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
Millard Fillmore (1800-1874) was the 13th president of the United States, rising from a poor childhood in New York to become a lawyer, congressman, vice president, and president. He became president after Zachary Taylor's death in 1850 and supported the Compromise of 1850, including the controversial Fugitive Slave Act, in an effort to preserve the Union amid growing sectional tensions over slavery.
Millard
Fillmore
Franklin Pierce (1804-1869) was the 14th president of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857 during the Sectional Crisis. A New Hampshire Democrat and Mexican-American War veteran, he supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the expansion of slavery into the territories, policies that intensified tensions between North and South.
Franklin
Pierce
Andrew Johnson (1808-1875)was the 17th president of the United States, rising from poverty in North Carolina to become a prominent Tennessee politician and the nation's vice president under Abraham Lincoln. As president, he pursued a lenient Reconstruction policy conflicting with the Republican-controlled Congress. After leaving office, Johnson returned to Tennessee politics and briefly served again in the U.S. Senate before his death in 1875.
Andrew
Johnson
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was the 16th President of the United States, serving from 1861 to 1865 during the American Civil War. He led the Union to victory, issued the Emancipation Proclamation, and helped pave the way for the abolition of slavery through the Thirteenth Amendment. Assassinated shortly after the Civil War ended, Lincoln became one of America's most revered presidents, remembered for preserving the Union and redefining the nation's commitment to freedom and equality.
Abraham
Lincoln
Hannibal Hamlin (1809-1891) was a Maine lawyer and politician who began as a Democrat before becoming an important Republican opponent of slavery's expansion. He served as Abraham Lincoln's first vice president during the opening years of the Civil War but was replaced by Andrew Johnson on the 1864 Republican ticket. Hamlin later returned to the Senate, served briefly as minister to Spain, and retired to Maine before his death in 1891.
Hannibal
Hamlin
Henry Wilson (1812-1875) rose from an impoverished New Hampshire childhood and an apprenticeship as a cobbler to become a successful businessman, abolitionist, senator, and vice president. As a Republican senator, he played an important role in Civil War legislation, emancipation, and early postwar civil-rights legislation. His vice presidency ended with his death in the Capitol in 1875.
Henry
Wilson