preface
This paper is about Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President of the United States. The main question I will answer in the conclusion is: Who was Abraham Lincoln and what did he mean for the United States of America?
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Question: How were Lincolns first years of life?
Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a log cabin in Nolin Creek, Kentucky. A hut as big as a shed, with a window, a door, a chimney and a mud floor. In addition to Abraham, the Lincoln family consisted of father Thomas, mother Nancy and Sarah, about 2 years older than Abe.
Pa Thomas was a cheerful, friendly man. He was a small farmer and only managed to make ends meet.
The Lincoln family did not stay long in Nolin Creek either. They traveled along the river and went to live in Knob Creek. When Abraham was seven years old, they moved to Indiana, the newest state of the US at the time, to Little Pigeon Creek. It was an inhospitable area at the colonization border. They arrived in the middle of winter. To Build a house? They had to wait until it was spring. The winter months they spent in a shelter with three walls. Only a glowing fire on the open side stopped the cold. In 1818 Nancy died. That was a disaster for the family. Mother Lincoln was only in her thirties, but life at the border had exhausted her. Her teeth had failed and her skin had shriveled.
Without Nancy, live in the hut became chaotic, so Thomas married Sally, and she was at least as good a mother to Abe as Nancy. Sally understood his changing showers, and also tried to make sure he got a training.
Thomas and Sally were both as good as illiterate, but the difference was that Thomas did not see the importance of training. Certainly not for Abe, whom he raised as a farmhand.
Thomas once said the following words about his son: 'Abe is still fooling himself by being on development. I've tried to put an end to it, but he's got that foolish idea in his head, and it's impossible to get it out. "
But Sally encouraged Abe to read. So Abraham struggled through the Bible, reading great novels like Robinson Crusoe and business books, about the history of the United States of America and about the life of President George Washington. He read them again and again. But there was not much for real education. Abe went to schools in the interior, here a month, there a month, between two busy farming seasons. All in all, he was not in the class for more than a year.
Pa thought that was more than enough, he thought that in Pigeon Creek it was only important to be born, to harvest and to die. And for Abe only counted the heavy work on the field where he got 25 cents a day when farmers hired him. He had to give that 25 cents to his father to his 21st birthday, that was the rule. As a result, Abe almost hated his father.
In 1830 it was finally there: Abe became 21. In that year, the Lincolns moved to Illinois, again snow, reclaimed land and felled trees. Abraham had enough of it. And with the snow in the spring of 1831, he disappeared.
Lincoln ended up in New Salem, where he would take his first political steps.
§2 Sub-question: How did a farmer's son get into politics?
When Lincoln lived in New Salem, he was thought to be a troublemaker.
This because he took on the biggest riot of the city and had a bunch of heavy boys. He always had something to tell, he knew enough funny oblique stories. But Abe did not drink, which made him different from the other men from New Salem. It was not the only thing he was otherwise in, he also went to the debate club, which some developed people were also affiliated with, the doctor, the teacher and the bar owner, named James Rutledge. The fact that Abraham admired them was not the main reason that Lincoln joined the debate club because he was in love with the daughter of Rutledge, who was called Ann. The other members of the club raised their noses for the newcomer, but they soon got the shock of their lives: that galgenaas from the store turned out to be a born speaker. The success that he gained in the club encouraged Lincoln to continue his self-study, with which he had already started in Pigeon Creek. He studied mathematics and English grammar. He went into politics at the age of twenty-three.
The people in the store where Abraham worked did not only talk about river ships but about politics. And Lincoln perked his ears because he wanted to take it further than New Salem. Maybe politics would be a good stepping stone because men who went into politics seemed to be climbing quickly anyway.
So in 1832, Abe presented himself to the House of Representatives of the State of Illinois. He was not elected, but on the next round in 1834, he had more luck.
His latest plan was to become a lawyer. He now immersed himself in the American Constitution, the set of rules that govern the government of the country.
Lincoln also studied the declaration of independence. He would remember one part of his life: "We take the following truths as self-evident: that all people are created equal, that they have inherited certain inalienable rights from their Creators, such as life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness ..."
Now that he was elected as a politician, Lincoln continued his self-study at a higher level. He borrowed as many law books as possible and began to study seriously. Three years later, in March 1837, he received his diploma as an accomplished lawyer. In April he left New Salem, and went to Springfield, the capital of the state of Illinois, to try his luck.
