Lincoln's Age

Abraham Lincoln's presidency was destined to be historic before it even began. He was, and is likely to remain, the only U.S. leader to prompt armed rebellion simply by garnering a majority in the electoral college. Once in the White House, Lincoln's efforts to defeat the proslavery Confederacy ushered Americans towards their collective future with greater speed than even he could have imagined. He presided over an unprecedented military mobilization, the creation of new fiscal system of paper money and debt, the revolutionary transformation of Southern society, and the first major revision of the U.S. Constitution since the Bill of Rights. His wartime presidency established the basic elements of modern American nationhood.