BIOGRAPHY

Anwar Ibrahim

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:53:00 +0000

Anwar Ibrahim

Yang Berhormat Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim MP

Leader of the Opposition of Malaysia Leader of the People's Pact
Incumbent
Assumed office 28 August 2008
Monarch	Mizan Zainal Abidin
Prime Minister	Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Najib Tun Razak
Preceded by	Wan Azizah Wan Ismail
Member of the Malaysian Parliament for Permatang Pauh
Incumbent
Assumed office 28 August 2008
Preceded by	Wan Azizah Wan Ismail
Majority	15,671
In office 1982–1999
Preceded by	Zabidi Ali
Succeeded by	Wan Azizah Wan Ismail
Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia
In office 1 December 1993 – 2 September 1998
Prime Minister	Mahathir bin Mohamad
Preceded by	Ghafar Baba
Succeeded by	Abdullah Ahmad Badawi

Born	10 August 1947 (1947-08-10) (age 62) Cherok Tok Kun, Penang, Malayan Union
Political party	PR-PKR
Spouse(s)	Wan Azizah Wan Ismail
Children	Nurul Izzah Anwar Ehsan Anwar Nurul Nuha Anwar 3 others
Alma mater	University of Malaya
Profession	Politician
Religion	Islam

Dato' Seri Anwar bin Ibrahim (born 10 August 1947) is a Malaysian politician who served as Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister from 1993 to 1998. Early in his career, he became a protégé of the Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad, but subsequently emerged as the most prominent critic of Mahathir's administration.

In 1999, he was sentenced to six years in prison for corruption, and in 2000, to another nine years for sodomy. In 2004, the Federal Court reversed the second conviction and he was released. In July 2008, he was arrested over allegations he sodomised a male aide, and faces new sodomy charges in the Malaysian courts.

On 26 August 2008, Anwar won the Permatang Pauh by-election with a majority of 15,671, returning to Parliament as leader of the Malaysian opposition. He has stated the need for liberalisation, including an independent judiciary and free media, to combat the endemic corruption that he considers pushes Malaysia close to failed state status.

Early years

Anwar was born in Cherok Tok Kun, a village on the mainland side of the northern Malaysian state of Penang, to an Indian Muslim hospital porter, Ibrahim Abdul Rahman (later to join politics and retire as Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Health) and Che Yan, a housewife (and later UMNO politician). He was educated at University of Malaya, where he read Malay Studies. Prior to that, he took his secondary education at the Malay College Kuala Kangsar.

From 1968 to 1971, as a student, Anwar was the president of a Muslim students organisation, Persatuan Kebangsaan Pelajar Islam Malaysia (PKPIM). Around the same time, he was also the president of Persatuan Bahasa Melayu Universiti Malaya (PBMUM). He was one of the protem committee of Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM) or Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia which was founded in 1971. He was also elected President of the Malaysian Youth Council or Majlis Belia Malaysia (MBM). In 1974, Anwar was arrested during student protests against rural poverty and hunger. This came as a report surfaced stating that a family died from starvation in a village in Baling, in the state of Kedah, despite the fact that it never happened. He was imprisoned under the Internal Security Act, which allows for detention without trial, and spent 20 months in the Kamunting Detention Centre.

In 1968-1971, he was first groomed in the National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students (Persatuan Kebangsaan Pelajar Islam Malaysia, PKPIM) as the president of the Union. In 1982, Anwar, who was the founding leader and second president of a youth Islamic organisation called Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM), shocked his liberal supporters by joining the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), led by Mahathir bin Mohamad, who had become prime minister in 1981. He moved up the political ranks quickly: his first ministerial office was that of Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports in 1983; after that, he headed the agriculture ministry in 1984 before becoming Minister of Education in 1986. By then, speculation was rife about Anwar's ascent to the Deputy Prime Minister's position as it was a commonly-occurring phenomenon in Malaysia for the Education Minister to assume the position of Deputy PM in the near future.

During his tenure as Education Minister, Anwar introduced numerous pro-Malay policies in the national school curriculum. One of the major changes that he did was to rename the national language from Bahasa Malaysia to Bahasa Melayu. Non-Malays criticized this move as it would cause the younger generation to be detached from the national language, since they would attribute it to being something that belongs to the Malays and not to Malaysians.

U.S. Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen meets with Anwar Ibrahim in his Pentagon office.

In 1991 Anwar was appointed Minister of Finance. In 1993, he became Mahathir's Deputy Prime Minister after winning the Deputy Presidency of UMNO against Ghafar Baba. There is report on Anwar using large cash payments to win support. Anwar is alleged to have resorted to money politics to secure his position as deputy president of UMNO. Anwar's followers were witnessed by even foreign journalists handing out packets of money to acquire support of UMNO division leaders. These followers are said to be working under Anwar's instructions. Mohamad Sabu, a prominent member of PAS questioned where were about 300 million stocks of Petronas Dagang were invested because of the sudden change in UMNO Sabah's delegates' allegiance from Ghafar to Anwar. Anwar was being groomed to succeed Mahathir as prime minister, and frequently alluded in public to his "son-father" relationship with Mahathir; in early 1997, Mahathir appointed Anwar to be acting Prime Minister while he took a two-month holiday.

Towards the end of the 1990s, however, the relationship with Mahathir had begun to deteriorate, triggered by their conflicting views on governance. In Mahathir's absence, Anwar had independently taken radical steps to improve the country's governing mechanisms which were in direct conflict with Mahathir's capitalist policies. Issues such as how Malaysia would respond to a financial crisis were often at the forefront of this conflict.

Anwar's frontal attack against what he described as the widespread culture of nepotism and cronyism within UMNO (and the ruling coalition as a whole) angered Mahathir, as did his attempts to dismantle the protectionist policies that Mahathir had set up. "Cronyism" was identified by Anwar as a major cause of corruption and misappropriation of funds in the country. The events of late-1998 marked the beginning of Anwar's descent within UMNO and his subsequent ouster from the party and from Malaysian politics.

Financial crisis

During the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 Anwar, in his capacity as finance minister, supported the International Monetary Fund (IMF) plan for recovery. He also instituted an austerity package that slashed government spending by 18%, cut ministerial salaries and deferred major investment projects. Large-scale infrastructure development projects known as "mega projects" were set back as well, despite being a cornerstone of Mahathir's plans for developing the nation.

Although many Malaysian companies faced the threat of bankruptcy, Anwar declared: "There is no question of any bailout. The banks will be allowed to protect themselves and the government will not interfere." Anwar advocated a free market approach, sympathetic to foreign investment and trade liberalisation, whereas Mahathir favored currency and foreign investment controls, blaming unchecked speculation by currency speculators like George Soros for the shrinking economy. There is disagreement among economists whether Anwar's policies would have been more or less successful than Mahathir's. By the time Mahathir decided to impose currency controls and preventive measures to keep hedge funds in check, the Malaysian economy had plummeted to its lowest level yet since the recession of the early-1980s.

In 1998 Newsweek magazine named Anwar the "Asian of the Year." However, in that year, matters between Anwar and Mahathir came to a head around the time of the quadrennial UMNO General Assembly. The Youth wing of UMNO, headed by Anwar's associate, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, gave notice that it would initiate a debate on "cronyism and nepotism". The response was swift, as Mahathir issued lists of cronies who had benefited from government share allocations and privatisations. The list included Anwar and Zahid, along with several of Anwar's other allies. In the list, Anwar's father and his two brothers are showed to have received shares allocated by the government for the bumiputra. His father Datuk Ibrahim Abdul Rahman and his brothers, Farizan and Marzukhi holds shares amounting to more than 7.1 million units in three companies. On 2 May 1998, Dato' Ibrahim Abdul Rahman, owned 250,000 shares of Pengkalen Holdings Berhad and 3,790500 on Nissan Industrial Oxygen Incorporated. Farizon owned 250,000 shares of Pengkalen Holdings Berhad. Marzukhi owned 2,800,000 shares in Penas Corporation. In the list, Ibrahim Abdul Rahman owned 2,000,000 shares in Industrial Oxygen Incorporated Bhd on 1993.

Charges of corruption and sodomy

Main article: Anwar Ibrahim sodomy trials

At the UMNO General Assembly, a book, 50 Dalil Kenapa Anwar Tidak Boleh Jadi PM ("50 Reasons Why Anwar Cannot Become Prime Minister") was circulated containing graphic allegations as well as accusations of corruption against Anwar. The book was written by Khalid Jafri, an ex-editor of the government-controlled newspaper Utusan Malaysia and former editor-in-chief of a failed magazine, Harian National. Anwar obtained a court injunction to prevent further distribution of the book and filed a lawsuit against the author for defamation. Police charged the author of the book with malicious publishing of false news Among the allegations in the book was that Anwar is homosexual. The police were instructed to investigate the veracity of the claims. In what the Sydney Morning Herald termed a "blatantly political fix-up", Anwar was charged with sodomy, convicted and given a 15 year prison sentence.

In 1999, Anwar brought legal action against Prime Minister Mahathir for defamation for allegedly uttering accusations of immoral acts and calling Anwar a homosexual at a news conference in Malaysia. In 2007, the Kuala Lumpur High Court allowed Mahathir's application to strike out the suit. Anwar was unsuccessful in his appeal after the Court of Appeal dismissed his application in 2009. It was announced on March 1, 2010 that a new panel of Federal Court of judges will be constituted to hear Anwar's application for leave to appeal against the dismissal of his RM100 million defamation suit against Mahathir.