Abraham took his borrowed horse and drove to Springfield, his feet dangling at the same level as the horses' hooves. He was looking for a job and an office, but he did not know where to look. Luckily everything went well, a shopkeeper saw something in this long, sad-looking customer and offered him free rooms above the store. Lincoln moved in, and through his intelligence and talent to speak, he soon became known as a good lawyer.
Mary Ann Todd
Although he was extremely shy with women, he also had success in social life. Springfield was much nicer and more civilized than his previous city, and because he now had a higher education, he was welcome to the best families. When he was thirty, Lincoln fell in love with one of the most beautiful and richest girls in the city: Mary Ann Todd.
Like Abraham, Mary Ann was fascinated by power and politics. But that was the only thing they had in common. Mary was very small and lively, a lady with style. Never shy and she always had an answer. She came from a wealthy family in Kentucky who let themselves be served by black slaves. Lincoln's father also came from Kentucky. But instead of having slaves, he had worked in the field almost all his life. He also disapproved of slavery, which was uncommon for a man from Kentucky.
Abraham thought the same way, he had even protested against slavery in the House of Representatives.
Because Lincoln did not come from a prominent family, the Todds did not want to know about him. But despite all the differences and the pressure of the family, Abraham and Mary stayed together. On November 4, 1842, they married in the beautiful home of Mary's sister in Springfield. That sister did not hear about the wedding party until the morning. Lincoln's family learned about it only months later. Abraham was very ashamed of his poverty-stricken past. For years he did what he could to break it. The young couple lived first in a single room above a cafe, which of course was not a fun time. But soon the promising lawyer worked up, and by the end of the 1940s, the Lincolns moved to a house that was incredibly chic for that time: it was wooden, with shutters and a wrought-iron balcony. It was as a symbol of his greatest political victory until then: in 1846 he was elected a delegate in the US Congress by a two-thirds majority.
North and south
Meanwhile, the battle between the northern states and the southern states blossomed. In the south, people lived like the English landed nobleman: elegant, refined, open, with a lot of time for riding, reading, and music. The soil was rich, and there was a warm, humid climate, creating large plantations with the controversial slavery.
The northern people had a completely different way of life, they were serious, believed in hard work, education, democracy, and equality. Slavery was forbidden.
They did not allow slaves to be kept within their borders, but opinions were divided about the problem. Many felt that the southern people had the right to govern their states as they wished. A large group also felt worse at ease with blacks than the southern ones. They thought it good to release black slaves, but they did not want them to live in the same communities, alongside the whites.
Yet, some of the northern people completely opposed slavery, and that group was getting bigger and bigger. A new feeling of compassion came in the western world.
There was a reaction against the harsh reality of the industrial revolution. People discovered how ruthless life was for the non-rich, and they demanded reforms. In the North, many reformers were abolitionists, who worked heart and soul for the abolition of slavery across the country. They used the argument that both Christianity and the declaration of independence insisted on tolerance, and slavery was not tolerated.
Because of slavery, the north moved further from the south, the division came in the United States, while the name itself called for unity. Moreover, slavery was a very inefficient way to ensure prosperity.
Of course, the south did not let those attacks pass by. That was not possible either, their whole way of life depended on slavery. The wealth would suddenly disappear without the slaves. The south felt very threatened, and the cause lay in the ever-shifting national borders.
All states had the right to maintain their own form of control, including slavery, but there was an exception to this principle. For example, if three-quarters of the states decided to ban slavery, the remaining quarter would have to be settled.
As long as there were about as many slave states as other states, the luxury southern life did not endanger. But when the numbers started to change, the south was no longer safe. From the second quarter of the nineteenth century, those numbers changed constantly. And each time the Union got more entangled in a quarrel that only a war could put an end to.
When a law came in 1820 called the Missouri compromise, it really became a conflict. The north and the south were each assigned 12 states, so that slavery could no longer expand, but the gentleman's life in the south was also saved. Both parties were satisfied, but the legislators had not taken into account surprises. The Texans suddenly revolted against the Mexican domination. Texas became an independent republic, a slave state, which asked to be admitted to the US. The insurgents were eventually admitted to the Union. Followed by Florida, also a slave state, and several northern states. The number game was completely out of hand. Then there was bickering again in California, that on both sides of the old line from the Missouri Compromise. A new pact was concluded, California would become a free state without slaves. There would also come a much stricter law that forced runaway slaves who had reached the north to return. Abolitionists were naturally dismayed and counterattacked. But the compromise of 1850 also sounded the alarm bell for the south. Four slave states even began to think of a very last, desperate solution: away from the Union, before it destroyed their lice life. But after discussion, the idea of secession was allowed to rest for a while.
