...Abraham Lincoln on the Challenge of Equality On October 16, 1854, Abraham Lincoln gave a speech disapproving the Kansas-Nebraska Act at Peoria, Illinois. He believed that it was too modified and that it went against the Missouri Compromise. The Missouri Compromise prohibited slavery in the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase. Lincoln had said earlier, “For although volume upon volume is written to prove slavery a very good thing, we never hear of the man who wishes to take the good of it, by being a slave himself” (Mason/Baker, 436). The Kansas-Nebraska Act gave the territories popular sovereignty, the direct opposite of the previous decision. “I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world; enables the enemies of free institutions with plausibility to taunt us as hypocrites; causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity; and especially because it forces so many good men among ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty, criticizing the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest” (Mason/Baker, 463). In 1854, Abraham Lincoln protested that both blacks and whites had the same right to enslave each other and neither had more superiority. He used a theory to prove all of the whites' reasons for slavery were incorrect and could be turned around to enslave them. "You say A. is white, and B is black. It is color, then; the lighter...
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...Abraham Lincoln Servant Leadership Case Study and Collaborative Research #4 G. Diaz ADM 553 April 16, 2015 Introduction Abraham Lincoln is one of the most known and beloved presidents of our history. He was the 16th president of the United States and is known for achieving such feats as keeping the Union together and the emancipation of slavery. Having many followers as well as resistance during the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln showed fortitude and never gave up on his vision and goals. Hence, after fighting for many years, he was able to give freedom and support to those who were chained by weights of racism and prejudice. Therefore, aside from having a vision and many followers, what made Lincoln such a great leader? What type of leadership style did Abraham Lincoln mostly use and why was it so successful? To begin with, Lincoln seems to fit the bill of what a great leader is supposed to entail. He was very charismatic, intelligent, determined, self-confident, and showed integrity to his followers and goals. All of these traits as described by Northouse (2013) are characteristics that leaders should aim to develop if they want to be effective commandants. Although leadership does not have one exclusive definition, since we all have our own ideas of what it means to be a good leader, Northouse does provide standard definition for the term. Northouse (2013) defines leadership as “a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve...
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...The end of the Civil War presented a unique crossroads for the war torn United States. How would the North and South reunite? At the helm, there was a moderate politician and a reflective thinker – President Abraham Lincoln. One of the greatest statesmen of all time, Lincoln advocated a lenient stance, envisioning a “restoration” whereby the southern states would pledge allegiance and reenter the Union under the Constitution. Lincoln proved to be a great negotiator and worked successfully during the war to join opposing sides to unite behind the Emancipation Proclamation and passage of the 13th Amendment. Lincoln appealed to the common man and was revered by many of his era. One of his greatest admirers was poet Walt Whitman who penned his famous poem “Captain, My Captain” as a tribute to Lincoln and, according to Reynolds in Lincoln and Whitman, called Lincoln “the greatest, best, most characteristic,...
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...Two of the most powerful men during the war of the North and South or ‘War Between the States’ was President Abraham Lincoln’s wife Mary Todd Lincoln, and Varina Davis, wife of the President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis. These were women from rival governmental systems, yet lived parallel to either in a world where personal tragedies helped to conform them to the world around them. Abraham fell in love with his wife in 1862, while Jefferson Davis met his ‘rose scarlet’ in 1865. Through four years of battles, these two women helped to hold down the fort and maintain our country’s legacy through valiance, grace, and dignity. For a first time in America two presidents ran the nation, alongside the two leading women who stood behind them. Through many of the differences suffered because of the war, the two first ladies both had similarities that brought their unity closer than the men’s although it did not occur to anyone that the women were the ones who were to hold this nation together behind closed doors. Both women were from the South and married men who were very stubborn and affected by the civil war. However, one of the first ladies would be hailed as a public symbol for peace during the war. The other first lady would go on to become a symbol of recourse as the two women who lived in separate White Houses helped to bring about a great change to our nation. Mary Todd Lincoln’s life in the White House came under very harsh conditions. During a very...