This verdict was partially overturned in 2004, resulting in Anwar's release from prison. The original author of the book died in 2005 of complications from diabetes, but not before the High Court found that he had committed libel and awarded Anwar millions of ringgit in compensation. The Federal Court on March 8, 2010 ruled that the 1998 dismissal of Anwar from his Cabinet posts by Mahathir was constitutional and valid, meaning Anwar had failed in his bid to challenge his sacking.

Release from prison

On September 2, 2004, a panel of three judges of the Federal Court (Malaysia's highest court) overturned the sodomy conviction by 2 to 1, finding contradictions in the prosecution's case. However, the judges noted "We find evidence to confirm that the appellants were involved in homosexual activities and we are more inclined to believe that the alleged incident at Tivoli Villa did happen."

Anwar completed his term for corruption after his sentence was being reduced for good behaviour. Although the point was by now moot, an appeal on the corruption charges was heard on September 6, 2004. Under Malaysian law a person is banned from political activities for five years after the end of his sentence. Success in this appeal would have allowed him to return to politics immediately. On September 7, the court agreed to hear Anwar's appeal. However, on September 15, the of Court of Appeal ruled unanimously that its previous decision to uphold a High Court ruling that found Anwar guilty was in order, relegating Anwar to the sidelines of Malaysian politics until April 14, 2008. The only way for Anwar to be freed from this stricture would have been for him to receive a pardon from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

At the time of his release from prison, Anwar was reportedly suffering from serious back problems, which his family said was the result of the beating by the ex-police chief. However, the UMNO-owned newspaper, the New Straits Times, alleged that the injuries had actually been caused by a fall from a horse in 1993 during Anwar's tenure as deputy prime minister. His wife had argued during his imprisonment that he required treatment for his condition at a clinic in Germany. The government refused, claiming that such treatment was readily available in Malaysia, offering medical treatment if necessary. However, in September 2004, after the Federal Court quashed his conviction for sodomy, Anwar was free to travel to Munich for back surgery.

Since his release from prison, Anwar has held teaching positions at St Antony's College, Oxford, where he was a visiting fellow and senior associate member, at Johns Hopkins School of Advance International Studies in Washington DC as a Distinguished Senior Visiting Fellow, and as a visiting professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. In March 2006 he was appointed as Honorary President of the London-based organization AccountAbility (Institute of Social and Ethical AccountAbility).

In July 2006, Anwar was elected Chair of the Washington-based Foundation For the Future . In this capacity, he signed the October 1, 2006 letter to Robin Cleveland of the World Bank, requesting the transfer of the secondment of Shaha Riza from the US Department of State to the Foundation for the Future. This transaction led to Paul Wolfowitz's resignation as president of the organization. He was one of the signatories of A Common Word Between Us and You in 2007, an open letter by Islamic scholars to Christian leaders, calling for peace and understanding.

Political future

In November 2006, Anwar announced he planned to run for Parliament in 2008, after his disqualification expired. Anwar has been critical of government policies since his release from prison, most notably of the controversial New Economic Policy (NEP), which provides affirmative action for the Bumiputras. The policy sets a number of quotas, such as for units of housing and initial public offerings, that must be met.

He is also the Advisor of Parti Keadilan Rakyat, the party of which his wife Dr. Wan Azizah is president. He was in the forefront in organising a November 2007 mass rally, called the 2007 Bersih Rally, which took place in the Dataran Merdeka Kuala Lumpur to demand clean and fair elections. The gathering was organised by BERSIH, a coalition comprising political parties and civil society groups, and drew supporters from all over the country.

The 2008 election date, however, was set for 8 March 2008, sparking criticisms that Barisan Nasional called for early elections in a bid to deny Anwar's plans for a return to Parliament. In response, Anwar's wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, declared that she would step down should she retain her Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat to force a by-election in which Anwar himself would contest.

When asked about the possibility of Anwar becoming the next Prime Minister, former leader Tun Dr. Mahathir reacted by saying rather sarcastically, "He would make a good Prime Minister of Israel".

On April 14, 2008, Anwar celebrated his official return to the political stage, as his ban from public office expired a decade after he was fired as Deputy Prime Minister. One of the main reasons the opposition seized a third of parliamentary seats and five states in the worst ever showing for the Barisan Nasional coalition that has ruled for half a century, was due to him leading at the helm. A gathering of more than 1,000 supporters greeted Anwar in a rally welcoming his return to politics. Police interrupted Anwar after he had addressed the rally for nearly two hours and called for him to stop the gathering since there was no legal permission for the rally.

On April 29, 2008, after 10 years of absence, he returned to the Parliament, albeit upon invitation as a spouse guest of Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, People's Justice Party and the first female opposition leader in Malaysian Parliament's history. Anwar Ibrahim stated he is confident that he can win over enough government legislators in a parliamentary vote in September to end over 50 years of rule by one party. His party pledged to stage a confidence vote on September 16 against Abdullah Badawi and needed the support of just 30 government legislators in the 222-seat lower house of parliament, but missed Anwar's own deadline. Prior to this they had hoped to sway ruling party lawmakers from the states of Sabah and Sarawak to oust the UMNO party from power for the first time since Malaysia won independence in 1957.

On July 27, 2008, Anwar Ibrahim said that he aimed to return to Parliament if a court ordered a by-election near his home town of Permatang Pauh in Penang. He said on July 31 that he would contest a by-election for the parliamentary seat of Permatang Pauh, which was being vacated by his wife in order to expedite his return to political office. His wife Wan Azizah said she handed her letter of resignation to the parliament speaker on 31 July. Party officials said that the by-election had to be held within 60 days.Permatang Pauh by-election

Permatang Pauh by-election, 2008

The Election Commission (EC) has fixed the nomination day for the Permatang Pauh by-election on August 16, with polling to be held ten days later on August 26. Some 58,459 voters in the Permatang Pauh constituency would be eligible to vote on August 26, a working Tuesday, adding that the figure also include 490 postal voters. Umno Seberang Jaya assemblyman Datuk Arif Shah Omar Shah is the Barisan Nasional leadership’s choice to face Anwar Ibrahim by-election.

Anwar said: "Barisan Nasional is clearly overwhelmed. It's no longer a by-election. It's more than that". Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak admitted the ruling party was the underdog: "It is going to be an uphill task but nothing is impossible in politics."

Election Victory

Anwar Ibrahim was victorious in the Permatang Pauh by-election held on August 26, 2008. Muhammad Muhammad Taib, information chief of the UMNO, stated: "Yes of course we have lost . . . we were the underdogs going into this race." Anwar won by a large majority against Arif Shah Omar Shah of the National Front coalition, according to Election Commission officials. Reuters reported "Anwar Ibrahim has won with a majority of 16,210 votes"; according to news website Malaysiakini (http://www.malaysiakini.com), Anwar won 26,646 votes, while the government's Arif Omar won 10,436 votes. People's Justice Party spokewoman Ginie Lim told the BBC: "We won already. We are far ahead."

Final results announced by the Election Commission revealed that Anwar Ibrahim won 31,195 of the estimated 47,000 votes cast in the district, while Arif Shah Omar Shah received 15,524 votes and a third candidate had 92 votes. According to his party and information chief Tian Chua, Anwar Ibrahim will be sworn in as a member of parliament on August 28 Thursday after a landslide by-election victory that ended his decade-long political exile.

On August 28, 2008, Anwar, dressed in a dark blue traditional Malay outfit and black "songkok" hat, took the oath at the main chamber of Parliament house in Kuala Lumpur, as MP for Permatang Pauh at 10.03 a.m. before Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia. He formally declared Anwar the leader of the 3-party opposition alliance. With his daughter Nurul Izzah Anwar, also a parliamentarian, Anwar announced: "I'm glad to be back after a decade. The prime minister has lost the mandate of the country and the nation." At that time Anwar needed 30 government lawmakers to defect to the Opposition in order to form the next government.

Member of Parliament

On August 28, 2008 just after being sworn in as an MP, Anwar Ibrahim staged a dramatic walkout with 81 opposition lawmakers hours later in a row over controversial DNA sampling legislation. Anwar has alleged that the legislation which would force suspected criminals to give DNA samples was targeted at him, as he previously refused to provide a DNA sample after again being arrested on sodomy charges.

On September 2, 2008, Anwar said he would dismantle controversial positive-discrimination policies for Muslim Malays if he seizes power in the multicultural country. The Malaysian New Economic Policy (NEP) launched in the early 1970s would be replaced by a system to boost all poor Malaysians, whether they are majority Malays or from the minority Chinese and Indian communities. "We will do everything in our power and disposal to help and assist the poor and the marginalised, which means the vast majority of the Malays and the poor Chinese and the poor Indians, but we do it on a needs basis," he said. He also promised to abandon the Approved Permits (AP) scheme for importing cars, which it is claimed has corruptly enriched a small number of Malay entrepreneurs. Anwar has also promised that he will review the Government's Budget 2009 and present one that promoted economic growth, equal wealth distribution, lower taxes and an open tender for government contracts. Among measures he outlined were ways to stimulate local and foreign investment, reduce the 4.8% deficit of the gross domestic product, reduce fuel prices and give tax rebates as a business incentive. Others measures include curbing public expenditure on mega projects and reforming the system of awarding Approved Permits.

