President Lincoln’s Summer Home The Executive Mansion was a difficult place to live during the Civil War. The President’s bedroom was just down the hall from his second floor office, where he was besieged day and often night by job-seekers, commissioner-seekers, pardon-seekers, civil and military… Abraham Lincoln In Depth >

Abraham Lincoln’s Health Abraham Lincoln’s vigorous health was promoted in the 1860 presidential campaign by his image as a rail-splitter. But Mr. Lincoln was not always vigorous or healthy. After a close friend, Ann Rutledge, died in August 1835, Abraham Lincoln probably came… Abraham Lincoln In Depth >

Abraham Lincoln and Literature Shakespeare can be a politician’s best friend. He certainly was Abraham Lincoln’s favorite author. In an 1860 biography of candidate Lincoln, journalist William Dean Howells wrote that Mr. Lincoln was “a diligent student of Shakespeare, to know whom… Abraham Lincoln In Depth >

Abraham Lincoln the Athlete “For such an awkward fellow, I am pretty sure-footed. It used to take a pretty dextrous man to throw me,” recalled President Lincoln on the night of his reelection as President in 1864. “I remember, the evening of the day in 1858, that decided the contest for… Abraham Lincoln In Depth […]

Thirteenth Amendment “The course of events leading from the Emancipation Proclamation to the Thirteenth Ament was anything but predictable,” wrote historian Michael Vorenberg in Final Freedom: The Civil War, The Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment. “After… Abraham Lincoln In Depth >

Abraham Lincoln and Emancipation Though the Emancipation Proclamation may be the most celebrated event in Abraham Lincoln’s life, it is surprisingly one of the least chronicled or appreciated. Historian Richard Hofstadter once dismissed the Emancipation as having “all the moral grandeur of a bill… Abraham Lincoln In Depth >

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Speech “There was a fall of rain with hail on the 4th of March, 1865, recalled journalist L.A. Gobright. An hour before noon, the inaugural procession left from the War Department for the Capitol without a key participant. According to Gobright, “Mr. Lincoln did not occupy… Abraham Lincoln In Depth >

Abraham Lincoln’s Stories and Humor When Ohio Congressman James Ashley disapproved of a story Abraham Lincoln had just told, the President responded: “Ashley, I have great confidence in you and great respect for you, and I know how sincere you are. But if I couldn’t tell these stories, I would die.” On… Abraham Lincoln In […]

President Lincoln’s Assassination The assassination of Abraham Lincoln was a horrific end to a horrific war. It has also provided nearly endless speculation about what really happened and who really was behind the plot to kill the president. The speculation has been matched by a stream of books about… Abraham Lincoln In Depth >

President Lincoln’s Moods “Lincoln was a curious – mysterious – quite an incomprehensible man,” wrote William H. Herndon shortly before he died. As Lincoln’s longtime law partner and longtime wannabe biographer, Herndon knew whereof he spoke. In this book writer Joshua Wolf Shenk uses … Abraham Lincoln In Depth >