CIA – 3

ORGANISATION BEHAVIOUR
NAME- KURIAN S ABRAHAM
SUBMITTED TO- DR BHARATHI
TOPIC- ABRAHAM LINCOLN
DEPT OF SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL WORK

INTRODUCTION
Abraham Lincoln was an American lawyer and statesman who served as the 16th president of
the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation through
the American Civil War and succeeded in preserving the Union, abolishing slavery,
bolstering the federal government, and modernizing the U.S. economy.
Lincoln was born into poverty in a Kentucky log cabin and grew up on the frontier, mostly in
Indiana. He became a lawyer, Whig Party leader, Illinois state politician, and U.S.
Congressman after self-educating. In 1849, he resumed his law practice, but was troubled by
the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854, which allowed new areas to be opened to slavery. In 1854,
he returned to politics as a leader of the nascent Republican Party, and in the 1858 Senate
campaign debates against Stephen Douglas, he gained national attention. In 1860, Lincoln ran
for President and won by sweeping the North. Southern states began seceding from the Union
because pro-slavery factions saw his election as a danger to slavery. The newly created
Confederate States of America began seizing federal military bases in the south during this
period. The Confederate States of America stormed Fort Sumter, a US fort in South Carolina,
just over a month after Lincoln took office. After the bombardment, Lincoln gathered forces
to put down the rebellion and restore the Union.

EARLY LIFE
Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a log cabin on Sinking Spring Farm near
Hodgenville, Kentucky, to Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. He was a descendent of
Samuel Lincoln, an Englishman who moved to Hingham, Massachusetts, from Hingham,
Norfolk, in 1638. Following that, the family moved west, travelling through New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Captain Abraham Lincoln and his wife Bathsheba (née Herring),
Lincoln's paternal grandparents, relocated the family from Virginia to Jefferson County,
Kentucky. In 1786, the captain was murdered in an Indian raid. The incident was observed by
his children, including Abraham's father, eight-year-old Thomas. Thomas did odd jobs in
Kentucky and Tennessee until settling in Hardin County, Kentucky, in the early 1800s with
his family. Lincoln's mother Nancy's ancestry is unknown; however, it is usually thought that
she was Lucy Hanks' daughter. Thomas and Nancy married in Washington County on June
12, 1806, and moved to Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Sarah, Abraham, and Thomas, who died as
a baby, were their three children.
Thomas Lincoln purchased or leased properties in Kentucky before losing all but 200 acres
(81 ha) due to property ownership difficulties. The family relocated to Indiana in 1816, where
land surveys and titles were more trustworthy. They settled in a "unbroken forest" in
Hurricane Township, Perry County, Indiana, which was a "free" (non-slaveholding) region.
Lincoln stated in 1860 that the family's relocation to Indiana was "partly owing to slavery,"
but primarily due to land title issues.

POLITICAL VIEW
Lincoln spoke out against the Mexican–American War, which he blamed on President James
K. Polk's thirst for "military glory—that alluring rainbow that rises amid showers of blood."
He backed the Wilmot Proviso, an unsuccessful plan to abolish slavery in any territory taken
from Mexico by the United States.
By formulating and introducing his Spot Resolutions, Lincoln reinforced his opposition to
Polk. The war had started with a Mexican massacre of American soldiers in Mexican-
controlled territory, and Polk claimed that Mexican soldiers had "invaded our land and
poured the blood of our fellow-citizens on our own turf." Lincoln requested that Polk show
Congress the precise location of the bloodshed and establish that it occurred on American
territory. Both Congress and the national press ignored the resolution, and it cost Lincoln
political support in his area. He was mockingly dubbed "spotty Lincoln" by one Illinois
newspaper.  Some of Lincoln's words, particularly his attack on the president's war-making
powers, were later regretted.
In 1846, Lincoln stated that he would only serve one term in the House of Representatives.
Clay endorsed General Zachary Taylor for the Whig nominee in the 1848 presidential
election, knowing he was unlikely to win. Lincoln aspired in vain to be named Commissioner
of the General Land Office after Taylor won. As a consolation, the administration offered
him the position of secretary or governor of the Oregon Territory. Accepting the office would
have disrupted his legal and political career in Illinois, so he declined and returned to his law
practice.

