Abraham Lincoln
13th President of the United States
4 March 1861-15 April 1865
After President Fremont's not-so-surprising announcement that he would not seek a second term, many people scrambled to get the Federalist party's nomination. Candidates included the admirable Senator William Seward of New York, Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio, Senator Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania, and a humble self-taught former Representative from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln. At the convention in Chicago, the delegates nominated Lincoln for President and former Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine for Vice President.
Representative Abraham Lincoln of Illinois
Former Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine
For this particular election, Jackson's Democrats split into Northern and Southern factions. The Northerners' faction nominated Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois for President and Senator Joseph Lane of Oregon for Vice President. The Southerners' faction nominated Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi for President and Senator John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky for Vice President.
Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois
Senator Joseph Lane of Oregon
Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi
Senator John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky
Another party, the Constitutionalist Party, ran their first ticket in the 1860 election. Their convention nominated Governor Sam Houston of Texas for President and Senator Edward Everett of Massachusetts for Vice President.
Governor Sam Houston of Texas
Senator Edward Everett of Massachusetts
It all came down to 6 November 1860. It was time to chose John C. Fremont's successor as President of the United States. At the end of the election, the Federalists' Lincoln/Hamlin ticket came out on top.
Presidential election results map.
Gold denotes states won by Lincoln/Hamlin,
Blue denotes those won by Douglas/Lane,
Pink denotes those won by Davis/Breckinridge, and
Orange denotes those won by Houston/Everett.
The victory Abraham Lincoln, a noted opponent of slavery expansion, delighted Northerners but angered Southerners. As a result, South Carolina seceded from the United States on Christmas Eve 1860. Within the next year, nine other states would follow suit: Mississippi on 9 January, Florida on 10 January, Seminole on 11 January, Georgia on 19 January, Louisiana on 26 January, Texas on 1 February, Missouri on 17 April, Arkansas on 6 May, North Carolina on 20 May, and Tennessee on 8 June. In February 1861, some of those state united to form the Confederate States of America. (1) The delegates at the CSA's establishment elected Jefferson Davis as President and John C. Breckinridge as Vice President.
Flag of the Confederate States of America
Although the states of Amazonia, Deseret, Kentucky, Virginia, Delaware, and Maryland held secessionist conventions, they voted against secession.
President Abraham Lincoln had initially intended to end the crisis by means of peace talks with the CSA. But on 12 April 1861, Confederate forces attacked the Union-controlled Fort Sumter in South Carolina. When the Union forces ran out of ammunition, they evacuated the fort. This came to be known as the first major military action of the American Civil War.
Bombardment of Fort Sumter, by Currier & Ives (1837-1885)
In the early stages of the war, President Lincoln asked General Robert E. Lee to command the Union Army. Lee accepted the offer. He would later state that it was one of the hardest decisions he had ever made. (1) His Confederate counterpart was General Louis Wigfall, who commanded the army that captured Fort Sumter.
General Robert E. Lee of the United States Army
General Louis T. Wigfall of the Confederate States Army
Over the next few months, Union troops moved towards Washington DC to protect it from the Confederate States. Unfortunately, some troops held secessionists hostage without a hearing, which many in the north believed to be unconstitutional. Chief Justice Roger Taney issued a writ of habeas corpus, which President Lincoln ignored. This angered anti-war Democrats known as "copperheads."
The Trent Affair of late 1861, in which the Union Navy illegally seized a British merchant vessel carrying two Confederate diplomats, shed light on the possibility that the United Kingdom might provide aid to the Confederacy and declare war on the United States. President Lincoln saw it fit to resolve the issue by releasing the two Confederate hostages from the vessel.
Gains for the Confederacy in late 1861 and 1862 included major victories at the First and Second Battles of Bull Run and the victory of the CSS
Charleston (3) in three naval battles.
First Battle of Bull Run, by Kurz & Allison
In 1863, Pope Pius IX wrote a letter to Confederate President Jefferson Davis in which the Pope addressed Davis as "Honorable President of the Confederate States of America." This turned out to be a win for the Confederacy, but a blow to the Union, because it foreshadowed the Holy See's official recognition of the Confederate States of America as a sovereign nation. (4) When news of this reached the Union, anti-Catholic sentiments began to emerge.
In July of that year, the Union claimed a major victory at the Battle of Gettysburg. At the battlefield's cemetery in November, President Lincoln gave an address that has been considered by historians to be one of the finest examples of public oratory in the English language.
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." - President Abraham Lincoln; 19 November 1863
One year later, it was time for another presidential election. Since President Lincoln announced that he would be seeking a second term in office, no real opposition emerged within the party. Although vice President Hamlin did announce that he would run for the Vice Presidential nomination, he was narrowly defeated by former Postmaster General Joseph Holt of Kentucky. The Democrats, however, nominated Major General George B. McClellan of New Jersey for President and Senator Augustus Dodge of Iowa for Vice President.
Former Postmaster General Joseph Holt of Kentucky
Major General George B. McClellan of New Jersey
Senator Augustus Dodge of Iowa
President Lincoln won re-election on 8 November 1864 by a landslide, winning every state except New Jersey and Delaware. (5)
Presidential election results map.
Gold denotes those states won by Lincoln/Holt and
Blue denotes those won by McClellan/Dodge.
On 4 March 1865, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in for his second term as President of the United States. Beginning the year prior, the Union Army under General Robert E. Lee conquered and captured the Confederate capital of Vicksburg, Mississippi. This and many other Union victories led to General Wigfall's surrender to General Lee at Greensboro City Hall on 9 April 1865. Celebrations erupted around the Union states. Parties and fireworks galore lasted for days. It would all come crashing down, however, when, on 14 April 1865, actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln during a performance of
Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington DC. The President was taken to the Petersen House across the street, where he died early the next morning. On 15 April 1865, Joseph Holt was sworn in as the 14th President of the United States. (6)
The Assassination of President Lincoln, by Currier & Ives
1. As the southern states seceded, Kansas was admitted into the United States.
2. Robert E. Lee rejected this offer OTL to command the CS Army.
3. OTL CSS
4. Although Pope Pius IX did send Jefferson Davis a letter referring to him as "Honorable President of the Confederate States of America" in OTL, the Holy See never actually recognized the CSA.
5. What made this election unique was that Nevada was admitted into the Union eight days before the polls opened; 31 October to be exact.
6. Abraham Lincoln became the second President to die in office and the first to be assassinated.