A tall gangly man who rose from anonymity to become one of the most influential and well known Presidents ever.
Abraham Lincoln, byname Honest Abe, the Rail-Splitter, or the Great Emancipator, (born February 12, 1809, near Hodgenville, Kentucky, U.S.—died April 15, 1865, Washington, D.C.), 16th president of the United States (1861–65), who preserved the Union during the American Civil War and brought about the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States.
The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., was dedicated to him on May 30, 1922.
From the backwaters of America came Abraham Lincoln, a self taught lawyer and a man who was able to influence people into his way of thinking, a man who was very persuasive and gifted talker able to inspire many people. He grew up in Salem in a tough enviroment and learnt to turn his foes into allies and how he could persuade people to believe in him. He had his own personal problems like depression and anger but he was able to harnass these and conquer all his political opponents in his way to the Whitehouse.
Frequently Lincoln’s friends notice other odd behavior incoherent rambling and insomnia the idea of Abraham Lincoln a man of infinite patience being quick tempered and prone to bizarre episodes intrigues historians to this day now scientists may have discovered an explanation for these outbursts for many years Abraham Lincoln treated his depression with the medicine common in the late 19th century known as blue mass to understand the impact is understand the makeup of this formula which was mecury a very dangerous neutoxin which would give heed sometimes ti his unpredictable behaviour. Bt he eventually gave this medication away to go on to better things.
Prototype Instagram influencer
In a stunning demonstration of political brilliance Lincoln a virtual nobody just three years before emerges victorious his honest reputation and savvy campaign staff helped him clinch the Republican nomination but when his team shows off a portrait at the convention the response is unexpected apparently all the cheering stopped instantly as if the sound had been turned off in a movie theater and everybody was a what’s that is that the guy we just nominated and they took the picture out they said they never saw a picture have such a terrible effect on a crowd in some photos he looks more like a crazed wild man than a presidential candidate a fact not lost on Lincoln but Lincoln is quick to turn a weakness into a strength though photography in 1860 is in its embryonic stages he soon realizes the power of this new medium he stops by the studio a famed photographer Matthew Brady so many early photographs focused on those imperfections and those creases and moles and lines and all of that Brady moved the camera back to emphasize Lincoln’s physique and his stature and then at the last minute he says to Lincoln would you mind pulling your collar up and Lincoln says I see mr. Brady that you’d like to shorten my neck so Lincoln tugged his collar up and just when he does it brainy’s operator snaps the camera the result is a powerful image dignified and presidential it radiates confidence Lincoln’s campaign mass produces and distributes the photo plastering his face everywhere that was the way Abraham Lincoln was really introduced in 1860 in colorful images that masks his imperfections then plastered down his hair took some of the lines out and he was airbrushed generations before anybody knew what airbrushing was these photos play a vital role in the campaign in the final weeks of the race instead of giving speeches he poses for photographers and sculptors every chance he gets by contrast his old rival Stephen
On his way to be the 16th President
Douglas hits the campaign trail a critical mistake in the 19th century a presidential nominee who actively campaigns is seen as desperate Stephen Douglas did campaign and was ridiculed for it Lincoln won the campaign honors because his picture campaign form from mere obscurity Lincoln rises to the highest office in the land on March 4th 1861 the Railsplitter is sworn in as president of the United States but he continues to polish his image it’s no accident that Lincoln has over a hundred and thirty pictures taken far more than most public figures of their after he’s elected president he adds the finishing touch a beard to hide his rough features his handlers have recommended this for months but being a savvy politician Lincoln attributes his new whiskers to advice from a young fan if you will let your whiskers grow it would look a great deal better for your faith is so sin all the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you but crafting a public persona is a double-edged sword the press can easily damage his reputation and during his inaugural train ride from Springfield to the Capitol they get their chance the closer he got to Washington the more ugly rumors began to spread.
Abraham Lincoln became the United States’ 16th President in 1861, issuing the Emancipation Proclamation that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy in 1863.
The agony of being President of a civil War.
He also consistently accepted the validity of dreams and other perplexing omens. As he became older, especially when he was elected president and had to deal with the soul-wrenching duties of the Civil War, he developed a strong religious sense and came to personify necessity as God more and more. He eventually came to see all of history as God’s project and to regard himself rather humbly as a “instrument of Providence.” He stated in 1862 that “it is entirely probable that God’s aim in the current civil war is something different from the purpose of either party—and yet the human instrumentalities, operating as they do, are of the best adaptability to effect His purpose.”
By the time the 13th Amendment came along, war was dragging on and on. More Americans died in that war than in any other, both sides. And a lot had happened to him and to the whole country by that time, he’s seen the death, he’s experienced extreme personal loss. Early in the war with the death of Willie, all of this has moved him and he’s carried the weight of a nation on him. All these people wiped out by the war, he must write letters consoling those who had lost members of families, fathers, brothers. And all of this grinds him down. You see it in his face, the hollows of his cheeks sink more deeply in. He said at one point that there was a tired spot in him that no amount of rest could touch. Those photographs are haunting. etched on his face is a testimony, a record of the stress that he endured every president ages during their presidency but nothing like Lincoln three or four years after he assumes office.
It gives you a sense of the burden that he was carrying. How can any human being accept the casualties that were piling up and take personal responsibility without resigning or killing yourself over this tragedy, unless you could find a higher power that was instrumental in causing the war to go on for so long. And Lincoln writes a memo to himself that has become known as a meditation on the divine will.
If God wills that this contest continue, it will continue. It must be divine providence forcing us to have this bitter confrontation over the future of our country. But Lincoln never joined a church. He was not a believer in organized religion. As he prepared or the second inaugural address, he wanted to make clear to everybody that he, Lincoln, understood that the war had been a war to free the slaves and not just a war to save the Union. And he wanted to make sure that everybody understood that slavery was done forever in the country. His consciousness of something bigger than himself and the need to recognize that a form of pain had existed in America for generations before he came along, and it would not instantly be solved.
President Lincoln needed popular support to win the war. First and foremost, a certain level of unanimity in the North was necessary for the merger of North and South. But there were numerous factions in the North, each with its own unique interests. Lincoln had to work to win over as many different people and organisations to his government as he could. As a result, he focused a lot of his time and attention on politics, which includes the art of gaining such support. He was a president with uncommon political skill, which was fortunate for the cause of the Union. He had a talent for connecting with other lawmakers and speaking their language. He was gifted at bridging gaps between people, and holding the loyalty of men antagonistic to one another. Inheriting the spoils system, he made good use of it, disposing of government jobs in such a way as to strengthen his administration and further its official aims.