Modern Era
Chapter 26: Crisis of Populism 2017 ― Today
Make America Great Again 2017-2021
Build Back Better 2021-2025
America First 2025-Today
War on Terror 2001 ― 2017
Yet to Happen
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Documents
Master Index
1862
An open letter urging Abraham Lincoln to enforce existing anti-slavery laws and adopt emancipation as a central war aim, arguing that hesitation toward slavery was undermining the Union cause. It reflects growing Northern pressure to transform the Civil War into a moral and military struggle against slavery, helping set the stage for Lincoln’s shift toward the Emancipation Proclamation.
Horace Greeley
The Prayer of Twenty Millions
1862
In response to Horace Greeley’s public editorial “The Prayer of Twenty Millions,” Abraham Lincoln’s letter clarified that his paramount constitutional duty as president was the preservation of the Union, not the immediate abolition or preservation of slavery as an end in itself. Lincoln emphasized that any action he took regarding slavery — including emancipation — would be justified only insofar as it helped suppress the rebellion and restore national authority, while still affirming his personal wish “that all men, everywhere, could be free.”
Abraham Lincoln
Response Letter to Greeley
Biographies
William A. Wheeler (1819-1887) was a New York lawyer and Republican politician who served in state government and represented New York in Congress for much of the Civil War and Reconstruction era. He became Rutherford B. Hayes's vice-presidential running mate in 1876 and served from 1877 to 1881. After leaving office, Wheeler retired because of declining health and returned to his hometown of Malone, where he died in 1887.
William
Wheeler
Thomas A. Hendricks (1819-885) was an Indiana lawyer and Democratic politician who served in both houses of Congress and as governor of Indiana. He twice became a Democratic vice-presidential nominee before winning the office alongside Grover Cleveland in 1884. Hendricks died suddenly only eight months into his vice presidency, leaving the office vacant for the rest of Cleveland's term.
Thomas
Hendricks
John C. Breckinridge (1821-1875) was a Kentucky lawyer and Democratic politician who became the youngest vice president in American history and later served as a U.S. senator. He ran for president in 1860 as the Southern Democratic candidate before joining the Confederacy, where he served as a general and eventually Confederate Secretary of War. Breckinridge returned to Kentucky after the Civil War and died in Lexington in 1875.
John
Breckinridge
Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) was the 18th president of the United States and the commanding Union general during the end of the Civil War. As president, he supported Reconstruction and used federal power to defend the civil and political rights of formerly enslaved Americans, while his administration was weakened by corruption scandals involving. After leaving office, Grant faced financial ruin but completed his celebrated Personal Memoirs before dying of throat cancer in 1885.
Ulysses
S. Grant
Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893) was the 19th president of the United States, a Civil War Union general, lawyer, congressman, and governor of Ohio. His administration emphasized civil service reform, opposition to political patronage, sound currency, and the restoration of presidential authority, during the end of Reconstruction. After leaving office voluntarily after one term, Hayes devoted his retirement to education, prison reform, and other civic causes until his death in 1893.
Rutherford
B. Hayes
Schuyler Colfax (1823-1885) rose from journalism in Indiana to become a Republican congressman and Speaker of the House during the Civil War. As Speaker, he presided over the House when Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment, and he later served as Ulysses S. Grant's vice president. His political career ended amid the Credit Mobilier controversy, after which he became a lecturer before dying in 1885.
Schuyler
Colfax