Abraham Lincoln

"The Great Emancipator" is definitely a topic worth writing about and I'm far from the first to do so. I definitely won't be the last, but I won't let that stop me either. Where to even start with Lincoln is a difficult question in and of itself so to save me some trouble I'm just going to start from the beginning. I've always found it funny that he's a figure that's so commonly associated with my home state of Illinois, when he was actually born in Kentucky. None the less, Illinois is known as the "Land of Lincoln" to this day and the state has wholly embraced this title. Why is my home so proud of the man? For obvious reasons of course. Lincoln was famous for being the president that led America through the Civil War. He was said to be the one that held the United States together, but that's a gross oversimplification of the events that occurred during his tenure. When talking about Lincoln, the issue of slavery can't be avoided just as it can't be avoided when talking about the Civil War in general. His famous Emancipation Proclamation was when he declared all slaves to be free in the United States, although the 13th amendment wasn't ratified until quite later and as we all know, things for African Americans didn't become perfect on the spot and obviously still aren't today. Still, it can't be denied that what Lincoln did was significant, and it also can't be denied that it's arguably what led to his assassination. I should be upfront and say that I'm not 100% certain that everything I write on here is completely accurate, but I do my best to make sure I'm correct, and even if I slip up, it should be clear that this is primarily a personal opinion blog but I digress. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that the issue of slavery was secondary in Lincolns views on the civil war. That's not saying he didn't care at all about it, he certainly did, but his primary concern was keeping the United States from splitting. I would say he saw the rising momentum that the abolitionist movement was seeing and decided that it was the right direction to take the country as he made his efforts to hold things together, which is why he made slavery such a big moral focus of the war. I would argue that this doesn't lessen the significance of anything Lincoln did, but rather it just puts all of it into a different type of perspective. Coming back to why I said "it's arguably what led to his assassination", I would say that's something that also absolutely needs to be discussed when it comes to Lincoln. As beloved of a president as Abraham Lincoln was and it, it should be known that not everyone was a fan, especially those in the south as well as those who sympathized with the Confederate cause. That bring us to the subject of his assassin, John Wilkes Booth. Booth was well known as an actor in his own right, but he was also known as a confederate sympathizer and a fierce critic of Lincoln. If you're an American or someone who knows a bit about the history of the nation, you might know that John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln in a theatre after a show and he supposedly proclaimed "Sic Semper Tyrannis" after he committed the assassination. That phrase is a very significant one. It is Latin and it means "thus always to tyrants" which essentially means that those who abuse their power deserve misfortune. While I understand the sentiment, I don't see that it was accurate in that particular context. I wouldn't say Lincoln was a tyrant, but for those who were on the losing end of the Civil war, I could understand why they might see things differently. The assassination of President Lincoln was a national tragedy and will always be seen as such. There is nothing noble or great about an assassination, no matter who the figure is. My view is that the best case scenario for an assassination is that it ends pain, but it's nothing to be celebrated. It's still the ending of a life, even if you believe the individual was a monster. Obviously when I say that I'm referring to other assassinations throughout history. Events when dictators were slain, Lincolns assassination was nothing short of a disgrace upon the historical pages of the United States. As an American, and as an Illinoisan in particular, you might think that I worship Lincoln, but that's not the case. I appreciate him for his historical significance and contribution to my country, but I also recognize that with any historical figure, you need to inspect them through a holistic lens. When looking at Lincoln through that lens, he was certainly great, but he was not a perfect figure. There were things that he did that could have been better, allowing general Sherman to have pretty much free reign was questionable according to some for example. However that's a whole different discussion. The point is, as great of a man as Lincoln was, I'm not a fan of "great man" history. Still, he was incredibly significant and I think that's a good note to end on.