88 Facts About Lincoln Administration

1.

Lincoln Administration was the first member of the recently established Republican Party elected to the presidency.

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2.

Lincoln Administration successfully presided over the Union victory in the American Civil War, which dominated his presidency and resulted in the end of slavery.

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3.

Lincoln Administration took office following the 1860 presidential election, in which he won a plurality of the popular vote in a four-candidate field.

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4.

Almost all of Lincoln Administration's votes came from the Northern United States, as the Republicans held little appeal to voters in the Southern United States.

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5.

Lincoln Administration's election served as the immediate impetus for the outbreak of the Civil War.

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6.

Lincoln Administration was called on to handle both the political and military aspects of the Civil War, facing challenges in both spheres.

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7.

Lincoln Administration became the first president to institute a military draft.

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8.

In 1865, Lincoln Administration was instrumental in the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which made slavery unconstitutional.

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9.

Lincoln Administration presided over the passage of important domestic legislation, including the first of the Homestead Acts, the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862, and the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862.

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10.

Lincoln Administration ran for re-election in 1864 on the National Union ticket, which was supported by War Democrats in addition to Republicans.

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11.

Lincoln Administration spent much of 1859 and 1860 building you for his candidacy, and his Cooper Union speech was well-received by eastern elites.

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12.

Lincoln Administration positioned himself in the "moderate center" of his party; he opposed the expansion of slavery into the territories but did not favor the abolition of slavery in slave states.

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13.

Republicans were confident after these party conventions, with Lincoln Administration predicting that the fractured Democrats stood little chance of winning the election.

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14.

Lincoln Administration carried all but one Northern state to win an Electoral College majority with 180 votes to 72 for Breckinridge, 39 for Bell, and 12 for Douglas.

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15.

Lincoln Administration won every county in New England and most of the remaining counties in the North, but he won just two of the 996 Southern counties.

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16.

Lincoln Administration was not scheduled to take office until March 1861, leaving incumbent Democratic President James Buchanan, a "doughface" from Pennsylvania who had been favorable to the South, to preside over the country until that time.

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17.

Lincoln Administration had no official power to act while the secession crisis escalated.

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18.

Lincoln Administration believed that, given enough time without any overt acts or threats to the South, Southern unionists would carry the day and bring their states back into the Union.

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19.

At the suggestion of a Southern merchant who contacted him, Lincoln Administration did make an indirect appeal to the South by providing material for Senator Lyman Trumbull to insert into his own public address.

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20.

Lincoln Administration communicated with various Congressmen that there was room for negotiation on issues such as fugitive slaves, slavery in the District of Columbia, and the domestic slave trade.

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21.

Still opposed to the expansion of slavery into the territories, Lincoln Administration privately asked Republican Senators to oppose the compromise, and it failed to pass Congress.

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22.

Lincoln Administration believed that Southern threats of secession were mostly bluster and that the sectional crisis would be defused, as it had in 1820 and 1850.

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23.

Lincoln Administration spoke several times each day during the train trip.

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24.

The unannounced departure from the published schedule, along with the unconventional attire Lincoln Administration wore to keep a low profile, led to critics and cartoonists accusing him of sneaking into Washington in disguise.

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25.

Lincoln Administration met with Buchanan and Congressional leaders shortly after arriving in Washington.

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26.

Lincoln Administration worked to complete his cabinet, meeting with Republican Senators to obtain their feedback.

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27.

Lincoln Administration asked his former rival William Seward to review it.

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28.

Lincoln Administration opened by attempting to reassure the South that he had no intention or constitutional authority to interfere with slavery in states where it already existed.

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29.

Lincoln Administration promised to enforce the fugitive slave law and spoke favorably about a pending constitutional amendment that would preserve slavery in the states where it currently existed.

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30.

Lincoln Administration assured the states that had already seceded that the federal government would not "assail" them.

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31.

Lincoln Administration then concluded the address with a firm but conciliatory message:.

