Res 0616-2015

By Council Members Maisel, Chin, Johnson, Richards, Vallone, Koslowitz, Rosenthal and Ulrich Whereas, Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th President of the United States of America on November 6, 1860; and Whereas, On the way to Lincoln's election to the United States Presidency, he delivered his famous speech at Cooper Union in New York City arguing against the expansion of slavery into the new western territories being incorporated into the United States, which catapulted him to the national stage; and Whereas, Abraham Lincoln was a firm supporter of the abolition of slavery in the United States of America; and Whereas, Within three months of President Lincoln's election for President of the United States, seven southern states seceded from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America (Confederacy); and Whereas, The American Civil War officially began at Fort Sumter, South Carolina; and Whereas, By the end of the American Civil War, a total of eleven states had seceded from the United States to form the Confederacy; and Whereas, On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, outlawing the institution of slavery in all of the Confederate states; and Whereas, On April 9, 1865, General Ulysses S. Grant, who was appointed by President Lincoln, secured the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, effectively ending the American Civil War; and Whereas, On April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theater in Washington, District of Columbia (D.C.) by a Confederate sympathizer and actor named John Wilkes Booth; and Whereas, President Lincoln later died on April 15, 1865; and Whereas, His body was carried by funeral train from Washington, D.C. to Springfield, Illinois, where he was observed, mourned, and honored by citizens of several cities, including the City of New York; and Whereas, From April 24, 1865 to April 25, 1865, President Lincoln's casket was presented to City Hall in the City of New York for public viewing and participation in the funeral procession; and Whereas, President Abraham Lincoln's leadership preserved the Union and ended the institution of slavery in the United States; now therefore be it Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York commemorates the 150th anniversary of the death of President Abraham Lincoln on April 15, 2015. OA/TC LS 3907 2/2/2015 10:00AM