Abstract

In this study we try to explore the challenges of Civil War met by the Abraham Lincoln in a holistic context. The main focus of the research is on Abraham Lincoln and its relation with Civil War. The research also analyzes many aspects of challenges faced by the Abraham Lincoln and tries to gauge its effect on Civil War.

Table of Contents

Introduction3

Challenges Faced by Abraham Lincoln3

Civil War5

Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and Civil War6

Lincoln's Actions9

Conclusion9

Abraham Lincoln and Challenges of Civil War

Introduction

Abraham Lincoln's contribution to political theory in respect to the civil war may be analyzed in terms of the theoretical, practical, and historical implications of his thought and leadership. Theoretically, his speeches and writings provide one of the greatest moral justifications of democracy given for the civil war. Practically, his actions provide a model of prudent statesman-ship that is, the ability to apply moral principles correctly under the legal, social, and political circumstances of the time. Historically, he is at the center of America's national myth, the sustaining narrative that defines us as a common people based not on blood, but on fidelity to the principles of the Declaration. As the embodiment of the American experiment, Lincoln has represented the following things to the American people in the civil war; the savior of the Union, the great emancipator, man of the people, the first American and the self-made man.

Although he was not a political theorist, Lincoln articulated some of the most profound and enduring insights about the nature of equality, liberty, democracy, constitutionalism, and the meaning and destiny of the American experiment in self-government while civil war was in place. His speech, which distilled the essence of the south, famously defines democracy as a form of government “of the people, by the people, for the people.”

Challenges Faced by Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was relevant to political theory not only in view of his ability to affirm so powerfully ideas about equality and democracy, but also in view of his ability to put these ideas into action. Most notably, Abraham Lincoln's leadership sought to harmonize moral obligation to the principles of the Declaration with legal obligation to the rule of law in the Constitution. His oft-stated paramount object was to preserve the civil war, but for Lincoln, this also meant preserving the principles for which the civil war stood as well. His policies during the civil war calculated to achieve the twin goals of preserving the civil war and ending slavery (Klapp, pp. 42-68).

At the beginning of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln established the U.S. Sanitary Commission in 1861. Its primary function during the war was to support sanitary, welfare, and health conditions in Union Army camps. Lincoln believed that the commission should “at all times, be ready to recognize the paramount claims of the solider of the nation, in the disposition of public trusts”. Organizers of this volunteer group were high society women of the Women's Central Association of Relief of New York City. Women volunteers supplied nursing services in field and ship hospitals, ...