Anwar Ibrahim said on September 10, 2008 that he will topple Malaysia's government by early next week despite a trip abroad by ruling coalition lawmakers that he claims is aimed at thwarting his plans. About 50 Barisan Nasional lawmakers left for a farming study tour in Taiwan earlier this week amid opposition accusations that coalition leaders had sent them there to keep them away from Anwar and to dissuade some of them from defecting. He claimed to have made tacit pacts with dozens of lawmakers in recent months, and insisted that he was still "very much" on track for his target date of toppling the government.

On September 14, 2008 Anwar announced that a mass rally would be held against a government crackdown which he says is aimed at preventing him from seizing power within the next few days. The government takeover which is slated for next Tuesday could be delayed by the series of arrests under tough internal security laws. The arrests on Friday of an opposition politician Teresa Kok, a prominent blogger Raja Petra Kamararuddin and a journalist raised fears of a widespread campaign against dissent. The opposition alliance said it expected some 30,000 supporters to gather for the rally at Kelana Jaya stadium The Malaysian police have allowed Anwar to hold a rally on Monday protesting against a government crackdown widely seen as a move to derail his plans to take power according to his party. Anwar Ibrahim said Tuesday 15 September, 2008 that he has pledges of support from more ruling coalition lawmakers than he needs to topple the government, and he urged the prime minister Abdullah Badawi to give up power voluntarily and peacefully. Anwar refused to give an exact number or to name the lawmakers, saying they will be subject to harassment by the government or even detention. Four demands had been issued to the PM in a letter sent Monday 15 September. The demands are that MPs are not stopped from defecting; the Internal Security Act not be used to detain defecting or PR MPs; a state of emergency should not be declared; and no roadblocks be set up to stop MPs from going to Parliament. He said the opposition alliance is now seeking a meeting with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to stake claim to the government and to give him the opportunity to exit gracefully. "We want the transition to be peaceful. That's why we are not giving an ultimatum to Abdullah", he said.

On May 10, 2009 Anwar kept up pressure on the Malaysian government, saying that it should apologise to P. Uthayakumar and other Hindraf leaders for detaining them under the Internal Security Act.

Petition against Najib Razak

On April 2, 2009 Anwar and the opposition organised a petition urging the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to delay the appointment of Datuk Seri Najib Razak as prime minister until his reputation has been cleared by an independent commission. The letter was signed by Anwar, PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, and DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang, as well as 78 other MPs that represent the Pakatan Rakyat coalition. Anwar continued to attack Najib first day as prime minister, stating he found inconsistencies in the latter's decision to release 13 Internal Security Act detainees. He said as long as the ISA existed, Barisan Nasional could still detain citizens at will.

Struggle to assemble a majority coalition

Anwar has already missed several deadlines he himself set for the transfer of power, each of which came and went: the most recent was Tuesday 16 September 2008. Anwar said he would need more time, and the recalibration of his message has not gone unnoticed: Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak chose that day to initiate a broadband internet program Anwar opposes, saying that he had not doubted that the government would still be in office on 16 September. Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi too pointed out that Anwar had missed his own deadline, and dismissed his claim to have secured the defection of 30 MPs.

On 17 September 2008, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said that Anwar's recent actions have affected political and economic stability. He stated that Anwar had spread lies about the economic situation in the country including that no foreign direct investment was coming in and that the nation was no longer competitive.^[63]

On 18 September 2008 Anwar demanded an emergency Parliament session for a no confidence vote in the government, insisting he has secured enough defections from the ruling coalition to topple it. He said he had sent a letter to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, asking that the special session be held no later than Tuesday 23 September 2008. The Parliament was in recess until mid-October. "Any delay in his response would be interpreted as nothing short of sabotage of democratic process and abuse of executive powers," he told reporters. "It is therefore critical for the prime minister to respond." He says he can't reveal the names of MPs who have defected until they demonstrate their loyalty in Parliament and to protect them from possible detention or other extrajudicial efforts by the government to prevent them from crossing over. Anwar said that if Abdullah fails to convene the emergency session, he may meet the King Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin to stake his claim to government. By 25 September Anwar had still not amassed enough votes, creating doubts for Malaysians about whether he was really ready to take power, particularly in light of his failure to meet his own 16 September deadline for the transition of power. In the interim, UMNO had its own party meeting^[67][68] to broker Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's step down from power in June 2009, a year earlier than previously promised

On 7 October 2008, Anwar said he still has enough support to topple the government and is deliberating over how to carry out his delayed plan to seize power. He mentioned the 31 MPs who want to cross over to the opposition have not lost confidence, nor have they reneged on their commitment to crossover. Anwar has set another deadline to seize power which is by December before the end of the year. Anwar stated the takeover would be peaceful because Malaysia could not afford the Thai or Filipino mob style violence. Anwar stated that convening a special session of the Parliament to debate a no-confidence motion would be pointless. "Under the Malaysian system, the Parliament's speaker has the power to include or exclude items from its daily business," he said. Experts agree that among the options open to Anwar is for BN politicians to symbolically 'cross the floor' of the Parliament to the opposition benches, showing the government it no longer has a majority. Another possibility is to invoke the help of Malaysia's King, Tunku Mizan Zainal Abidin, who has the powers to sack Prime Ministers who no longer have a parliamentary majority, as well as asking majority leaders to form a government.

On 24 October 2008, Anwar admitted problems with his stalled bid to topple Umno's majority, saying that Pakatan Rakyat is running out of options to create a majority. His "credibility among ordinary Malaysians has been somewhat dented after Sept 16 and the new promise of forming the Government has not generated the sort of anticipation or excitement as before." Media within the country have taken an increasingly hostile view towards Anwar's protestations and failed threats to assemble a majority government.

Anwar has stated that taking over of federal government did not materialise because a letter to negotiate the matter sent to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was not entertained by him. Another reason he gave was that Barisan Nasional MPs wanting to defect had put condition that their names not be revealed until they were ready to do so.

Pakatan Rakyat gains in Perak, Sarawak and Terengganu

On 16 November, 2008 Anwar received membership application forms from Gabriel Adit Demong, an independent Sarawak state assemblymen and from 11,752 individuals accompanied him. Anwar said Sarawakians were now ready for change, saying Adit had volunteered to lead a recruitment drive for more members for PR. Anwar has said that PKR has set its sights on wresting Sarawak from Barisan Nasional in the next state election and the work will begin in December 2008. He mentioned that Sarawak was a state rich in petroleum, gas, timber and other natural resources but its people remained poor and were hungry for change.

In the recent by-election in Kuala Terengganu on January 17, 2009 Anwar stated the win by the opposition which increased opposition seats in Parliament to 83, showed momentum for political reform had gained strength "The victory is proof that the people are still thirsty for change" he said in a statement.

On 25 January, 2009 Datuk Nasarudin Hashim, Umno Perak’s assemblyman for Bota, has quit UMNO with immediate effect and crossed over to PKR, citing the interests of his constituents. Anwar has stated that the defection reflected the sentiments of the voters, primarily the Malays in Datuk Nasarudin Hashim's constituency.However this gain was reversed during the Perak constitutional crisis that started in January 25, 2009 when BN took over the state government of Perak. On March 3, 2009 Anwar Ibrahim stated the Perak state assembly had to be dissolved because the current crisis was getting out of hand. He said that Pakatan Rakyat wants voters to decide who they want to lead the state.

On May 14, 2009 Anwar said that Pakatan Rakyat were ready to meet with Prime Minister Najib to resolve the Perak state crisis. He however said that best solution was to dissolve the state assembly and call for a fresh election to determine the valid state government of Perak. Anwar criticised the Federal Court’s decision on February 9, 2010 which confirmed Barisan Nasional’s Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir as the Perak Mentri Besar, arguing that the verdict proved Umno did not have the courage to face the public in an election.

Recent gains

On 18 July, 2009 Anwar welcomed Datuk Chua Jui Meng's decision to quit MCA to join Parti Keadilan Rakyat. Chua said that he was joining PKR to help preserve the two-party system that had emerged after the 2008 general elections. He said that this system was under attack by UMNO-led government. Chua's decision was prompted by the sudden death of a PR political aide, Teoh Beng Hock. Former MCA Senator Datuk David Yeoh and former Lumut MP Datuk Yap Yit Thong also announced they were joining PKR at the same time.

Allegations of BN bribing Pakatan MPs and problematic PKR members

A report was lodged against former Kedah menteri besar had been caught on closed circuit television camera offering money to a Pakatan Rakyat assemblyman to cross over to Barisan Nasional. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim claimed that this was covered in an operation conducted by the then MACC. Anwar claimed that Mahadzir’s agents were alleged to have offered up to RM5 million for a defection.

Anwar also spoke of three police reports lodged by former Bukit Selambau assemblyman V Arumugam. The reports were lodged over various harassments including an alleged threat that he could end up like former Lunas state representative Joe Fernandez if he persisted in his political activities. Fernandez died after being shot three times in 2000. Anwar also showed a photograph of three bullets sent to PKR Bakar Arang state representative Tan Wei Shu. It was alleged to have been sent when Tan declined an offer to defect. Tan made a police report but claims no police action was taken.