MODERN ACTS
In practical terms, Abraham Lincoln's accomplishments are enormous, but they are easy to
summaries: he met the secession of the South and the disintegration of the Union with all of
the political and practical instruments at his disposal to defeat the Confederacy and restore
the Union. As he juggled the competing interests of his constituency, which included the
army, Congress, other countries, and the average Americans he was conscious of
representing, his skills as a practical politician were outstanding. It's important to remember
that Lincoln was primarily a skilled politician who was regularly underestimated by both
allies and adversaries. He dramatically increased the executive's role in American politics by
using the levers of power to further his growing war goals, setting a pattern that other
president would build on. His suspension of habeas corpus sparked violent protests at the
time, and he built the roots of the modern state through government contracting and the
expansion of governmental action, such as the establishment of a transcontinental railway and
the Morrill Act to populate western territories.

WHAT MADE ABRAHAM LINCOLN A GREAT LEADER?

Lincoln's leadership qualities have lasted the test of time, and while he was not flawless as a
leader, he displayed qualities from which we may all benefit. Lincoln had enough faith in
himself and his abilities to bring into his inner circle many of his opponents who had
previously been his harshest enemies. Some of these folks became his closest confidants.
Because of his personal attributes, Lincoln was able to make friends with men who had
previously opposed him. He was always able to find common ground with individuals who
disagreed with him. Lincoln took responsibility for the faults done by his teammates. He
knew how to manage his emotions and express it to others around him; he promptly settled
the matter and refused to allow disagreement to fester.
Lincoln's sense of integrity and strong ideals were two of his greatest leadership qualities. He
was willing to make concessions, but his essential values remained unchanged. He inspired
devotion and commitment.
Lincoln has exceptional communication abilities. He wasn't a polished public speaker, but
people thought he meant what he said, which is where the term "Honest Abe" came from.

CHALLENGES
When Lincoln departed Illinois for his inauguration, he addressed the gathering at the
Springfield railroad station that he faced challenges only the nation's first president had
encountered: Washington had had to create a nation; Lincoln now had to keep it. As slavery
became a crucial political and moral issue in the 1850s, Lincoln's election was evidence of
the sectional animosity that had pulled the United States apart. "A house divided against itself
[over slavery] cannot survive," Lincoln said. With the collapse of national party systems (the
Whigs vanished entirely), the North and South grew into different cultures, one based on free
labour and the other on slavery. Following Lincoln's election, the South began to depart from
the Union, or secession. Lincoln made a final plea to the South to stay in the Union in his first
inaugural address, but it was in vain. The attempt by the federal government to resupply
South Carolina's Fort Sumter sparked the war in April 1861. Despite partisans on both sides'
hopes that the war would be finished quickly, it turned into a lengthy, desperate, and
extremely brutal fight that would permanently transform the country.
The difficulties Lincoln experienced have been compared to those faced by a doctor
performing brain surgery as a dog gnaws at his leg, according to poet Steve Scafidi. Lincoln's
tasks were enormous in scope and detail. In terms of politics, he had to man oeuvre between
the North's many competing factions and interests. He also had the unenviable burden of
organizing and waging the first industrial war, a struggle that spanned the entire country,
consumed all of the country's resources, and was waged by an army that wasn't always up to
the task. Finally, both constitutionally and politically, Lincoln had to contend with the Civil
War's growing meaning. At first, Lincoln merely advocated for the cause of unionism.
However, as the war progressed, he saw that preserving the Union was inextricably linked to
the cause of African-American independence. He contended in his 1863 Gettysburg Address
that the war had to result in "a fresh birth of freedom" or it would have been in vain.

HOW DID IT IMPACT MODERN DAY WORLD?

Lincoln's reputation is built on his monumental accomplishments: he successfully waged a
political fight and civil war that maintained the Union, abolished slavery, and provided
African-Americans with civic and social freedom. His killing, however, prevented him from
overseeing the Union's reconstruction, which he had helped rescue. The assassination also
transformed Lincoln into a martyr of nearly legendary proportions. "Now he belongs to the
ages," Edwin Stanton said when Lincoln died, and Lincoln has had no shortage of idolaters
who saw him as a near-supernatural symbol of American creativity. Lincoln as a practical
genius is a lot more believable. He had a compassionate, tolerant, and patient temperament.
He could also observe events clearly and adjust to them, responding decisively when
necessary. Above all, there's his civil rights evolution. He started the Civil War with the goal
of restoring the Union, but he ended up dedicating the country to African-American freedom.
One of history's great unanswered puzzles is how our country's social trajectory may have
changed if Lincoln had lived to complete his second term.