First term
After Lincoln's election, secessionists implemented plans to leave the Union before he took office in March 1861. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina adopted an ordinance of secession; by February 1, 1861, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas had followed. Six of these states declared themselves to be a sovereign nation, the Confederate States of America, selecting Jefferson Davis as its provisional president.
The upper South and border states (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Arkansas) initially rejected the secessionist appeal. President Buchanan and President-elect Lincoln refused to recognize the Confederacy, declaring secession illegal. On February 11, 1861, Lincoln gave a particularly emotional farewell address upon leaving Springfield for Washington.
Lincoln and the Republicans rejected the proposed Crittenden Compromise as contrary to the party's platform of free-soil in the territories. Lincoln said, "I will suffer death before I consent ... to any concession or compromise which looks like buying the privilege to take possession of this government to which we have a constitutional right". Lincoln supported the Corwin Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which would have protected slavery in states where it already existed. The amendment passed Congress and was awaiting ratification by the required three-fourths of the states when Southern states began to secede. On March 4, 1861, in his first inaugural address, Lincoln said that, because he held "such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express, and irrevocable".
Due to secessionist plots, careful attention was paid to Lincoln's security and the train he took to Washington. The president-elect evaded suspected assassins in Baltimore. He traveled in disguise, wearing a soft felt hat instead of his customary stovepipe hat and draping an overcoat over his shoulders while hunching to conceal his height. On February 23, 1861, he arrived in Washington, D.C., which was placed under military guard. Many in the opposition press criticized his secretive journey; opposition newspapers mocked Lincoln with caricatures showing him sneaking into the capital. Lincoln directed his inaugural address to the South, proclaiming once again that he had no inclination to abolish slavery in the Southern states:
Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States, that by the accession of a Republican Administration, their property, and their peace, and personal security, are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed, and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." The president ended his address with an appeal to the people of the South: "We are not enemies, but friends.... The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone ... will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched ... by the better angels of our nature". According to Donald, the failure of the Peace Conference of 1861 to attract the attendance of seven of the Confederate states signaled that legislative compromise was not a practical expectation.
In selecting his cabinet, Lincoln chose the men he found the most competent, even when they had been his opponents for the presidency. Lincoln commented on his thought process, "We need the strongest men of the party in the Cabinet. We needed to hold our own people together. I had looked the party over and concluded that these were the very strongest men. Then I had no right to deprive the country of their services." Doris Kearns Goodwin described the group in her 2005 biography of Lincoln as a "Team of Rivals". Lincoln named his main political opponent, William H. Seward, as Secretary of State.
Lincoln made five appointments to the Supreme Court. Noah Haynes Swayne, a prominent corporate lawyer from Ohio, replaced John McLean after the latter's death in April 1861. Like McLean, Swayne opposed slavery. Samuel Freeman Miller, who replaced Peter V. Daniel, was an avowed abolitionist and received widespread support from Iowa politicians. David Davis was Lincoln's campaign manager in 1860 and had served as a judge in the Illinois court circuit where Lincoln practiced.
Democrat Stephen Johnson Field, a previous California Supreme Court justice, provided geographic and political balance. After the death of Roger B. Taney, Lincoln appointed his former secretary of the treasury, Salmon P. Chase, to replace Taney as chief justice. Lincoln believed Chase was an able jurist who would support Reconstruction legislation and that his appointment would unite the Republican Party.
In early April 1861, Major Robert Anderson, commander of Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, advised that he was nearly out of food. After considerable deliberation, Lincoln decided to send provisions; according to Michael Burlingame, he "could not be sure that his decision would precipitate a war, though he had good reason to believe that it might". On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces fired on Union troops at Fort Sumter, starting the American Civil War. Donald concludes: His repeated efforts to avoid collision ... showed that he adhered to his vow not to be the first to shed fraternal blood. But he had also vowed not to surrender the forts.... The only resolution of these contradictory positions was for the Confederates to fire the first shot.
