Short History Of... - Abraham Lincoln

Episode Date: December 12, 2022

Abraham Lincoln’s life reads like an American folk tale. The story of a boy born into poverty, whose drive and determination saw him become the most powerful man in the nation. But how did he navigate a path for a youthful country so deeply divided over slavery? What was his role in the devastating civil war? And how did one man attract such public adoration and murderous wrath all at the same time? This is a Short History of Abraham Lincoln. Written by Dan Smith. With thanks to David S Reynolds, Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York, and author of Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times. For ad-free listening, exclusive content and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Now available for Apple and Android users. Click the Noiser+ banner on Apple or go to noiser.com/subscriptions to get started with a 7-day free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. It is the 14th of April, 1865. Good Friday. A foggy evening in Washington, D.C. At Ford's Theatre, a party of two men and two women take up their seats in a flag-draped box.

They've come to watch a frothy comedy called Our American Cousin that's been getting rave reviews. The play has already started, but as one of the group takes his seat, a bearded man dressed in a long silk-lined woolen coat and a top hat, the action stops for a moment. But it's not a surly admonishment of his tardiness. Instead, the crowd erupts into applause for the latecomer. Just five days ago, General Lee, a Confederate leader in the American Civil War, surrendered at the Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia, effectively bringing the curtain down on four years of conflict. And here, sitting among his people, is the man of the hour. Towering more than seven feet tall in his top hat, the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.

He graciously acknowledges the ovation. Abraham Lincoln. He graciously acknowledges the ovation. Then he sits down next to the First Lady, Mary, and behind his guests, his old friend the diplomat and military captain, Henry Rathbone, and Rathbone's fiancée, Clara Harris. But when the show begins again, Lincoln struggles to tune in. His mind is whirling with the many problems his administration still faces.

When you've got a country to rebuild, it's difficult to relax. His mind is whirling with the many problems his administration still faces. When you've got a country to rebuild, it's difficult to relax. Slipping her hand into his, Mary leans in to explain the plot he's missed. Soon enough, Lincoln starts to lose himself. He likes a good, bawdy laugh with the best of them. In fact, it's just what he needs. He hardly notices when the door behind him creaks open, or when the figure in the shadows steps inside the box. The show is reaching a comedic peak. The theater howls with laughter. As it does so, the intruder raises his arm.

Glinton, in his hand, is a Derringer pistol. He lifts its barrel parallel with the back of Lincoln's head. From a distance of six inches, he squeezes the trigger and fires. Lincoln slumps forward in his chair, unconscious but still breathing, as Mary lets out an anguished scream. Rathbone leaps to his feet to confront the attacker, but the assailant slashes him with a dagger before jumping down onto the stage. There he addresses his captive audience.

"'Sic semper tyrannis,' he yells. "'Thus ever to tyrants.'" The phrase some say Brutus uttered as he assassinated Julius Caesar. The theater is in chaos. As the panicked audience makes for the exits, Lincoln's limp body is carried to a safe house across the street. A stream of doctors works desperately to save him.

But the clock is already ticking. The president has just hours left to live. To begin with, Abraham Lincoln's life seemed like an American folktale. The story of a boy born into poverty in Kentucky, but whose drive and determination propelled him to the most powerful position in the nation. But the presidency he inherited was a troubled one. As he entered the White House, the youthful United States was on the verge of civil war over its opinions of slavery. So how did he guide the nation through a bruising conflict

that cost hundreds of thousands of lives? How did his decisions impact the country in ways that echo even today? And why is it that one man can attract such public adoration and murderous wrath all at the same time? I'm John Hopkins, and this is a short history of Abraham Lincoln. It's approaching dawn on February the 12th, 1809. In a nondescript farm in the Kentucky countryside, a woman named Nancy is giving birth in a tiny, clay-lined wooden hut. Soon the cabin fills with the cries of a new baby. A younger brother to the two-year-old Sarah, the boy is called Abraham. He's named after

his paternal grandfather, who, many years ago, had been killed by an indigenous American. It's a complex heritage for the baby, but then this is the complex society into which he is born. Just 30 years have passed since the United States declared independence from British rule and this is a country still finding its way. There are fundamental questions to answer, not least about the relationship between the nation's white population and its people of color. David S. Reynolds is a distinguished professor at the City University of New York and author of 16 books including Abe, Abraham Lincoln in his times.

The main issue of course was slavery and the south was becoming increasingly dependent on slavery due to the boom of cotton, cotton, gin, and all of that. And the South's moral support, ideological support of slavery, increased along with its economy. So that it came to view slavery as really a very good thing. Good for black people, exposed them to Western civilization. Good for white people because it provided inexpensive labor. It was supposedly validated by the Bible because a lot of Old Testament people had enslaved people as well. But in the North you had the growing anti-slavery party. Based in Kentucky, Lincoln's early years are tough. His father works hard on the family farm, but his attempt to improve their lot with investments in land failed to pay off.

