Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was the 16th president of the United States and the first president of the Republican Party. Before becoming president, Lincoln was a lawyer, a facet of his biography the text dwells on little except to mention the studious and methodical nature Lincoln brought to the presidency from this period of his life. After his career in law Lincoln became an Illinois State legislator, and then a congressman. Elected president in 1861, Lincoln guided the nation through the Civil War (1861-1865), which had officially begun a month earlier when seven Southern slave states seceded from the Union. During the Civil War, Lincoln was responsible for the abolition of slavery, important changes to the Constitution in the 13th Amendment, and the modernization of the US economy through new banking legislature and the establishment of a national currency. Today understood as an American hero and a champion for liberty, Lincoln was a divisive figure in his own time. McPherson’s text shows how Lincoln’s unique ingenuities as a statesman, strategist, storyteller, and moral arbiter allowed him to guide both himself and the nation through its second revolution. Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in 1865, five days after the surrender of the Confederate army.