The truth in their conflicting concepts was expounded by statesmen of the calibre of Webster and Calhoun, and defended in the end by leaders of the nobility of Lincoln and Lee.

Lincoln saw that the act of secession made the issue for the Union a vital one: Whether it was a Union of sovereign citizens that should continue to live, or an association of sovereign states that must fall prey either to `` anarchy or despotism ''.

Much as he abhorred slavery, Lincoln was always willing to concede to each `` slave state '' the right to decide independently whether to continue or end it.

Though his election was interpreted by many Southerners as the forerunner of a dangerous shift in the federal balance in favor of the Union, Lincoln himself proposed no such change in the rights the Constitution gave the states.

What Lincoln could not concede was that the states rather than the people were sovereign in the Union.

To my knowledge, Lincoln remains the only Head of State and Commander-in-Chief who, while fighting a fearful war whose issue was in doubt, proved man enough to say this publicly -- to give his foe the benefit of the fact that in all human truth there is some error, and in all our error, some truth.

Lincoln was historian and economist enough to know that a substantial portion of this wealth had accumulated in the hands of the descendants of New Englanders engaged in the slave trade.

Lincoln was sure that he would not be re-elected.

Since she could not act, one part suited her as well as any other, and so she was the first person to offer Mr. Lincoln a glass of water, holding it up to the box, high above her head, to Miss Harris, who had asked for it.

The reception was held in a private dining room of the Webster Hotel on Lincoln Park West.

Outside the Lincoln was parked.

Abraham Lincoln ( February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865 ) was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865.

Reared in a poor family on the western frontier, Lincoln was mostly self-educated, and became a country lawyer, a Whig Party leader, Illinois state legislator during the 1830s, and a one-term member of the United States House of Representatives during the 1840s.

With almost no support in the South, Lincoln swept the North and was elected president in 1860.

As the South was in a state of insurrection, Lincoln exercised his authority to suspend habeas corpus in that situation, arresting and detaining thousands of suspected secessionists without their trials.

Six days after the surrender of Confederate commanding general Robert E. Lee, however, Lincoln was assassinated by actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth.

Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809, the second child of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Lincoln ( née Hanks ), in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm in Hardin County, Kentucky ( now LaRue County ).

Lincoln later noted that this move was " partly on account of slavery " but mainly due to land title difficulties.

In Indiana, when Lincoln was nine, his mother Nancy died of milk sickness in 1818.

It was then that, as an ambitious 22-year-old, Lincoln decided to seek a better life and struck out on his own.

In 1840, Lincoln became engaged to Mary Todd, who was from a wealthy slave-holding family in Lexington, Kentucky.

While preparing for the nuptials and feeling anxiety again, Lincoln, when asked where he was going, replied, " To hell, I suppose.

Robert Todd Lincoln was born in 1843 and Edward Baker Lincoln ( Eddie ) in 1846.

Republican editor Horace Greeley of the highly influential New York Tribune fell for the ploy, and Lincoln refuted it directly in a shrewd letter of August 22, 1862.

* Borchard, Gregory A. Abraham Lincoln and Horace Greeley ( Southern Illinois University Press ; 2011 ) 139 pages

* Mr. Lincoln and Friends: Horace Greeley

Freeman Thorp ( 1844 – 1922 ), born in Geneva, Ohio, was an American painter who painted portraits of many notable people such as Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, Grover Cleveland, Ulysses Grant, Simon Cameron, Salmon Chase, Robert Smith, Horace Greeley, Walter Forward and Robert E. Lee.

He received support from Horace Greeley, who later switched to supporting Abraham Lincoln.

Many of the streets are named after historical figures such as Lincoln Ave ( after President Abraham Lincoln ), Fremont Ave ( after General John C. Fremont who was the first Republican candidate for President, as well as a Staten Island resident, in 1856 ), Adams Avenue ( after President John Adams ), Colfax Ave ( after Abraham Lincoln's first Vice President ) and Greeley Ave ( after newspaper editor Horace Greeley ).

The very fact that they came so near to winning by the wrong method, war, led directly to their losing both the war and the wrong thing they fought for, since it forced Lincoln to free their slaves as a military measure.

Lincoln understood this better than most when he said in his `` Second Inaugural '' that God `` gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came ''.

Thanks to Spoken Arts Records, history buffs may hear Lincoln's `` most memorable speeches and letters '' in a two-disc set, interpreted by Lincoln authority and lecturer Roy P. Basler.

Lincoln prevented British recognition of the Confederacy by skillfully handling the Trent affair in late 1861.

Politically, Lincoln fought back with patronage, by pitting his opponents against each other, and by appealing to the American people with his powers of oratory.

Lincoln has been consistently ranked by scholars and the public as one of the three greatest U. S. presidents.

At his first speech, when he saw a supporter in the crowd being attacked, Lincoln grabbed the assailant by his " neck and the seat of his trousers " and threw him.

Lincoln emphasized his opposition to Polk by drafting and introducing his Spot Resolutions.

Taylor won and Lincoln hoped to be appointed Commissioner of the General Land Office, but that lucrative patronage job went to an Illinois rival, Justin Butterfield, considered by the administration to be a highly skilled lawyer, but in Lincoln's view, an " old fossil ".

Lincoln in his late 30s – photo taken by one of Lincoln's law students around 1846

Lincoln successfully argued that the railroad company was not bound by its original charter in existence at the time of Barret's pledge ; the charter was amended in the public interest to provide a newer, superior, and less expensive route, and the corporation retained the right to demand Barret's payment.

Douglas ' provision, which Lincoln opposed, specified settlers had the right to determine locally whether to allow slavery in new U. S. territory, rather than have such a decision restricted by the national Congress.

Lincoln's followers organized a campaign team led by David Davis, Norman Judd, Leonard Swett, and Jesse DuBois, and Lincoln received his first endorsement to run for the presidency.

En route to his inauguration by train, Lincoln addressed crowds and legislatures across the North.

Lincoln was supported by Congress and the northern public for these actions.

Lincoln resolved the issue by releasing the two men and war was successfully averted with Britain.

After the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln clearly understood that his military decisions would be more effectively carried out by conveying his orders through his War Secretary or his general-in-chief on to his generals, who resented his civilian interference with their own plans.

Lincoln understood that the Federal government's power to end slavery was limited by the Constitution, which before 1865, committed the issue to individual states.

Lincoln believed that curtailing slavery in these ways would economically expunge it, as envisioned by the Founding Fathers, under the constitution.

President Lincoln rejected two geographically limited emancipation attempts by Major General John C. Frémont in August 1861 and by Major General David Hunter in May 1862, on the grounds that it was not within their power, and it would upset the border states loyal to the Union.