It got worse, in 1853 the book came out of which the western world was upside down: Uncle Tom's hut. Slavery from the slave's point of view; about fear, cruelty, despair. The message left almost no one indifferent. In the free states, more and more votes for the abolition of slavery.
In 1854 there was a new crisis, two new territories were founded, Kansas and Nebraska. Would slavery be admitted there, or would it be free areas? Or, the third possibility, could they choose for themselves?
To the great anger of many northerners, the Union opted for the third solution, with which the Missouri compromise was buried forever. The light was green for the spread of slavery that the white farmers wanted.
As a lawmaker from the north, Lincoln felt involved in the conflict, just like everyone else. He detested slavery and everything that had to do with it. It bothered him that his country was divided into two camps. He wanted equality and democracy, slavery was not allowed to expand whatever happened. "Slavery will disappear by itself," thought Abraham, "because intensive cotton cultivation is draining the soil." But if slavery were to expand, it would never cease. Yet Lincoln was not an abolitionist. Moderation was one of his most important traits. The result of years of focused, critical thinking. He was mild and friendly but then thought about it. He naturally respected the law, more than that. Lincoln respected people, for their different views, their dreams and expectations. Everyone was entitled to be himself, he thought. The old slave states, for example, had the right to do their own thing, that is how it stood in the law. In a free country, you even had to be able to keep slaves free - if the law allowed it.
Lincoln's complicated position had more to do with intellect than with feeling. He himself knew that it sounded contradictory. Abraham had summarized his ideas in a letter to a friend at the end of 1845:
"I regard it as the highest duty of the free states, for the sake of the Union and perhaps for the sake of freedom (however contradictory that may seem) to leave slavery in the other states untouched; on the other hand, it seems clear to me that we should never deliberately help prevent, directly or indirectly, that slavery automatically dies out.
We must never contribute to finding new places if they can no longer exist on the old. '
Lincoln's goal was to save the US, he once commented:
"My main goal in this struggle is to save the Union, not to perpetuate or abolish slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing a single slave, I would do it; if I could save them by freeing all slaves, then I did it; and if I could save them by freeing some and leaving others to their fate, then I did it too. "
By the time of the Kansas-Nebraska case, Lincoln was back in Springfield, Illinois, and worked as a lawyer. It was a big disappointment that his time in Congress had not earned him a career in national politics. He was intelligent, ambitious, a competent politician and a first-rate speaker. Maybe the time was badly chosen. Because of his cool way of reasoning and his sense of truth, he was also inclined to defend opinions and issues that were not popular. Or maybe he just had bad luck. But when he again nominated for Congress in 1849, voters did not want to know anything about him. Lincoln went back to work as a lawyer. He would not be back for long, more than ten years later, as the most important man in the US.
The Republicans
A new party was founded, the Republicans. The Republicans had two main objectives. First, to keep slavery within the boundaries of the old slave states and secondly to prevent the disturbed Union from splintering.
The new party needed leaders who were hard to find. They had to be good politicians, men with authority, fluent speakers who could convince a mass. But they also had to be respectable gentlemen. An example of common sense and moderation, not an abolitionist, they were brash figures in their eyes. Guess who they came from.
"How fortunate I am to be a Republican ..." On the tune of their election song, masses of Lincoln's followers march past his home in Springfield. Lincoln himself, standing in a white coat at the front door, immediately recognizes his height.
Lincoln quickly made a name for himself in the party of which he had become a member in 1856. He made speeches, debates and electoral campaigns, which prompted the Republican foreman to rise quickly.
People from all over Illinois showed up to debate him with his political rival about slavery. That rival was Stephen A. Douglas, the man who pushed through the Kansas Nebraskawet. The seasoned, brilliant speaker admitted having found his match.
The fierce Mary Lincoln once said the following about Douglas:
"In addition to my great Kentuckian, Mr. Douglas is a very small, small giant, and both in stature and in intelligence my husband towers over Douglas."
Lincoln was very quickly known for his great speeches, also in the east.
At the Cooper Institute in New York, the audience cheered when he made it clear that his party believed firmly in their case.
