As President, he built the Republican Party into a strong national organization. Further, he rallied most of the northern Democrats to the Union cause. On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy.

For Lincoln, the task was always to preserve the Union. In his first inaugural address, Lincoln said, “Continue to execute all the express provisions of our National Constitution, and the Union will endure forever, it being impossible to destroy it except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself.”

He freed ENSLAVED people, and this was the beginning of the struggle for racial equality and justice for Black people that followed. Finally, Americans like Lincoln because he is the epitome of the AMERICAN DREAM—the idea that through hard work and determination, a person can accomplish anything in this country.