Anwar Ibrahim has admitted on February 16, 2010 to have wrongly picked some candidates to be the party’s parliamentary elected representatives in the last general election in 2008, and apologise to the voters for voting these characters into office. He mentioned that the party would be extra careful in the selection of electoral candidates in coming general elections, ensuring that they were unwavering, strong and clean. Anwar has accused Prime Minister Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor of being behind the latest resignations from PKR, such as Nibong Tebal MP Tan Tee Beng and Bayan Baru MP Datuk Seri Zahrain Hashim who became independents.

Defections from PKR and future as Opposition Leader

In 2010, three PKR Members of Parliament resigned from the party to sit as independents. UMNO Youth President Khairy Jamaluddin suggested that it would be contrary to convention for Anwar to remain as Opposition Leader as PKR was no longer the largest party in the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition (the largest party now being the Democratic Action Party (DAP). DAP leader Lim Kit Siang had earlier stated that his party would support Anwar remaining as Opposition Leader even if the DAP had more Members of Parliament than PKR. The other major Pakatan Rakyat member, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), also stated its support for Anwar remaining in the position.

New allegations of sodomy

On June 29, 2008, online news portal Malaysiakini reported that an aide of Anwar Ibrahim had lodged a police report claiming that he had been sodomised by Anwar. The news has since been updated with reports that SMS messages are being distributed claiming that the person who made the report is Anwar's aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, who was arrested and allegedly forced to make a false confession. The same text message also claimed the possibility of Anwar being arrested. Anwar has said that the possibility of a prison sentence as a result of these allegations could be seen as an attempt to remove leadership and transference of power issues caused by his growing support and by-election victories. He also reaffirms his innocence and cites proof in the form of medical reports. The second sodomy trial began on 2 February, 2010 after numerous delays and pre-trial manoeuvrings, including difficulty by the defence in getting access to the evidence for their case. Anwar has continually claimed that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is the mastermind behind Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan’s testimony.

Counter-allegations

Report against Police Chief and Attorney General

Anwar began to raise the stakes in his fight with the government by lodging a police report against its police chief and top lawyer for faking evidence against him in a similar case a decade ago. Anwar claims he has proof that Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan and Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail concocted evidence for his corruption and sodomy trials in 1998 and 1999 which kept him imprisoned until he was freed in 2004. In retaliation Musa Hassan sued Anwar Ibrahim for alleged defamation on 21 July, demanding unspecified compensation. On 10 October, 2008 the investigating officer of the case, Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim stated in his affidavit that Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail tried to hide facts from his superiors in the investigations into the "black eye" incident. In the allegations it was stated that Gani had tried to slow down investigations, even as Zain was trying to complete quickly. Mat Zain claimed that Gani was present on the 30th floor of the Federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman on Sept 20, 1998, the day Anwar was beaten by the then Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Noor. On Jan 6, 1999, the Attorney General chamber stated that Mat Zain's investigations were incomplete and that they could not identify who had assaulted Anwar.

Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim, who investigated Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s black-eye beating in 1998, accused the country's top lawyer and police chief of fabricating evidence in the assault. He claimed there was an attempt to introduce a fake medical report prepared by a Dr Abdul Rahman Yusof from Hospital Kuala Lumpur that suggested Anwar’s injuries were self-inflicted.

Altantuya murder case

On July 3, 2008, Anwar presented allegations which claimed that the Deputy Prime Minister, Najib Abdul Razak, was involved in the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder case, and called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the matter. He showed a sworn statement by murder accused Abdul Razak Baginda's private investigator P. Balasubramaniam that claimed police suppressed evidence to protect some personalities, including proof that Altantuya knew Najib. The private investigator, however, retracted his statement the following day after he was detained by the police for reasons unknown leading to allegations that his retraction was coerced. He and his family has since gone missing leading the family members fearing for his safety to lodge a missing person's report . The police have since claimed to have initiated a manhunt for the private investigator.

Anwar Ibrahim wished Abdul Razak Baginda well after his acquittal, but questioned the manner in which the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder case was handled by the police and the prosecution. Anwar has said that there is general and growing perception that the investigation was not done professionally and that there is clear motive to cover up. He mentioned that a lot of evidence was not adduced during the trial. He also questioned the move to change the prosecution team and the presiding judge before the trial even started. The case was originally heard before Justice K.N. Segara before it was transferred to Justice Datuk Mohd Zaki Md Yassin. The prosecution team led by Salehuddin Saidin was replaced with another team led by Tun Abdul Majid Tun Hamzah. He also raised the issue about Najib's involvement, the alleged SMSes between Najib and Razak Baginda and various other evidences the public has raised previously.

Fuel price debate

On July 6, 2008, Anwar challenged the prime minister and his deputy to debate in the reduction of petrol prices. He told a crowd of 20,000 supporters at an anti-inflation rally that the government should quit over a recent fuel price hike. The stadium was ablaze with demonstrators wearing T-shirts in red, the colour of the protest movement. The fuel price hike has heaped pressure on Abdullah after the March polls which handed

Lisa Marie Presley

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 01:59:00 +0000

Date of Birth

1 February 1968, Memphis, Tennessee, USA

Nickname

LMP

Height

5' 3" (1.60 m)

Spouse

Michael Lockwood	(22 January 2006 - present) 2 children
Nicolas Cage	(10 August 2002 - 26 May 2004) (divorced)
Michael Jackson	(26 May 1994 - 20 August 1996) (divorced)
Danny Keough	(3 October 1988 - 6 May 1994) (divorced) 2 children

Trivia

Daughter of Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley.

Her first child, Riley Keough, was born on May 29, 1989.

Son, Benjamin Keough, born on October 21, 1992.

In an intimate oceanside ceremony on the big island of Hawaii, married to actor Nicolas Cage at 6:30 p.m. on 10 August 2002. The wedding was attended by close friends and family including Lisa Marie's mother, Priscilla Presley.

Released her debut album on April 8, 2003, on Capitol Records. It's titled "To Whom it May Concern" and contains 11 tracks (some co-written with Smashing Pumpkins/'Zwan' frontman Billy Corgan). The first single and video was for the song "Lights Out".

On her 10th birthday, her mother took her to visit John Travolta as she had a crush on him at the time, they're still good friends now.

She inherited the Presley lip curl, which her father had. Also like her father, she battles with an ongoing weight problem.

In the late 1990s she reconciled with her second husband and there was talk of her third child on the way and both of them remarrying.

Was born exactly nine months to the day after her parents married

Her first husband, Danny Keough, is a musician.

Former stepmother of Nicolas Cage's son Weston

She calls her daughter Danielle by her middle name which is Riley. Highly resembling her mother, Riley is now a model having worked for Dolce and Gabbana. She is also a natural at playing the piano.

While in her late teens/early twenties, she was managed by Jerry Schilling, the only member of Elvis's "Memphis Mafia" to have become successful in the showbiz industry after Elvis's death. She was offered something with Vanilla Ice, which she turned down immediately.

Despite being divorced from him, Lisa Marie has often described Danny Keough as her best friend. She is also on good-terms with Nicolas Cage.

Married musician/producer Michael Lockwood on January 22, 2006 in a traditional Japanese ceremony in Kyota, Japan. Her mother, Priscilla Presley, walked her down the aisle. The best man was her ex-husband, Danny Keough. Her daughter, Riley Keough, was the maid of honor and her son, Benjamin Keough, was a groomsman.

She makes sure her US tours take place during the summer so that her son, daughter and even sometimes her half-brother Navarone can travel with her. The father of her children, Danny Keough, used to home-tutor Riley and Benjamin and "hold the fort back home" when she was promoting her first album, "To Whom It May Concern" in Europe and Japan.

Her children provided vocal support in the chorus on the track entitled "To Whom It May Concern" on her first album.

Danny Keough became a member of her band in 2004.

Her daughter Riley Keough has worked as a model since she was 14 years old

Good friends with shock rocker Marilyn Manson.

Former sister-in-law of Marc Coppola and Christopher Coppola.

Expecting twins with husband Michael Lockwood in the Fall of 2008.

Friends with singer Pink.

Gave birth to fraternal twin daughters on October 7, 2008. The twins, named Harper Vivienne Ann Lockwood, weighed 5 lbs. 2 oz., and Finley Aaron Love Lockwood, weighed 5 lbs. 15 oz.

Even though her step-uncles, the Stanley brothers, regularly contribute to documentaries about the Presley family, both Lisa Marie and Priscilla Presley issued a statement in the 1990s claiming that they have not had any contact with any of the boys for years.

Was engaged to rock singer John Oszajca in 2000.

She is still close to her father's ex-girlfriend Linda Thompson.

First album, "To Whom it May Concern," reached #5 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Her second album, "Now What," reached #9. Both albums have been certified platinum.

Her father introduced her to future husband Michael Jackson in Las Vegas when she was seven years old. He was 17 at the time.

Started smoking at age nine. She quit in 2007.

Personal Quotes

"It would be "come and meet me here" and when I turned up there would be press everywhere" - on the suggestion that Michael Jackson used their relationship for promotion.

