Lincoln's Assassination Dbq

The year of 1860 marks an extremely pivotal for the United States, namely the election of President Lincoln. Lincoln had always been involved in politics. Many people adored Lincoln, maybe this was because many people felt bad for him. “No man ever had an easier time of it in his early days-in…his young struggles than Lincoln had.” (page 9). This made Lincoln have a lot of financial friends to help him, people literally were fighting to have the honor of helping Lincoln. Many of these people that helped him and called themselves his friends, were not really his friends if you were to ask Lincoln. “How he dealt with these friends, close friends, and acquaintances-the temptation is to say that he handled them, and that word may be more appropriate-proved …show more content…
This made Lincoln perfect for politics. Although Lincoln did not have much national-office holding background, he did spend a term in the House of Representatives and was involved in a political party, giving Lincoln an advantage over the other candidates. The biggest issues Lincoln supported were anti-slavery, opposition for the Meican-American war, and the working class. “Although he quickly won attention for his speeches on slavery, reflecting the considerable thought he had been putting into the issues”. (page 13). An immense contribution to his victory were his speeches. He accepted invitations to present speeches in Indiana, Ohio, and also agreed to make an appearance in Brooklyn which got relocated to New York’s Cooper Union where he impressed republicans. Lincoln was building support outside of his state, he did his best to control the bickering of the Republican Party. …show more content…
A native of Kentucky, serving in the U.S. congress from 1851-1855. Breckinridge was elected the fourteenth vice president of the U.S. in 1856, and then mounted unsuccessful presidential bid in 1860. He was representing the southern democrats. Breckinridge supported popular sovereignty. He believed that property rights needed to be protected by the federal government, also he was in strong opposition to the abolish slavery in D.C. Breckinridge refused to give any types of speech based upon his honor, however, he lacked the funds to have the opportunity to run nationally. “his genuine loyalty got in the way of his candidacy, because he would not allow his supporters to cast votes for him in the convention