Who Was Abraham Lincoln 林肯 Chapter 6 Civil War

Lincoln was in trouble before he even took office. The slave states hated him. Almost no one in the South had voted for him. As soon as the news came of his election, seven states seceded 1 from the Union. They said they were no longer part of the United States. Lincoln was not their president. Soon, four more states joined them. They called their new country the Confederate States of America. They elected Jefferson Davis as their president.

JEFFERSON DAVIS

In his brief inauguration 2 speech, Lincoln spoke 3 to a huge crowd gathered in front of the capitol. He told them he would not let the nation become two countries, no matter what. He avoided talking about slavery. He had a good reason for this. Four states where slavery was legal—Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri—had not left the Union. Lincoln didn’t want to anger these states and lose them, too.

But despite Lincoln’s wishes, the country was soon torn in two. A month later, on April 12, 1861, Southern soldiers fired on Union soldiers at Fort 4 Sumter in South Carolina. The Civil War had begun.

FORT SUMTER

FREDERICK DOUGLASS

FREDERICK DOUGLASS WAS A SLAVE WHO ESCAPED AS A YOUNG MAN. HE BECAME An INSPIRING LECTURER And AUTHOR. DOUGLASS BELIEVED In FREEDOM And EQUALITY FOR ALL PEOPLE, INCLUDING WOMEN. HE DID NOT ALWAYS SUPPORT LINCOLN. HE BELIEVED LINCOLN WAS MUCH TOO CAUTIOUS 5 ABOUT ENDING SLAVERY. AFTER THE EMANCIPATION 6 PROCLAMATION, DOUGLASS BEGAN TO THINK BETTER OF THE PRESIDENT. ONCE THEY MET, HE WAS COMPLETELY WON OVER. DOUGLASS SAID LINCOLN TREATED HIM EXACTLY AS HE WOULD HAVE TREATED ANY MAN, DESPITE THE DIFFERENCE In THEIR SKIN COLOR.

More than eighty years earlier, the American colonies, north and south, had united to break away from England and become a new country. Now Americans would be fighting Americans. Families were divided—even Lincoln’s own family. His wife, Mary, had relatives in the South who owned slaves. They fought on the other side.

Lincoln had no trouble getting volunteers for the army. People in the North supported the war, and everyone thought it would be over soon. Lincoln believed that to fight a war, the president needed more power than in peacetime. There are some things the president is not supposed to do without the approval of Congress. Lincoln went ahead and did them, anyway—he built up the army and spent money on weapons. He also limited freedoms that were set down in the Constitution. He said that people who threatened the war effort could be sent to prison without a trial. They didn’t even have to be told what their crime was. Because the war was so popular, Congress let Lincoln get away with it.

The war did not end quickly. On both sides, soldiers died in bloody 7 battles that didn’t accomplish anything. Lincoln’s army didn’t seem to have a plan for winning the war. People began to wonder if Lincoln was up to the job. The president is the commander in chief of the army, but Lincoln had never fought in any battles. He needed to teach himself about winning a war. Until he did, he would have to rely on his generals to advise him. And, unfortunately, some of his generals weren’t very good.

Lincoln needed an army. What he had was a bunch of eager, inexperienced volunteers. He chose General George B. McClellan to turn them into real soldiers.

GENERAL GEORGE B. Mc CLELLAN

In some ways, McClellan was a very smart choice. He was organized and good at details. The soldiers trusted him to take care of them. Unfortunately, he wasn’t very good at actually fighting battles. He was too cautious. He kept refusing to attack the Confederate army. He was afraid his army wasn’t ready. He was afraid the Confederate army was too strong. He lost chances to win battles that could have ended the war. Finally Lincoln became impatient. “If General McClellan does not want to use the army,” he said, “I would like to borrow it for a time.”

THE WHITE HOUSE

While Lincoln was learning to be a president, his family was settling into their new home. The White House was much fancier than any place they had lived before, but it was dirty and rundown. Congress gave Mary some money to fix it up. She made it elegant 8 and beautiful. However, she spent far too much money. Lincoln rarely lost his temper with his wife. Now he did. He needed money from Congress to pay for uniforms and blankets for soldiers. Yet he had to go and ask for more money for silly frills, as well. It had to stop, he told his wife.

Lincoln’s oldest son was away at college. But ten-year-old Willie and eight-year-old Tad had a wonderful time in Washington.

They made friends with soldiers who were quartered in the White House. They set up toy cannons 9 on the roof and fired at the Confederate army only a few miles away.

It was unusual for children to be living in the White House. The presidents before Lincoln had only grown-up children. The whole country was interested in the Lincoln boys. People sent them presents, especially pets. They had a pony 10 and two goats that ran around and destroyed the White House gardens. Sometimes the goats got inside the house. Tad once made a sled out of a chair and had a goat pull him right through the middle of an elegant party.

Lincoln never scolded the boys or tried to make them behave. Neither did Mary. They were allowed to burst into the president’s office—it didn’t matter who was there. Lincoln sometimes talked to his generals with one of the boys climbing up his chair and onto his shoulders. Sometimes they napped on the floor, overhearing 11 state secrets.

The boys had a soldier doll named Jack 12. One day they decided 13 that Jack had gone to sleep on guard duty and had to be punished. They sentenced him to death. Then they ran to their father, interrupting a meeting, and asked him to pardon Jack. Lincoln listened gravely to their case. Then he wrote out an official pardon on White House stationery 14.

Later, Tad also got Lincoln to free a turkey that was being fattened 15 for Christmas dinner. Tad wanted to keep it as a pet. (He named the turkey Jack, too.) Lincoln didn’t mind these interruptions. In fact, he needed them. In the middle of this terrible war and with all his worries, Tad and Willie could make him smile.

His sons weren’t the only people interrupting Lincoln. Almost anyone who waited long enough outside his office was invited in. Most came to ask for favors. For example, they hoped Lincoln would find a government job for them. Sometimes there were such huge crowds that the staircase 16 was completely blocked.

The most painful requests were from parents and wives begging Lincoln to pardon a soldier. Perhaps their son had been condemned 17 to death for cowardice 18 or neglecting his duties. Lincoln always tried to grant these requests. He understood that sometimes a man meant to be brave but just had “cowardly legs” that made him run away from battle. Lincoln’s openness to ordinary people earned him their loyalty 19, even when the war seemed endless. They called him “Father Abraham.”

Lincoln’s sympathy with other parents was strengthened by his own loss. In 1862, eleven-year-old Willie Lincoln died of typhoid fever. His death was terribly hard on both parents. Of all their sons, Willie had been most like his father. Mary fell apart after Willie’s death. She couldn’t believe he was really gone. She began to hold séances, hoping the spirits of both her dead sons—little Eddie and Willie—would visit her.

A lot of people in Washington had never liked Mary. They thought she showed off. People whispered mean rumors 20. Some even said she was a Confederate spy. After all, she had brothers and sisters who sided with the South. The rumors were completely unfair. Mary may have been vain and irritating 21, but she was always loyal to her husband and to the Union. Anyone who was Lincoln’s enemy was her enemy, too—even her own brother. But she was so unpopular that some people actually said maybe Willie’s death wasn’t all bad. It might stop Mary from making a fool of herself in public.

Lincoln was as brokenhearted over Willie’s death as Mary. Sometimes he hid in his room so he could weep in peace. But after the first day, he never broke down in public.