Abraham Lincoln

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 10:38:00 +0000

(1809–1865)

(born February 12, 1809, near Hodgenville, Kentucky, U.S.—died April 15, 1865, Washington, D.C.) 16th president of the United States (1861–65), who preserved the Union during the American Civil War and brought about the emancipation of the slaves. (For a discussion of the history and nature of the presidency, presidency of the United States of America.)(In February 2009, on the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth, Britannica asked two prominent contributors to answer some Lincoln-related questions on the Britannica Blog. Noted historian James McPherson, author Tried by War and of Britannica's article “Translating Thought in Action: Grant's Personal Memoirs,” addresses Lincoln's role as commander in chief during the American Civil War; and New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik, author Angels and Ages and of the cultural life section of Britannica's United States article, considers Lincoln's similarities and differences with Charles Darwin, with whom he shares his birthday.)

Among American heroes, Lincoln continues to have a unique appeal for his fellow countrymen and also for people of other lands. This charm derives from his remarkable life story—the rise from humble origins, the dramatic death—and from his distinctively human and humane personality as well as from his historical role as saviour of the Union and emancipator of the slaves. His relevance endures and grows especially because of his eloquence as a spokesman for democracy. In his view, the Union was worth saving not only for its own sake but because it embodied an ideal, the ideal of self-government. In recent years, the political side to Lincoln's character, and his racial views in particular, have come under close scrutiny, as scholars continue to find him a rich subject for research. The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., was dedicated to him on May 30, 1922.

Life

Born in a backwoods cabin 3 miles (5 km) south of Hodgenville, Kentucky, Lincoln was two years old when he was taken to a farm in the neighbouring valley of Knob Creek. His earliest memories were of this home and, in particular, of a flash flood that once washed away the corn and pumpkin seeds he had helped his father plant. His father, Thomas Lincoln, was the descendant of a weaver's apprentice who had migrated from England to Massachusetts in 1637. Though much less prosperous than some of his Lincoln forebears, Thomas was a sturdy pioneer. On June 12, 1806, he married Nancy Hanks. The Hanks genealogy is difficult to trace, but Nancy appears to have been of illegitimate birth. She has been described as “stoop-shouldered, thin-breasted, sad,” and fervently religious. Thomas and Nancy Lincoln had three children: Sarah, Abraham, and Thomas, who died in infancy.

Childhood and youth

In December 1816, faced with a lawsuit challenging the title to his Kentucky farm, Thomas Lincoln moved with his family to southwestern Indiana. There, as a squatter on public land, he hastily put up a “half-faced camp”—a crude structure of logs and boughs with one side open to the weather—in which the family took shelter behind a blazing fire. Soon he built a permanent cabin, and later he bought the land on which it stood. Abraham helped to clear the fields and to take care of the crops but early acquired a dislike for hunting and fishing. In afteryears he recalled the “panther's scream,” the bears that “preyed on the swine,” and the poverty of Indiana frontier life, which was “pretty pinching at times.” The unhappiest period of his boyhood followed the death of his mother in the autumn of 1818. As a ragged nine-year-old, he saw her buried in the forest, then faced a winter without the warmth of a mother's love. Fortunately, before the onset of a second winter, Thomas Lincoln brought home from Kentucky a new wife for himself, a new mother for the children. Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln, a widow with two girls and a boy of her own, had energy and affection to spare. She ran the household with an even hand, treating both sets of children as if she had borne them all; but she became especially fond of Abraham, and he of her. He afterward referred to her as his “angel mother.”

His stepmother doubtless encouraged Lincoln's taste for reading, yet the original source of his desire to learn remains something of a mystery. Both his parents were almost completely illiterate, and he himself received little formal education. He once said that, as a boy, he had gone to school “by littles”—a little now and a little then—and his entire schooling amounted to no more than one year's attendance. His neighbours later recalled how he used to trudge for miles to borrow a book. According to his own statement, however, his early surroundings provided “absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. Of course, when I came of age I did not know much. Still, somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the rule of three; but that was all.” Apparently the young Lincoln did not read a large number of books but thoroughly absorbed the few that he did read. These included Parson Weems's Life and Memorable Actions of George Washington (with its story of the little hatchet and the cherry tree), Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, and Aesop's Fables. From his earliest days he must have had some familiarity with the Bible, for it doubtless was the only book his family owned.

In March 1830 the Lincoln family undertook a second migration, this time to Illinois, with Lincoln himself driving the team of oxen. Having just reached the age of 21, he was about to begin life on his own. Six feet four inches tall, he was rawboned and lanky but muscular and physically powerful. He was especially noted for the skill and strength with which he could wield an ax. He spoke with a backwoods twang and walked in the long-striding, flat-footed, cautious manner of a plowman. Good-natured though somewhat moody, talented as a mimic and storyteller, he readily attracted friends. But he was yet to demonstrate whatever other abilities he possessed.

After his arrival in Illinois, having no desire to be a farmer, Lincoln tried his hand at a variety of occupations. As a rail-splitter, he helped to clear and fence his father's new farm. As a flatboatman, he made a voyage down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, Louisiana. (This was his second visit to that city, his first having been made in 1828, while he still lived in Indiana.) Upon his return to Illinois he settled in New Salem, a village of about 25 families on the Sangamon River. There he worked from time to time as storekeeper, postmaster, and surveyor. With the coming of the Black Hawk War (1832), he enlisted as a volunteer and was elected captain of his company. Afterward he joked that he had seen no “live, fighting Indians” during the war but had had “a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes.” Meanwhile, aspiring to be a legislator, he was defeated in his first try and then repeatedly reelected to the state assembly. He considered blacksmithing as a trade but finally decided in favour of the law. Already having taught himself grammar and mathematics, he began to study law books. In 1836, having passed the bar examination, he began to practice law.

Prairie lawyer

The next year he moved to Springfield, Illinois, the new state capital, which offered many more opportunities for a lawyer than New Salem did. At first Lincoln was a partner of John T. Stuart, then of Stephen T. Logan, and finally, from 1844, of William H. Herndon. Nearly 10 years younger than Lincoln, Herndon was more widely read, more emotional at the bar, and generally more extreme in his views. Yet this partnership seems to have been as nearly perfect as such human arrangements ever are. Lincoln and Herndon kept few records of their law business, and they split the cash between them whenever either of them was paid. It seems they had no money quarrels.

Within a few years of his relocation to Springfield, Lincoln was earning $1,200 to $1,500 annually, at a time when the governor of the state received a salary of $1,200 and circuit judges only $750. He had to work hard. To keep himself busy, he found it necessary not only to practice in the capital but also to follow the court as it made the rounds of its circuit. Each spring and fall he would set out by horseback or buggy to travel hundreds of miles over the thinly settled prairie, from one little county seat to another. Most of the cases were petty and the fees small.

The coming of the railroads, especially after 1850, made travel easier and practice more remunerative. Lincoln served as a lobbyist for the Illinois Central Railroad, assisting it in getting a charter from the state, and thereafter he was retained as a regular attorney for that railroad. After successfully defending the company against the efforts of McLean county to tax its property, he received the largest single fee of his legal career—$5,000. (He had to sue the Illinois Central in order to collect the fee.) He also handled cases for other railroads and for banks, insurance companies, and mercantile and manufacturing firms. In one of his finest performances before the bar, he saved the Rock Island Bridge, the first to span the Mississippi River, from the threat of the river transportation interests that demanded the bridge's removal. His business included a number of patent suits and criminal trials. One of his most effective and famous pleas had to do with a murder case. A witness claimed that, by the light of the moon, he had seen Duff Armstrong, an acquaintance of Lincoln's, take part in a killing. Referring to an almanac for proof, Lincoln argued that the night had been too dark for the witness to have seen anything clearly, and with a sincere and moving appeal he won an acquittal.

By the time he began to be prominent in national politics, about 20 years after launching his legal career, Lincoln had made himself one of the most distinguished and successful lawyers in Illinois. He was noted not only for his shrewdness and practical common sense, which enabled him always to see to the heart of any legal case, but also for his invariable fairness and utter honesty.

Private life

While residing in New Salem, Lincoln became acquainted with Ann Rutledge. Apparently he was fond of her, and certainly he grieved with the entire community at her untimely death, in 1835, at the age of 22. Afterward, stories were told of a grand romance between Lincoln and Rutledge, but these stories are not supported by sound historical evidence. A year after the death of Rutledge, Lincoln carried on a halfhearted courtship with Mary Owens, who eventually concluded that Lincoln was “deficient in those little links which make up the chain of woman's happiness.” She turned down his proposal.

So far as can be known, the first and only real love of Lincoln's life was Mary Todd. High-spirited, quick-witted, and well-educated, Todd came from a rather distinguished Kentucky family, and her Springfield relatives belonged to the social aristocracy of the town. Some of them frowned upon her association with Lincoln, and from time to time he, too, doubted whether he could ever make her happy. Nevertheless, they became engaged. Then, on a day in 1841 that Lincoln recalled as the “fatal first of January,” the engagement was broken, apparently on his initiative. For some time afterward, Lincoln was overwhelmed by terrible depression and despondency. Finally the two were reconciled, and on November 4, 1842, they married.

