what influenced abraham lincoln to become president?
Theodore Parker Thomas Paine Henry Clay
neutral
 Historians agree that it is impossible to predict exactly what Lincoln would have done about Reconstruction if he had lived , but they make projections based on his known policy positions and political acumen . Lincoln biographers James G. Randall and Richard Current , according to David Lincove , argue that : 

neutral
 According to Pauline Maier , Douglas 's interpretation was more historically accurate , but Lincoln 's view ultimately prevailed . " In Lincoln 's hands , " wrote Maier , " the Declaration of Independence became first and foremost a living document " with " a set of goals to be realized over time " . 

contradiction
 In a letter to President Madison , Hinde attributed his opposition to slavery to the influence of his mother . He wrote : 

entailment
 The institution of the draft and the arrest of outspoken anti @-@ administration Democrat Clement Vallandigham further incensed Pierce , who gave an address to New Hampshire Democrats in July 1863 vilifying Lincoln . " Who , I ask , has clothed the President with power to dictate to any one of us when we must or when we may speak , or be silent upon any subject , and especially in relation to the conduct of any public servant ? " , he demanded . Pierce 's comments were ill @-@ received in much of the North , especially as his criticism of Lincoln 's aims coincided with the twin Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg . Pierce 's reputation in the North was further damaged the following month when the Mississippi plantation of the Confederate president , Jefferson Davis , was seized by Union soldiers . Pierce 's correspondence with Davis , all pre @-@ war , revealing his deep friendship with Davis and predicting that civil war would result in insurrection in the North , was sent to the press . Pierce 's words hardened abolitionist sentiment against him . 

entailment
 As the 1864 Presidential election drew near , the Confederacy 's prospects for victory were ebbing , and the tide of war increasingly favored the North . The likelihood of Lincoln 's re @-@ election filled Booth with rage towards the President , whom Booth blamed for the war and all of the South 's troubles . Booth , who had promised his mother at the outbreak of war that he would not enlist as a soldier , increasingly chafed at not fighting for the South , writing in a letter to her , " I have begun to deem myself a coward and to despise my own existence . " He began to formulate plans to kidnap Lincoln from his summer residence at the Old Soldiers Home , three miles ( 5 km ) from the White House , and to smuggle him across the Potomac River into Richmond . Once in Confederate hands , Lincoln would be exchanged for the release of Confederate Army prisoners of war held captive in Northern prisons and , Booth reasoned , bring the war to an end by emboldening opposition to the war in the North or forcing Union recognition of the Confederate government . 
