Lincoln's greatest contribution to the country was his ability to save the country from splitting into two separate countries. In his letter to Horace Greeley, Lincoln explains that he doesn't care if slavery is abolished or not, but only cares about keeping the country united. This shows how to determine Lincoln was to save the country and would do anything in his power to accomplish this (Document 1). The Battle …show more content…
This gave many Northerners a much greater desire to fight and increased the desire of the Union forces to win. Without the Emancipation Proclamation, passed by Lincoln, the extreme desire to win in the north would not have been felt and therefore, the union may not have won the war (Document 3). Frederick Douglass comments, “measuring him by the sentiment of his country... he was Swift, jealous, radical, and determined.” This shows how many people believe that Lincoln was a great president who was able to keep the country together very well (Document 4). Another great thing that Lincoln did was he allowed blacks to fight in the Union Army. A picture of some of these black soldiers can be seen in Document 7. Once the war became a war over slavery, free blacks in the north wanted to help slaves in the South to gain their independence and they did this by fighting in the Civil War with the Union Army. This was a great plan by Lincoln, because the blacks had a very strong determination to abolish slavery, there for driving them to want to win the Civil War for the Union. Because of this, black soldiers fought very hard and battle and help the Union to win the war (Document 7). The final reason why Lincoln was a great president is shown in his plan for reconstruction. He created