The Life and Writings of Abraham Lincoln
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NOVEMBER 30. Lincoln leaves Springfield for a speaking tour in Kansas.
DECEMBER 2. John Brown is hanged.
DECEMBER 8. Lincoln returns to Springfield.
DECEMBER 20. Lincoln writes an autobiographical sketch, intended for use in publicizing him for President, and sends it to Jesse W. Fell of Bloomington, Ill.
1860 FEBRUARY 23. Lincoln leaves Springfield to go to New York where he has been invited to speak.
FEBRUARY 27. During the evening of this day, Lincoln delivers his celebrated speech at Cooper Union.
FEBRUARY 28. He leaves New York and goes on a speaking tour of New England during which he visits his son, Robert, at school in Exeter.
1860 MARCH 11. On this day he goes to hear Henry Ward Beecher preach at his Plymouth Church in Brooklyn. The next day he leaves New York for Springfield, where he arrives on MARCH 14. From this time on he is actively engaged in winning the Republican nomination for the Presidency.
APRIL 23. The Democratic National Convention meets at Charleston, S. C., and splits over sectional differences.
MAY 9. At the Republican State Convention at Decatur, Ill., John Hanks brings in two fence rails which he and Lincoln had split in the Sangamon bottom 30 years before. Lincoln becomes nationally known as “the rail-splitter candidate.” The convention instructs its delegates to vote for Lincoln at the Republican National Convention.
MAY 18. The Republican National Convention, meeting in Chicago, nominates Lincoln for President of the United States.
MAY 19. The official nominating committee arrives in Springfield and visits Lincoln at his home. The Constitutional Union party nominates John Bell of Tennessee.
JUNE 1. (?) Lincoln prepares a lengthy autobiographical sketch which is to be used in writing a campaign biography.
JUNE 18. Douglas is nominated by the Northern Democrats.
JUNE 28. The Southern Democrats nominate John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky.
SUMMER. Lincoln stays at home in Springfield while the hotly contested Presidential campaign is being fought.
OCTOBER 11. News is received in Springfield that the Republicans have carried the early elections in Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania.
1860 OCTOBER 26. Lincoln hears that some of the army officers at Fort Kearney have threatened to desert and take their arms into the South if a Republican President is elected.
NOVEMBER 6. Abraham Lincoln is elected President of the United States.
NOVEMBER 10. The South Carolina Legislature passes a bill calling for a convention on DECEMBER 17 at which the matter of the state’s relationship to the national Government is to be taken up.
DECEMBER 4. Buchanan reads his annual message to Congress in which he puts forth his views that the South has no right to secede. However, he takes no action.
DECEMBER 17. The South Carolina convention meets at Columbia. Smallpox is raging there. The convention moves to Charleston, and there, on DECEMBER 20, passes an ordinance of secession, severing that state’s connection with the Union.
DECEMBER 20. Thurlow Weed, Seward’s political manager, comes to Springfield to sound out Lincoln on compromise with the South. He is told that no compromise on extending slavery will be countenanced by the President-elect.
1861 JANUARY 9. Mississippi secedes.
JANUARY 10. Florida secedes.
JANUARY 11. Alabama secedes.
JANUARY 19. Georgia secedes.
JANUARY 26. Louisiana secedes.
JANUARY 30–31. Lincoln goes to Coles County to visit his stepmother, Sarah Bush Lincoln, who is living near Charleston, Ill.
FEBRUARY 1. Texas secedes.
1861 FEBRUARY 4. Delegates from the first six of these states meet at Montgomery, Alabama, to form the Confederate Government.
FEBRUARY 11. Lincoln leaves Springfield for what is to be the last time. He addresses his friends and fellow citizens at the railroad station just before his train pulls out. He goes on toward Washington, stopping at Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Buffalo, Albany, New York, Trenton, Philadelphia and Harrisburg.
FEBRUARY 18. Jefferson Davis is inaugurated President of the Confederate States of America.
FEBRUARY 21. At Philadelphia Lincoln is warned that he will be assassinated in Baltimore. He leaves Harrisburg secretly on the night of FEBRUARY 22 and arrives safely in Washington the next morning.
MARCH 4. At noon, Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated President of the United States.
MARCH 15. Lincoln asks advice from his Cabinet on Fort Sumter. Only two of the Cabinet members are in favor of making an attempt to hold the fort.
