Abraham Lincoln
Another one of the names that come up when talking about the most influential president of all time is Abraham Lincoln. It isn’t surprising really. There are only really a few times in the history of the United States that have been truly “make or break” when it came to the survival of the Union. The most obvious time when the nation as in the most danger of collapsing was during the Civil War. Again, it is hard to give Lincoln all the credit for keeping the Union together. In fact, it could be argued that Ulysses S. Grant had more of an impact on the outcome of the war. Whether or not that’s true, it is undeniable that the two men worked together to preserve the Union.
However, Lincoln’s impact from a political standpoint is unquestioned. With the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, he set the stage for the 13th Amendment which was ratified in the same year that he was assassinated.
He is perhaps best known for his orations, particularly the Gettysburg Address. In November 1863, he said, “that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain–that this nation, under God, 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.” It is very moving and also highly memorable. The beginning of the address is something that almost any high school history student can recite.
It isn’t very often in the history of the United States that the actual fate of the nation rests in the hands of the sitting executive. If the Union had lost the war, who knows what would have happened to the country? And no matter what side of the debate you come down on, it is undeniable that Lincoln had a huge impact on maintaining the union of the states.