how did abraham lincoln get the nickname honest abe

To illustrate this theme within the Lincoln canon, we have pulled together a variety of documents mainly from Lincolns pre-presidential years that focus on his core beliefs and particular challenges to them. Known to his family and friends as Jemmy, his small stature and weak physical appearance led some detractors to disparage him as Little Jemmy or His Little Majesty. One contemporary quipped that he was no bigger than half a piece of soap. Author Washington Irving was no kinder, noting at Madisons 1809 inauguration that he resembled a withered little apple. By comparison, his fellow Virginian Thomas Jefferson, who at 6 feet 2 inches towered over most of his countrymen, was dubbed Long Tom.. [6][c] Thomas then worked at odd jobs in Kentucky and Tennessee before the family settled in Hardin County, Kentucky, in the early 1800s. The campaign trail anecdote dovetails nicely into Lincoln's lasting legacy as "Honest Abe." He got the nickname years earlier in . The townfolk were impressed. [84], Lincoln had pledged in 1846 to serve only one term in the House. One he commuted for turning state's witness. Legend has it that Colonel Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., a future Supreme Court justice, barked, Get down, you fool! Lincoln ducked down from the forts parapet and left the battlefield unharmed. The Emancipation Proclamation gained votes for Republicans in rural New England and the upper Midwest, but cost votes in the Irish and German strongholds and in the lower Midwest, where many Southerners had lived for generations. [240], Grant in 1864 waged the bloody Overland Campaign, which exacted heavy losses on both sides. [366] He had long been known as the Great Emancipator,[369] but, by the late 1960s, some African American intellectuals, led by Lerone Bennett Jr., denied that Lincoln deserved that title. His victories, including the climactic Battle of New Orleans in 1815 made him a national hero, and his supporters capitalized on his fame, pushing him as a candidate for president. Secret Service agents, however, infiltrated the gang and were lying in wait to disrupt the operation. google_ad_width = 120; The oft-told story of Taft getting stuck in a White House bathtub isnt true, but he did have specially designed and sized tubs installed for his use. subscription yet. But his razor-thin, 87-vote victory was upheld, and the new Senator Johnson returned to Washington with a new nickname he found hard to shake: Landslide Lyndon. Despite how hed earned his seats, Johnson became one of the most powerful Senators in history, then vice president and finally president, where, in 1964, he truly did win a landslide victory, capturing more than 60 percent of the popular vote (still a record) and more than 90 percent of electoral votes. While Lincoln was popular in the Midwest, he lacked support in the Northeast and was unsure whether to seek the office. [29] Family, neighbors, and schoolmates recalled that his reading included the King James Bible, Aesop's Fables, John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, and The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Lincoln didnt move to Illinois until he was 21. . That meant there would be no prisoners of war, no surrender, no peace agreement. [191], Internationally, Lincoln wanted to forestall foreign military aid to the Confederacy. The identity of Lincoln's grandmother Bathsheba Herring, though without certainty, is the consensus of multiple Lincoln biographers. Nixon had been elected to the House of Representatives four years earlier, quickly gaining a reputation as an ardent anti-communist and famously playing a key role in the case against Alger Hiss, a State Department official alleged to be a Soviet spy. It included two short stints in Kentucky, where he learned to read but probably not to write, at age seven,[27] and in Indiana, where he went to school sporadically due to farm chores, for a total of fewer than 12 months in aggregate by the age of 15. [133] In January 1860, Lincoln told a group of political allies that he would accept the presidential nomination if offered and, in the following months, several local papers endorsed his candidacy. He used a loophole in California law to register on both the Democratic and Republican ballots, and then sent out mailers to hundreds of thousands of potential voters, some that falsely claimed that Nixon was a Democrat and others that tried to obscure his party affiliation altogether, in an attempt to attract voters who considered Douglas too radical. His Amnesty Proclamation of December 8, 1863, offered pardons to those who had not held a Confederate civil office and had not mistreated Union prisoners, if they were willing to sign an oath of allegiance. It will become all one thing, or all the other. He shot Lincoln in the back of the head, then fled the theater. [74], In 1843, Lincoln sought the Whig nomination for Illinois' 7th district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives; he was defeated by John J. Hardin though he prevailed with the party in limiting Hardin to one term. Anne Sarah Rubin, Contributing Editors Lincoln Douglas Debates Classroom, Named "Best of the Web" in Nov. 2013 by NEH EDSITEMENT, July 31, 1846 Handbill on Infidelity (#16), July 1, 1850 Notes for a Law Lecture (#21), August 18, 1854 Letter to Richard Yates (#15), October 20, 1858 Letter to Norman B. Judd (#9), February 27, 1860 Cooper Union Speech (#20), January 11, 1837Speech Concerning the State Bank (#76), February 22, 1842Address to Washington Temperance Society (#121), February 25, 