Abraham Lincoln: Martyr (Part Two)

01VOA Learning English presents America's Presidents.

02Today we are continuing our story about Abraham Lincoln.

03He led the United States during the Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865.

04In that conflict, the Southern Confederacy battled the Union, the states that supported the federal government.

05Southern states wanted to make their own laws, including those that protected slavery.

06They were afraid that President Lincoln would use the power of the federal government to ban slavery in their states, as well as in other areas.

07So, 11 Southern states withdrew from the rest of the country.

08They stopped recognizing the power of the central government.

09President Lincoln did not think states had the right to withdraw.

10He said he was fighting to reunite the country.

11But in time, he accepted that the Civil War would also be a fight to end slavery.

12Lincoln is known for several qualities as a wartime president.

13One was how he led the military campaign.

14As president, Lincoln worked with top military officials to create a plan.

15They realized that the Union had more resources and more men who could fight than the Confederate forces.

16So, they planned to surround the Southern states, cut off their supplies, and prevent foreign powers from helping the Confederacy.

17Lincoln hoped the Union's generals could execute the plan quickly and end the war as soon as possible.

18But the generals were guarded.

19They did not want to harm their soldiers if they did not have to.

20They also knew the Confederacy had a skilled commander in General Robert E.

21Lee.

22Troops under another Confederate general, Thomas Stonewall Jackson, also defeated the Union Army in several early battles.

23Lincoln was frustrated with the war effort.

24He wanted generals who would not only win battles, but chase after the opposing forces and destroy them so they could not fight again.

25In one famous telegram, he wrote to his top general, George McClellan.

26Lincoln said, If General McClellan does not want to use the Army, I would like to borrow it for a time.

27Finally, Lincoln replaced McClellan.

28Then he replaced McClellan's replacements.

29Lincoln changed the presidency by being actively involved as a commander-in-chief of the military.

30He also greatly expanded the powers of the chief executive.

31Lincoln believed that, during war, the president had powers that were greater than those of Congress and the Supreme Court.

32As a result, he took many actions that critics, and even some supporters, considered illegal under the U.S.

33Constitution.

34For example, Lincoln spent millions of dollars in federal money without getting permission from Congress.

35He also limited freedom of the press, restricted mail service, and declared martial law in some places, even when the situation did not require military action.

36Most notably, Lincoln temporarily suspended the writ of habeas corpus.

37Habeas corpus is an important right in the American legal tradition.

38It means that people who are under arrest have the right to appear personally in court.

39But at some periods, Lincoln ignored that right.

40He said the Confederacy's rebellion justified his actions.

41And he said extreme measures were necessary to reunite the country.

42One of Lincoln's most important legacies relates to slavery.

43The issue was at the heart of the American Civil War.

44For most of his career, Lincoln spoke against slavery.

45But he did not try to bar the custom in states where it already existed.

46He agreed to leave slavery in the South alone.

47Lincoln also did not really believe in racial equality.

48And he worried that if slavery ended in the United States, blacks and whites would not be able to live peacefully together.

49But as the war continued, Lincoln changed his mind about how to deal with the issue.

50For one thing, anti-slavery activists were urging Lincoln to end slavery for moral reasons.

51Lincoln also considered tactical reasons, those related to the war.

52He saw that enslaved people in the South were escaping to join Union armies in the North.

53The South were escaping the North.

54Their actions helped the Union effort.

55Lincoln also wanted to prevent England or France from helping the South.

56The Southern states were important trading partners for Europe.

57But the English and French people had rejected slavery.

58Lincoln hoped that if the Union also rejected slavery, European countries would support the North, or at least not support the South.

59So Lincoln waited until the Union won a major battle in Antietam, Maryland.

60Then he announced that he was using his power as a wartime president to order the end of slavery in the Confederate states.

61He produced a document called the Emancipation Proclamation.

62It said that enslaved people in the rebelling states were forever free.

63Historians note that the act was important and revolutionary.

64But it was mostly symbolic.

65The federal government was not able to enforce the order at the time.

66And it did not deal with enslaved people in other areas.

67But the Emancipation Proclamation was the beginning of the end of legal slavery in the country.

68During the rest of his presidency, Lincoln worked in support of an anti-slavery amendment to the Constitution.

69That amendment, the 13th, was approved in 1865.

70It officially outlawed slavery across the country.

71Next week, we will finish the story of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.

72I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.

73I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.

74I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.

75I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.

76I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.