9781422287507

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After Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, many of the Southern states decided to leave the Union. From 1861 to 1865, Lincoln tried to bring an end to the Civil War without dissolving the Union. He was ulti- mately successful, and his commitment to restore and secure a permanent union and to end slavery changed the United States forever. A Monument for Lincoln

O n April 14, 1865, as the Civil War was entering its final days, assassin John Wilkes Booth made his way into Ford’s Theater in Washington and shot President Abraham Lincoln. A somber period swept over the nation as millions of people mourned the president who emancipated the slaves and kept the Union together during four years of Civil War. Congress soon made plans to honor the slain president. In March 1867, the nation’s lawmakers estab- lished the Lincoln Monument Association with the aim to build a national memorial to the 16th president. The association turned first to Clarke Mills, the most prominent American sculptor of the era. Mills designed a 70-foot monument that would include an enormous

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