How is abraham lincoln

Rogers, all of Bloomington. They requested a continuance from Judge David Davis on the grounds that Dr. Judge Davis and Lincoln enjoyed a close working relationship, as well as a personal friendship. Younger attorneys on the trial circuit often sought the services of Lincoln, whose experience and presence in the courtroom had earned their respect. When the Fleming case was called before Judge Davis in September, the defendants again requested a postponement.

Freese, it seemed, had moved to Cincinnati on short notice and had not been able to give his deposition to the attorneys before leaving Bloomington. He not only went to the root of the question, but dug up the root, and separated and analyzed every fiber of it. Before Fleming vs. Rogers and Crothers finally came to trial in the spring of , Lincoln had sought instruction from Dr. Crothers in the more technical medical aspects of the case. Using chicken bones to demonstrate his points, Crothers described the chemistry of bone growth and the organic changes that take place in bones during the aging process.

It would not be the only time that the frontier-bred Lincoln would use farm-related metaphors to make his points to a jury or, as president, to Congress and the American people. During the well-attended, week-long trial, 15 doctors and 21 other witnesses testified on behalf of the plaintiff. The defendants also called upon a bevy of medical men to buttress their claims.

Many years after the trial, Dr. What I would advise you is to get down on your knees and thank your Heavenly Father, and also these two Doctors that you have any legs to stand on at all! Lincoln saved his lesson on how bones heal for his summation to the jury. Then, holding up two chicken-leg bones—one from an old chicken and the other from a young one—he demonstrated to the jury their respective texture and resilience.

The bones of the young bird were supple, while those of the old chicken were brittle and broke easily. Fleming, being in middle age, Lincoln pointed out, would have bones more closely resembling the latter than the former.

This graphic demonstration had the desired effect on some of the jurors, a majority of whom probably entered the courtroom predisposed toward Fleming and prejudiced against the more affluent defendants. After 18 hours of deliberation, the jurors failed to reach a decision. Judge Davis put the case over to the fall term of court.

By September, the doctors had suffered the loss of another vital witness from the Bloomington area. Isaac Small, who had helped to administer the chloroform to Fleming at the time the attempt was made to re-break his right thigh bone, had moved to Nashville, Tennessee. The retrial of the case never took place, both sides having agreed to a settlement before the March court term began.

The doctors named in the suit agreed to pay the fees incurred by Fleming, whose expense probably totaled less than a thousand dollars. Soon after the Fleming suit was settled, Lincoln became preoccupied with the race for U. Douglas, that propelled him onto the national political stage. Although Lincoln lost that election, the campaign was an important step on his road to the White House. And to a great extent, he used the talents that he had honed as an Illinois circuit lawyer to maintain popular support in the North for the war effort and to develop a political constituency that sustained the army in the field.

Logan, again as a junior partner. In , Lincoln teamed up with William H. Herndon, this time as a senior partner. Charles M. This article was originally published in the August issue of American History magazine. More out of necessity than inclination, Abraham Lincoln became one of the most active commanders in chief in American history, directly influencing and managing events and generals in every field of operations during the Civil War.

Never before had a president been able to communicate his desires to far-off commanders as quickly as Lincoln was able to. He could do this because of recent inventions that speeded communication, most notably the telegraph. At the beginning of that year, the Union was poised on all fronts to take the offensive. When this was done, the Confederacy would be cut in two. In Tennessee, a Northern army had fought the Confederates to a draw at Stones River and was preparing to push the Southerners out of middle and eastern Tennessee.

In the East, after suffering many defeats in , Union forces had a new commander and were preparing to take the war deeper into Virginia. As promising as the Union outlook was at the beginning of the year, there would be many problems and disappointments before ended.

Lincoln would be forced to deal with numerous commanders who failed to understand that the main objective of the Union military machine should be defeating the Confederate armies, not merely occupying enemy territory. Lincoln often had to beg his commanders to take action, or relieve and replace a general when he failed to prosecute the war in an aggressive manner.

The stage had been set in July , when Maj. Henry W. Halleck had replaced Maj. George B. McClellan as general in chief of the Union Army. Lincoln hoped that he had found a competent leader to aggressively prosecute the war without much direction from the White House, and at first glance Halleck appeared to be a fine choice.

Events, however, soon showed that Halleck was not the aggressive general Lincoln believed him to be. After the Union defeat at the Second Battle of Manassas in August , Halleck seemed to lose confidence in both himself and his generals, and adopted a style of giving suggestions and advice to his subordinates rather than direct orders.

If a general is unwilling to fight, he is not likely to gain victory. Although Lincoln continued to work through Halleck, he also often communicated directly with his field commanders by telegraph. Earlier in , Lincoln had made a wise move by establishing governmental control of the U.