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32.

Lincoln Administration began the process of constructing his cabinet on election night.

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33.

Lincoln Administration did not shy away from surrounding himself with strong-minded men, even those whose credentials for office appeared to be much more impressive than his own.

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34.

Chase offered his resignation in June 1864 due to a dispute over an appointment, and Lincoln Administration, having just been renominated for president, accepted Chase's resignation.

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35.

Lincoln Administration'storian William Gienapp believed that the final selection of Cameron for this soon-to-be-critical position was a clear indicator that Lincoln did not anticipate a civil war.

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36.

Lincoln Administration appointed two individuals from the border states to his cabinet.

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37.

Lincoln Administration tasked Vice President-elect Hamlin with finding someone from a New England state for the cabinet.

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38.

Lincoln Administration's critics faulted him for some of his railroad ventures, accused him of being a Doughface, and questioned his intellectual capacity for a high government position.

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39.

Southern Democrats had dominated the Supreme Court of the United States in the period before Lincoln took office, and their unpopular ruling in the 1857 case of Dred Scott v Sandford had done much to invigorate the Republican cause in the North.

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40.

When Lincoln Administration took office, the death of Peter Vivian Daniel had left a vacant seat on the Supreme Court.

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41.

Congress added a tenth seat on the Court through the passage of the Tenth Circuit Act of 1863, and Lincoln Administration appointed a War Democrat, Stephen Johnson Field, to fill that seat.

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42.

Lincoln Administration's appointments gave Northern Unionists a majority on the Court.

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43.

Lincoln Administration appointed 27 judges to the United States district courts during his time in office.

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44.

Any hope Lincoln Administration might have had about using time to his advantage in addressing the crisis was shattered on his first full day in office, when he read a letter from Major Robert Anderson, the commander at Fort Sumter, stating that his troops would run out of provisions within four to six weeks.

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45.

Later that day Lincoln Administration gave Fox the order to begin assembling a squadron to reinforce Fort Sumter.

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46.

Lincoln Administration appointed several political generals to curry favor with various groups, but especially Democrats.

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47.

Lincoln Administration was disappointed by the state of the War Department and Navy Department, and Scott counseled that the army needed more time to train, but Lincoln Administration nonetheless ordered an offensive.

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48.

Lincoln Administration continued to suppress Southern sympathizers in the state, but historian Ronald White notes Lincoln Administration's forbearance in refusing to take harsher measures.

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49.

Lincoln Administration removed Fremont and reversed the order, but Missouri emerged as the most problematic of the border states for Lincoln Administration.

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50.

When McClellan still failed to launch his attack, members of Congress urged Lincoln Administration to replace McClellan with McDowell or Fremont, but Lincoln Administration decided to retain McClellan as commander of Army of the Potomac over either potential replacement.

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51.

In late June 1862, while the Army of the Potomac was fighting the Seven Days Battles, Lincoln Administration appointed John Pope to command the newly-formed Army of Virginia.

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52.

Shortly thereafter, Lincoln Administration asked Ambrose Burnside to replace McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac, but Burnside, who was close friends with McClellan, declined the post.

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53.

The defeat amplified the criticisms of Radical Republicans such as Lyman Trumbull and Benjamin Wade, who believed that Lincoln Administration had mishandled the war, particularly with regards to his selection of generals.

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54.

In 272 words, and three minutes, Lincoln Administration asserted the nation was born not in 1789, following ratification of the United States Constitution, but with the 1776 Declaration of Independence.

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55.

Lincoln Administration defined the war as an effort dedicated to the principles of liberty and equality for all.

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56.

Lincoln Administration declared that the deaths of so many brave soldiers would not be in vain, that slavery would end as a result of the losses, and the future of democracy in the world would be assured, that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth".

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57.

Lincoln Administration concluded that the Civil War had a profound objective: a new birth of freedom in the nation.

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58.

