Lincoln's Effect on Civil War By: Tan Ly

The Civil War was a battle of a society divided and the power of division was personified in Abraham Lincoln. Not only was his attitude powerful enough to make half of a nation oppose him but also his own supporters were often not on the same terms as him. His impact on the Civil War was more a political and social one and it was his personality and stance on slavery that made the South …

…given moral credit for his emancipation of slaves even if it was not done for racial equality. The weight of the Civil War rests on him in retrospect but the build up was a century of division, compromise, hatred and political mistakes. "It is difficult...to be almost , to talk sense about Lincoln, (Cooke, 1973: 216)" as he is a man who still arouses so many divisions in what has become a powerful and united nation today.