"The southern people want the northern people to stop calling slavery bad," Lincoln said, "the fact that they think it right and we are wrong is precisely the cause of all disagreement ... We find slavery an injustice; can we then succumb to them? Can we vote for their vision, against ours? Let us trust that righteousness gives power, and let us continue in that conviction to the end. "
In May 1860 it was decided who would nominate the Republicans for the national presidency. Lincoln made it. He won again on November 6 of that year. A victory of moderation, humanity and common sense, but one that led the US directly to war.
The American civil war
A Republican as president! That closed the southern door. There was only one way out: stepping out of the Union, proclaiming independence, and immediately. By March 1861, the Confederacy, consisting of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia and Texas, came to crown the US.
Lincoln saw his ideal crumble, the state of which he had dreamed, a large union of republics, where hard work, a good dose of energy and a good heart counted instead of descent. A government for and by the people.
The only way to end an uprising was to press him down. If the rebels wanted war, they could get it.
In April 1861 Confederate troops began to fire the Fort Sumter federal camp in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. After two days, the federal troops surrendered. The American civil war had erupted.
A terrible war, one of the bloodiest. For a war without airplanes and modern weapons, half a million dead and another half a million wounded are horrific figures.
Now Arkansas, Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee were also members of the Confederation, under President Jefferson Davis.
The Union, consisting of the other states, which surprisingly included a few slave states, and a part of Virginia, now called West Virginia, was more numerous, and had a more modern industry with enough weapons to sustain a war, but it South had a few advantages in the beginning: despair, the private support of England and France, and brilliant generals.
One of them, the most brilliant, was Robert E. Lee from Virginia. He was just as unimpeachable as Lincoln himself.
The Union was for a long time stuck with generals who were scared or incompetent or lazy, or all three. The results were visible. Slopes were littered with corpses all over the eastern states. This caused Abraham Lincoln to defeat for two years. But on the other hand, the south also failed to penetrate to the north.
The south was not unjustly proud of Robert Lee, but the north honored the much larger figure of Abraham Lincoln with much more justice. The meaning of the war is, as it were, embodied in him. He just had everything to keep the Union. But gradually he began to realize that slavery was the core issue of the war. Many of his followers were abolitionists and asked him to abolish it. But then he would lose the extremely important border states and lose the support of the Democrats. These political rivals of his party hated the abolitionists and the blacks. But for the time being, they wanted to make war to save the Union. When Lincoln put an end to slavery, this covenant would immediately go up in smoke. The north would fall apart, and the south would win. The abolitionists kept coming back. They doubled their arguments and came up with a new vision. Before the war, Britain was the main buyer of cotton from the south. Now it could well recognize the Confederation as an independent country or even choose the south side. That would be the end.
But the British disapproved of slavery. What if the north solemnly promised to forbid slavery forever?
Lincoln once again said no, although he thought yes in his heart. He hated slavery. Equality and freedom were sacred to him.
Now the statesman started to think. He wanted to save the Union, perhaps by abolishing slavery. In any case, it would be the approval of the British, and the warfare in the south would slow down. But the border states? He had to and would keep them with the Union.
Family problems
Then you also had the buying fury of Mary Ann. Abraham and they had been arguing more often lately, for example about Mary setting up the White House for 2000, while the country fought for its existence. The wind blew over, but the atmosphere did not get any better.
At least the children brought it together. Robert, the eldest, was almost mature, and young Eddie had died long ago. But Willie and Tad, eleven and eight years old, were full of mischief. Until one day they both got a fever in February 1862. Tad became healthy again, but Willie did not. Mary did not leave her room for three months with sadness.
Lincoln went on stubbornly with his job: he had to win the war.
He doubted whether he should provoke a slave revolt, but in the end, the plan was rejected by Lincoln and his advisers. On 5 September, General Lee invaded Maryland with his army, at the border of the Union. Lincoln's best general, Grant, was still on the Mississippi. In the end, the president sent the hesitant McClellan into battle.
Lincoln only made a pact with God in his office, while he was normally not religious. If McClellan overcame the southern, he would free the slaves.
After a crazy fight, McClellan got the fight. The Union had 12,000 deaths. Although Lincoln did not expect them to do so, a preliminary statement was made, promising freedom for all slaves in the rebellious states, if the rebels had not made peace by 1 January 1863.
On 1 January the battle was still going on.