The Lincolns live in the log cabin where Abraham was born, with its dirt floor and a single window covered in greased paper instead of glass. It was a very kind of primitive existence, very rough. glass. It was a very kind of primitive existence, very rough. The frontier life was full of violence and fighting. And his parents were fairly poor, although his father did manage to at least lead a subsistence lifestyle, that is to say, raised enough for the family to live on. Education plays a scant role. Public schools are still a rarity, and with his father needing him on the farm, Abraham's attendance is way down the list of priorities.

The short time he does spend at school, perhaps a year in total, is in a single log room two miles from home. The children learn by reading aloud from Thomas Dilworth's New Guide to the English Tongue. For the rest of his life, Lincoln will read out loud. When he is nine, and not long after the family have relocated to Indiana, his beloved mother dies from drinking contaminated milk. Lincoln's father, Tom, sets out to find a new wife and mother for his grieving children.

While he is gone, Abraham and his sister are left to fend for themselves for several months. When a neighbor looks in on them after a short while, they find the cabin filthy and the children visibly losing weight. Tom finally returns after marrying a woman called Sarah, who comes with three children of her own. Fortunately, Abraham finds his new stepmother naturally affectionate, and the pair bond over a shared love of reading. By his teens, Lincoln is tall and athletic, with a particular talent for running, climbing, and wrestling. But, with Sarah's support, he's also an enthusiastic self-educator too. He reads avidly, immersing himself in the classics of the English language, Shakespeare, Byron, Bunyan, and memorizing long passages. From his father, he has picked up a

strong work ethic. He labors unpaid on the farm and earns a meager income helping out on the farms of neighbors. His stature ensures that he is a prodigious rail splitter too, splitting logs into rails to make fences. On a good day he can make 400, earning him up to a princely 25 cents. One day he crafts himself a small boat. A couple of passing gentlemen ask him to ferry them and their luggage to a steamer out on the Ohio River. Lincoln agrees and earns a dollar for each passenger. It is the first time he's earned a dollar in less than a day, and it's enough to spark his entrepreneurial spirit. But when the local ferrymen realize what's happening, they take issue and drag him into court for operating without a license.

The judge, though, determines that he's only dropping passengers into boats on the river rather than transporting them across it, and is therefore not violating any legislation. It is another pivotal moment for the young man, as he sees up close the workings of the law in pursuit of justice. In 1830, the blended Lincoln family are on the move again, this time to Illinois, where a relative tells them the business opportunities are better. They take a piece of land on the banks of the Sangamon River, a few miles from the nearest town. Lincoln helps his father build a log cabin, a barn,

and a smokehouse. But he is constantly on the lookout for opportunities to improve his prospects. He never got education, much education, but he was self-taught. He was feeding his mind. And he had all kinds of odd jobs in Illinois, working in a store, working as a postman, flipping rails, doing this, doing that. But at the same time, reading, reading, reading, and feeding his mind, reading poetry, reading law books. That summer, now aged 21, Lincoln makes his first tentative steps into the political arena.

In the town square in Decanter, rivals for the local legislature are sparring. Dressed in toe-linen pants, a shirt, and straw hat, he voices some of the issues facing the local community, particularly about the development of new jobs and revenue. He speaks with wit and aplomb, and is rewarded with the crowd's applause. Though he has no interest in elected office at this stage, it's a confident first foray into the political sphere. A year later, he strikes out on his own, moving to New Salem, Illinois. Though the town is only a couple of years old, it's growing, and Lincoln has been offered the chance of partnering in a new grocery store. The owner hand-picked Lincoln after spotting him bringing a ferryload of cargo into the town a few months earlier.

But it's not just the store that he wants him to be involved with. Seeing his new recruit's talent, he signs him up for a wrestling match against the local champion, a short, muscle-bound character called Jack Armstrong. Lincoln actually developed skills as a very excellent wrestler, fighter. He could beat anybody. He was wiry, not muscular, but very, very wiry. And he could really beat almost anybody, although he didn't want to engage in rough-and-tumble fighting,

which was commonplace. He just wanted to do a clean fight. A crowd gathers in the town square, hungry to witness the battle. Wrestling is a popular means by which men can assert not only physical supremacy, but their place in the social pecking order. Moreover, there's money to be made from wages. Armstrong has years of experience, but Lincoln towers over him by ten inches. They grasp and grapple for what seems like an eternity, neither able to get the upper hand.

Finally, Armstrong releases his grip. Depending on how you interpret the rules, this should be Lincoln's victory. But Lincoln doesn't believe he has bested his opponent, and instead agrees to call it a draw. For Lincoln, it is a win-win. In showcasing not just physical power, but also bravery and fairness, he gains many admirers and, vitally, acceptance in his new hometown. Just a year later, Lincoln stands for a seat in the Illinois state legislature. He saw some things going on around him, having to do with canals and railroads and that kind of thing local matters that he wanted

to change and he said I'm just going to run for office and in his first speech he says you know I'm just humble Abraham Lincoln I'm not much of a person but I feel certain ways about certain things but in April that year news spreads that members of thek and Fox indigenous tribes have made incursions into Illinois from their settlement in Iowa. Locals fear this is a precursor to a land grab of their old territories, which had been controversially sold to the United States in 1804. The state governor, John Reynolds, calls for volunteers to repel what he calls an invasion. calls for volunteers to repel what he calls an invasion. Lincoln signs up and is elected to captain his local battalion, further testament to his rising popularity.

