Lincoln's Transformation: Impact of the Civil War

519 Words2 Pages

The Civil War took a clear toll on Lincoln. After years of fighting with no clear end in sight, Lincoln became exhausted. In some ways, his exhaustion could be mistaken as laziness or indifference. Overall, the War changed his mood. Lincoln was known for being mild mannered and not easily offended. However, tensions grew and Lincoln’s temper sharpened. His most peaceful moments as the president became laced with anger and tort comments. From the very beginning of his presidency, Lincoln valued his daily appointments with concerned citizens. He was even polite and congenial to the angry ones. Later, Lincoln became snide and impatient with the few citizens that barked orders and screamed criticisms. This led him to make hasty decisions and publish statements solely to appease the equally hot-tempered citizens. Initially, this was a characteristic that could easily be applied to someone like Frederick Douglass but never to Lincoln. Lincoln began to wear his emotions on his sleeve despite the fact that he had always openly valued “cold, calculated reason” much more. Additionally, Lincoln was known for being a man with no policy. Once the war began, Lincoln clearly adopted the preservation of the Union as his policy. As the war waged, Lincoln also added emancipation to his policies. As the …show more content…

The War had given Lincoln so much to worry about that he barely involved himself in politics. He was hesitant to make major political moves like appointed Chase as Chief of Justice and allowed Chandler to make promises to help him seal votes (something he explicitly said he would not do during the first election). Instead of having ambiguous policies to lure in voters, Lincoln skipped making the effort to subtly attract voters and took a more direct (and somewhat easier) approach to enlisting support. Lincoln knew he needed support from radicals and for the first time ever, focused on them as essential

Open Document