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...Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 close to Hodgenville, Kentucky. His family moved to Indiana in 1816. When Lincoln was ten his mother died from poisoned milk. His father remarried the next year to Sarah Bush Johnston. Abraham liked her very much and even later recalled her "his angel mother. (Encarta)" Abraham had less than one year of formal education during his life. He was self-educated and taught himself how to read and write. When he was not in school, he worked on the frontier farm clearing out forests with his axe. When Abraham Lincoln was 21 he and his family moved to Illinois. There he worked on a farm growing corn. But more importantly here was where he gave his first political speech. In 1830, the same year his family moved to Illinois, he went to a political rally and was convinced to talk for a candidate on his behalf. According to a witness there, Lincoln "was frightened but got warmed up and made the best speech of the day. (Encarta)." Abraham Lincoln's political career started in the spring of 1832 by running for a seat in the Illinois' House of Representatives. However an unusual turn of events happened a month after he announced he was running. The store he was working at went bankrupt and he lost his job. Very shortly thereafter Native Americans rebelled and the governor of Illinois asked for volunteers to help put this down to which Lincoln promptly volunteered for. He never experienced actual combat, but during his 3 month time period he served...
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...1860’s, the American civil war almost devastated the whole nation but it demonstrated something extraordinary- the dedication of soldiers from the same nation fighting against each other. The Confederacy was formed by the seven states and they got separated from the American Union. It got fed up with the Federal Government’s and claimed that it was superior to state laws and rights. When they fought the civil war, they felt that they had been betrayed by the government that the original thirteen states had created. They started the civil war as they are fighting a second Revolutionary war and started fighting for their independence once again against a despotic government. The Confederates soldiers fought for their independence, for their property and way of life and for their very...
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...anti-Confederate Southerners determined the course/outcome of the civil war. Specific information was given by Freehlng to show how the anti-confederates southerners determined the course and outcome of the civil war. The information is discussed in the following paragraph. According to Freehling, the events beyond the battlefields partially determined military verdicts. Furthermore, home front and battlefront unveiled defining aspects of civil war. The division within the south also helped pave the path toward the war and also, the division among the southern and home front dissensions determined battlefield verdicts. The outcome of the war was the collapse of the confederacy that was caused by the defeat in the military sphere, rather than dissolution behind the lines. Anti-confederate southerners piled on psychological, economical and geographical burdens that ultimately helped flatten white confederate’s resiliency. President Abraham Lincoln’s statecraft, the union’s anaconda military strategy, northern democrats and English men’s attitudes seemingly tangential matters bore vitally on southern anti-confederates capacity to influence the battlefields and to illuminate important characteristics of civil war. The tale of the southern house divided, highlights under appreciated gems of civil war lore, including revealing code words, colorful luminaries, key battles and vital military orders, this tells why the war came. In conclusion, the anti-confederate southerners...
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...American Civil War History Paper The American Civil War (1861–1865) was a civil war between the United States (the "Union") and the Southern slave states of the newly-formed Confederate States of America under Jefferson Davis. The Union included all of the free states and the five slaveholding border states and was led by Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party, which opposed the expansion of slavery into territories owned by the United States. Republican victory in the presidential election of 1860 led seven Southern states to declare their secession from the Union even before Lincoln took office.[1] The Union rejected secession, regarding it as rebellion. Hostilities began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a U.S. military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Lincoln responded by calling for a large volunteer army, then four more Southern states declared their secession. In the war's first year, the Union assumed control of the border states and established a naval blockade as both sides massed armies and resources. In 1862, battles such as Shiloh and Antietam caused massive casualties unprecedented in U.S. military history. In September 1862, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation made ending slavery in the South a war goal, which complicated the Confederacy's manpower shortages. In the East, Confederate commander Robert E. Lee won a series of victories over Union armies, but Lee's reverse at Gettysburg in early...