Although he doesn't see frontline action, he gets military experience. But it comes at a political cost. Being away on duty means he's unable to get out among the people ahead of the election. Back in New Salem, in time for the poll, he wins over 90% of the vote in his home constituency. But across the county, he comes eighth of 13 candidates. Things sour further when the grocery store hits financial problems, but, resilient as ever, he soon bounces back. In May 1833, he is awarded his first public office when he becomes postmaster of New Salem. The money's not great, though, so he looks for other sources of income.

A surveyor friend needs an extra pair of hands, so Lincoln buys himself a compass, chain, and a few other tools, and reads up on the basics. It's not long until his earnings as a surveyor outstrip what he takes home as postmaster. It's a fruitful time. In 1834, his second run for the Illinois legislature is successful. As one of his opponents notes, everyone knew him, and he knew everyone. Out of his first five elections, local elections, he won all of them except for the first one, partly because of his honesty, but also he had a very good sense of humor. The reason I call my book Abe, even though he didn't like that name, he liked to be called

Lincoln, but he knew that that's the way the people loved him. And they called him Abe, and they would shout, Abe, Abe, Abe, just the common man. He knew how to play that persona to the hilt because he had been a rail splitter with an axe when he was growing up. He had been among the rough and crude people, even though he kind of educated himself out of it. Yet he still faces plenty of challenges, not least a large debt he's saddled with when his business partner in the grocery store suddenly dies. With the law currently slack around debt, plenty of people simply skip off into the night. But Lincoln knows the value of his good name. Though it takes him a while, he pays what is owed, burnishing his reputation as honest Abe in the process.

burnishing his reputation as honest Abe in the process. But while he takes his responsibilities as one of the few dozen representatives in the state legislature seriously, Lincoln isn't wealthy enough to be a full-time politician, especially when he's paying off his debts. In 1835, an attorney friend by the name of John Todd Stewart encourages him to go into the law. It is something Lincoln has been thinking about himself, having spent years reading into legislation. Until now, he's been uncertain about the strength of his academic abilities. But Stewart gives him that extra thrust of self-belief that he needs.

Lincoln throws himself into preparation for his new career. He becomes a familiar sight, sitting on a box under a wide-spreading old oak near the town where he delves into the secrets of common law. At the same time, he fights another election for the state legislature, but this time he's running in support of the newly formed Whig Party, who oppose the Democratic Party of President Andrew Jackson. Though in the contemporary arena of US politics, the Democrats are associated with social liberalism,

at the time they are considered the party of the establishment. Lincoln secures another term, but it's now that one of his greatest rivals emerges too. Stephen A. Douglas is a 23-year-old attorney, mop-haired and barely five feet, but an utter political bruiser. Stephen Douglas was an utter and very outspoken white supremacist. He made no bones about it. America is for white people, and white people should rule forever. The discord between them escalates against the backdrop of an increasingly active abolitionist movement. The Illinois governor introduces a resolution to prevent federal government from banning slavery without local consent.

In effect, it would mean the areas voting in support of slavery cannot be overruled by central government. Illinois is very much split on the question. A small but vocal anti-slavery lobby, bolstered by migrants from New England and New York, must face down a larger contingent of pro-slavers from the South. Douglass naturally supports the resolution, but Lincoln is uncomfortable. Conscious that rocking the boat might cost him his burgeoning political career, he opposes the bill, though he's one of just six out of 83 members to do so.

Arguing that slavery is founded on injustice and bad policy, he maintains that federal government does have the legal right to outlaw it. But he also urges caution, insisting that any change in the law must be democratic. It puts him at odds with the more radical wings of the anti-slavery movement, who see his opposition as little more than a gesture. Though he sticks his head above the parapet, Lincoln has chosen his words carefully so as not to cause too great a stir. This time, Douglass and his supporters win, but he and Lincoln will play out their differences on bigger stages to come. stages to come. Now, having played a vital role moving the state capital to Springfield, he arrives there in April 1837 with his worldly possessions loaded into two saddlebags on a borrowed horse.

Despite his growing political profile, he's still struggling financially. When he picks out just enough bedding for a single room at the local store, he's still struggling financially. When he picks out just enough bedding for a single room at the local store, he has to ask for credit, promising to repay the owner before Christmas. Taking pity on him, the storekeeper offers him lodgings above the shop. Soon after that, Lincoln is invited to become a partner in a local law firm. He quickly makes a name for himself when he delivers a coruscating closing speech in a murder trial, winning his client an unexpected reprieve. Before long, the man who once wondered at making a dollar in a day is earning a small

fortune. Oh, between four and five thousand dollars a year, which back then doesn't sound like anything now, but back then that was good money. The average worker might earn $600 or $700 a year, a laborer or something like that. In 1840, he wins his fourth term in the state legislature and then gets out on the campaign trail for the Whig presidential candidate, William Henry Harrison. Lincoln gets out on the campaign trail for the Whig presidential candidate William Henry Harrison.