APRIL 1. Secretary of State Seward sends the President a memorandum entitled “Some Thoughts For The President’s Consideration,” in which Seward puts forth his own views on what should be done.
APRIL 6. Lincoln orders a relief expedition to sail to Fort Sumter.
APRIL 12. The Confederates fire on Sumter.
APRIL 14. Sumter surrenders.
APRIL 15. Lincoln issues a proclamation calling for 75,-000 volunteers and convening Congress in special session on JULY 4.
APRIL 17. Virginia secedes.
APRIL 18. The arsenal at Harper’s Ferry is burned to prevent it from falling into Confederate hands.
1861 APRIL 19. Men from the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment are attacked as they pass through Baltimore on their way to Washington. Lincoln issues a proclamation of naval blockade.
APRIL 20. The Gosport Navy Yard is burned.
APRIL 22. Washington is completely isolated from the North.
APRIL 25. Troops finally get through and come to the relief of Washington.
MAY 6. Arkansas secedes.
MAY 21. North Carolina secedes.
MAY 24. Troops advance into Virginia from Washington and take possession of Alexandria and Arlington Heights. Colonel E. E. Ellsworth is killed during the occupation of Alexandria.
JUNE 3. Stephen A. Douglas dies in Chicago.
JUNE 8. Tennessee votes in favor of secession.
JUNE 16. Western Virginia declares its independence from the rest of the state and decides to stay with the Union.
JUNE 17. A convention is held in Eastern Tennessee to hold that part of the state in the Union.
JULY 4. Congress meets in special session.
JULY 16. McDowell starts out from Arlington to meet the Rebel forces at Manassas.
JULY 21. The Battle of Bull Run. The Union forces are defeated and retreat toward Washington. Lincoln immediately draws up a memorandum of military policy; he also summons George Brinton McClellan to Washington and puts him in charge of organizing a large Federal army.
AUGUST 6. The special session of Congress adjourns.
AUGUST 30. Frémont, in command of the Department of the West, issues a proclamation emancipating the slaves of all those in his territory who have taken arms against the United States.
1861 SEPTEMBER 2. Lincoln urges Frémont to modify his proclamation.
SEPTEMBER 11. Frémont having refused to do so, Lincoln issues an official order for the modification.
OCTOBER 31. General Winfield Scott resigns as head of the army.
NOVEMBER 1. McClellan is appointed General in Chief.
NOVEMBER 2. Lincoln removes Frémont from the command of the West.
NOVEMBER 8. Mason and Slidell are taken in mid-ocean from the British steamer, Trent, and brought to the United States.
NOVEMBER 27. The Trent reaches England, and the British Government issues an ultimatum to the United States.
DECEMBER 3. Congress meets in regular session, and Lincoln delivers his first annual message.
DECEMBER 25. The Cabinet meets to discuss the Trent affair.
1862 JANUARY 1. Mason and Slidell are delivered to a British gunboat in Provincetown Harbor.
JANUARY 13. Cameron resigns as Secretary of War; Stanton is appointed in his place.
JANUARY 27. Lincoln issues his General War Order Number One which commands the army and navy to advance toward the insurgents on
FEBRUARY 22.
FEBRUARY 6. Fort Henry, on the Tennessee River, is captured by Federal forces.
FEBRUARY 16. Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland River in Tennessee, is also captured. This, with the capture of Fort Henry, is the first victory for the North.
FEBRUARY 20. Lincoln’s son, William Wallace, dies in the White House.
1862 FEBRUARY 22. McClellan has succeeded in persuading Lincoln not to have his armies advance on this day as previously ordered.
MARCH 6. Lincoln submits to Congress a proposal to free the slaves gradually and to compensate their owners for loss of property.
MARCH 8. The ironclad Merrimac (renamed the Virginia) does great damage to the Federal fleet lying in Hampton Roads.
MARCH 9. The Monitor goes into action against the Merrimac and puts her out of commission.
MARCH 11. McClellan occupies Manassas only to find that the Confederates have already evacuated it. McClellan is relieved of his general command, and Halleck is put in charge of the Department of the Mississippi.
APRIL. McClellan’s Peninsular campaign gets under way.
APRIL 6. The Battle of Shiloh is fought in the western theater of war.
APRIL 7. Island No. 10 is captured by Federal forces in this same campaign.
