Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865), sometimes called Abe Lincoln and nicknamed Honest Abe, the Rail Splitter, and the Great Emancipator, was the 16th President of the United States (1861 to 1865), and the first president from the Republican Party................ His leadership qualities were evident in his diplomatic handling of the border slave states at the beginning of the fighting, in his defeat of a congressional attempt to reorganize his cabinet in 1862, in his many speeches and writings that helped mobilize and inspire the North, and in his defusing of the peace issue in the 1864 U.S presidential campaign. few know that he was also a tyrant violating the Constitution, overstepping the traditional bounds of executive power, refusing to compromise on slavery in the t