One summer's afternoon, he hears that a Democratic rival, Jesse Thomas, is denigrating him in a speech at the Sangamon County Court. Lincoln rushes down to exercise his right to reply. On the stage, he launches into a brutal attack, mocking his rival, impersonating his mannerisms and voice. Egged on by the cheering crowd, the emboldened Lincoln doesn't let up until his Democrat victim runs from the stage weeping. The incident gains notoriety as the Skinning of Thomas. But when he's cooled down, Lincoln feels ashamed. A far cry from the time he surrendered his rightful claim to a wrestling victory in New Salem. This time, he choked his opponent into utter, humiliating submission.

In due course, he tracks Thomas down and offers him an apology. But the episode has already proven his acumen as a national player and a compelling speaker. has already proven his acumen as a national player and a compelling speaker. While Lincoln's professional life has been on an upward trajectory for some time, his personal life has been rather more chaotic. A few years previously, his first love died of a brain fever at just 22 years old. Another serious relationship fizzled into a sad anticlimax. But on the Springfield social scene, he meets the woman he's destined to marry, Mary Todd. A decade younger than Lincoln, she comes from a rich Kentucky family and vowed as a child that she would one day marry a president. She is short, about five foot two, and pretty, while he is tall

and considered somewhat plain-looking. But there is a spark. Mary Todd Lincoln has gotten a bad rap over the years as being someone who's very carping, always scolding him, very nasty person, always complaining about her headaches, difficult to be around, and making Lincoln have sort of a hellish experience. But I mean, politically, she really wanted him to get out there and do it, and he did it. So she lit the fire under him in a lot of ways. She could be very charming at parties. She could make a good hostess. She got dressed up. She had hundreds of dresses and kid gloves and all that. She knew French. She'd been very well educated. She had 10 years of education. Back then, a girl just didn't get 10 years of education. Her courtship with

Lincoln is tempestuous, and a previous romantic association with Lincoln's great rival, Stephen Douglas, complicates things further. But one stormy evening in November 1842, Mary, wearing a dress of white muslin, stands before her sister's fireplace with a 33-year-old Lincoln at her side. The couple only announced their intention to wed a few hours ago, after months and years of prevaricating. Now, in front of the local vicar, Lincoln slips onto his bride's finger a ring he bought just that afternoon, inscribed with the words, Love is eternal. Afterwards they celebrate simply with a handful of guests over beer, gingerbread, and a hastily assembled cake from the local bakery.

Their first son, known as Bob, arrives nine months later. Two more, Tad and Willie, will follow. With Mary at his side, the next decade or so sees Lincoln consolidate his position both professionally and politically. In 1843, he makes an unsuccessful first run for the National Legislative Body, the Federal House of Representatives. But three years later, he wins one of its 220 or so seats. In the mid-1850s, Lincoln throws his lot in with a new political group who are formed to oppose the Democrats, the Republican Party. To Lincoln, the Whigs are simply not equipped to deal with a national crisis over slavery. You had rise of anti-slavery politics, but those early anti-slavery parties, the Liberty Party,

Free Soil Party, got nowhere because anti-slavery wasn't popular enough. And it really wasn't until the Republican Party came along. Back then, the Republican Party were the liberals. The Democrats were the conservatives. We've done a flip-flop since then. The Republicans hit the ground running, and their first presidential candidate, John C. Fremont, dominates the northern states in the election of 1856. But tensions between the north and south are growing. In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court sets a precedent in what becomes known as the Dred Scott case, that African Americans are not and cannot ever be citizens of the United States.

Although Lincoln strongly protests this ruling, he's keen to navigate between radical anti-slavery factions and the pro-slavery conservatism embraced by a large swathe of the country. For him, meaningful reform must be achieved via the ballot box. So he had to walk a very fine line between moderates, conservatives on the one hand, and between radicals on the other hand. And he compared himself to Blondin, who is the most famous tightrope walker of his day. Charles Blondin came over and he walked across Niagara Falls many times, forward, backwards. He did flips, cartwheels. He pushed a wheelbarrow, carried a man on his back. And Lincoln said, I'm Blondin. I'm Blondin. He would have loved to be much more openly radical,

but if he did, he wasn't going to get elected. Now, with Lincoln's sights set on election to the federal Senate, he comes up against his old adversary, Stephen Douglas. The pair engage in a series of debates that go down in U.S. electoral history. With their opposing positions on slavery, they play out a battle for the soul of the United States. They play out a battle for the soul of the United States. The biggest of the seven debates is held in October 1858 at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. The anti-slavery town's population swells fourfold as a truly gigantic turnout of around 20,000 floods in to witness the scene, many having traveled the 150 miles from Chicago.

