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 of Fort Sumter was one example of Lincoln doing anything in his power to preserve the Union. His troops were trapped inside and the fort was surrounded by Confederate soldiers. If he surrendered his troops, then the Confederates would have taken all of his other forts as well, but if he had them fight, then he would have started the Civil War. Lincoln was able to come up with a third and more beneficial option. He sent supplies and reinforcements to his troops, but didn't declare war. This caused the Confederates to declare war. This shows how he was a great president because he doesn't start the Civil War, and he also doesn't lose all of his forts (Document 2). The Emancipation Proclamation was another example of how Lincoln was a great president. He declared that all rebellious States, once conquered by the Union Army must give up their right to own slaves and all slaves in that state would now be freed. This was the first step toward outlawing slavery in the United States and more importantly changed the Civil War from a war to prevent succession, to a war to abolish slavery. …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 very lenient rules for the southerners to obey in order