1842Letter to Joshua Speed (#78), October 5, 1842Letter to Joshua Speed (#79), January 12, 1848Speech on War With Mexico (#55), June 12, 1848Letter to William Herndon (#61), June 3, 1849Letter to Joseph Underwood (#136), July 28, 1849Letter to John Clayton (#130), July 1, 1854Fragment on Government (#103), September 8, 1854Letter to Richard Oglesby (#137), November 10, 1854Letter to Jonathan Scammon (#123), November 27, 1854Letter to Ichabod Codding (#124), August 11, 1855Letter to Owen Lovejoy (#96), August 24, 1855Letter to Joshua Speed (#138), September 8, 1856Letter to Fillmore Men (#105), August 1, 1858Definition of Democracy (#81), March 17, 1860Letter to E. Stafford (#125), March 24, 1860Letter to Samuel Galloway (#141), July 16, 1860Instructions for John Nicolay (#82), July 21, 1860Letter to Abraham Jonas (#144), September 1, 1862Meditation on Divine Will (#35), October 3, 1862Proclamation of Thanksgiving (#69), August 17, 1863Letter to James Hackett (#131), November 2, 1863Letter to James Hackett (#132), http://housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/journal/2010/08/26/honest-abe/, http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.2629860.0018.10, http://www.lib.niu.edu/2009/iht09160116.html, http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.2629860.0016.203, Michael Burlingame, Honest Abe, multi-media excerpt from, Richard J. Carwardine, Lincoln, Evangelical Religion, and the American Political Culture in the Era of the Civil War,, Matthew Pinsker, Man of Consequence: Abraham Lincoln in the 1850s,, Mark E. Steiner, The Lawyer as Peacemaker: Law and Community in Abraham Lincolns Slander Cases,. 6'4" (6' 11" with his top hat). [i] In his opinion, Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote that black people were not citizens and derived no rights from the Constitution, and that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional for infringing upon slave owners' "property" rights. But he also vowed not to surrender the forts. [161] On December 20, 1860, South Carolina took the lead by adopting an ordinance of secession; by February 1, 1861, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed. Sibley dismissed another when overwhelming proof surfaced exonerating the man. Yet the contest proceeds."[331]. Roosevelt, of course, ran and won, and the sphinx remains on display at his presidential museum. But he eventually abandoned the diet, and by the time he was elected in 1908, he tipped the scales at more than 350 pounds. Hoover established a volunteer relief effort to send food to Belgium and France. From the Nat Geo Kids books Our Country's Presidents by Ann Bausum and Weird But True Know-It-All: U.S. Presidents by Brianna Dumont, revised for digital by Avery Hurt, Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic SocietyCopyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. The 2007 Country Music Hall of Fame inductee was born March 10, 1933, in McEwen . In the runup to the election, he took an office in the Illinois state capitol to deal with the influx of attention. From Honest Abe and Tricky Dick to the Great Sphinx," these monikers revealed what the people really thought about these United States leaders. unless you renew or [239] Authorization for such a promotion "with the advice and consent of the Senate" was provided by a new bill which Lincoln signed the same day he submitted Grant's name to the Senate. [350] Nevertheless, Lincoln admired Andrew Jackson's steeliness as well as his patriotism. During the Great Depression, he argues, Lincoln served "as a means for seeing the world's disappointments, for making its sufferings not so much explicable as meaningful." It was Mr. Rutledge's daughter, Ann, who became Lincoln's first close female confidante, according to Jim Patton, the working blacksmith at New Salem today. As a rail-splitter, he helped to clear and fence his fathers new farm. The area was also good soil for Lincoln's own development. The party did the leg work that produced majorities across the North and produced an abundance of campaign posters, leaflets, and newspaper editorials. "[141], On May 910, 1860, the Illinois Republican State Convention was held in Decatur. In 1917 he joined the newly-formed U.S. Food Administration, leading rationing and food conservation efforts upon Americas entry in the war. During July and August, there's an excellent outdoor repertory theater inside the park called ``The Great American People Show.'' [121] Some eastern Republicans supported Douglas for his opposition to the Lecompton Constitution and admission of Kansas as a slave state. Lincoln ended the crisis by releasing the two diplomats. Research Guide, Editor: Matthew Pinsker [178] In his second inaugural address, Lincoln looked back on the situation at the time and said: "Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the Nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came. The youngest, Thomas "Tad" Lincoln, was born on April 4, 1853, and survived his father but died of heart failure at age 18 on July 16, 1871. A former Democrat, Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, was nominated for vice president to balance the ticket. [38] He made his home in New Salem, Illinois, for six years. During this time, the newly formed Confederate States of America began seizing federal military bases in the south. He did not defend the Confederacy and the people supporting slavery. When the state of Illinois set about reconstructing New Salem in 1932, no original buildings remained. [26] His formal schooling was from itinerant teachers. [206] But Pope was then soundly defeated at the Second Battle of Bull Run in the summer of 1862, forcing the Army of the Potomac back to defend Washington. The Great Emancipator wasn't quite WWE material, but thanks to his long limbs he was an accomplished wrestler as a young man. Abraham helped to clear the fields and to take care of the crops but early acquired a dislike for hunting and fishing. 