APRIL 25. After several days of firing on the Mississippi River forts, Farragut runs his fleet past them and captures New Orleans.
MAY 9. General Hunter, in command of the Department of the South, issues a proclamation emancipating the slaves in Georgia, Florida and South Carolina. Lincoln countermands his order on may 19.
MAY 31. McClellan, who has proceeded up the Peninsula until he is within a few miles of Richmond, is attacked at Fair Oaks in a battle which lasts for two days.
JUNE. McClellan’s army lies almost within sight of Richmond for the first three weeks of this month.
1862 JUNE 25. The beginning of the Seven Days Battle before Richmond in which McClellan’s army is repulsed.
JULY 8. Lincoln visits McClellan at Harrison’s Landing.
JULY 11. Lincoln, on his return to Washington, appoints General Henry W. Halleck to the command of all the Federal armies.
JULY 13. Lincoln reveals to Welles and Seward that he regards emancipation of the slaves as a military necessity.
JULY 22. He presents to his Cabinet the draft of his Proclamation of Emancipation. Acting on Seward’s suggestion, he decides to wait for a Northern victory before making the Proclamation public.
AUGUST 29–30. The Second Battle of Bull Run is fought—and lost—under the command of General Pope.
SEPTEMBER 17. The bloody battle of Antietam, Maryland is won by a Federal army under McClellan’s command. Lincoln takes this as a signal of victory and, on SEPTEMBER 22, reads the final wording of the Proclamation of Emancipation to his Cabinet. He then releases it to the press.
OCTOBER 1. Lincoln leaves Washington to visit McClellan at Antietam.
OCTOBER 26. McClellan, after much urging, starts out after Lee’s army, but is too late to prevent it from reaching central Virginia again.
NOVEMBER 5. Lincoln issues an order finally relieving McClellan from his command and appointing General Burnside in his place.
DECEMBER 1. Lincoln delivers his annual message to Congress.
DECEMBER 13. The Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, is lost by Burnside.
DECEMBER 18. Seward and Chase offer to resign from the Cabinet because of attacks made on them by Republican Senators over the disaster at Fredericksburg.
1863 JANUARY 25. General Joseph Hooker is given command of the Army of the Potomac, replacing Burnside.
APRIL 1. A bread riot takes place in Richmond.
MAY 2–4. Hooker loses the Battle of Chancellorsville. Shortly after this battle, Lee’s army heads north to invade Pennsylvania.
JUNE 28. Hooker is removed and replaced with General George G. Meade.
JULY 1–3. The Battle of Gettysburg. After the failure of Pickett’s charge, on the third day, Lee retreats toward the Shenandoah Valley.
JULY 4. Vicksburg, on the Mississippi River, is captured by Grant.
JULY 13–16. Draft riots take place in New York during which hundreds of people are killed or wounded, and several million dollars’ worth of property is destroyed.
AUGUST and SEPTEMBER. The Federal fleet makes an unsuccessful attempt to capture Charleston harbor.
SEPTEMBER 19-20. The Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia.
NOVEMBER 19. Lincoln delivers his celebrated address at the National Cemetery at Gettysburg.
NOVEMBER 23-25. Battle of Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge.
DECEMBER 8. Lincoln issues a Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction and delivers his annual message to Congress.
1864 MARCH 10. Lincoln puts Ulysses S. Grant in command of all the Union armies. Grant consults with Sherman for a concerted plan of action against the Confederate forces.
MAY 4. The Army of the Potomac, under Grant’s command, crosses the Rapidan and moves toward Richmond.
1864 MAY 5-6. Lee attacks Grant in the Battle of the Wilderness, and Grant sustains heavy losses. Sherman sets out toward Atlanta.
MAY 10-12. Grant presses on and is again attacked by Lee at Spottsylvania Court House.
MAY 31. Battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia, which continues until JUNE 3. Grant is unable to take Richmond and has lost 55,000 men in less than a month. The Radical Democracy holds its national convention in Cleveland and nominates John C. Frémont for President.
JUNE 7. The National Union Convention meets at Baltimore and on JUNE 8 nominates Abraham Lincoln for President.
JUNE 12. Grant withdraws from Cold Harbor and proceeds south toward Petersburg.
JUNE 19. The Kearsarge sinks the Confederate raider Alabama off the coast of Cherbourg, France.
JUNE 30. Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, resigns.
