Abraham Lincoln's Influence

Abraham Lincoln is known as one of the most influential people in history. Despite the fact that he had to overcome many obstacles in his personal and political life, and even though the southern states seceded due to his election and America went through its darkest hour, Abraham Lincoln remains one of the greatest presidents in United States history due to his motivational speeches, his ability to keep morale high, and for his efforts to help the Union stay united. Through these efforts, he led America to eventually uniting and transforming into the powerful country that we are today. He led our newly developing country through some of the hardest times that it would ever face.
Lincoln was born near Hodgenville, Kentucky on February 12th, …show more content…
He would go on to win the election of 1860. When he chose his cabinet, he chose people that he believed would help him make the decisions be in the American people’s best interest. As soon as he was elected, many southern states seceded from the Union. Slavery was such a big part of the economy in the south, that they did not want to risk losing their wealth if Lincoln were to get rid of slavery. Most people think that Lincoln wanted to end slavery once and for all in America when he was elected but this is not true. He just did not want for slavery to spread into the newly forming territories of the United States. His election and the secession of the southern states sparked the nation into deep conflict. This is where the civil war started. During the war, Lincoln believed that destroying the Confederate’s forces was more important than capturing the capital. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation which freed all slaves. Since Lincoln was not the President of the confederate states, this proclamation did not do much. It was more symbolic than anything else. After four long years of brutal fighting, the south finally surrendered crowning the north victorious. Now came the hard part, recovering from a civil