Four children, all boys, were born to the Lincolns. Edward Baker was nearly 4 years old when he died, and William Wallace (“Willie”) was 11. Robert Todd, the eldest, was the only one of the children to survive to adulthood, though Lincoln's favourite, Thomas (“Tad”), who had a cleft palate and a lisp, outlived his father. Lincoln left the upbringing of his children largely to their mother, who was alternately strict and lenient in her treatment of them.

The Lincolns had a mutual affectionate interest in the doings and welfare of their boys, were fond of one another's company, and missed each other when apart, as existing letters show. Like most married couples, the Lincolns also had their domestic quarrels, which sometimes were hectic but which undoubtedly were exaggerated by contemporary gossips. She suffered from recurring headaches, fits of temper, and a sense of insecurity and loneliness that was intensified by her husband's long absences on the lawyer's circuit. After his election to the presidency, she was afflicted by the death of her son Willie, by the ironies of a war that made enemies of Kentucky relatives and friends, and by the unfair public criticisms of her as mistress of the White House. She developed an obsessive need to spend money, and she ran up embarrassing bills. She also staged some painful scenes of wifely jealousy. At last, in 1875, she was officially declared insane, though by that time she had undergone the further shock of seeing her husband murdered at her side. During their earlier married life, she unquestionably encouraged her husband and served as a prod to his own ambition. During their later years together, she probably strengthened and tested his innate qualities of tolerance and patience.

With his wife, Lincoln attended Presbyterian services in Springfield and in Washington but never joined any church. He once explained:

When any church will inscribe over its altar, as its sole qualification for membership, the Saviour's condensed statement of the substance of both Law and Gospel, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor, as thyself,” that church will I join with all my heart and all my soul.

Early in life Lincoln had been something of a skeptic and freethinker. His reputation had been such that, as he once complained, the “church influence” was used against him in politics. When running for Congress in 1846, he issued a handbill to deny that he ever had “spoken with intentional disrespect of religion.” He went on to explain that he had believed in the doctrine of necessity—“that is, that the human mind is impelled to action, or held in rest by some power over which the mind itself has no control.” Throughout his life he also believed in dreams and other enigmatic signs and portents. As he grew older, and especially after he became president and faced the soul-troubling responsibilities of the Civil War, he developed a profound religious sense, and he increasingly personified necessity as God. He came to look upon himself quite humbly as an “instrument of Providence” and to view all history as God's enterprise. “In the present civil war,” he wrote in 1862, “it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party—and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose.”

Lincoln was fond of the Bible and knew it well. He also was fond of Shakespeare. In private conversation he used many Shakespearean allusions, discussed problems of dramatic interpretation with considerable insight, and recited long passages from memory with rare feeling and understanding. He liked the works of John Stuart Mill, particularly On Liberty, but disliked heavy or metaphysical works.

Though he enjoyed the poems of Lord Byron and Robert Burns, his favourite piece of verse was the work of an obscure Scottish poet, William Knox. Lincoln often quoted Knox's lines beginning: “Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud?” He liked to relax with the comic writings of Petroleum V. Nasby, Orpheus C. Kerr, and Artemus Ward, or with a visit to the popular theatre.
Early politics

When Lincoln first entered politics, Andrew Jackson was president. Lincoln shared the sympathies that the Jacksonians professed for the common man, but he disagreed with the Jacksonian view that the government should be divorced from economic enterprise. “The legitimate object of government,” he was later to say, “is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot do so well, for themselves, in their separate and individual capacities.” Among the prominent politicians of his time, he most admired Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. Clay and Webster advocated using the powers of the federal government to encourage business and develop the country's resources by means of a national bank, a protective tariff, and a program of internal improvements for facilitating transportation. In Lincoln's view, Illinois and the West as a whole desperately needed such aid for economic development. From the outset, he associated himself with the party of Clay and Webster, the Whigs.

As a Whig member of the Illinois State Legislature, to which he was elected four times from 1834 to 1840, Lincoln devoted himself to a grandiose project for constructing with state funds a network of railroads, highways, and canals. Whigs and Democrats joined in passing an omnibus bill for these undertakings, but the panic of 1837 and the ensuing business depression brought about the abandonment of most of them. While in the legislature he demonstrated that, though opposed to slavery, he was no abolitionist. In 1837, in response to the mob murder of Elijah Lovejoy, an antislavery newspaperman of Alton, the legislature introduced resolutions condemning abolitionist societies and defending slavery in the Southern states as “sacred” by virtue of the federal Constitution. Lincoln refused to vote for the resolutions. Together with a fellow member, he drew up a protest that declared, on the one hand, that slavery was “founded on both injustice and bad policy” and, on the other, that “the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than to abate its evils.”

During his single term in Congress (1847–49), Lincoln, as the lone Whig from Illinois, gave little attention to legislative matters. He proposed a bill for the gradual and compensated emancipation of slaves in the District of Columbia, but, because it was to take effect only with the approval of the “free white citizens” of the district, it displeased abolitionists as well as slaveholders and never was seriously considered.

Lincoln devoted much of his time to presidential politics—to unmaking one president, a Democrat, and making another, a Whig. He found an issue and a candidate in the Mexican War. With his “spot resolutions,” he challenged the statement of President James K. Polk that Mexico had started the war by shedding American blood upon American soil. Along with other members of his party, Lincoln voted to condemn Polk and the war while also voting for supplies to carry it on. At the same time, he laboured for the nomination and election of the war hero Zachary Taylor. After Taylor's success at the polls, Lincoln expected to be named commissioner of the general land office as a reward for his campaign services, and he was bitterly disappointed when he failed to get the job. His criticisms of the war, meanwhile, had not been popular among the voters in his own congressional district. At the age of 40, frustrated in politics, he seemed to be at the end of his public career.

The road to presidency

For about five years Lincoln took little part in politics, and then a new sectional crisis gave him a chance to reemerge and rise to statesmanship. In 1854 his political rival Stephen A. Douglas maneuvered through Congress a bill for reopening the entire Louisiana Purchase to slavery and allowing the settlers of Kansas and Nebraska (with “popular sovereignty”) to decide for themselves whether to permit slaveholding in those territories. The Kansas-Nebraska Act provoked violent opposition in Illinois and the other states of the old Northwest. It gave rise to the Republican Party while speeding the Whig Party on its way to disintegration. Along with many thousands of other homeless Whigs, Lincoln soon became a Republican (1856). Before long, some prominent Republicans in the East talked of attracting Douglas to the Republican fold, and with him his Democratic following in the West. Lincoln would have none of it. He was determined that he, not Douglas, should be the Republican leader of his state and section.

Lincoln challenged the incumbent Douglas for the Senate seat in 1858, and the series of debates they engaged in throughout Illinois was political oratory of the highest order. Both men were shrewd debaters and accomplished stump speakers, though they could hardly have been more different in style and appearance—the short and pudgy Douglas, whose stentorian voice and graceful gestures swayed audiences, and the tall, homely, almost emaciated-looking Lincoln, who moved awkwardly and whose voice was piercing and shrill. Lincoln's prose and speeches, however, were eloquent, pithy, powerful, and free of the verbosity so common in communication of his day. The debates were published in 1860, together with a biography of Lincoln, in a best-selling book that Lincoln himself compiled and marketed as part of his campaign.

In their basic views, Lincoln and Douglas were not as far apart as they seemed in the heat of political argument. Neither was abolitionist or proslavery. But Lincoln, unlike Douglas, insisted that Congress must exclude slavery from the territories. He disagreed with Douglas's belief that the territories were by nature unsuited to the slave economy and that no congressional legislation was needed to prevent the spread of slavery into them. In one of his most famous speeches, he said: “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe the government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.” ( primary source document: ‘‘A House Divided.”) He predicted that the country eventually would become “all one thing, or all the other.” Again and again he insisted that the civil liberties of every U.S. citizen, white as well as black, were at stake. The territories must be kept free, he further said, because “new free states” were “places for poor people to go and better their condition.” He agreed with Thomas Jefferson and other founding fathers, however, that slavery should be merely contained, not directly attacked. In fact, when it was politically expedient to do so, he reassured his audiences that he did not endorse citizenship for blacks or believe in the equality of the races. “I am not, nor ever have been, in favour of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races,” he told a crowd in Charleston, Illinois. “I am not nor ever have been in favour of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people.” There is, he added, “a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.” Lincoln drove home the inconsistency between Douglas's “popular sovereignty” principle and the Dred Scott decision (1857), in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that Congress could not constitutionally exclude slavery from the territories. ( primary source document: The Dred Scott Decision and the Declaration of Independence.)

In the end, Lincoln lost the election to Douglas. Although the outcome did not surprise him, it depressed him deeply. Lincoln had, nevertheless, gained national recognition and soon began to be mentioned as a presidential prospect for 1860.

On May 18, 1860, after Lincoln and his friends had made skillful preparations, he was nominated on the third ballot at the Republican National Convention in Chicago. He then put aside his law practice and, though making no stump speeches, gave full time to the direction of his campaign. His “main object,” he had written, was to “hedge against divisions in the Republican ranks,” and he counseled party workers to “say nothing on points where it is probable we shall disagree.” With the Republicans united, the Democrats divided, and a total of four candidates in the field, he carried the election on November 6. Although he received no votes from the Deep South and no more than 40 out of 100 in the country as a whole, the popular votes were so distributed that he won a clear and decisive majority in the electoral college.

