Abraham Lincoln - Symbol of the unlimited possibilities Essay Example for Free

Abraham capital of Nebraska Symbol of the unlimited possibilities examineThere are few men whose characters are so extraordinary that they force out be credit with saving a nation. The 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln was nonpareil such man. More than one hundred years after his assassination, Honest Abe as he has become known, shows no signs of losing his touch. He sits enshrined in his own monument with his famous words etched in stone around him. He commands respect, celebrate and the everlasting thanks of the American people. More than a thousand books have been published on his feel and deeds. This is the man who non only freed the knuckle downs but who held the nation together through the terror of the Civil War. His b bothy(a) assassination has become the nightmare scenario of legend. The myths that make up the story of Abraham Lincoln have been re-told many times. At their root is the story slightly the boy natural into the Kentucky wilder ness, who had less than a year in make sense of formal schooling.That same boy went on to become Americas most famous chairperson. Lincolns rise from a distressing pioneer family who taught himself to become a lawyer is the story of the American dream. From state legislator to his nomination as presidential candidate that dream is the stuff of legends. He has become a symbol of the unlimited possibilities of American life. To estimate the bravery and the courage that Lincoln undoubtedly showed, it is not enough to say that he saved the Union. incomplete is it enough to say that he braved his critics to bring in emancipation and to end the appalling slave trade. To richly understand Lincolns achievements, is to try and gain an insight into American society of that time. The republic was only a offspring of a few decades old. In this melting pot of nationhood and states, political feelings ran high. Lincoln, above all, saw himself and his countrymen as inheritors of a sacred tr ust. He believed that democracy was entrusted into his hands and those of his countrymen.He was prepared to stand up and fight for those beliefs. The situation is as laudable as these sentiments were, there could not possibly have been a more backbreaking time to try and put them into practice. The issue of slavery above all others dominated the day. It would unwrap two politics and the country as a whole. Abraham Lincoln was not in two minds about slavery. He found it abhorrent. The fact is that many states, primarily in the North, stood against slavery. Many in the South did not. They were afraid that a Republican President effectively from the North would try and abolish slavery throughout the nation. Lincoln was take President for his first term in 1860 at the point when a huge part of the Union, threaten to break away over the issue of slavery. The situation was for Lincoln neither a reason for detachment nor Civil War. In his inaugural address he spoke about the need to find a peaceful way forwards.In spite of Lincolns plea, the Confederacy broke away and on March 4 1861 and the country erupted into the Civil War he had feared above all else. That scenario was a nightmare of complications and strategies that had to be win inside a cauldron of dissent. There was no road map. There were no precedents for dealing with states that had succeeded. Lincoln was at heart and by trade, a lawyer. He was not a soldier. However he did not flinch from his duty, or from the task in front of him. Where lesser men might have illogical heart, Lincoln began the long struggle towards unity and reunification. When he judged that the time was right, he announced the abolition of the slave trade, issuing the emancipation proclamation on January 1st 1863. The war took a heavy toll. Lincoln mourned the disaster of lives lost on the battlefield. His speech communication after the battle of Gettysburg on November 19th 1863 is one of the most miserable and famous of all elegies for fallen soldiers.In spite of high casualties and falling morale, when Atlanta finally knock down to the Union, Lincoln was re-elected for a second term. Lincolns second inaugural address is according to some, one of the greatest of all his speeches. In it, he looks forwards not only to the coming end of the war but likewise towards the future. His plea should never be forgotten, Malice towards none Charity towards all. Part of Abraham Lincolns legacy is the fact that he was very much a human figure. We know many details of his life including that of his courtship and liquid marriage to Mary Todd. Theirs was tender and loving relationship scarred by loss and tragedy. Of the four sons born to them, only one grew into adulthood. The quiet and loving home life the president enjoyed was in stark secernate to the violence and hatred that was tearing the nation apart. After the surrender of Robert E. Lee at Appomatox on April 9 1865, a weary nation waited to see what Lincoln s response would be.An expectant crowd gathered outside the washrag House. Lincoln addressed them for the last time. In his speech he tackled the thorny issues of reuniting a country split by war. In that same speech he talked about the rights of freed slaves. He now talked openly about black suffrage. Listening in that crowd was one John Wilkes Booth, a racist and a participator who vowed that this would be Lincolns last speech. Indeed it was. Booth assassinated the President on April 14th 1865. Mary his married woman was sitting beside her husband as they watched a play. She was holding his hand as he was shot. She never recover fully from his death. It was a death that Lincoln himself had reportedly foreseen in a dream some cardinal days earlier. The assassination of Lincoln stunned the nation.His body was mourned for three weeks at it was toured through the cities of the North. Public regret was immense for perhaps the most extraordinary figure in political history. Today t he image of the penniless tall and severe man is as familiar to us as our own fathers. Indeed to many, Abraham is the cause figure of America. We can only hope, like so many before us that we too can live up to the vision and the dreams that he left for us. Behind his statue lie the famous words of the Gettysburg address, in which the president extolled, That this nation, under God shall have a new birth of freedom and that the government of the people, by the people, for the people shall never perish from the earth.They are words that are as relevant to us forthwith as the day on which they were first spoken. How ironic then that in the same speech the President said that the words spoken there would not long be remembered. Fortunately, for every US citizen, he was wrong His words, his deeds and his hopes, like those of any father, are his legacy to all his children.Sources used in this speech and related informationAbraham Lincoln Birthplace http//capital of Nebraska.hodgenvil le.net/lincoln/ Abraham Lincoln On-line http//showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/last.htm CV for Abraham Lincoln http//www-personal.engin.umich.edu/sldavis/firstsite/index.htm