Initially, telegraph operations were under the Signal Corps but by , they were placed under a separate entity known as the U. Military Telegraph Service. Initially, each of these areas had a main field commander with whom Lincoln would have many dealings over the course of the year.

In the West, the campaign to capture the last major Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River was under the direction of Maj. Ulysses S. Grant had proved to be an aggressive general, winning several important victories in that helped to clear the Confederate presence from western Tennessee.

Promoted to head the Department of the Tennessee when Halleck left to become general in chief, in November , Grant launched a campaign to capture Vicksburg by an overland route through the state of Mississippi. Confederate cavalry raids on his supply lines forced Grant to cancel this operation and return his army to its initial starting point near Memphis, Tenn.

The persistent commander then determined that his next attempt to capture Vicksburg would be via the Mississippi River itself. In central Tennessee, Maj. William S. Rosecrans was in command of the Army of the Cumberland.

In October , he had relieved Maj. Don Carlos Buell as head of the army. Rosecrans was then poised to begin a campaign to drive the Confederates from the eastern half of the state. In northern Virginia, Maj. Ambrose Burnside led the Union Army of the Potomac at the start of Joseph Hooker.

Lincoln had his doubts about Hooker, too, mainly due to his vocal criticism of Burnside, but he had performed well as a corps commander and talked aggressively about what he intended to do in the spring campaign. In , a politically appointed general named John A. Stanton to raise troops in several northwestern states as an expeditionary force for use in capturing Vicksburg. The wording of the order made it appear that McClernand would be in command of the operation.

But after McClernand had raised the troops and sent them to Memphis, Grant simply took control of the soldiers for his operations down the Mississippi. Although he disliked and distrusted McClernand, Grant wisely retained him as a corps commander, knowing that Lincoln wished to keep the Illinois Democrat in an important capacity for political reasons. McClernand was not satisfied by the arrangements, and he appealed directly to Lincoln.

You are now doing well—much better than you could possibly be if engaged in open war with Gen. Lincoln also let Grant know when he thought a particular project was especially important. In order to keep his men occupied and make them feel they were making some headway against the Confederates, Grant had his soldiers work on cutting a canal that would bypass the Vicksburg defenses.

Although Grant had little hope of success for the effort, Lincoln felt the project was important. The President attaches much attention to this. As weeks dragged by, Rosecrans continued to request more supplies from the government while making no effort to move. The government tried many different tactics to get Rosecrans to advance, but to no avail.

Finally, in an apparent attempt to infuse some spirit of competition between Rosecrans and Grant, Halleck sent each a telegram that offered what could fairly be interpreted as a bribe. He let his superiors know that he was offended, further worsening relations between himself and Washington. Meanwhile in the East, the Army of the Potomac was being reorganized in the early months of Lincoln was still uncertain about Hooker mainly due to his outspoken opinions about the government and Burnside.

During the next few months, however, Hooker proved to be a good administrator of the army, reorganizing it into an efficient fighting force. By April, it was ready once again to begin offensive operations.

The Northern public was growing weary of inaction by the Army of the Potomac. Having done all that he could to ensure success, Lincoln should have felt confident about victory. The president could not visit and actively supervise the Union armies in the West, but he could send a personal representative to be his eyes and ears. Dana on a fact-finding mission in April. That spring, Grant attempted several different schemes to bypass the Confederate defenses at Vicksburg.

While none proved successful, at least he and his command were making attempts to defeat the enemy. Their efforts did not go unnoticed in Washington, but Lincoln was concerned that Grant was dividing his army before the enemy, which might prove costly. He wanted Grant to unite with Maj. Then the Navy would ferry his men to the east bank of the river, where they would be on the same side as their objective—Vicksburg.

In mid-April, Grant did just what he said he would do. Hooker was also ready to fight by the end of April. In a series of brilliant maneuvers, he managed to keep the South in the dark about his intentions and get his army across the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers without interference.

Once the army began to move, Lincoln monitored its progress by telegram. We are busy. Will tell you as soon as I can, and have it satisfactory. On May 1, the Union and Confederate forces collided in a region known as the Wilderness. Lincoln married Mary Todd in , and they had four sons. He is shown here with his youngest son, Tad. In , Abraham Lincoln won the nomination for president from the Republican Party. He won the presidential election and took office in President Lincoln visited with his generals after the battle.

Robert Todd Lincoln said it was the best likeness of his father. Photographer Henry F. Warren took the photograph on the White House balcony on March 6, Grant Rutherford B. Hayes James A. Garfield Chester A. Roosevelt Harry S. It was a thirty-day stint, and when it was up, Lincoln—having seen no military action—signed on for another twenty days, and then again for a third term of thirty days.