President Lincoln

After Lincoln's election and before his inauguration, the state of South Carolina proclaimed its withdrawal from the Union. To forestall similar action by other Southern states, various compromises were proposed in Congress. The most important, the Crittenden Compromise, included constitutional amendments guaranteeing slavery forever in the states where it already existed and dividing the territories between slavery and freedom. Although Lincoln had no objection to the first of these amendments, he was unalterably opposed to the second and indeed to any scheme infringing in the slightest upon the free-soil plank of his party's platform. “I am inflexible,” he privately wrote. He feared that a territorial division, by sanctioning the principle of slavery extension, would only encourage planter imperialists to seek new slave territory south of the American border and thus would “put us again on the highroad to a slave empire.” From his home in Springfield he advised Republicans in Congress to vote against a division of the territories, and the proposal was killed in committee. Six additional states then seceded and, with South Carolina, combined to form the Confederate States of America.

Thus, before Lincoln had even moved into the White House, a disunion crisis was upon the country. Attention, North and South, focused in particular upon Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. This fort, still under construction, was garrisoned by U.S. troops under Major Robert Anderson. The Confederacy claimed it and, from other harbour fortifications, threatened it. Foreseeing trouble, Lincoln, while still in Springfield, confidentially requested Winfield Scott, general in chief of the U.S. Army, to be prepared “to either hold, or retake, the forts, as the case may require, at, and after the inauguration.” In his inaugural address (March 4, 1861), besides upholding the Union's indestructibility and appealing for sectional harmony, Lincoln restated his Sumter policy as follows:

The power confided to me, will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property, and places belonging to the government, and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion—no using of force against, or among the people anywhere.

Then, near the end, addressing the absent Southerners: “You can have no conflict, without being yourselves the aggressors.” ( primary source document: First Inaugural Address.)

Outbreak of war

No sooner was he in office than Lincoln received word that the Sumter garrison, unless supplied or withdrawn, would shortly be starved out. Still, for about a month, Lincoln delayed acting. He was beset by contradictory advice. On the one hand, General Scott, Secretary of State William H. Seward, and others urged him to abandon the fort; and Seward, through a go-between, gave a group of Confederate commissioners to understand that the fort would in fact be abandoned. On the other hand, many Republicans insisted that any show of weakness would bring disaster to their party and to the Union. Finally Lincoln ordered the preparation of two relief expeditions, one for Fort Sumter and the other for Fort Pickens, in Florida. (He afterward said he would have been willing to withdraw from Sumter if he could have been sure of holding Pickens.) Before the Sumter expedition, he sent a messenger to tell the South Carolina governor:

I am directed by the President of the United States to notify you to expect an attempt will be made to supply Fort-Sumpter [sic] with provisions only; and that, if such attempt be not resisted, no effort to throw in men, arms, or ammunition, will be made, without further notice, or in case of an attack upon the Fort.

Without waiting for the arrival of Lincoln's expedition, the Confederate authorities presented to Major Anderson a demand for Sumter's prompt evacuation, which he refused. On April 12, 1861, at dawn, the Confederate batteries in the harbour opened fire.

“Then, and thereby,” Lincoln informed Congress when it met on July 4, “the assailants of the Government, began the conflict of arms.” The Confederates, however, accused him of being the real aggressor. They said he had cleverly maneuvered them into firing the first shot so as to put upon them the onus of war guilt. Although some historians have repeated this charge, it appears to be a gross distortion of the facts. Lincoln was determined to preserve the Union, and to do so he thought he must take a stand against the Confederacy. He concluded he might as well take this stand at Sumter.

Lincoln's primary aim was neither to provoke war nor to maintain peace. In preserving the Union, he would have been glad to preserve the peace also, but he was ready to risk a war that he thought would be short.

After the firing on Fort Sumter, Lincoln called upon the state governors for troops (Virginia and three other states of the upper South responded by joining the Confederacy). He then proclaimed a blockade of the Southern ports. These steps—the Sumter expedition, the call for volunteers, and the blockade—were the first important decisions of Lincoln as commander in chief of the army and navy. But he still needed a strategic plan and a command system for carrying it out. ( primary source document: A War to Preserve the Union.)

General Scott advised him to avoid battle with the Confederate forces in Virginia, to get control of the Mississippi River, and by tightening the blockade to hold the South in a gigantic squeeze. Lincoln had little confidence in Scott's comparatively passive and bloodless “Anaconda” plan. He believed the war must be actively fought if it ever was to be won. Overruling Scott, he ordered a direct advance on the Virginia front, which resulted in defeat and rout for the federal forces at Bull Run (July 21, 1861). After a succession of more or less sleepless nights, Lincoln produced a set of memorandums on military policy. His basic thought was that the armies should advance concurrently on several fronts and should move so as to hold and use the support of Unionists in Missouri, Kentucky, western Virginia, and eastern Tennessee. As he later explained:

I state my general idea of this war to be that we have the greater numbers, and the enemy has the greater facility of concentrating forces upon points of collision; that we must fail, unless we can find some way of making our advantage an over-match for his; and that this can only be done by menacing him with superior forces at different points, at the same time.

Leadership in war

As a war leader, Lincoln employed the style that had served him as a politician—a description of himself, incidentally, that he was not ashamed to accept. He preferred to react to problems and to the circumstances that others had created rather than to originate policies and lay out long-range designs. In candour he would write: “I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me.” His guiding rule was: “My policy is to have no policy.” It was not that he was unprincipled; rather, he was a practical man, mentally nimble and flexible, and, if one action or decision proved unsatisfactory in practice, he was willing to experiment with another.

From 1861 to 1864, while hesitating to impose his ideas upon his generals, Lincoln experimented with command personnel and organization. Accepting the resignation of Scott (November 1861), he put George B. McClellan in charge of the armies as a whole. After a few months, disgusted by the slowness of McClellan (“He has the slows,” as Lincoln put it), he demoted him to the command of the Army of the Potomac alone. He questioned the soundness of McClellan's plans for the Peninsular Campaign, repeatedly compelled McClellan to alter them, and, after the Seven Days' Battles to capture Richmond, Virginia (June 25–July 1, 1862), failed, ordered him to give them up. Then he tried a succession of commanders for the army in Virginia—John Pope, McClellan again, Ambrose E. Burnside, Joseph Hooker, and George Gordon Meade—but was disappointed with each of them in turn. Meanwhile, he had in Henry W. Halleck a general in chief who gave advice and served as a liaison with field officers but who shrank from making important decisions. For nearly two years the Federal armies lacked effective unity of command. President Lincoln, General Halleck, and War Secretary Edwin M. Stanton acted as an informal council of war. Lincoln, besides transmitting official orders through Halleck, also communicated directly with the generals, sending personal suggestions in his own name. To generals opposing Robert E. Lee, he suggested that the object was to destroy Lee's army, not to capture Richmond or to drive the invader from Northern soil.

Finally Lincoln looked to the West for a top general. He admired the Vicksburg Campaign of Ulysses S. Grant in Mississippi. Nine days after the Vicksburg surrender (which occurred on July 4, 1863), he sent Grant a “grateful acknowledgment for the almost inestimable service” he had done the country. Lincoln sent also an admission of his own error. He said he had expected Grant to bypass Vicksburg and go on down the Mississippi, instead of crossing the river and turning back to approach Vicksburg from the rear. “I feared it was a mistake,” he wrote in his letter of congratulations. “I now wish to make the personal acknowledgment that you were right, and I was wrong.”

In March 1864 Lincoln promoted Grant to lieutenant general and gave him command of all the federal armies. At last Lincoln had found a man who, with such able subordinates as William T. Sherman, Philip Sheridan, and George H. Thomas, could put into effect those parts of Lincoln's concept of a large-scale, coordinated offensive that still remained to be carried out. Grant was only a member, though an important one, of a top-command arrangement that Lincoln eventually had devised. Overseeing everything was Lincoln himself, the commander in chief. Taking the responsibility for men and supplies was Secretary of War Stanton. Serving as a presidential adviser and as a liaison with military men was Halleck, the chief of staff. And directing all the armies, while accompanying Meade's Army of the Potomac, was Grant, the general in chief. Thus Lincoln pioneered in the creation of a high command, an organization for amassing all the energies and resources of a people in the grand strategy of total war. He combined statecraft and the overall direction of armies with an effectiveness that increased year by year. His achievement is all the more remarkable in view of his lack of training and experience in the art of warfare. This lack may have been an advantage as well as a handicap. Unhampered by outworn military dogma, Lincoln could all the better apply his practical insight and common sense—some would say his military genius—to the winning of the Civil War.

There can be no doubt of Lincoln's deep and sincere devotion to the cause of personal freedom. Before his election to the presidency he had spoken often and eloquently on the subject. In 1854, for example, he said he hated the Douglas attitude of indifference toward the possible spread of slavery to new areas. “I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself,” he declared. “I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world; enables the enemies of free institutions with plausibility to taunt us as hypocrites….” In 1855, writing to his friend Joshua Speed, he recalled a steamboat trip the two had taken on the Ohio River 14 years earlier. “You may remember, as I well do,” he said, “that from Louisville [Kentucky] to the mouth of the Ohio there were, on board, ten or a dozen slaves, shackled together with irons. That sight was a continual torment to me; and I see something like it every time I touch the Ohio, or any other slave-border.”