At 2.30 p.m., Lincoln sits in his carriage, the breath of the horses condensing in the cold air as they trot towards the college. Lincoln pulls his trademark frock coat tight around him as he stares out through the pouring rain. On the roadside, campaign banners lie in tatters, and signs have been ripped from the ground by the swirling wind. But as the carriage slows, Lincoln gets a glimpse of the crowds who've come to see him, and is buoyed by a wave of energy. These debates are about setting the terms of the nation's political struggle, and every one of these spectators is fully engaged in that.

When he arrives at the college, another carriage draws up. His opposite number, Douglas, climbs out and straightens his coat, but when he shakes hands, he has to pause to cough, and his voice is hoarse after so long on the road. The organiser comes bustling up and explains to his esteemed speakers that the stage has had to be moved because of the weather. It now stands abutted to the main college building. The two men follow Lincoln's stride long and leisurely. When he's forced to climb through a window to get onto the platform, Lincoln says with a twinkle,

When he's forced to climb through a window to get onto the platform, Lincoln says with a twinkle, Well, at last I have gone through college. As the moment approaches to step out in front of the audience, Lincoln looks out at a sea of hats, each one providing the barest shelter to an avidly attentive listener. Many have been standing here for three hours already, some wield banners bearing slogans, fighting the wind to keep them upright. Others perch on carts to get a better view. It is an overwhelming scene.

But Lincoln is not cowed. It is in such places he understands that the future may be won. His name is announced and he takes the stage to deafening applause. But he is calm in his acknowledgement. Now is the moment to stand tall and deliver his message. First though, he listens to Douglas, who attacks with energy despite his poor health. He accuses Lincoln of changing his political position depending on the audience. His word, he suggests, cannot be trusted. But Lincoln is feeling punchy.

He fights back against Douglass' assertion that the Declaration of Independence somehow excludes African Americans and defends himself against claims of flip-flopping. and defends himself against claims of flip-flopping. Lincoln's supporters lap it up, the crowd cheering him on. They are convinced that he has seized the moral high ground. You know, Lincoln would speak for an hour and a half, and Douglass would give a half-hour rejoinder. Then Douglass would speak maybe for an hour or so. And they're wonderful to read because you can sit there

and really follow their arguments in a very serious way. It's not little memorized sound bites or something like that. But the debates are reported everywhere, they're reprinted, and they really become a phenomenon, and they lift Lincoln to the presidency to a great degree. Though Douglass wins the 1858 election, within two years, it is Lincoln who is fighting for the presidency, beating the early favorites to secure the Republican nomination.

He enters the 1860 race as really a dark horse, and he's chosen because he's not so seemingly radical as William Henry Seward or Salmon Chase or some of these other people. Nor is he milk-watery moderate, like an old Whig like Edward Bates or something like that. He's kind of a centrist, and he's not that controversial or that well-known. He's known as a very logical thinker and kind of a homerist and he's not that controversial or that well known. He's known as a very logical thinker and kind of a homey guy. He sold his Abe in his church sleeves and with his axe and carrying a rail, a fence rail and all that. So he's very folksy. On election day, the 6th of November 1860, the sun is shining. When Lincoln goes to vote, a crowd follows behind,

cheering him. But he doesn't vote for himself. He never has done, and isn't about to start now. Instead, he makes his selections for the other offices of state, then goes home for supper with the family. Around 9 p.m., Lincoln can bear the tension no more. He crosses the town square and climbs the stairs to the second-floor office of the Illinois and Mississippi Telegraph Company. The manager had invited him the previous day, saying that they would be first with the news. Lincoln collapses onto a chair, awaiting not only his fate, but the fate of the nation. Lincoln collapses onto a chair, awaiting not only his fate, but the fate of the nation. For a while, there is an eerie quiet, save for the rhythmic clicking of the telegraphic equipment and the restless hovering of its operators.

Eventually, news of results from around the country begins to arrive. The operators quickly transcribe the messages onto small sheets of mustard-colored paper. To start with, the superintendent announces each result. But as they begin to stream in, he gives up and simply passes the flurry of paper sheets to Lincoln, who lays each on his knee as he adjusts his spectacles to read them. The initial indications are that Lincoln is faring well, but it is too early to say for sure. More of his team join him, and with each bit of good news, the euphoria in the room grows. But Lincoln stays resolutely poker-faced.

Illinois is his. So too Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa, Philadelphia and Connecticut. Even the expected losses in the South are not as bad as they might be. But Lincoln cannot relax. He knows he needs New York and its large share of electoral votes. The stream of results slows. Then, a little after midnight, the machines clack into action again. Lincoln is on his feet as a clerk rushes over with a telegraph. New York is his. Abraham Lincoln will be the 16th President of the United States of America. The uproar in the office is nothing compared with that spontaneously erupting in a square outside. People, normally bound by the rules of social protocol, embrace each other, dance jigs, and cast their hats to the sky.