In his last duty, he served as a private in the Independent Spy Corps, which unsuccessfully tried to track down Chief Black Hawk in southern Wisconsin. As a soldier, Lincoln saw no action in the war, but his tour of duty prevented him from campaigning for office. Back home in New Salem, Lincoln resumed his campaign for the legislature, but there was too little time left before the election for him to make himself known throughout the large district.

Although he won of the votes in New Salem, he lost in the county, coming in eighth in a field of thirteen. Thereafter, he refocused his energies on studying law on his own, arguing cases before the local justice of the peace even before passing the state bar exam in , and getting his license in Lincoln also participated in Whig political functions, serving as secretary in the party's meetings. Despite his political leanings, Abe attracted attention from leaders of the time.

Democrats allowed Lincoln's appointment probably because no local Democrat wanted the job, and, additionally, his determination to avoid partisan posturing made him acceptable to almost everyone in New Salem. In , Lincoln ran again for the state legislature, and this time he won. Even the Democrats supported him. His strategy had worked: he issued no platform statement, made no promises, and gave few speeches. Instead, he shook hands, told jokes, and visited nearly every family in the county.

He ran and won again in , , and Once in office, his Whig leanings came early to the front as he supported internal improvements and the chartering of a state bank.

As a young legislator, Lincoln generally voted along Whig Party lines. In , Lincoln took highly controversial position that foreshadowed his future political path, joining with five other legislators—out of eighty-three—to oppose a resolution condemning abolitionists. In , he responded to the death of the Illinois abolitionist and newspaper editor Elijah Parish Lovejoy, who was killed while defending his printing presses from a mob of pro-slavery citizens in Alton, Illinois.

In a statesmanlike manner, Lincoln gave a cautious speech at the Springfield Young Men's Lyceum, emphasizing the dangers to democracy and the rule of law when citizens use violence instead of votes and reason to have their way. In , with a keen political eye, Lincoln campaigned for the populist war hero and Whig candidate William Henry Harrison.

In taking this position, Lincoln clearly appealed to the racism of the overwhelming majority of Illinois voters. Like many other opponents of slavery, Lincoln, at this point, did not favor citizenship rights for blacks. After four terms in the state legislature, Lincoln left office in but returned to public life in to win the Whig nomination for a seat from the Illinois seventh congressional district to the U.

House of Representatives. Ten days after the nomination, America went to war with Mexico. During the months of the campaign, Lincoln said nothing about the Mexican-American War, which allowed him to win the district by a large majority.

Once in office, however, Lincoln voiced his opinion on the conflict. Congressman Lincoln boldly challenged President James Polk's assertion that the Mexicans had started the war by attacking American soldiers on American soil. In a speech on the House floor, Lincoln scathingly denounced the Polk administration for taking the country to war by misrepresenting the situation to the nation, claiming correctly that the conflict had begun on territory contested by the two sides.

It was a blatant and public attack on a popular President by a young unknown congressman from a state that was solidly behind the war.

Some of his friends were shocked at Lincoln's bold position, but his stand was common among congressional Whigs. Lincoln earlier had promised not to run for a second term in order to win the party's nomination over two other aspiring candidates. He also had little chance as a Whig for election as a U. No Whig had ever obtained either position from Illinois.

In , intent on keeping his name before the national audience, Lincoln campaigned in Maryland and Massachusetts for Whig presidential candidate Zachary Taylor. Then he retired to Springfield, where he practiced law from to , becoming one of the more successful lawyers in the state, representing all kinds of clients, including railroad interests. Although elected in again to the state legislature, he promptly resigned to run for the U.

Throughout the war, Lincoln struggled to find capable generals for his armies. As commander-in-chief, he legally held the highest rank in the United States armed forces, and he diligently exercised his authority through strategic planning, weapons testing, and the promotion and demotion of officers.

McDowell , Fremont, McClellan , Pope , McClellan again, Buell , Burnside , Rosecrans --all of these men and more withered under Lincoln's watchful eye as they failed to bring him success on the battlefield.

He did not issue his famous Emancipation Proclamation until January 1, after the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam. Nevertheless, it changed the tenor of the war, making it, from the Northern point of view, a fight both to preserve the Union and to end slavery. In , Lincoln ran again for President.

After years of war, he feared he would not win. Only in the final months of the campaign did the exertions of Ulysses S. Grant , the quiet general now in command of all of the Union armies, begin to bear fruit. A string of heartening victories buoyed Lincoln's ticket and contributed significantly to his re-election.

In his second inauguration speech , March 4, , he set the tone he intended to take when the war finally ended. The Lincoln administration did more than just manage the Civil War, although its reverberations could still be felt in a number of policies.

The Revenue Act of established the United States' first income tax, largely to pay the costs of total war. The Morrill Act of established the basis of the state university system in this country, while the Homestead Act, also passed in , encouraged settlement of the West by offering acres of free land to settlers.