JULY 11-12. Jubal Early raids Washington.
JULY. Two peace moves take place simultaneously—Greeley’s with three Confederate commissioners at Niagara Falls, and Jacques and Gilmore’s mission to Richmond.
JULY 30. A huge mine is exploded under the Confederate redoubts at Petersburg, but the Union forces are unsuccessful in the action that follows.
AUGUST 5. Farragut captures Mobile.
The Wade-Davis manifesto attacking the President is printed in The New York Tribune.
AUGUST 23. Lincoln asks his Cabinet to endorse, sight unseen, a secret memorandum which he does not show to them until November 11.
1864 AUGUST 29. The Democratic National Convention meets at Chicago.
AUGUST 31. McClellan is nominated for President on the Democratic ticket.
SEPTEMBER 2. Sherman takes Atlanta.
SEPTEMBER 21. Frémont withdraws from the Presidential race.
SEPTEMBER. The Shenandoah Valley campaign under Sheridan takes place.
OCTOBER 12. Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, dies.
NOVEMBER 8. Abraham Lincoln is elected President of the United States for a second term.
NOVEMBER 11. He opens and reads his secret paper of August 23 to the Cabinet. It is a declaration of his intention to co-operate with whoever might be elected so that the Union might be saved.
NOVEMBER 15. Atlanta is set on fire; Sherman starts out across Georgia, marching toward the sea.
DECEMBER 6. Lincoln delivers his annual message to Congress; he appoints Salmon P. Chase Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to replace Taney.
DECEMBER 21. Savannah is captured by Sherman.
1865 JANUARY 14. Sherman’s army leaves Savannah and starts north.
JANUARY 31. The House of Representatives passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in the United States.
FEBRUARY 3. Lincoln holds a conference on board the River Queen in Hampton Roads with three Confederate commissioners, one of whom is his old friend, Alexander Stephens. They discuss peace terms, but the interview proves to be fruitless.
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bsp; FEBRUARY 5. Lincoln calls a special Cabinet meeting and presents an amazing plan for compensating the slaveholders with $400,000,000 for loss of their slaves. The Cabinet disapproves the proposal.
1865 FEBRUARY 18. Sherman captures Columbia, S. C. Charleston surrenders to the Federal fleet.
MARCH 4. Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated for a second term of office.
MARCH 23. Lincoln leaves on the River Queen to visit Grant’s headquarters at City Point.
MARCH 27. He enters into a conference with Grant and Sherman to discuss terms of surrender for the Confederates.
MARCH 29. A forward movement of the Army of the Potomac begins, which continues during the next few days.
APRIL 2. Lee notifies Jefferson Davis that Richmond will have to be evacuated. The Confederate government flees on this night to Danville, Va. Richmond is set on fire by the retreating Confederates.
APRIL 3. Federal troops enter Richmond.
APRIL 4. Lincoln visits Richmond, walking through the city almost unattended.
APRIL 5. Seward is injured in a carriage accident. Lincoln decides to return to Washington. He leaves City Point on APRIL 8.
APRIL 9. Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Va.
APRIL 11. Lincoln delivers his last public address, a speech on reconstruction in Louisiana.
APRIL 14. At 10:20 P.M., Lincoln is shot at Ford’s Theater by John Wilkes Booth.
APRIL 15. Lincoln dies at 7:22 A.M. His body is removed during the morning to the White House.
APRIL 19. An imposing public funeral is held in Washington, where Lincoln’s body is carried from the White House to the Capitol.
1865 APRIL 21. The funeral train carrying Lincoln’s body leaves Washington bound for Springfield.
MAY 3. The funeral train reaches Springfield.
THE WRITINGS OF
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
THE WRITINGS OF
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
FROM LINCOLN’S FIRST PUBLIC ADDRESS
Seven months after his arrival in New Salem, and when he was only twenty-three years old, Lincoln became a candidate for the State Legislature. This is his campaign address; it was distributed in the form of a handbill to the people. John McNamar, his rival for the hand of Ann Rutledge, helped him in the writing of it. So did Mentor Graham, the local school teacher who assisted Lincoln in his process of self-education. In the address, Lincoln takes a safe stand on public improvements, avoiding all reference to controversial national issues. He was a Whig and a Henry Clay man in a section predominantly in favor of Andrew Jackson. He lost the election—the only election in which he was defeated by a direct vote of the people.