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Introduction:
When Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United
States in 1860, his experience in politics and government
included serving in the Illinois legislature and the
US House of Representatives. He had also studied law
and was licensed to practice law in Illinois at age
twenty-seven. This seems like scant experience for a
man who would lead a country through the greatest internal
challenge to its existence. However, Lincoln found a
way to draw on his life experience and his professional
knowledge to lead the nation with an astuteness and
skill that might have escaped a more seasoned politician.
Lincoln was inaugurated in 1861. He served until 1865
and during this tenure he led the country through the
crises of secession and civil war. His presidency, which
was defined by a Constitutional challenge and forged
in a bloody war, has been judged among the greatest
in US history. Though the distinction awarded Lincoln
was warranted in part by the high position he held and
by the magnitude of the crises, it was also earned by
the intelligence and the political savvy of the man.
This lesson will ask students to analyze Abraham Lincoln,
the man, as President of the United States.
Objectives
1. Students will be able to create a model for evaluating
the validity of historical evidence.
2. Students will read appropriate sections of the Constitution
and letters from the Federalist Papers in order to identify
the powers of the President of the United States.
3. Students will examine primary documents and secondary
sources to analyze the presidency of Abraham Lincoln.
4. Students will be able to examine the effects of secession
and Civil War on the office of the President and on
the sixteenth President.
5. Students will be able to read Supreme Court decisions
that challenged the power of the president and identify
Lincoln’s response.
6. Students will be engaged in historical research and
the critical analysis of the significant social, economic
and political events of this era.
Lesson
Student Exercise One: Define the Presidency
1. Have students read Article II of the Constitution
of the United States and the Federalist Papers, number
69 and 70. Have them also read secondary accounts (see
links below) of the era in order to gain a better understanding
of the office.
2. The students should work together to develop a description
of the powers of the President of the US from the sources.
The following sites are useful:
The Constution:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.overview.html
The Federalist Papers
http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa00.htm
Two Overviews of the Presidency:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/717803/
presidency-of-the-United-States-of-America
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761571294/
president_of_the_united_states.html
Student Exercise Two: Lincoln and Secession,
A Debate
1. Using the research (see links both above and below),
set up a debate using the following resolution:
Resolved: Secession violated the Constitution of
the United States
2. The format for the debate will depend on the size
of the class.
The following sites are useful:
Cornell Law Overview of the Constitution
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.overview.html
Abraham Lincoln Biography (Whitehouse.gov)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/al16.html
Secession and the Civil War (Digital History)
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/us19.cfm
The Secession Crisis (u-s-history.com)
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h229.html
An Ordinance to Dissolve the Union (The Gilder Lehrman
Collection)
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/search/display_results.php?id=GLC04483
Abraham Lincoln (The American President)
http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident
/lincoln/essays/biography/4
Student Exercise Three: War Powers of the President
Panel Discussion: Was Lincoln in compliance with the
Constitution when he declared war on the seceded states,
passed the Second Confiscation Act and issued the Emancipation
Proclamation?
1. The class should be divided into three groups and
assigned one of Lincoln’s actions as president.
The group will research the assigned topic and prepare
for responses to the discussion question
2. The format for the discussion will depend on the
size of the class.
The following sites are useful:
Lincoln Responds to Secession (Digital History)
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=89
Lincoln's Declaration of War (Harper's Weekly)
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/
1861/april/abraham-lincoln-declaration-war.htm
Lincoln's Address upon Declaration of War
http://facweb.furman.edu/~benson/docs/lincoln.htm
Second Confiscation Act
http://www.history.umd.edu/Freedmen/conact2.htm
http://www.answers.com/topic/first-and-second-confiscation-acts-1861-1862
http://supreme.justia.com/us/78/268/
Emancipation Proclamation
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/almintr.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h1549.html
Extension Activity
Essay: To what extent did Lincoln’s response
to the Civil War alter the power of the President of
the United States?
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