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...RECONSTRUCTION AND INDUSTRIALIZATION IN THE POST-CIVIL WAR ERA AUGUST 5, 2012 The Civil War marked a critical time in American history which left behind deep wounds of a divided nation which took years of healing. Although we have come a long way, the infected idealology that existed then still manifest itself in the form of overt and covert racism. One major turning point during the period immediately after the war was termed Reconstruction. In 1865, many Confederate soldiers returned to a devastated South whose farms, factories, railroads, bridges, and entire infrastructure had been destroyed. Immediate rebuilding started with the physical rebuilding progressing quickly. Yet, the rebuilding of southern society proved to be a harder task. Rebel states had to be integrated back into the nation and four million newly freed black slaves had to be integrated into southern society (Schultz, 2012). Reconstruction in the South is considered to be the time period from 1865 to 1877 following the war. In 1863, shortly after issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln issued the Ten Percent Plan. This plan allowed southern states the right to establish a new government if one-tenth of its’ prewar voters took an oath of loyalty and supported the emancipation of the slaves. This was needed to abolish slavery and allow the state back into the union with full privileges. Lincoln was attempting to drain the Confederacy and shorten the war by making this action seem easy (Schultz...
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...universities typically have shifted back in time to include more on the colonial period and much more on the prehistory of the Native peoples.[1][2] Indigenous people lived in what is now the United States for thousands of years before European colonists began to arrive, mostly from England, after 1600. The Spanish had small settlements in Florida and the Southwest, and the French along the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast. By the 1770s, thirteen British colonies contained two and a half million people along the Atlantic coast east of the Appalachian Mountains. In the 1760s the British government imposed a series of new taxes while rejecting the American argument that any new taxes had to be approved by the people (see Stamp Act 1765). Tax resistance, especially the Boston Tea Party (1774), led to punitive laws (the Intolerable Acts) by Parliament designed to end self-government in Massachusetts. American Patriots (as they called themselves) adhered to a political ideology called republicanism that emphasized civic duty, virtue, and opposition to corruption, fancy luxuries and aristocracy. All Fourteen colonies united in a Congress that called on them to write new state constitutions. After armed conflict began in Massachusetts, Patriots drove the royal officials out of every colony and assembled in mass meetings and conventions. Those Patriot governments in the colonies unanimously empowered their delegates to Congress to declare independence. In 1776, Congress declared that there...
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...King, Jr Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was not only a prominent American civil rights activist, but also a social reformer and an author. He is often referred to as the human rights icon since he called for equal rights for all without resorting to violence or aggression. Read on to know about the accomplishments of Martin Luther King, Jr. "Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them." Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta to Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King. King's original name was Michael King, Jr. His name was later changed to Martin after the German protestant leader Martin Luther. Martin Luther attended Booker T. Washington High School in Georgia and graduated in sociology from Morehouse College in Atlanta. After studying theology at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, he pursued his doctoral studies in systematic theology at Boston University. King was awarded the Doctor of philosophy on June 5, 1955. Achievements of Martin Luther King Jr. The greatest achievement of King was undoubtedly as a leader of the American Civil Rights Movement. He defended the Americans with African descent and fought for their rights. Martin Luther was greatly influenced by Howard Thurman, a civil rights leader, theologian and educator. He was a classmate of Martin...
