Jeffersonian democracy persisted as an element of the Democratic Party into the early 20th century, as exemplified by William Jennings Bryan (1860â1925), and its themes continue to echo in the 21st century.
Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln became the United States' 16th President in 1861, issuing the Emancipation Proclamation that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy in 1863. Lincoln warned the South in his Inaugural Address: In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war.
political affiliation. Abraham Lincoln, byname Honest Abe, the Rail-Splitter, or the Great Emancipator (born February 12, 1809, near Hodgenville, Kentucky, U.S.âdied April 15, 1865, Washington, D.C.), 16th president of the United States (1861â65), who preserved the Union during the American Civil War and brought about the emancipation of the slaves.