Honest Abe, as many of us call him, got elected on November 6, 1860. The guy who issued the Emancipation Proclamation, the guy who fought for the rights of slaves to be free, who thought secession illegal, and who was willing to use force to defend Federal law and the union (1). All of this was part of Abraham Lincoln's journey to becoming president, and I’m here to tell you his steps to becoming the 16th president.
Lincoln, at a young age, stood out from the rest of the crowd. He was tall and slim, also very intelligent, witty, and honest. He became quite popular in the town of New Salem. As time went on in this new town he lived in, he announced his candidacy for the state legislature. After throwing that out there, the Black Hawk War broke out and volunteered to fight in it. He didn’t see much action going on, but this prevented him from campaigning for office. Now back home in New Salem, he began his campaign, but there was little time due to him being off at war. He lost, but that didn’t stop him. He refocused and began studying law on his own, and Lincoln participated in political functions to learn.
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Lincoln ran again and won. He was a young legislator but took on controversial positions, such as “opposing the spread of slavery to the territories” (6). He, at this point after several speeches, was not in favor of many (the South). After running four terms, Lincoln decided to leave office and come back 5 years later to win the Whig nomination seat. Later on, he then campaigned for Whig presidential candidate Zachary Taylor. He retired and focused more on law, and became a successful lawyer within the state representing all kinds of clients. Overall Lincoln did a ton before his road to the presidency, which explains why he was a good president because his road to the presidency was not easy.
1858 were debates between Lincoln and Douglas, his enemy out of many. Lincoln’s biggest focus during this was to basically expand the U.S. and be against slavery. Douglas on the other hand stated, “Government was made by our fathers on white basis… made by white men and their posterity forever.”(8). During these debates, they criticized their different morals regarding slavery. But with one of many of Lincoln’s speeches, he gave the message that without the nation being with slaves or without, slavery would not be resolved. He boldly declared that slavery was unethical, and violated the Declaration of Independence “all men are created equal”. Douglas obviously opposed everything Lincoln had said and argued that Lincoln was an extremist with his policies, which would result in racial equality. This resulted in Lincoln having a greater national reputation. He won the states, especially in New York (13), which made him a leader and was later sworn on, what is called now “The Lincoln bible”
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