6,469 in 1849. "The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, 1862", "Andrew Johnson and Emancipation in Tennessee - Andrew Johnson National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)", "Message of President Abraham Lincoln Nominating Ulysses S. Grant to Be Lieutenant General of the Army", "Primary Documents in American History: 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution", "The United States Secret Service in History", "OUR GREAT LOSS; The Assassination of President Lincoln", "Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings Lincoln Tomb, Illinois", "Religious Quotations by Abraham Lincoln", "Letter by Abraham Lincoln to Albert Hodges", "Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States: from George Washington 1789 to George Bush 1989", "Abraham Lincoln's Blue Pills: Did Our 16th President Suffer from Mercury Poisoning? Honest Abe: Abraham Lincoln and the Moral Character, PA Certificate of Charitable Registration, Teaching America in the Civil War Era, 1829-77. His intransigence on the subject scuttled possibilities of a peace conference between the Union and the Confederacy in 1864. He led the U.S. thru the Civil War. In 1863, Lincoln declared the final Thursday in November of that year to be a day of Thanksgiving. The left-leaning Douglas was accused of having communist ties (no small fear at the height of the Red Scare), and her Democratic primary opponent had dubbed her the Pink Lady. Nixon capitalized on the accusations, but also made sure he covered his political bases. His stepmother doubtless encouraged Lincolns taste for reading, yet the original source of his desire to learn remains something of a mystery. [148] Lincoln's managers had focused on this delegation while honoring Lincoln's dictate to "Make no contracts that will bind me". [152] People of the Northern states knew the Southern states would vote against Lincoln and rallied supporters for Lincoln. [99] Harrison was charged with the murder of Greek Crafton who, as he lay dying of his wounds, confessed to Cartwright that he had provoked Harrison. Many in the party felt that a former Whig should be nominated in 1858, and Lincoln's 1856 campaigning and support of Trumbull had earned him a favor. [151] A group of former Whigs and Know Nothings formed the Constitutional Union Party and nominated John Bell of Tennessee. Lincoln's guest, Major Henry Rathbone, momentarily grappled with Booth, but Booth stabbed him and escaped. According to Robert Rutledge of New Salem, "Lincoln's judgment was final in all that region of country. The Lincoln cent, an American coin portraying Lincoln, This article is about the president of the United States. If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that we of the North as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein new cause to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God. Lincoln instructed his backers to vote for Lyman Trumbull. google_ad_height = 600; In his view, the Union was worth saving not only for its own sake but because it embodied an ideal, the ideal of self-government. Contact Us, Copyright 2012/2013 by Great American History - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED~. [82] The resolution was ignored in both Congress and the national papers, and it cost Lincoln political support in his district. [196], Lincoln's war strategy embraced two priorities: ensuring that Washington was well-defended and conducting an aggressive war effort for a prompt, decisive victory. This call forced states to choose sides. "[282] The men whose sentences he commuted were sent to a military prison at Davenport, Iowa. Drawing by Beighaus, courtesy National Park Service, (AD) "Weird But True Know-It-All: U.S. Presidents". In 1849, he returned to his successful law practice in central Illinois. Here are nine lesser-known nuggets about America's most-beloved president. [159] His victory in the Electoral College was decisive: Lincoln had 180 votes to 123 for his opponents. ", Lincoln cited his plans for banning the expansion of slavery as the key source of conflict between North and South, stating "One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong and ought not to be extended. As a ragged nine-year-old, he saw her buried in the forest, then faced a winter without the warmth of a mothers love. [150] When Douglas was selected as the candidate of the Northern Democrats, delegates from eleven slave states walked out of the Democratic convention; they opposed Douglas's position on popular sovereignty, and selected incumbent Vice President John C. Breckinridge as their candidate. [173] The president-elect evaded suspected assassins in Baltimore. Bennett argued that Lincoln opposed social equality and proposed that freed slaves voluntarily move to another country. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. [167] Lincoln said, "I will suffer death before I consent to any concession or compromise which looks like buying the privilege to take possession of this government to which we have a constitutional right. Eric Foner Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus where needed for the security of troops trying to reach Washington.

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