Fortunately, during the election itself, the Democratic Party split up. It shattered into three parts. So he was running against three candidates, and he won the most. He didn't win a plurality of the popular votes, because if you put the other candidates together, they won a million more votes than he, but he won the electoral college. Lincoln, though, remains calm throughout. He knows that, to an extent, he has inherited a poisoned chalice, a country already split apart. Before 1864 is out, South Carolina becomes the first state to secede for fear that a Lincoln presidency will constrain slavery. Even as the president-elect journeys to Washington, he is subject to assassination threats.

At the root of all the problems is the disagreement over slavery. When he enters the White House, seven southern states have left the Union and formed their own nation with its own constitution, its own president, its own Congress, and very soon four other states join those seven states so that you have 11 states that say that they have formed a different country. And this is a situation that no other president has ever confronted. Lincoln, in his mind, never accepts the fact that the Confederacy is a separate nation. In his mind, there's always the American Union. However, he knows there are rebels against the Union, and he knows that he has to do something about it. When Lincoln makes his inaugural speech

on the 4th of March, 1861, he does so under the threat of civil war. Aiming for a conciliatory tone, he reminds the American people of their commonality. He promises no interference where slavery already exists, but warns against further attempts at secession or attacks on federal ports and forts in the South. Always keen to be a unifier, he appoints a cabinet of all the talents, bravely appointing

old rivals who potentially threaten his authority. It's been called team of rivals and so forth, and several of them think that they're superior to him. He has this kind of humble persona. And in fact, several people said, why did you choose this person, Sam and Chase, who became secretary or treasurer? Chase thinks that he's infinitely superior to you,

and he's really intelligent, really experienced. And Lincoln says, oh, he thinks he's really intelligent, really experienced. And Lincoln says, oh, he thinks he's better than I am. Good. Can you find me a whole cabinet that way? He wanted an entire cabinet of people who thought they were better than he was. The first major crunch point comes after just a few weeks, a challenge to Lincoln's commitment to defend federal possessions.

It is a little before 4.30 a.m. on the 12th of April, 1861. In the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, the sea is choppy after a spate of rough storms. The shrill squawk of seagulls pierces the peace of dawn. From a command room on Fort Sumter, a thick-set brick fort in the middle of the harbor, its commander, Major Anderson, watches a group of men in a rowing boat. Struggling to navigate their way back to shore, these militia men have just left after offering him an ultimatum. Though the fort is the property of the federal government,

their message was that if Anderson agreed to evacuate, their Confederate forces surrounding it will give his men safe passage. Anderson told them he needed three days. Even so, he knows an attack is imminent, and with fewer than 100 men against the 3,000 Confederates ranged against them, he's utterly vulnerable. For now, there is a strange and accepting calm. But as the hand of the clock in Anderson's command room sweeps around to half past the hour, that peace is crudely broken. From nearby James Island, a single Confederate mortar shell fizzes into the still starry sky and arcs over the fort before exploding with ear-splitting ferocity.

This is, it will turn out, the first shot of the American Civil War. For 33 hours, Fort Sumter is bombarded by more than 4,000 shells and shots. Its five feet thick walls are soon ablaze. At midday on the 13th of April, Anderson knows the game is up. Tired beyond words and his shoulders slumping under the responsibility, he orders the white flag of surrender be raised. When a Union flotilla finally arrives to ferry him and his garrison back to the safety of the North, they find him clutching a tattered American flag in his hands. When the news hits Washington, there is a strange mixture of trepidation and something like relief that the tension had been broken.

Several prominent voices within Lincoln's cabinet urge caution. Most of them were saying, oh, let Fort Sumter go to the Confederacy and let's see what happens. They said, hey, I said in my first inaugural that if they attack a federal fort in the south, I'm going to defend that federal property. And at that point, he calls up 75,000 troops, and he knows it's war. He knows it's going to be war. He gathers an army together. By this summer, by July, he has 500,000 troops. The secessionist slave states are determined to strike out on their own, while Lincoln and the Union states refuse to lose any more of the South or the so-called border states where loyalty is split.

Ultimately, Lincoln's White House aims to reunify the United States, but he suffers a series of shocking defeats at the hands of the Confederates, expertly marshaled by General Robert E. Lee. hands of the Confederates, expertly marshalled by General Robert E. Lee. Then, in February of 1862, the President's political struggles are compounded by personal tragedy when his son, Willie, dies from ill health aged just eleven. But the war has no mercy for Lincoln's grief. Neither side is able to gain the upper hand, even as they hemorrhage men in their tens of thousands. Some of Lincoln's critics say that the Union lacks a crusading imperative, that it needs a cause to believe in. On New Year's Day, 1863, he provides it.