The proclamation
Lincoln sat at a writing table by the wide windows, pulled the paper to him, and grabbed his pen. A golden pen. She fitted exactly with the signature that he would now put.
Today he would liberate an entire people. A people of almost 4 million black people. This proclamation put a point of slavery for good. Millions of slaves would now have the freedom.
He leaned forward, dipped his pen in the inkwell and ... His hand trembled. Lincoln waited a while, lost in thought, hoping the tremor would stop. But trembling or not, his decision was fixed. He wrote his name in his tilting, manicured manuscript:
Abraham Lincoln.
Risk
His big decision could have cost him victory in the war. His popularity fell spectacularly. In the north, a series of elections had been held again, and in one state after another, the Democrats won. They had supported the war to save the Union, they said, not to put an end to slavery. So Lincoln fought on two fronts, at home in the north, to keep as many friends as possible, and in the south.
The war continued for a while. Big losses from the North, it was not easy. After times of desperation, the tide finally began to turn in July. Grant had conquered Vicksburg, now the deep South was within his reach.
The speech
On November 9, 1863, Lincoln held his most famous speech. 150,000 people flocked together on a hill outside the city, where a graveyard for the fallen of the Union would be opened. After a two-hour speech by a distinguished statesman, it was the turn of the president. It was only a speech of barely 2 minutes.
"Eighty-seven years ago, our fathers on this continent gave birth to a new, free state, which assumed that all people were created equal. Now we are engaged in a fierce civil war to decide whether that state or any state so conceived, can exist for a long time. We met on a large battlefield from that war. We have come to ordain part of that field as the final resting place for all who gave their lives here so that that state would live.
After all, it fits that we would do that. But in the end we can not devote this ground - we can not bless or sanctify it. The brave men, the living and the dead, who fought here, have devoted him, and we can not add or remove anything with our poor power. The world will pay little attention to what we say here and will not remember it for long, but it can never forget what they have done here.
Rather, we, the living, are to devote ourselves here to the unfinished task to which our men have so far contributed so generously. Rather, we are here to dedicate ourselves here to the great mission that is ahead of us that we may draw greater dedication from these honored dead to the cause for which they have given their full devotion for the last time that we may solemnly intend ourselves here to these dead will not have died for nothing, that this nation, with God's will, will be reborn in freedom - so that reign of, by and for the people will not vanish from the globe. "
It was a windy day so that Finkelstein's voice did not reach the back of the crowd, which was unusual for him. Afterward, he was printed because his speech was apparently lukewarm. He could not know then that it would be a world-famous speech.
The victory
Throughout the summer of 1864, Grant and his general Sherman forced the Confederation to ruthlessly under pressure. They suffered tremendous losses, but the Union continued to send troops. And now a new group of volunteers arrived. As the federal lines advanced to the south, thousands of liberated slaves found refuge behind the front. They volunteered in service, and free blacks from the North joined them. By the end of the war, nearly two hundred thousand blacks had fought for the Union. Lincoln was right: the blacks had indeed been a great help.
For a while, it looked as though he could still lose. The Confederates were still not defeated. The presidential elections were coming again, he was very unpopular, and the North wanted peace. Would he have to admit, withdraw his proclamation, make peace with the South and say that slavery could exist unhindered? He only considered it for a minute or so, taking the risk. And just when it looked most awful for Lincoln, luck was finally on the Northside. Sherman made a big win in Atlanta, and in the North, it worked as electricity. Maybe they could win this cursed war anyway! The troops doubled their efforts, and on November 8, the day of the election, Lincoln even won an overwhelming victory over his democratic enemy.
Five months later, April 9, 1865, General Lee of the South met the Northern General Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, a village in Virginia. Surrounded and overcome, after a heavy fight, Lee surrendered to the opponent. Northern America of course partying, the United States of America were reunited.
Meanwhile, Lincoln worked harder than ever. The war was won, now the peace had to be realized. The country had to be rebuilt, the rebels had to be convinced that the totally new life without slaves also worked. A difficult task, but Lincoln was determined. More than that, he was determined to get peace in a peaceful way, as he said, 'without resentment towards anyone and with love for everyone'.
Lincoln realized very well that if peace were restored, the proclamation that he had promulgated would be void. Moreover, only the blacks were liberated from the rebellious states, the others remained slaves. So he asked the Congress, shortly after his re-election, to allow a radical change of constitution. He wanted to ban slavery across the US.
