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.

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.

On December 16, 1861, Justin Morrill ( VT ) introduced a bill into the U. S. House of Representatives, " to establish at least one college in each state upon a sure and perpetual foundation, accessible to all, but especially to the sons of toil ..." President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act into effect in July of the following year.

Lincoln called for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, claiming that the firing of eight federal prosecutors has created a " serious breach between the Justice Department and Congress, a breach that I'm not sure can be repaired with Mr. Gonzales at the helm.

The real reason Nevada was rushed into statehood was due to the 1864 Election, in which Abraham Lincoln needed a few more sure votes in the Electoral College to be re-elected.

This redefines the Lincoln brand, but we still had to make sure it was recognizable as a member of the same family as the Town Car, Continental, and especially the Navigator.

In his Message of December 2, 1862, he put his purpose and his policy in these words -- which I would call the Lincoln Law of Liberty-and-Union: `` In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free ''.

Does Lincoln Mills suggest that if Congress granted jurisdiction over interstate divorce cases, the federal courts would be authorized to fashion a national law for the dissolution of marriages??

They showed they were glad that Carnegie would have a major orchestra playing there so often next season to take up the slack with the departure to Lincoln Center of the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Boston Symphony.

On August 16, 1837, Lincoln wrote Mary a letter suggesting he would not blame her if she ended the relationship.

Lincoln also supported the Wilmot Proviso, which, if it had been adopted, would have banned slavery in any U. S. territory won from Mexico.

The stage was then set for the campaign for statewide election of the Illinois legislature which would, in turn, select Lincoln or Douglas as its U. S. senator.

Throughout the 1850s, Lincoln doubted the prospects of civil war, and his supporters rejected claims that his election would incite secession.

There were fusion tickets in which all of Lincoln's opponents combined to support the same slate of Electors in New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, but even if the anti-Lincoln vote had been combined in every state, Lincoln still would have won a majority in the Electoral College.

In terms of war strategy, Lincoln articulated two priorities: to ensure that Washington was well-defended, and to conduct an aggressive war effort that would satisfy the demand in the North for prompt, decisive victory ; major Northern newspaper editors expected victory within 90 days.

Twice a week, Lincoln would meet with his cabinet in the afternoon, and occasionally Mary Lincoln would force him to take a carriage ride because she was concerned he was working too hard.

The ensuing Union victory was among the bloodiest in American history, but it enabled Lincoln to announce that he would issue an Emancipation Proclamation in January.

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 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.

In a letter to Andrew Johnson, the military governor of Tennessee, encouraging him to lead the way in raising black troops, Lincoln wrote, " The bare sight of 50, 000 armed and drilled black soldiers on the banks of the Mississippi would end the rebellion at once ".

When Grant's spring campaigns turned into bloody stalemates and Union casualties mounted, the lack of military success wore heavily on the President's re-election prospects, and many Republicans across the country feared that Lincoln would be defeated.

Sharing this fear, Lincoln wrote and signed a pledge that, if he should lose the election, he would still defeat the Confederacy before turning over the White House:

Determined to find a course that would reunite the nation and not alienate the South, Lincoln urged that speedy elections under generous terms be held throughout the war.

In Louisiana, Lincoln ordered General Nathaniel P. Banks to promote a plan that would restore statehood when 10 percent of the voters agreed to it.

To fill Chief Justice Taney's seat on the Supreme Court, he named the choice of the Radicals, Salmon P. Chase, who Lincoln believed would uphold the emancipation and paper money policies.

Lincoln declared that such an amendment would " clinch the whole matter ".