He provides it. Today he will sign into law the Emancipation Proclamation, a presidential order that changes history. The 3.5 million enslaved people of the Confederate States, it says, are to be made free. As soon as an enslaved person can escape, either as a result of Union advances or by fleeing to Union territory, they are to be free forever. Moreover, they have the right to serve in the armed forces of the United States. Now, Washington fills with New Year's revelers and those who want to say they were present at such a moment in history.

At 2pm, Lincoln sits at the desk in his office. He takes his favourite gold pen and dips the nib into a pot of ink. Fighting off a tremble in his hand, he signs his name slowly and carefully across the document. Looking up at the officials assembled to bear witness, he lets out a chuckle. That will do, he says. He knows that his order will prompt new bloodshed, but he is undaunted. I never in my life, Lincoln says,

felt more certain that I was doing right than I do in signing this paper. The Emancipation Proclamation is very divisive, even among his own people, because it seems too radical. even among his own people, because it seems too radical, which is one reason why he softens it and says, OK, I'm not going to proclaim emancipation for all enslaved people, only for the people held in the southern states. I'm not going to proclaim it for the people in the border states. In the border states, they're not free. Why?

If he says they're free in the border states, the border states are going to join the South, and that's the end of the war. So he has to isolate the South and say the slaves are free there. And he's hoping that the word will spread among the enslaved people of the South, and a kind of sense of rebelliousness and independence will develop among the enslaved people. And in the North, he uses African Americans in the army for the first time, and they prove to be decisive. The proclamation alters the course of the war. Where the Union forces had been fighting to preserve the power of the federal government, now it is on a moral crusade to free the slaves.

Now it is on a moral crusade to free the slaves. As well as giving the Union forces a moral urgency, it undermines support from abroad for the Confederate cause. More importantly, the Union army swells with formerly enslaved people whose bravery on the battlefield proves invaluable. And with Ulysses S. Grant, a military general who can truly take the fight to the enemy, it finally starts to feel like things are going Lincoln's way. On the 19th of November, 1863, he makes his way on horseback through the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where he's due to speak at the dedication of a soldier's national cemetery.

Only a few months ago, the town was the site of the Civil War's single most deadly battle, when as many as 28,000 troops lost their lives before the Unionists claimed victory. As he rides up Baltimore Street to the site of the dedication, Lincoln glances at the buildings pockmarked with bullet holes. Further on, he passes fields barren and scorched from the battle, some still home to the remnants of field tents where the wounded were tended. He even spies a few recovering casualties scattered along his route, hobbling on crutches, their faces etched all these months later with the horrors they have seen. When he arrives near the cemetery, he dismounts. An organizer guides him around the crowd,

some 15,000 strong, to where he will make his address. As they walk, the man points out a former cornfield, now pitted with freshly dug graves. But despite the specter of death, flags flutter proudly in the breeze. A child wanders over selling cookies, another has souvenir bullets, and there are even cannonballs for sale. Despite the numbers there is a somber atmosphere to the crowd. Lincoln himself is no stranger to grief. He wears a dark suit and frock coat, his customary top hat adorned with a mourning band for his son, Willy. It's almost two years since he

lost his beloved child, but the sorrow is as intense as ever. But it is also a point of connection. His audience knows he understands their losses. He takes his place for the main address, courtesy of Edward Everett, a former Massachusetts governor and master of Harvard College. One of the great orators of his age, Everett speaks for two hours. From his seat, Lincoln can see some of those in the front row tearing up at his words. When Lincoln's turn comes, the whole audience falls silent. But he will take a different approach to Everett, aiming for precision over length. On the stage, Lincoln stands, adjusts his glasses, takes his speech from his left breast pocket.

Beyond the crowd, he can see the rows upon rows of graves. To hushed attention, he begins. attention he begins. Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. In fact, his Gettysburg Address is just 271 words long, finished before the photographers at the front of the stage even have time to take a few plates. But what he says will come to define the nation's view of itself.

It gives voice to the hopes and fears of millions. These great speeches, the first inaugural, the Gettysburg Address, the second inaugural address, are prose poems. They shape reality. They commit the nation to human equality. They sympathize with enslaved people, with suffering people on such a deep level. Even so, as Lincoln faces re-election in 1864, the omens do not look good for him. The war grinds on, and while the Emancipation Proclamation wins him many admirers, it also strengthens the passion of those who oppose him, like many of those in the border states. On top of that, the Union forces are struggling to make serious headway on the battlefield. The opposition Democratic Party is divided between those who believe the war might

be won with a new leader in the White House and those who want an immediate peace with the Confederacy. Lincoln himself does not fancy his chances at the polls. But, you know, Lincoln looked forward to November and said, I'm going to lose, probably. And everybody else around him knew he was going to lose. So he writes a letter, a sealed letter to his cabinet to be opened after the election, saying, I've lost this election. I want to do whatever I can to provide a peaceful transition of power to my successor. But now the tide starts to turn. The armies of the northern states not only score a series of victories in the field,

but start to strangle the Confederate forces of supplies. After years of stalemate, the Union finds itself with momentum. Lincoln is lifted to power, lifted to the presidency again. But even after that, he says, the best thing about this whole thing for me is the fact that we had a democratic election in the middle of a civil war. I'm very happy to have won. But it's really a dramatic story, a total belief in the American democracy.

