Lincolns Motives in Attempt to Preserve The Union

A detailed Summary of Lincolns Motives in Attempt to Preserve The Union

"I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me." Abraham Lincoln to Albert G. Hodges April 4, 1864 (Donald page1)

Abraham Lincolns only motive when he first took office, as president on February 23, 1861, was to preserve the broken Union. He was in fear of assassination and his trip to the White House was in disguise in order to escape death. He went into his position as president already in chaos because of the former president Buchanan. He claimed that on March 6, 1852 on his second day of presidency that slaves were considered to be property (Hansen). The country was left in dispute; the south had created a new nation, the Confederate States of America. The south had gone into war because they felt that the north was against them and would take away their way of survival. They also felt the threat that their states rights had been violated. The northern states only wanted to preserve a union in need. When Lincoln was elected, he basically had one major plan. It was to maintain the union and all its states. The civil war was Lincolns attempt to preserve the Union.

Even before he was president Lincoln wanted to end slavery or at least stop it from growing into other parts of the st

The Civil war had begun. Lincoln attempts to preserve the Union with a victory. He opposed slavery, but mainly he wanted to maintain a single Union. His objective was to be friends with the south and agree and compromise. The south had rejected compromise and only wanted to be the victor of the war. Most of Lincoln's speeches were to promote peace but he was not going to let the nation fall. The fight will be the only way to hold the country in one piece. Lincoln was persuasive in many ways especially in his speech, but he was unable to capture the peace that was already broken before he was president. He had to face a country in Civil War.

By this, Jefferson Davis became the president of the Confederate States on February 18, 1861.

Even though the states tried many times to agree upon a decision with the policy of slavery they never came to a conclusion rather then to go to war. Lincoln was ready for this war. On April 6, 1861 he prepared the nation for a battle against itself. As he was doing so the President Davis also began to raise his military. On April 12, 1861, this first shot at 4:30am was fired at Fort Sumter (Bruns page 81).

There were these certain factors that led to the civil war. It wasn't even a war that Lincoln's presidency caused, but a war that he saved. The separation in America was caused by many factors. Even the third president of the United States was against slavery. The south relied on slavery to maintain its agricultural way of survival. They needed the slaves in order to supply them of human labor. As time went by the north became more inflexible with the possession of slaves. They created slave states and non-slave states. They had severe tension, which led to the Missouri compromise and the compromise of 1850 by Henry Clay. These compromises temporarily settle disputes between the states. However, the southern states repealed the constitution on December 20, 1860. This was a war or rebellion. The confederate states ended a speech to the Uni

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Approximate Word count = 1344
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History