The April 12 and 13 attack on Fort Sumter rallied the Northern public to see military action against the South as necessary to defend the nation. On April 15, Lincoln called for 75,000 militiamen to recapture forts, protect Washington, and preserve the Union. This call forced states to choose whether to secede or to support the Union. North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas seceded. As the Northern states sent regiments south, on April 19 Baltimore mobs in control of the rail links attacked Union troops who were changing trains. Local leaders' groups later burned critical rail bridges to the capital and the Army responded by arresting local Maryland officials. Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus, allowing arrests without formal charges.
John Merryman, a Maryland officer arrested for hindering U.S. troop movements, successfully petitioned Supreme Court Chief Justice Taney to issue a writ of habeas corpus. In an opinion titled Ex parte Merryman, Taney, not ruling on behalf of the Supreme Court, wrote that the Constitution authorized only Congress and not the president to suspend habeas corpus. But Lincoln engaged in nonacquiescence and persisted with the policy of suspension in select areas. Under various suspensions, 15,000 civilians were detained without trial; several, including the anti-war Democrat Clement L. Vallandigham, were tried in military courts for "treasonable" actions, which was condemned as an attack on free speech.
Lincoln took executive control of the war and shaped the Union military strategy. He responded to the unprecedented political and military crisis as commander-in-chief by exercising unprecedented authority. He expanded his war powers, imposed a naval blockade on Confederate ports, disbursed funds before appropriation by Congress, suspended habeas corpus, and arrested and imprisoned thousands of suspected Confederate sympathizers. Lincoln gained the support of Congress and the northern public for these actions. Lincoln also had to reinforce Union sympathies in the border slave states and keep the war from becoming an international conflict.
It was clear from the outset that bipartisan support was essential to success, and that any compromise alienated factions in both political parties. Copperheads (anti-war Democrats) criticized Lincoln for refusing to compromise on slavery; the Radical Republicans, who demanded harsh treatment against secession, criticized him for moving too slowly to abolish slavery. On August 6, 1861, Lincoln signed the Confiscation Act, which authorized judicial proceedings to confiscate and free slaves who were used to support the Confederates. The law had little practical effect, but it signaled political support for abolishing slavery.
Lincoln's war strategy had two priorities: ensuring that Washington was well defended and conducting an aggressive war effort for a prompt, decisive victory. Twice a week, Lincoln met with his cabinet. Occasionally, Lincoln's wife, Mary, prevailed on him to take a carriage ride, concerned that he was working too hard. Early in the war, Lincoln selected civilian generals from varied political and ethnic backgrounds "to secure their and their constituents' support for the war effort and ensure that the war became a national struggle". In January 1862, after complaints of inefficiency and profiteering in the War Department, Lincoln replaced Simon Cameron as secretary of war with Edwin Stanton. Stanton worked more often and more closely with Lincoln than did any other senior official. According to Stanton's biographers Benjamin P. Thomas and Harold Hyman, "Stanton and Lincoln virtually conducted the war together".
Lincoln saw the importance of Vicksburg for control of the Mississippi River valley and understood the necessity of defeating the enemy's army, rather than merely capturing territory. In directing the Union's war strategy, Lincoln valued the advice of Winfield Scott, even after his retirement as Commanding General of the United States Army. In 1861 Scott proposed the Anaconda Plan, which relied on port blockades and advancing down the Mississippi to subdue the South. In June 1862, Lincoln made an unannounced visit to West Point, where he spent five hours consulting with Scott regarding the handling of the war.
Internationally, Lincoln wanted to forestall foreign military aid to the Confederacy. He relied on his combative Secretary of State William Seward while working closely with Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Charles Sumner. In 1861 the U.S. Navy illegally intercepted a British mail ship, the RMS Trent, on the high seas and seized two Confederate envoys. Although the North celebrated the seizure, Britain protested vehemently, and the Trent Affair threatened war between the Americans and the British. Lincoln ended the crisis by releasing the two diplomats.
After the Union rout at Bull Run and Winfield Scott's retirement, Lincoln appointed George B. McClellan general-in-chief. Early in the war, McClellan created defenses for Washington that were almost impregnable: 48 forts and batteries, with 480 guns manned by 7,200 artillerists. He spent months planning his Virginia Peninsula Campaign. McClellan's slow progress and excessive precautions frustrated Lincoln. McClellan, in turn, blamed the failure of the campaign on Lincoln's cautiousness in having reserved troops for the capital. In 1862, Lincoln removed McClellan as general-in-chief; he elevated Henry Halleck to the post and appointed John Pope as head of the new Army of Virginia. In the summer of 1862 Pope was soundly defeated at the Second Battle of Bull Run, forcing him to retreat to Washington. Soon after, the Army of Virginia was disbanded.
