Home About The Institute Projects For Teachers For Students Video & Social

Abraham Lincoln In Depth

Abraham Lincoln In Depth

Abraham Lincoln and Power

Abraham Lincoln was a pragmatist in the use of power. Winston Churchill wrote that Lincoln was "anxious to keep the ship on an even keel and steer a steady course, he may lean all his weight now on one side and now on the other. His arguments in each case when con...

Abraham Lincoln & Freedom

Abraham Lincoln & Freedom

Contrabands & Freedmen

The status of blacks who escaped servitude was not obvious or clear at the beginning of the Civil War. Lincoln biographer Noah Brooks wrote how escaped slaves were treated in the early weeks of the Civil War in 1861: "The slaves of the South were thought by the pe...

Abraham Lincoln's White House

Abraham Lincoln's White House

Upstairs at the White House

The second floor of the White House included the family quarters of the White House – as well as the offices and bedroom of Mr. Lincoln's two principal aides. The office Mr. Lincoln called "the shop" was also the government's crisis center. A crisis like the Civi...
Abraham Lincoln:
The Impact on the War, Part A
Abraham Lincoln:
The proclamation, Part A
Abraham Lincoln:
New Years Day Reception

Abraham Lincoln & Friends

Abraham Lincoln & Friends

Firm Hand of Friendship

Not all old acquaintances brought Mr. Lincoln joy. " I am constrained to say it is difficult to answer so ugly a letter in good temper," Mr. Lincoln wrote on December 31, 1861 in response to a letter from General David Hunter. Hunter, like many Union generals, h...

Abraham Lincoln & New York

Abraham Lincoln & New York

Mr. Lincoln's Visits

While alive, Mr. Lincoln visited New York on six occasions. None of these visits was lengthy. The longest, in February 1860 lasted only three nights. On two of these visits — in September 1848 and June 1862, Mr. Lincoln merely lasted through the city on th...

Lincoln's Contemporaries

Abraham Lincoln's Contemporaries

Abraham Lincoln and The Radicals

As a group, the Republican Radicals in Congress lacked the sense of a humor that Abraham Lincoln had in abundance. Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner was especially humorless and obstinate. Wisconsin Republican Carl Schurz observed that "Mr. Lincoln was a const...

Featured Article

by Lewis E. Lehrman

They were big men. George Washington was 6-foot-3. Abraham Lincoln was almost 6-4. Their ambitions were equally big -- first for themselves, and then for the nation they would lead.

As young men, both future presidents trained as surveyors at periods when Americans were preoccupied by the development of the frontier and the acquisition of land. Historian John Ferling wrote: "Starting around age fifteen, George learned surveying through self-help books, such as `The Young Man's Companion,' and it is probable that he was tutored by some of the surveyors employed by the Fairfaxes." In his search for self-improvement, 16-year-old Washington famously wrote out the rules for life and behavior from "Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation." That pursuit would continue the rest of his life.

Surveying helped define both men. In 1834 Abraham Lincoln was named as a deputy surveyor of Sangamon County in Illinois; George Washington had been appointed as Culpepper County surveyor in 1749. Ferling observed that, "surveying ... was a respectable and often lucrative occupation in Washington's Virginia, as the population was growing and new frontiers were opening steadily."

READ MORE

About the Abraham Lincoln Institute

The Lincoln Institute provides resources for scholars and groups involved in the study of the life of America's 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, and the impact he had on the preservation of the Union, the emancipation of black slaves, and the development of democratic principles. We also encourage the use of primary sources about Abraham Lincoln for use by students and scholars along with understanding of the contemporaries with whom Lincoln worked.

Visit The Lincoln Institute sites for specific information and resources on Abraham Lincoln's life including Abraham Lincoln's White House, Abraham Lincoln & Friends, Abraham Lincoln & New York, Abraham Lincoln & Freedom, as well as Abraham Lincoln's Classroom for teacher resources.

A Project of
The Lehrman Institute
Lewis E. Lehrman, Founder
When using this research please
acknowledge The Lehrman Institute
and The Lincoln Institute.

Lincoln is Here!
Nationwide release -- November 16



Watch the Trailer

Learn More About the Characters in "Lincoln"

The Lincolns

Daniel Day Lewis
Sally Field
Gulliver McGrath
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Chase Edmunds
   

Lincoln at Peoria

Lincoln at Peoria
The Turning Point
by Lewis E. Lehrman
Lincoln at Peoria explains how Lincoln's speech at Peoria on October 16, 1854, was the turning point in the development of his antislavery campaign and his political career and thought.

DAILY ABRAHAM LINCOLN BLOG

May 18, 1863 Journalist Noah Brooks writes: “The morning is magnificent, and the air is alive with the songs of birds.  There is hardly a soldier to be seen, except the warm and indolent-looking patrols, who saunter along their posts in the warm sunshine as if they were only ‘playing soldier.” The National Republican, owned […]...Read More
 width=
Visit The Lincoln Institute Sites
Mr. Lincoln's White House Mr. Lincoln and Friends
Mr.Lincoln and New York Mr. Lincoln and Freedom
Abraham Lincoln's Classroom Mr. Lincoln and the Founders
Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War