In October 1863, Lincoln Administration appointed Grant as the commander of the newly-created Division of the Mississippi, giving him command of the Western Theater.

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59.

Grant was one of the few senior generals that Lincoln Administration did not know personally, and the president was not able to visit the Western Theater of the war.

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60.

Nonetheless, Lincoln Administration came to appreciate the battlefield exploits of Grant.

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61.

Lincoln Administration strongly approved of Grant's new strategy, which focused on the destruction of Confederate armies rather than the capture of Confederate cities.

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62.

Lincoln Administration authorized the Union army to target the Confederate infrastructure—such as plantations, railroads, and bridges—hoping to shatter the South's morale and weaken its economic ability to continue fighting.

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63.

Lincoln Administration reached the Atlantic Ocean at Savannah, Georgia in December 1864.

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64.

Lincoln Administration had refused to weigh in on his preferred running mate, and the convention chose to nominate Johnson, a Southern War Democrat, in order to boost the party's appeal to Unionists of both parties.

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65.

Lincoln Administration refused to allow any negotiation with the Confederacy as a coequal; his sole objective was an agreement to end the fighting and the meetings produced no results.

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66.

Lincoln Administration met with Fredrick Douglass and other black leaders, discussing the possibility of a colonization project in Central America.

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67.

The following month, Lincoln Administration signed the Confiscation Act of 1862, which declared that all Confederate slaves taking refuge behind Union lines were to be set free.

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68.

Lincoln Administration was forced to wait two months until the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam.

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69.

Lincoln Administration did not take a definitive stand on black suffrage, stating only that "very intelligent blacks" and those that had served in the military should be granted the right to vote.

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70.

Unlike Sumner and other Radicals, Lincoln Administration did not see Reconstruction as an opportunity for a sweeping political and social revolution beyond emancipation.

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71.

Lincoln Administration had long made clear his opposition to the confiscation and redistribution of land.

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72.

Lincoln Administration believed, as most Republicans did in April 1865, that the voting requirements should be determined by the states.

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73.

Lincoln Administration assumed that political control in the South would pass to white Unionists, reluctant secessionists, and forward-looking former Confederates.

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74.

Lincoln Administration adhered to the Whig understanding of separation of powers under the Constitution, which gave Congress primary responsibility for writing the laws while the executive enforced them.

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75.

Lincoln Administration signed the second and third Morrill Tariffs, the first having become law in the final months of Buchanan's tenure.

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76.

Lincoln Administration took action against rampant fraud during the civil war, by enacting the False Claims Act in 1863.

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77.

In June 1864, Lincoln Administration approved the Yosemite Grant enacted by Congress, which provided unprecedented federal protection for the area now known as Yosemite National Park.

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78.

Lincoln Administration is largely responsible for the institution of the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States.

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79.

In 1863, Lincoln Administration declared the final Thursday in November of that year to be a day of Thanksgiving.

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80.

In 1862, Lincoln Administration sent General Pope to put down the "Sioux Uprising" in Minnesota.

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81.

However, Lincoln Administration did select some of the top diplomats as part of his patronage policy.

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82.

Lincoln Administration closely watched the handling of the Trent Affair in late 1861 to make sure there was no escalation into a war with Britain.

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83.

Lincoln Administration was successful after indicating to London and Paris that Washington would declare war on them if they supported Richmond.

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84.

Lincoln Administration ended the crisis, known as the Trent Affair, by releasing the two diplomats, who had been seized illegally.

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85.

Lincoln Administration was shot in the back of his head by actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth.

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86.

In surveys of U S scholars ranking presidents conducted since the 1940s, Lincoln is consistently ranked in the top three, often as number one.

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87.

Nevertheless, in 1861, Lincoln Administration justified the war in terms of legalisms, and then in terms of the national duty to guarantee a republican form of government in every state.

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88.

Burton argues that Lincoln Administration's republicanism was taken up by the Freedmen as they were emancipated.

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