save the union without freeing any slave I would do it"
Lincoln needed to write this letter because as a war-time president, two months before the mid-term election, he could not ignore an article in one of the most popular newspapers, written by a very ...
- 1,933
19
votes
Accepted
Under what legal theory was Mary Surratt hanged as an assassin of President Lincoln in 1865?
This is a legal issue that is perhaps better for Law SE than History SE (I'm on both sites).
Mary Surratt was found guilty of "conspiracy" to kill Lincoln. Under that legal theory, being part of a ...
- 104k
15
votes
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When did Lincoln claim that "Vicksburg is the key" to winning the civil war?
The quote is from the recollection of someone who was there, Admiral David Dixon Porter. You can find it on page 95 of his book, Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War, published in 1886 (emphasis ...
- 38.7k
13
votes
Why did Lincoln's election prompt the Southern states to secede?
tl;dr
Slavery and state's rights were an existential issue for the South; they could no longer contemplate "compromise" or "moderation".
From before the foundation of the Republic, there was an ...
MCW♦
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10
votes
Accepted
How did Lincoln know to stick with Grant before the completion of the Vicksburg campaign?
Lincoln himself answered this question, responding on demands to fire Grant after Shiloh:
"I can't spare this man, he fights"
After heavy loses on the first day of battle, most Union commanders ...
- 1,933
10
votes
What is the context of Lincoln saying: "if I could save the union without freeing any slave I would do it"
Horace Greeley was a "Radical" Republican, whose primary interest was the freeing of the slaves. In this, he differed from "mainstream" Republicans who were driven by economic interests (pro business, ...
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7
votes
How did Lincoln know to stick with Grant before the completion of the Vicksburg campaign?
Preface
@JMS - I don't offer this answer as a substitute, but in addition to yours.
@dwstein - The source for information cited and provided below comes from:
John Y. Simon, Lincoln and Grant (...
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7
votes
Did Abraham Lincoln send a letter to Jefferson Davis about allowing slavery if he rejoined the Union?
This is probably referring to the preliminary announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation. The preliminary version was announced on 22 Sept 1862, announcing the Emancipation Proclamation would take ...
- 38.7k
6
votes
Did freed slaves keep a portrait of Abraham Lincoln on the wall?
Most likely, yes
Lincoln was very popular among Blacks in US right until 1960's and rise of leftist Democrats whom somewhat tarnished his image (Lincoln was Republican, of course) . This essay ...
- 11.3k
6
votes
Accepted
What is the original provenance of Lincoln's "of the people, by the people, for the people" and why is Wikipedia so confused?
This question is answered in the American Philosophical Society article which you refer to. A man named Ward Hill Lamon made a false citation to a nonexistent edition of Wycliffe's Bible in 1895. ...
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5
votes
Could the 1864 US presidential election have been postponed?
Article 2 of the United States Constitution states that:
The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United
States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four
...
- 77.4k
5
votes
Accepted
Did Abraham Lincoln kill the man who murdered his mother?
Abraham Lincoln's birth mother, Nancy Lincoln, died when Abraham was 9 of either milk sickness or possibly consumption. Milk sickness is from drinking milk contaminated with the poison tremetol by the ...
- 54.9k
5
votes
What prompted Lincoln to change his mind about ending slavery?
"Why was Lincoln initially opposed to ending slavery? What prompted Lincoln to change his mind?"
Lincoln was never opposed to ending slavery. In his First Inaugural Address, he stated that he has no ...
- 1,933
5
votes
Why did Lincoln's election prompt the Southern states to secede?
Nо, the timing of secession and Lincoln's election are not coincidence, and Southern states were not reacting to Lincoln as person; they were reacting to political platform of winning party.
...
- 1,933
5
votes
Why did Lincoln's election prompt the Southern states to secede?
Lincoln, like the majority of the North, likely believed that abolishing slavery would lead to civil war, and so did not consider it a practical option. Of course, once the South seceded and ...
- 216
4
votes
Did Lincoln ever publicly blame James Buchanan?
Unlikely. In the book "Abraham Lincoln. Speeches & Writings 1859-1865", Random House; Library of America, 1989 (which is a comprehensive collection of Lincoln's speeches and letters) ...
- 6,261
3
votes
Why did Lincoln's election prompt the Southern states to secede?
In 1860, with 40% of the vote, Abraham Lincoln won a victory in the electoral college by sweeping nearly all of the Northern states, as well as the two Western states (California and Oregon). Not a ...
- 141
3
votes
What is the context of Lincoln saying: "if I could save the union without freeing any slave I would do it"
Lincoln's personal feelings about slavery aside, his policy has to reflect the collective will of his constituency and in particular the union bourgeoisie that financed his campaign and the war. The ...
- 669
3
votes
Did Lincoln provoke the US civil war?
There were long unresolved problems that lay behind the US Civil War. At most, the election of Lincoln as President was just a catalyst. What follows is copied from my answer here.
The tensions ...
- 77.4k
3
votes
Why did Abraham Lincoln decline the governorship of Oregon Territory in 1849?
I haven't been able to find anything written by Abraham Lincoln himself explicitly explaining his reasons for declining the position of Governor of the Territory of Oregon in September 1849.
The ...
- 77.4k
2
votes
Why did Abraham Lincoln decline the governorship of Oregon Territory in 1849?
Oregon was too far away.
It meant that his wife Mary would have to leave her friends in Illinois, (and elsewhere in the Midwest and the South). Also, Lincoln's political connections were there, which ...
- 104k
2
votes
Did Lincoln provoke the US civil war?
“Provoke” connotes intent. Lincoln had no such intent.
On one hand, legal slavery was falling from favor in most countries and essentially disappeared within decades of the Civil War. But Lincoln’s ...
- 466
2
votes
Why did Lincoln's election prompt the Southern states to secede?
It's important to understand just how little support Lincoln had in the south. This map shows the proportion of the population voting for Lincoln. The results on this map are hard to fathom with a ...
- 1,134
2
votes
Was Alexander Coffroth for or against slavery? And in what instances?
Coffroth was a moderate
When we talk about American society during and immediately before Civil War, we could roughly divide it into three groups. First were abolitionists, centered among Republicans, ...
- 11.3k
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