His second inauguration speech is very different to his first. With the end of the war in sight, he lays the groundwork for the nation's reconstruction. He hopes, he says, to bind up the nation's wounds. In early April, General Lee's Confederate troops are forced into retreat by Grant's Union forces in Virginia. On Palm Sunday, Lee goes to a meeting at the courthouse in the small town of Appomattox. In full dress uniform and carrying a sabre, he surrenders his forces to Grant. Though it marks the beginning of the end of the war, Lincoln resists triumphalism. On April 9, 1865, which is the day that Lee is surrendering to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse,

Lincoln's on a boat going back to Washington with a lot of other people, and the war is over, and everybody else is kind of jumping up and down, and Lincoln preferred that day to read from Shakespeare and from Longfellow, and it seems to me that that's what Lincoln on that day was thinking about. He wasn't even thinking about, oh, we won the war or what are we going to do in reconstruction or anything like that. Almost 800,000 people had died under his watch

in the Civil War. It was such a bloodbath. So many people have lost their lives. How am I going to think about life itself at this moment? It soothed him to be reading poems about death and dying in Shakespeare and Longfellow. And it says something about him, it seems to me. Something really quite beautiful. Less than a week later, Lincoln's story takes its last great twist when the popular actor John

Wilkes Booth slays the President in his box at Ford's Theatre in Washington. Lincoln is the first US President to be assassinated and had lived long with the threat. He was aware of plots to kill him even as he made his way to the White House for the first time in 1860. But he never let fear stop him from being a leader with whom the public could interact freely. Meanwhile, Booth had been planning this for a long time. Booth hated Lincoln. Booth was raised in a slave-holding background.

He considered Lincoln vulgar. And when Lincoln was re-elected, he said, that's it. He's going to be king for life. Back then, they didn't have term limits. He's going to be king for life. I hate this guy's politics. I hate him. Booth was an unabashed white supremacist.

Unabashed white supremacist. He loved slavery. He says, I'm just going to kill this guy. After shooting Lincoln dead, Booth escapes on horseback. Already known for the intensity of his performances, he seems to relish playing the part of the assassin, starring in a drama of his own making. Twelve days later, he is cornered in a barn in Virginia,

where he faces his final curtain. Refusing the opportunity to surrender, he calls to the Union soldiers that he would prefer to come out and fight. He is shot dead shortly afterwards. The nation is left reeling by the death of its leader. On the 4th of May, Lincoln is buried in Springfield. At his graveside, a bishop intones,

Hushed is thy voice, but its echoes of liberty are ringing through the world, and the sons of bondage listen with joy. Hero, martyr, friend, farewell. The assassination exemplifies what Walt Whitman called the heroic eminent death. He said, a nation is not unified most by its constitutions, by its laws, but by the great people who died, particularly those who died tragically. And in a way, that's part of why Lincoln becomes so famous. He becomes famous because the nation does unify in its grief to a great degree. In the coming weeks, the Confederate forces sign their final surrenders,

and the Civil War officially draws to a close. In December, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is proclaimed, abolishing slavery. But there are those who say that for all he achieved, Lincoln was not strong enough in either his condemnation of slavery or the racist principles that underpinned it. Even Lincoln was flawed. But you have to recognize the struggle for equal rights as a kind of incremental, inch-by-inch struggle, very painful, sometimes going forward, sometimes going back, sometimes having contradictions. But Lincoln is someone who is always very principled and is always trying to push as far forward as he can, given the political process that we have in America. Frederick Douglass called Lincoln the least racist white person I've ever

met. Same thing with Sojourner Truth, the feminist African-American. When she met him, she said, the least racist, prejudiced white person that I've ever met. So again, you cannot impose today's values on the past. What Lincoln did achieve was the unification of a country that seemed destined to tear itself apart. In doing so, he took on some of the worst excesses of racial prejudice, economic greed, and social conservatism. he certainly guided the nation very intelligently and very tactfully through his greatest crisis his moment of greatest crisis and he did it with firmness the sense of principle he did with patience lincoln once said i don't control events events have controlled. And to a great degree, I think that all of us are shaped by things outside of us, by our culture, by the course of events in our own family,

but also in our town, in the nation as a whole, and the current of political events. And he was humble enough to recognize that. And yet, when push came to shove, he shaped the nation. He shaped the nation. In the next episode of Short History Of, we'll bring you a short history of Pocahontas. Pocahontas should be remembered for the extraordinary courage she showed, the efforts that she made on behalf of her people. Her father asked her to work as an intermediary and she did the best she could. She did make peace for her people for a couple of years. She couldn't hold back the tide of history,

but she did mute the violence to some extent and she did help keep memory of their culture alive for posterity. That's next time on Short History Of.