On a rural hill, about one hundred miles west of Lexington and sixty miles south of Louisville, a baby was born at daybreak to a struggling Kentucky family. In only a few years after that cold February morning, the state that this child first called home raised and sent troops south to participate in a conflict nationalistically proclaimed as the "Second War for Independence.” The war with British troops and hostile natives that began in 1812 laid the groundwork for a new generation of Americans and served as an epochal launch for the young country. To measure the significance of this outcome one can assess the political careers that were cast for its heroes and, more consequently, the power structure of spoils men, landed
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However, if you go looking for a hero in Lincoln, you are likely to find one. He did not possess slaves like Washington, Jefferson, Madison, or Taylor. He did not directly evict a large number of indigenous people from their ancestral homelands as did Jackson, nor did he concoct a war with Mexico to seize, or at least secure, nearly a third of the United States like Polk. He was not born to wealth like the Roosevelts, the Kennedys, or Bushes and had no known marital infidelities like FDR, Eisenhower, or JFK. Instead, he was a surveyor of freedom and justice, a man of humblest beginnings, and a wielder of moral authority. This should not go without saying that he waged a domestic war against the southern population, disregarded the English speaking world 's most sacred precept from Magna Charta with his temporary suspension of Habeas Corpus, and he violated constitutional principles when he threatened to imprison a Supreme Court Chief Justice. While this is certainly not a complete list of shortcomings, even these notable blemishes are often excused as unavoidable or necessary abuses to America 's short …show more content…
Trans-Appalachian life in 1809 was tough, short, unsettled, and did not afford the developing opportunities enjoyed by the coastal residents of the original thirteen states. Vermont and Kentucky, added in 1791 and 1792, were states for less than twenty years at Abraham 's birth. In these decades of America 's national infancy, European issues, native uprisings, and constitutional questions dominated geographical, economic, and political development. However, in the aftermath of the War of 1812, the Era of Good Feelings did much to relieve some of the major doubts and the threats that lingered during America 's shaky start. During this time, John Quincy Adams authored the toothless, yet highly symbolic, Monroe Doctrine that warned against any new European intrusions. The geopolitical workings made by the Secretary of State (and one of America 's last direct connections to the American Revolution) offered the country a more relaxed path toward natural and independent development. This augmentation would accelerate with the growth of limited manufacturing in the north, cotton plantations in the south, and homestead agriculture in the west. The market and transportation revolutions, along with a rapidly growing population, acted as catalysts for sectional defined existences within a burgeoning national
However, if you go looking for a hero in Lincoln, you are likely to find one. He did not possess slaves like Washington, Jefferson, Madison, or Taylor. He did not directly evict a large number of indigenous people from their ancestral homelands as did Jackson, nor did he concoct a war with Mexico to seize, or at least secure, nearly a third of the United States like Polk. He was not born to wealth like the Roosevelts, the Kennedys, or Bushes and had no known marital infidelities like FDR, Eisenhower, or JFK. Instead, he was a surveyor of freedom and justice, a man of humblest beginnings, and a wielder of moral authority. This should not go without saying that he waged a domestic war against the southern population, disregarded the English speaking world 's most sacred precept from Magna Charta with his temporary suspension of Habeas Corpus, and he violated constitutional principles when he threatened to imprison a Supreme Court Chief Justice. While this is certainly not a complete list of shortcomings, even these notable blemishes are often excused as unavoidable or necessary abuses to America 's short …show more content…
Trans-Appalachian life in 1809 was tough, short, unsettled, and did not afford the developing opportunities enjoyed by the coastal residents of the original thirteen states. Vermont and Kentucky, added in 1791 and 1792, were states for less than twenty years at Abraham 's birth. In these decades of America 's national infancy, European issues, native uprisings, and constitutional questions dominated geographical, economic, and political development. However, in the aftermath of the War of 1812, the Era of Good Feelings did much to relieve some of the major doubts and the threats that lingered during America 's shaky start. During this time, John Quincy Adams authored the toothless, yet highly symbolic, Monroe Doctrine that warned against any new European intrusions. The geopolitical workings made by the Secretary of State (and one of America 's last direct connections to the American Revolution) offered the country a more relaxed path toward natural and independent development. This augmentation would accelerate with the growth of limited manufacturing in the north, cotton plantations in the south, and homestead agriculture in the west. The market and transportation revolutions, along with a rapidly growing population, acted as catalysts for sectional defined existences within a burgeoning national