Despite his dissatisfaction with McClellan's failure to reinforce Pope, Lincoln restored him to command of all forces around Washington, which included both the Army of the Potomac and the remains of the Army of Virginia. Two days later, Robert E. Lee's forces crossed the Potomac River into Maryland, leading to the Battle of Antietam. This battle, a Union victory, was among the bloodiest in American history. A crisis of command occurred for Lincoln when McClellan then resisted the president's demand that he pursue Lee's withdrawing army, while Don Carlos Buell likewise refused orders to move the Army of the Ohio against rebel forces in eastern Tennessee. Lincoln replaced Buell with William Rosecrans and McClellan with Ambrose Burnside; according to Donald, this was a "shrewd" political move as they were non-partisan—unlike McClellan, a Democrat. Against presidential advice, Burnside launched an offensive across the Rappahannock River and was defeated by Lee at Fredericksburg in December. Facing low morale and discontent among the troops, Lincoln replaced Burnside with Joseph Hooker. Hooker endured heavy casualties at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May, then resigned in June and was replaced by George Meade. Meade followed Lee north into Pennsylvania and defeated him in the Gettysburg campaign but then failed to effectively block Lee's orderly retreat to Virginia, despite Lincoln's demands. At the same time, Ulysses S. Grant captured Vicksburg and gained control of the Mississippi River.
In May 1863, Lincoln issued the Lieber Code, which governed wartime conduct of the Union Army, defining command responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Two Union generals had issued emancipation orders in 1861 and 1862, but Lincoln overrode both: he found that the decision to emancipate was not within the generals' power, and that it might induce loyal border states to secede. However, in June 1862, Congress passed an act banning slavery in all federal territories, which Lincoln signed. In July, the Confiscation Act of 1862 was enacted, allowing the seizure of slaves from those disloyal to the United States. On July 22, 1862, Lincoln reviewed a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation with his cabinet. Senator Willard Saulsbury Sr. criticized the proclamation, stating that it "would light their author to dishonor through all future generations". By contrast, Horace Greeley, editor of the New-York Tribune, in his public letter, "The Prayer of Twenty Millions", implored Lincoln to embrace emancipation. In a public letter of August 22, 1862, Lincoln replied to Greeley that while he personally wished all men could be free, his first obligation as president was to preserve the Union:
My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.
Buttressed by news of the recent Union victory at Antietam, on September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which proclaimed that, on January 1, 1863, all persons held as slaves within any state still in rebellion would be free. On January 1, 1863, he issued the final Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves in the ten states not then under Union control, exempting areas under such control. Lincoln commented on signing the Proclamation: "I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper." On New Year's Eve in 1862, Black people – enslaved and free – gathered across the United States to hold Watch Night ceremonies for "Freedom's Eve", looking toward the promised fulfillment of the Proclamation. With the abolition of slavery in the rebel states now a military objective, Union armies advancing south enabled thousands to escape bondage.
The Proclamation was immediately denounced by Copperheads, who advocated restoring the union by allowing slavery. It was also seen as a betrayal of his promise to Southern Unionists not to tamper with slavery; Emerson Etheridge, then Clerk of the House of Representatives, joined an unsuccessful plot to give the Democrats and Southern Unionists control of the House. As a result of the Proclamation, enlisting freedmen became official policy. In a letter to Tennessee military governor Andrew Johnson, Lincoln wrote, "The bare sight of fifty thousand armed, and drilled black soldiers on the banks of the Mississippi would end the rebellion at once".
Lincoln gave the dedication for the Gettysburg battlefield cemetery on November 19, 1863. He asserted that the nation was "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal", and that the deaths of the "brave men ... who struggled here" would not be in vain, but that the nation "shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth". The address became the most quoted speech in American history.
Following Admiral David Farragut's capture of New Orleans in 1862, and after victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving holiday, to be celebrated on the final Thursday of November 1863.
