Motivation

His father didn’t know how to read. His wife struggled with severe mental afflictions. And his top military commander at the start of the Civil War, George Mcclellan, suffered from cowardice.

It is surprising that the initial focus in the Civil War was about securing an offshore fort — Fort Sumter.

Background

• Constitution

  • (The Federal Consensus) “Among the stumbling blocks to abolition was the fact that most antislavery advocates (including Lincoln) believed the federal government had no constitutional power to abolish slavery in the states where it existed.” - Source

• Policy Focus

  • “I am in favor of a national bank. I am in favor of the internal improvement system and a high protection tariff. These are my sentiments and political principles” - Source

• On February 25, 1863, Lincoln signed the National Banking Act, the most far-reaching financial reform in the country’s history - Source

• “The economics of the legal profession in sparsely populated Illinois were such that lawyers of the legal profession in sparsely populated Illinois were such that lawyers had to move about the state in the company of the circuit judge, trying thousands of small cases in order to make a living.” - Team of Rivals

• Kentucky admitted in 1792

• Thomas Lincoln was a small farmer (difficulty in securing title in Kentucky)

• The Lincoln Papers

• Inauguration

• The doctrine of necessity

• References