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On foreign and military policy, Lincoln spoke against the Mexican–American War, which he imputed President James K. Polk's desire for "military glory — that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood". [89] He supported the Wilmot Proviso, a failed proposal to ban slavery in any U.S. territory won from Mexico. [90]
He also became the first president to institute a military draft. As the Union faced several early defeats in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War, Lincoln cycled through numerous military commanders during the war, finally settling on General Ulysses S. Grant, who had led the Union to several victories in the Western Theater.
McKinley was the last president to have served in the American Civil War; he was the only one to begin his service as an enlisted man and ended it as a brevet major. After the war, he settled in Canton, Ohio, where he practiced law and married Ida Saxton. In 1876, McKinley was elected to Congress, where he became the Republican expert on the ...
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union [e] ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union.
John Tyler was the first vice president to assume the presidency during a presidential term, setting the precedent that a vice president who does so becomes the fully functioning president with a new, distinct administration. [13] Throughout most of its history, American politics has been dominated by political parties. The Constitution is ...
The president was indirectly elected by the people through the Electoral College to a six-year term, and was one of two nationally elected Confederate officers, the other being the vice president. On February 18, 1861, Jefferson Davis became president of the provisional government, as well as the only person to assume the position. On February ...
As president, Wilson changed the nation's economic policies and led the United States into World War I. He was the leading architect of the League of Nations, and his stance on foreign policy came to be known as Wilsonianism. Born in Staunton, Virginia, Wilson grew up in the Southern United States during the American Civil War and ...
In the many decades between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, such divisions became increasingly irreconcilable and contentious. [1] Events in the 1850s culminated with the election of the anti-slavery Republican Abraham Lincoln as president on November 6, 1860.