Create a 8 page essay paper that discusses Historiography project of Abraham Lincoln: the nature of the character examined, how the person has been depicted by McPherson a.Download file to see previou

Create a 8 page essay paper that discusses Historiography project of Abraham Lincoln: the nature of the character examined, how the person has been depicted by McPherson a.

The question being asked was: should slavery be allowed in these new places. The compromise reached was that in the new states slavery was prohibited, but any runaway slaves who arrived in such places would be returned to their masters. Two years after Lincoln was elected as a Senator, there was a Presidential election with 4 candidates. Thanks to votes almost entirely from the north and northwest, Lincoln was elected. The south erupted. This is the background to the events described in McPherson’s titled book ‘Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction’. McPherson reports how Lincoln declared that slavery was abolished. McPherson describes this on Page 6 in book, “Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution”. This needs greater detail. We have to look elsewhere to find that actually he stated that: “On Sept. 22, 1862, President of United States of America Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves in rebel states should be free as of Jan. 1, 1863 (Paul, n.d.).” Paul however gives no references at all to support this statement. Among the Abraham Lincoln papers at the Library of Congress, a primary source can be found out – the telegram sent to Lincoln by John Nicolay 31st January 1865 telling him that the13th Amendment had been passed by Congress. The Library of Congress has the actual document – “Joint Resolution Submitting 13th Amendment to the States” signed by Abraham Lincoln and Congress and dated 1st February 1865. McPherson uses a secondary source (Padover 1939) when he describes the reaction of Karl Marx in London. Padover presumably was using a primary source – the writing of Karl Marx. Earlier McPherson had used primary sources in that he quotes from letters written in 1860 by Garfield and Hinsdale, although he does use these from a book printed later in 1949, so in fact a secondary source, even if from one of Hinsdale’s descendents. This shows how hard it is to distinguish between what is actually a primary and what a secondary source. McPherson is able to include quite objective evidence amongst so much that obviously comes from one point of view or the other which is diametrically opposed to it and which can therefore be considered to be subjective. He does this by citing various statistics of the time as he does on page 516 with its lists of casualties from various war time battles. He does not however always comment upon such evidence. He states for instance that the Army of the Potomac suffered more than half of all deaths incurred by Union forces, but gives no explanation as to why this particular group had such high fatalities. Were they for instance incompetently led, were they under resourced, inexperienced, overcome by natural problems such as storms or disease, or was it simply that the Confederacy proved to be stronger at this time? All these questions are left unanswered in the lines that follow. Why for instance did more men from New England succumb at a much high rate than those from states further west? The answers are there, but not necessarily on the same page. The reader must search the evidence given for themselves, checking back and forth. In this case at the top of the page McPherson includes a quotation from an Illinois soldier: The Potomac Army is only good to draw greenbacks and occupy winter quarters’ i.e. no good as fighting men, just in it for the money.