At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

Twice a week Lincoln would meet with his cabinet in the afternoon and occasionally Mary Lincoln would force him to take a carriage ride because Abraham Lincoln was concerned he was working too hard. Lincoln authorized Grant to target the Confederate infrastructure—such as plantations railroads and bridges—hoping to destroy the South's morale and weaken its economic ability to continue fighting. Upon ratification it became the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on December 6 1865.

presidents the others by scholars being George Washington and Franklin D. With almost no support in the South Lincoln swept the North and was elected president in 1860. "
When the North enthusiastically rallied behind the national flag after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter on April 12 1861 Lincoln concentrated on the military and political dimensions of the war effort.