Grant's victories at the Battle of Shiloh and in the Vicksburg campaign impressed Lincoln. Responding to criticism of Grant after Shiloh, Lincoln said, "I can't spare this man. He fights." Following Meade's failure to capture Lee's army after Gettysburg and after Grant's success at Chattanooga, Lincoln promoted Grant to commander of all Union armies.
Lincoln reacted to Union losses by mobilizing support throughout the North. Union forces targeted infrastructure—plantations, railroads, and bridges—to weaken the South's morale and fighting ability. While Lincoln sanctioned this approach, he emphasized the defeat of the Confederate armies over destruction for its own sake. Grant's bloody Overland Campaign turned into a strategic success for the Union despite a number of setbacks. But the campaign was the bloodiest in American history: approximately 55,000 casualties on the Union side (including 7,600 deaths), compared to about 33,000 on the Confederate (including 4,200 deaths). Lee's losses, although lower in absolute numbers, were proportionately higher (over 50%) than Grant's (about 45%). In early April, the Confederate government evacuated Richmond and Lincoln visited the conquered capital.
Amid the turmoil of military actions, on June 30, 1864, Lincoln signed into law the Yosemite Grant, which provided unprecedented federal protection for the area now known as Yosemite National Park. According to Rolf Diamant and Ethan Carr, "the Yosemite Grant was a direct consequence of the war ... an embodiment of the ongoing process of remaking government ... an intentional assertion of a steadfast belief in the eventual Union victory."
Lincoln and Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Chase faced a challenge in funding a wartime economy. Congress quickly approved Lincoln's request to assemble an army, even increasing his proposed 400,000 soldiers to 500,000, but both Congress and Chase initially resisted raising taxes. After the Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run, which collapsed the bond market, Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1861. This act imposed the first U.S. federal income tax, creating a flat tax of three percent on annual incomes above $800 ($28,700 in 2025 dollars). The preference for taxation based on income rather than property reflected the increasing amount of wealth held in stocks and bonds; for example, Representative Schuyler Colfax declared during the debate, "I cannot go home and tell my constituents that I voted for a bill that would allow a man, a millionaire, who has put his entire property into stock, to be exempt from taxation, while a farmer who lives by his side must pay a tax". As the average urban worker made approximately $600 per year, many were not required to pay income taxes. Lincoln also signed increases to the Morrill Tariff, which had become law in the final months of Buchanan's tenure. These tariffs raised import duties considerably and were designed both to increase revenue and to help manufacturers offset the burden of new taxes. Throughout the war, Congress debated whether to raise additional revenue primarily by increasing tariff rates, which most strongly affected rural areas, or by increasing income taxes, which most affected wealthier individuals; the latter view proved more popular.
The revenue measures of 1861 proved inadequate for funding the war, forcing Congress to take further action. In February 1862, Congress passed the Legal Tender Act, which authorized the printing of $150 million in "greenbacks"—the first banknotes issued by the U.S. government since the end of the American Revolution. Greenbacks were not backed by gold or silver, but rather by the government's promise to honor their value. By the end of the war, $450 million worth of greenbacks were in circulation. Congress also passed the Revenue Act of 1862, which established an excise tax affecting nearly every commodity, as well as the first national inheritance tax. It also added a progressive tax structure to the federal income tax. To collect these taxes, Congress created the Office of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and Lincoln appointed George S. Boutwell as the first commissioner.
Despite the new revenue measures, funding the war remained challenging. The government continued to issue greenbacks and borrow large amounts of money, and the U.S. national debt grew from $65 million in 1860 to over $2 billion in 1866. The Revenue Act of 1864 represented a compromise between those who favored a more progressive tax structure and those who favored a flat tax. It established a five-percent tax on incomes above $600 and a ten-percent tax on incomes above $10,000, and it raised taxes on businesses. In early 1865, Congress reduced the threshold for ten-percent taxation to incomes above $5000. By the end of the war, the income tax constituted about one-fifth of the federal government's revenue, though it was intended as a temporary wartime measure.