In January 1865 the Congress agreed. With a narrow majority, the constitution was changed for the thirteenth time: "Slavery or forced labor will not occur in the United States, except as the punishment for a crime for which the accused has been sentenced ..."
If the law was officially valid, all American slaves would be free - anywhere.
That, too, was not all of Lincoln's plans. He wanted to make the blacks full members of American society, let them participate in public life, give their education and all other social facilities. The voting right, for example. Just before his death, Lincoln was tossed back and forth between whether or not to push through the right to vote for blacks. After his death, however, the right to vote for blacks was laid down as a condition for re-admission of the rebellious states to the Union. The Congress approved the new amendment, the election of American citizens could not be refused because of race, skin color or the fact that they were first slaves.
According to the law, black Americans had the same rights as white men by 1870. Before the law, and especially in the South, the blacks were never accepted as equals of their lives.
§3Partial question: How was Lincoln, what was his character?
Lincoln's personality is not easy to fathom. He was very close, melancholic in nature, and had a very original and mild humor. He was rather reserved and brought people who met him rather respect rather than to confidentiality.
About Lincoln is spoken of as an exceptional figure: at the same time modest and ambitious, sympathetic and hard; a wretch with a clear view. Even a hundred years after his death, he lets most of the other great leaders of history pale.
He had a varying mood when he was young, now he was quietly brooding, then he made jokes if he was in the mood for that.
Lincoln once described himself once when he became known and the people wanted to know all sorts of details about him: "I'm rumpled, weighing 90 kg on average; have a dark skin color, coarse, black hair and gray eyes - as far as I know, no scars or branding. '
§4 The end of the presidency of a great leader.
Sub-question: how did Lincoln's presidency end?
It was April 14, 1865. Good Friday, just before Easter.
In the late afternoon, Lincoln, together with Mary, made a ride through Washington in a carriage. He did that more often, and they planned to go out later in the evening. In the Ford Theater, the comedy 'Our American cousin' was on the program. Just after eight, the couple stepped into their carriage again and drove through the dark, misty streets. On the way, they picked up two friends. When they arrived, the play had already started, but the audience stood up as one man to applaud for them.
There was Lincolns bodyguard outside the lodge for presidents who had the evening service. How incredible, too, the man walked away for a while. In the meantime, the play became increasingly funnier. During the third company, everyone only looked at the stage.
Then the shot fell. It was dead silent for a second; then, in the luxury lodge, hard was screamed. While everyone was glued to his chair, a man with a knife penetrated the lodge. Shouting, he reached down one of Finkelstein's friends. Then he jumped down the stage, came down with a bang and disappeared 14.
staggered staggering, behind the scenes. Now all eyes were on the lodge. Three screaming people bent over the president, who had collapsed unconscious in his chair. Lincoln slowly died from the murderous bullet in his brain.
There were nine terrible hours. People panicked outside. While the killer got away safely, an army doctor went to the lodge and gave Lincoln mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.Then the president was taken to a house across the street and placed on a bed. Mary was there, almost crazy about grief. His oldest son Robert was there too. And many others, doctors, statesmen, and friends, because the news went like a running fire through Washington.
Many people had recognized the killer. It was the actor John Wilkes Booth. He had quietly entered the lodge and stole right behind the president, who was watching with fascination. He had shot in the back of his head a short distance.
It was well known that Booth loved the South, and he hated Lincoln. He found the president the destroyer of the Confederation. The spectators had heard that Booth had called something when he was in the Ford Theater to carry out his cowardly plan. "That is how all the tyrants die ..." was the angry exclamation. Patrols quickly went to find him. The martial law was also soon in force in Washington. Vice-President Andrew Johnson was called in and in front of the house where the president was, a lot of frightened people were waiting for news.
It was morning. On Saturday, April 15, 1865, at about twenty-two minutes past seven, Abraham Lincoln died. The first American president to be killed, but not the last.
The people were speechless. From an obituary about Lincoln in the New York Herald:
"A figure so rough from the outside, so touchingly simple, so impertinent, so indecisive and yet so irresistible, so strange, grotesque, funny, wise and utterly disinterested."
An answer to the main question is not so well summarized in a paragraph because Lincoln's life story is long. The main question has already been answered in the previous paragraphs.
Further, for America, he still means a lot, many of the dates on which he had achieved one of the important things, such as, of course, the emancipation law, are still being commemorated.