» Politics & Presidency

Politics and Presidency

No president more decisively affected the direction of his country than Mr. Lincoln. No president expressed himself more precisely on what important issues were at stake in the Civil War. No president fought a war successfully to its end and with as much consequence to the future of American history—the future of the whole world.

—Lewis Lehrman

Exhibitions

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Timeline

 

Essays

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“Stump Speaking,” by George C. Bingham, 1856. (Gilder Lehrman Collection)
Abraham Lincoln campaign print for the election of 1860, Currier and Ives, 1860. (Gilder Lehrman Collection)

Lincoln, by Allen C. Guelzo
Abraham Lincoln and Jacksonian Democracy, by Sean Wilentz
Lincoln at Cooper Union, by Harold Holzer

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Detail of a broadside printing of Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865. (Gilder Lehrman Collection)
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Lincoln’s Civil Religion, by George C. Rable
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural, by Lewis E. Lehrman
The Making of the President: Abraham Lincoln and the Election of 1860, by Harold Holzer

President Lincoln delivering his inaugural address on the east portico of the U.S. Capitol, March 4, 1865.
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Mr. Lincoln and Friends, by Lewis E. Lehrman
Mr. Lincoln and New York, by Lewis E. Lehrman
]The Sanctity of the Law: Lincoln’s Legal Career, by Steven Mintz

 Documents

Abraham Lincoln, notes for the “House Divided” speech, ca. December 1857 (Gilder Lehrman Collection)
Abraham Lincoln, speech fragment concerning the abolition of slavery, ca. July 1858. (Gilder Lehrman Collection)
Abraham Lincoln, speech fragment on slavery and the American government, ca. 1857–1858. (Gilder Lehrman Collection)

The “House Divided” Speech, ca. 1857–1858
Lincoln on abolition in England and the United States, 1858
Lincoln speech on slavery and the American Dream, 1858

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Proposed thirteenth amendment to protect slavery sent to Maryland for approval, April 30, 1861. (Gilder Lehrman Collection)
Detail of a broadside printing of Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865. (Gilder Lehrman Collection)

President Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address, 1861
A proposed Thirteenth Amendment to prevent secession, 1861
President Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, 1865

Video

Audio

Lesson Plans

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National picture: Behold oh! America, your sons. The greatest among men,” lithograph by Charles Shober, ca. 1865. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)
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Lincoln and Civil Liberties
Lincoln and Presidential Power
Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan
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Detail of a broadside printing of Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865. (Gilder Lehrman Collection)
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Lincoln’s First and Second Inaugural Addresses
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
An “Unconstitutional” Act? The Suspension of the Writ of Habeus Corpus