Crisis in US History & Election of Abraham Lincoln
This is an excerpt from the paper...
Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States in 1860. This election took place in the middle of the most serious crisis yet in American history. Lincoln had left politics in 1849. But the political crisis ten years later became a personal crisis and a turning point for Lincoln. Although he was a successful lawyer his beliefs led him to return to politics because he saw important legal, political, and moral questions that would have a permanent impact on the welfare of the whole country. This personal crisis can be explained by Erik Erikson's idea of developmental crises that occur at different stages of a person's life when he or she must make a decision. Lincoln was middle-aged and wanted to do more than just raise a family and be successful in his chosen career. He believed that he was capable of leading the country through its crisis. Not everyone feels the need to go beyond the ordinary behavior of this stage of development. But Lincoln possessed unusual gifts that can be defined as his charisma. The Bible defined charisma as "gifted grace" and it is commonly seen as a people's belief that an individual has a godly or special quality that no one else has. Lincoln's charisma was based on his reputation as a true man of the people with honesty, moral integrity, determination, and firmness. These were the qualities that a large number of Americans felt were needed in a president as the slavery crisis became worse in 1860.
. . .
tates where it already existed and slavery in new states. Lincoln believed that the Constitution protected the slave-owners of the South and that the best that could be done was to prohibit slavery in new parts of the country. But in political terms he also said that "no man is good enough to govern another man, without that other's consent" and he called this "the leading principle" of the American form of government and believed that slavery would eventually have to be abolished (quoted in Pitt 35). But he was also able to look at the problem in a balanced way. He believed that the extension of slavery had to be prevented first, that the Constitution had to be changed, and that this was the only way to abolish slavery completely.
In the 1850's the question of slavery threatened to break the country apart and "the hour had now struck in which Mr. Lincoln . . . realized that the day for the triumph of freedom was at hand" (Browne 243). Most Southerners believed "the whole economy and social structure of their slave states depended on slavery" and many Northerners believed that slavery must be abolished completely (Pitt 49). In the Southerners' opinion this meant that staying in the Union would destroy them. They not only w
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Democrat Lincoln's, Erik Erikson's, Northern Illinois, Congress Davis, Southern Democrats, Union December, Stephen Douglas, President United, Swett Lincoln, South Republicans, abraham lincoln, slavery lincoln, personal crisis, commemoration ceremony, davis 19, lincoln speaking audience, question slavery, friend adviser, michael burlingame, slavery extension, carbondale southern, abraham lincoln 1809-1959, carbondale southern illinois, joint committee arrangements, ed michael burlingame,
Approximate Word count = 1836
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
|
Customer Service
to Over
32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
