What percentage of the American people hated Abraham Lincoln when he was alive?

Question

Just take a guess ifyou don't know. I find it interesting to know what people today think.

Answer 1

For one the obvious....the South
And a surprising majority of the North when he suspended Habeus Corpus and declared martial law in most of the North to quell riots and unrest about the draft.

His popularity began to rise when he appointed Grant as the General of the Army and he did what his predecesors failed to do..win and keep on the chase of Lee into Virginia.

In the 1860 election he only received 39.9 % of the popular vote and Stephen Douglas 29.5 % that is not a runaway. 1864 he was elected by getting 212 of the 233 electoral college votes because of the Union victories at Gettysburg, Vicksburg and Chattanooga..the Union was pushing ever deeper into the South and northern people could see the end of the war coming.

Answer 2

He didn't receive a majority the first time he was elected. Nor the second, if you count the potential Southern voters who weren't in the count.

That doesn't mean that everyone who didn't vote for him "hated" him, but from what I've read, he was generally hated in the South. Many people in the North joined in that hatred. He was called many unflattering names, including fool, buffoon, ape, tyrant. His speech, bearing, policies and competence were mocked throughout his time in the Presidency.

I get the sense that only when victory was in sight in 1865 did the mockery slack off in the North. He was despised in the South until the end.

Some did appreciate the way he used the spoken word, including Edward Everett, the other orator, the guy who gave the long oration at Gettysburg when Lincoln did the short Gettysburg address (July 4, 1863). Everett wasn;t alone but there were plenty others that took the opposite view.

He always was able to command enough support to carry on his policies. His problems seem to have stemmed more from the politicians and generals in the North, rather than from a lack of popular support.

Answer 3

I don't know how many, but the situation was much more complicated than the version of the history that we were taught in school. There is a lot that the people who are in power, don't want us to know. But, if you dig deeply enough into the history you can find some really surprising things. Putting a very complicated thing as simply as I can, there were people who wanted to split this country in two, and those people intentionally started the civil war, encouraged it, and financed both sides. These people are the ancestors of the very same people who are behind the corruption that is the Federal Reserve, and the New World Order agenda, and so forth. Lincoln understood the agenda of these people, and he knew the danger of splitting this country in two, and he also knew the danger of having a private, for profit, central bank controlling our money supply. These and other things were all part of these evil men's agenda, and Lincoln did everything he could...including some rather unpopular but temporary drastic measures, to insure that these things did not happen. I know that I am not explaining it as well, as the history that I have read. But, if you dig deeply enough, you can find these things out for yourself. Others, including Ike, and JFK, were also aware of the danger that these so called elite posed to this country and it's people. They both warned against it, and these evil men have never given up...they are still trying to bring their nightmare agenda into being, even today. *sm*

Answer 4

"In the best of times before his death Lincoln was only a moderately popular president. At other times "Lincoln was the object of far more hatred than love" (Hanchett 1983, p. 7). In the election of 1860 Lincoln received only 39 percent of the popular vote—the second lowest percentage of anyone ever elected to the presidency. Lincoln not only failed to carry a single slave state in this election, he also received only 26,388 of the 2.5 million votes cast in the slave states. Nor did he fare well in the urban North. As the historian David Potter has noted, "Whereas the North as a whole gave him 55 percent of its votes, in seven of the eleven cities with populations of 50,000 or more, he failed to get a majority" (Potter 1976, p. 443). Further, although Lincoln received 180 of the 303 electoral votes, which gave him 27 more than he needed to win the election, his margin of victory very likely was more a result of good strategists and the support of his Secretary of State William Seward, than of Lincoln's popularity. This is particularly telling in light of the fact that the electoral college inflates the margin of victory.

In the election of 1864 Lincoln received 55 percent of the popular vote and 212 of the 233 electoral votes, which seems to imply that his popularity increased significantly during his first term in office. However, several points strongly suggest the opposite. Given the generally accepted belief that changing leaders in the middle of an allconsuming war invites catastrophe, for example, 55 percent of the popular vote and 212 of the electoral votes hardly seem resounding expressions of confidence or popularity. Moreover, the population of the United States increased by more than 4 million between 1860 and 1864; there were several more potential voters in 1864 than there had been in 1860; the states that had seceded did not participate in the election of 1864; and Lincoln actually received nearly 700,00 fewer votes in 1864 than he had received in 1860—all of which adds an interesting dimension to Lincoln's contemporary status."

http://www.deathreference.com/Ke-Ma/Lincoln-in-the-National-Memory.html

Answer 5

Lincoln was not a popular sitting president. Most Americans would have traded him for anyone else, during the civil war. He started gaining popularity when the north started winning battles, and by the time Lee surrendered, he was becoming yet more popular.

Lincolns assassination was indeed a big turning point for his popularity, but by then it was only important for his legacy.

Answer 6

I think he was very unpopular when he was President, remember half the country wanted to split off, then the war then the peace, the south was suffering under the peace

Answer 7

Pretty much everyone south of the Mason / Dixon line.I don't think there were actual polls taken at the time indicating an approval rating like we know it today.

Answer 8

You want a percentage? I don't think people did polls back then, much less polls of "whom do you hate." What, are you going to try to say George W is right up there with Lincoln? He's not.

Answer 9

It would be roughly equal to the percentage of Americans who lived in the Southern states that tried to secede from the United Sates.

Answer 10

Same as now 30% (the entire Democrat Party).

Abe and Clinton have one thing in common neither received a Majority of the Popular Vote when they were elected.