Abraham Lincoln: A Model of Exceptional Leadership

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Lincoln In Leadership Throughout history there have been many debates in regards to the qualifications required for an individual to be considered a strong and efficient leader. In discussion of Abraham Lincoln, one controversial issue that he and his fellow countrymen experienced was the separation of the Union into two opposing branches, which are the Confederacy and the Union. However, even with the issue of a Civil War right in his backyard no one has come close to the level of leadership that was demonstrated by Abraham Lincoln during his presidential terms. Abraham Lincoln exemplified his leadership qualities by expressing concern for his soldiers, maintaining integrity throughout his terms, and his courage in keeping the Union together …show more content…

In every letter that Lincoln had written to his generals he would be considerate of them, “To Halleck (9-19-63) ‘I hope you will consider it…’” (Phillips 43). Doing this he wanted to demonstrate that he was just sending his letters to support his generals even though most of the time the generals he had chosen didn’t take action during a battle. Though he had constant frustration towards his generals lack of action, he showed compassion towards they. Since Lincoln followed a “mutual determinative activity, on … the leader and the followers” (Wills), he allowed his generals to have full power over the army. All the actions that Lincoln had done were for his concern of the nation's unity. This illustrates that Lincoln was concerned for his countrymen and the nation during the time of the Civil War. Not only did Lincoln have integrity as any true leader should, but he was acknowledged with the name “Honest Abe” for his immense demonstration of integrity during his lifetime. Over the course of the Civil War and even before that, Lincoln had always stuck to his morals of abolitioning slavery from the country as well as keeping the Union from being divided. He would declare that “a house divided against itself cannot stand” (Phillips 27) to suggest that if the Union were to be divided then it will not be able to govern over the

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