Lincoln also took action against wartime fraud, signing into law the False Claims Act of 1863. This statute imposed penalties for false claims and made it possible for private citizens to file false-claim (qui tam) lawsuits on behalf of the U.S. government and share in the recovery. Hoping to stabilize the currency, Lincoln convinced Congress to pass the National Banking Act in 1863, established the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to oversee "national banks," which were subject to federal, rather than state, regulation. In return for investing a third of their capital in federal bonds, national banks were authorized to issue federal banknotes. After Congress imposed a tax on private banknotes in March 1865, federal banknotes became the dominant form of paper currency.
Other economic policies passed under Lincoln included the 1862 Homestead Act, which made millions of acres of government-held land in the West available for purchase at low cost. The 1862 Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act provided government grants for agricultural colleges in each state. The Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 and 1864 granted federal support for the construction of the United States' first transcontinental railroad, which was completed in 1869.
At the start of the war, Russia was the lone great power to support the Union, while the other European powers had varying degrees of sympathy for the Confederacy. According to the historian Dean Mahin, Lincoln had "limited familiarity with diplomatic practices" but exerted "substantial influence on U.S. diplomacy" as the Union attempted to avoid war with Britain and France. Lincoln appointed diplomats to try to persuade European nations not to recognize the Confederacy. Lincoln's policy succeeded: all foreign nations were officially neutral throughout the Civil War, with none recognizing the Confederacy. Some European leaders looked for ways to exploit the inability of the U.S. to enforce the Monroe Doctrine opposing European colonial intervention in the Americas: Spain invaded the Dominican Republic in 1861, while France established a puppet regime in Mexico. However, many in Europe also hoped for a quick end to the war, both for humanitarian reasons and because of the economic disruption it caused.
The European aristocracy was "absolutely gleeful in pronouncing the American debacle as proof that the entire experiment in popular government had failed", according to Don H. Doyle. Union diplomats initially had to explain that the United States was not committed to ending slavery, and instead they argued that secession was unconstitutional. Confederate spokesmen were more successful by ignoring slavery and instead focusing on their struggle for independence, their commitment to free trade, and the essential role of cotton in the European economy. The Confederacy's hope that cotton exports would compel European interference did not come to fruition, as Britain found alternative sources and maintained economic ties with the Union. Though the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863 did not immediately end the possibility of European intervention, it rallied European public opinion to the Union by adding abolition as a Union war goal. Any chance of a European intervention in the war ended with the Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in July 1863, as European leaders came to believe that the Confederate cause was doomed.
Lincoln appointed William P. Dole as commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and made "extensive use of Indian Service positions to reward political supporters", according to the historian Thomas Britten. Lincoln's policies largely focused on assimilation of Native Americans and diminishing tribal landholdings, consistent with those of his predecessors, but his direct involvement in Native American affairs was unclear. His administration faced difficulties guarding Western settlers, railroads, and telegraph lines from Native American attacks.
Tensions arose with the Dakota people due to American treaty violations, unfair trading, and government practices that led to starvation. In August 1862, the Dakota War broke out in Minnesota. Hundreds of settlers were killed and 30,000 were displaced from their homes. Some feared incorrectly that it might represent a Confederate conspiracy to start a war on the Northwestern frontier. Lincoln ordered thousands of paroled prisoners of war be sent to put down the uprising. When the Confederacy protested, Lincoln revoked the policy and none arrived in Minnesota. Lincoln sent Pope as commander of the new Department of the Northwest.
Appointed as a state militia colonel, Henry Hastings Sibley eventually defeated the Dakota chief Little Crow at the Battle of Wood Lake. A war crimes trial led by Sibley sentenced 303 Dakota warriors to death; the legal scholar Carol Chomsky described the trial as "a study in military injustice" designed to "guarantee an unjust outcome". Lincoln pardoned all but 39 of the condemned warriors, and, with one execution suspended, the remaining 38 were hanged in the largest mass execution in U.S. history.
Congressman Alexander Ramsey told Lincoln in 1864 that he would have received more re-election support in Minnesota had he executed all 303 warriors. Lincoln responded, "I could not afford to hang men for votes." Lincoln called for reform of federal Indian policy but prioritized the war and Reconstruction. Changes were made in response to the Sand Creek Massacre of November 1864, prioritizing peaceful administration of Native affairs and condemning those encroaching on Native territory, but not until after Lincoln's death.