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.... ‘A More Perfect Union’ is a speech that was delivered by the then US Senator for Chicago, Barack Hussein Obama, in response to criticism and condemnation that was hurled at him due to his association with Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Reverend Wright had come under attack from many corners of American society due to what people termed as ‘anti-American’ sentiments that Reverend Wright shared with his congregants, the most prominent of them being Senator Obama. (Obama, B. 2008) Obama’s speech will give insight on rhetorical appeal, pattern of development, context, and intended audience to educate it’s reader.. Senator Obama, who was then running for presidential nomination by the Democratic Party, was accused of tolerating anti-American sentiments. People, politicians and academics wondered how he could put up with such sentiments yet he hoped to lead a society as diverse ethnically and racially as America. This speech, ‘A More Perfect Union’, was Senator Obama’s response to these accusations. The speech has been hailed by many people as being the one that won him not only the Democratic Party nomination but also the U.S Presidency. For instance, the speech played a role in prompting New Mexico governor Bill Richardson to back Mr. Obama for the Democratic nomination. Governor Richardson was courted by both Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton as he was America’s only Latino governor and as such, whoever he supported may have won most of the Latino votes. Many people, including rivals...
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...Running head: AMERICA’S POST-CIVIL WAR GROWING 1 America’s Post-Civil War Growing Pains Zarick L. Robinson Professor Peacock Contemporary U.S. History – Assignment #1 Strayer University July 18, 2013 AMERICA’S POST-CIVIL WAR GROWING PAINS 2 The United States experienced many growing pains during the time period of 1865 to 1900 but I’d like to focus on two major historical points that impacted my family and certain Asian friends. African-Americans were not the only ones to experience prejudice as I brought out above, however, they were the main ones targeted when it comes to slavery. Slavery and prejudice was rampant during this time period. An old family friend Jonathan, a Chinese-American, was a victim of racial prejudice as a child. As he grew up, he searched for a place where people would not prejudge him based on his facial features or racial background. He became a medical doctor in a town in northern Alaska, where his appearance was similar to that of many of his patients. He hoped that perhaps there, amid the cold winds of the Arctic Circle, he had finally escaped the even colder winds of prejudice that he experienced in California. Any such hope was shattered when he provided medical assistance to a young woman. As the patient came out of a coma, she looked at Jonathan’s face and uttered a taunt with an expletive, revealing her deep-seated...
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...took after trails to the boondocks conditions of the Midwest, California, and Oregon, looking for a superior life and open doors for area possession. As the country extended its achieve, fringe debate emitted, and the fight over subjection escalated. On a global level, the United States obtained new terrains in the American Southwest through war with Mexico and picked up region in the Pacific Northwest in view of a settlement with Great Britain. Regardless of authoritative endeavors to battle with the servitude issue, every time another state was to be admitted to the Union, another discussion would eject. Authoritative endeavors, for example, the dubious Wilmot Proviso, the thought of mainstream sway, Clay's Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act-planned to strike a harmony between free states and slave states. Sectional clashes kept on heightenning, nonetheless, spelling inconvenience for the isolated country. Taking after the decision of Republican Abraham Lincoln, seven Southern states reacted by voting to withdraw from the Union, reporting the formation of the Confederate States of America. The Civil War would soon take...
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...Unit IV: Continuing Sectionalism, Civil War, And Reconstruction. 1853 To 1877 1. Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854 – A Bill introduced by Steven Douglas to organize the Nebraska territory. He hoped to build a transcontinental railroad making Chicago the terminus, but they could not do this until the Indians were cleared away and the land was in control. Nebraska would presumably become a free state due to the Missouri Compromise but to please the South Douglas argued that the territories should be left open to popular sovereignty. Douglas pushed for the bill and won, therefore the Missouri Compromise was repealed and the North was in an uproar. 2. Birth of the Republican Party- Made up of former Free Soilers, Conscience Whigs, and “Anti-Nebraska” Democrats. Presented themselves as the party of freedom though they were not abolitionist, but they believed that slavery be kept out of the territories. The Republican Party appealed too many to voters who not only disagreed with slavery but also wanted to keep slavery out of their states. 3. Stephan A. Douglas- Known as the “Little Giant,” he was the most prominent spokesman of the Young American movement. He held a series of state offices before being elected for the United States Senate at the age of 29. Douglas wanted to get on with the development of the nation; to build railroads, acquire new territory, and expand trade. This made him suggest and push for the Kansas-Nebraska Act. 4. Popular Sovereignty- Also known as...
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