» 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)

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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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President Lincoln delivering his inaugural address on the east portico of the U.S. Capitol, March 4, 1865.
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 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)

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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)

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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Detail of a broadside printing of Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865. (Gilder Lehrman Collection)
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