American lawyer, orator, and sixteenth president of the United States. Born in
Kentucky, Lincoln was a self-made and self-taught man. His family moved to
Illinois in 1830, where Lincoln prepared himself for a career in law. In 1834,
he was elected to the first of four terms in the Illinois state legislature and
in 1847, to the U.S. Congress. Elected president in 1860, Lincoln sought to
preserve the Union amid the strife of the Civil War while he worked for the
passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which outlawed slavery "everywhere and
forever'' in the United States. During his first term, Lincoln delivered the
"Gettysburg Address'' (1863) at the site of one of the Civil War's bloodiest
battles. Re-elected in 1864, in 1865 he gave his "Second Inaugural Address", an
eloquent appeal for reconciliation and peace. Lincoln was assassinated by the
actor John Wilkes Booth on April 15, 1865.
Sites about Abraham Lincoln:
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According to this site's authors, "Abraham Lincoln Online is a non-profit Web
site staffed by volunteers. It's a clearinghouse of Lincoln information." It is
indeed a clearinghouse, with biographical information, books, discussions,
photos, and numerous examples of Lincoln's writing (including the "Second Inaugural Address").
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Currently this site contains 2,200 digital images of "General Correspondence" to
and from Lincoln, taken from the Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of
Congress. This is the first release; it will soon be followed by another, more
comprehensive release.
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A description of the events surrounding the Lincoln assassination, including a
timeline and gallery of prints illustrating the events.
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Information about the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1863), with photos by Matthew
Brady and a link to the "Gettysburg Address", delivered by Lincoln three months
after the battle.
Read through Lincoln's "First Inaugural Address" at
http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres31.html. Compare this with the "Second
Inaugural Address", noting changes in tone and style and content. How has
Lincoln's audience changed, and how does he address those marked changes? Which
address impresses you the most? What kinds of emotions do they elicit in you?
How does Lincoln achieve those kinds of responses?
Consider the Lincoln Timeline at
http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/index.html. Study the events that took
place just prior to and during his first term in office (186-64). Which events
from this timeline are recounted in Lincoln's "Second Inaugural Address"? Which
are left out? What strategies does Lincoln employ in reviewing those first four
years in his "Second Inaugural Address"?
Look through the information about the Battle of Gettysburg and in particular
the "Gettysburg Address" at
http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/battle.htm. How do these events figure
into Lincoln's "Second Inaugural Address"? Consider the relationship between the
"Gettysburg Address" and the "Second Inaugural Address", focusing on the
rhetorical devices Lincoln uses and how these devices relate to the two specific
situations in which the speeches were given.
Read Nathaniel Hawthorne's description of a visit to Lincoln (The Norton
Reader: Regular [119]). Referring back to the Web sites about Lincoln, do
you think Hawthorne was fair and/or equitable in his description of the visit?
Would you agree with the fears expressed by the editors of the
Atlantic Monthly (see note 2 on p. 110)? How might
Hawthorne's approach have changed after the events of Lincoln's second term of
office?
Read the following poems, written by Walt Whitman, on the death of Abraham
Lincoln:
"Oh
Captain! My Captain!" and
"Hushed be
the Camps Today."
Why does Whitman invoke the image of a ship's captain in the first poem? What
metaphors and images does he use to express the soldiers' sorrow over Lincoln's
death? Knowing what you do about Lincoln from the sites above, why do you think
Whitman was moved to write these poems? To what extent do you think these poems
also capture a sense of the events that took place during Lincoln's presidency?