In His Own Words

by Abraham Lincoln, Maureen Harrison (Editor), Steve Gilbert (Editor)

Considered one of America's greatest Presidents and one of the great men of all time, Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) left speeches and writing of astonishing quality; many of them are some of the truest, most enduring statements of democratic belief and goals ever to be found. Indeed, upon reading his words, which are always moving and memorable, one often experiences a chill, so profound was his thinking and so extraordinary his ability to speak what he felt.

With 'Abraham In His Own Words,' editors Harrison and Gilbert have designed a volume that will easily acquaint readers with the best speeches and writings of Lincoln. They have carefully selected from a lifetime of his diverse public speeches and private writings so that what comes through for the reader is a sense of Lincoln's innate, and unshakable, beliefs in freedom, liberty and equality. Some of the documents selected are famous--the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln's second inaugural, and the speech about "the house divided against itself," for example--- while others are obscure. But all provide the reader with real insight into the essential Lincoln--- something that no biography or book of history can do.

Includes bibliography and index.

407 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States from 1861, led during the Civil War, and emancipated slaves in the south in 1863; shortly after the end, John Wilkes Booth assassinated him.

Abraham Lincoln, an American lawyer, politician, and man, served until 1865. Lincoln defended the American constitutional nation, defeated the insurgent Confederacy, abolished, expanded the power of the Federal government, and modernized the economy.
A mother bore him into poverty in a log cabin in Kentucky, and parents reared on the frontier, primarily in Indiana. He educated as a lawyer in Whig party, joined legislature, and represented Illinois. In 1849, he returned to his successful law practice in Springfield, Illinois.

The Kansas–Nebraska act in 1854 opened the territories, angered him, and caused him to re-enter politics. He quickly joined the new Republican Party. He reached a national audience in the campaign debates against Stephen Arnold Douglas for Senate in 1858. Lincoln ran in 1860 and swept the north to gain victory. Other elements viewed his election as a threat and from the nation began seceding. During this time, the newly formed Confederate of America began seizing Federal military bases. A little over one month after Lincoln assumed, Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Following the bombardment, Lincoln mobilized forces to suppress the rebellion and restored.

Lincoln, a moderate, navigated a contentious array of factions with friends and opponents from the Democratic Party and Republican Party. His allies, the Democrats, and the radical Republicans, demanded harsh treatment of the Confederates. He exploited mutual enmity of the factions, carefully distributing political patronage, and appealed to the American people. Democrats, called "Copperheads," despised Lincoln, and some irreconcilable pro-Confederate elements went so far as to plot. People came to see his greatest address at Gettysburg as a most influential statement of American national purpose. Lincoln closely supervised the strategy and tactics in the effort, including the selection of generals, and implemented a naval blockade of the trade. He suspended habeas corpus in Maryland and elsewhere, and averted British intervention by defusing the Trent Affair. He issued the proclamation, which declared free those "in rebellion." It also directed the Navy to "recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons" and to receive them "into the armed service." Lincoln pressured border to outlaw, and he promoted the thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished, except as punishment for a crime.
Lincoln managed his own successful re-election campaign. He sought to heal the torn nation through reconciliation. On April 14, 1865, just five days after the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, he attended a play at theater of Ford in Washington, District of Columbia, with Mary Todd Lincoln, his wife, when Confederate sympathizer fatally shot him. People remember Lincoln as a martyr and a national hero for his time and for his efforts to preserve and abolish. Popular and scholarly polls often rank Lincoln as the greatest president in American history.