Yet, as president, Lincoln was at first reluctant to adopt an abolitionist policy. There were several reasons for his hesitancy. He had been elected on a platform pledging no interference with slavery within the states, and in any case he doubted the constitutionality of federal action under the circumstances. He was concerned about the possible difficulties of incorporating nearly four million African Americans, once they had been freed, into the nation's social and political life. Above all, he felt that he must hold the border slave states in the Union, and he feared that an abolitionist program might impel them, in particular his native Kentucky, toward the Confederacy. So he held back while others went ahead. When General John C. Frémont and General David Hunter, within their respective military departments, proclaimed freedom for the slaves of disloyal masters, Lincoln revoked the proclamations. When Congress passed confiscation acts in 1861 and 1862, he refrained from a full enforcement of the provisions authorizing him to seize slave property. And when Horace Greeley in the New York Tribune appealed to him to enforce these laws, Lincoln patiently replied (August 22, 1862):

My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.

Meanwhile, in response to the rising antislavery sentiment, Lincoln came forth with an emancipation plan of his own. According to his proposal, the slaves were to be freed by state action, the slaveholders were to be compensated, the federal government was to share the financial burden, the emancipation process was to be gradual, and the freedmen were to be colonized abroad. Congress indicated its willingness to vote the necessary funds for the Lincoln plan, but none of the border slave states were willing to launch it, and in any case few African American leaders desired to see their people sent abroad. ( primary source document: Emancipation with Compensation.)

While still hoping for the eventual success of his gradual plan, Lincoln took quite a different step by issuing his preliminary (September 22, 1862) and his final (January 1, 1863) Emancipation Proclamation ( original text). This famous decree, which he justified as an exercise of the president's war powers, applied only to those parts of the country actually under Confederate control, not to the loyal slave states nor to the federally occupied areas of the Confederacy. Directly or indirectly the proclamation brought freedom during the war to fewer than 200,000 slaves. Yet it had great significance as a symbol. It indicated that the Lincoln government had added freedom to reunion as a war aim, and it attracted liberal opinion in England and Europe to increased support of the Union cause.

Lincoln himself doubted the constitutionality of his step, except as a temporary war measure. After the war, the slaves freed by the proclamation would have risked re-enslavement had nothing else been done to confirm their liberty. But something else was done: the Thirteenth Amendment was added to the Constitution, and Lincoln played a large part in bringing about this change in the fundamental law. Through the chairman of the Republican National Committee he urged the party to include a plank for such an amendment in its platform of 1864. The plank, as adopted, stated that slavery was the cause of the rebellion, that the president's proclamation had aimed “a death blow at this gigantic evil,” and that a constitutional amendment was necessary to “terminate and forever prohibit” it. When Lincoln was reelected on this platform and the Republican majority in Congress was increased, he was justified in feeling, as he apparently did, that he had a mandate from the people for the Thirteenth Amendment. The newly chosen Congress, with its overwhelming Republican majority, was not to meet until after the lame duck session of the old Congress during the winter of 1864–65. Lincoln did not wait. Using his resources of patronage and persuasion upon certain of the Democrats, he managed to get the necessary two-thirds vote before the session's end. He rejoiced as the amendment went out to the states for ratification, and he rejoiced again and again as his own Illinois led off and other states followed one by one in acting favourably upon it. (He did not live to rejoice in its ultimate adoption.)

Lincoln deserves his reputation as the Great Emancipator. His claim to that honour, if it rests uncertainly upon his famous proclamation, has a sound basis in the support he gave to the antislavery amendment. It is well founded also in his greatness as the war leader who carried the nation safely through the four-year struggle that brought freedom in its train. And, finally, it is strengthened by the practical demonstrations he gave of respect for human worth and dignity, regardless of colour. During the last two years of his life he welcomed African Americans as visitors and friends in a way no president had done before. One of his friends was the distinguished former slave Frederick Douglass, who once wrote: “In all my interviews with Mr. Lincoln I was impressed with his entire freedom from prejudice against the colored race.”

Wartime politics

To win the war, President Lincoln had to have popular support. The reunion of North and South required, first of all, a certain degree of unity in the North. But the North contained various groups with special interests of their own. Lincoln faced the task of attracting to his administration the support of as many divergent groups and individuals as possible. Accordingly, he gave much of his time and attention to politics, which in one of its aspects is the art of attracting such support. Fortunately for the Union cause, he was a president with rare political skill. He had the knack of appealing to fellow politicians and talking to them in their own language. He had a talent for smoothing over personal differences and holding the loyalty of men antagonistic to one another. Inheriting the spoils system, he made good use of it, disposing of government jobs in such a way as to strengthen his administration and further its official aims.

The opposition party remained alive and strong. Its membership included war Democrats and peace Democrats, often called “Copperheads,” a few of whom collaborated with the enemy. Lincoln did what he could to cultivate the assistance of the war Democrats, as in securing from Congress the timely approval of the Thirteenth Amendment. So far as feasible, he conciliated the peace Democrats. He heeded the complaints of one of them, Governor Horatio Seymour of New York, in regard to the draft quota for that state. He commuted the prison sentence of another, Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio, to banishment within the Confederate lines. In dealing with persons suspected of treasonable intent, Lincoln at times authorized his generals to make arbitrary arrests. He justified this action on the ground that he had to allow some temporary sacrifice of parts of the Constitution in order to maintain the Union and thus preserve the Constitution as a whole. He let his generals suspend several newspapers, but only for short periods, and he promptly revoked a military order suppressing the hostile Chicago Times. In a letter to one of his generals he expressed his policy thus:

You will only arrest individuals and suppress assemblies or newspapers when they may be working palpable injury to the military in your charge, and in no other case will you interfere with the expression of opinion in any form or allow it to be interfered with violently by others. In this you have a discretion to exercise with great caution, calmness, and forbearance.

Considering the dangers and provocations of the time, Lincoln was quite liberal in his treatment of political opponents and the opposition press. He was by no means the dictator critics often accused him of being. Nevertheless, his abrogating of civil liberties, especially his suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, disturbed Democrats, Republicans, and even members of his own cabinet. In the opinion of a soldier from Massachusetts, the president, “without the people having any legal means to prevent it, is only prevented from exercising a Russian despotism by the fear he may have of shocking too much the sense of decency of the whole world.” Even Lincoln's friend Orville Hickman Browning believed the arrests ordered by the president were “illegal and arbitrary, and did more harm than good, weakening instead of strengthening the government.” Yet Lincoln defended his actions, arguing that the Constitution provided for the suspension of such liberties “in cases of Rebellion or Invasion, [when] the public Safety may require it.” Moreover, posed Lincoln with rhetorical flare, “Must I shoot a simpleminded soldier boy who deserts” and “not touch a hair of a wilely agitator who induces him to desert?”

Within his own party, Lincoln confronted factional divisions and personal rivalries that caused him as much trouble as did the activities of the Democrats. True, he and most of his fellow partisans agreed fairly well upon their principal economic aims. With his approval, the Republicans enacted into law the essentials of the program he had advocated from his early Whig days—a protective tariff; a national banking system; and federal aid for internal improvements, in particular for the construction of a railroad to the Pacific Coast. The Republicans disagreed among themselves, however, on many matters regarding the conduct and purposes of the war. Two main factions arose: the “Radicals” and the “Conservatives.” Lincoln himself inclined in spirit toward the Conservatives, but he had friends among the Radicals as well, and he strove to maintain his leadership over both. In appointing his cabinet, he chose his several rivals for the 1860 nomination and, all together, gave representation to every important party group. Wisely he included the outstanding Conservative, Seward, and the outstanding Radical, Salmon P. Chase. Cleverly he overcame cabinet crises and kept these two opposites among his official advisers until Chase's resignation in 1864.

Lincoln had to deal with even more serious factional uprisings in Congress. The big issue was the “reconstruction” of the South. The seceded states of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee having been largely recovered by the federal armies, Lincoln late in 1863 proposed his “ten percent plan,” according to which new state governments might be formed when 10 percent of the qualified voters had taken an oath of future loyalty to the United States. ( primary source document: A Program for Reconstruction.) The Radicals rejected Lincoln's proposal as too lenient, and they carried through Congress the Wade-Davis Bill, which would have permitted the remaking and readmission of states only after a majority had taken the loyalty oath. When Lincoln pocket-vetoed that bill, its authors published a “manifesto” denouncing him.

Lincoln was already the candidate of the “Union” (that is, the Republican) party for reelection to the presidency, and the Wade-Davis manifesto signalized a movement within the party to displace him as the party's nominee. He waited quietly and patiently for the movement to collapse, but even after it had done so, the party remained badly divided. A rival Republican candidate, John C. Frémont, nominated much earlier by a splinter group, was still in the field. Leading Radicals promised to procure Frémont's withdrawal if Lincoln would obtain the resignation of his conservative postmaster general, Montgomery Blair. Eventually Frémont withdrew and Blair resigned. The party was reunited in time for the election of 1864.

In 1864, as in 1860, Lincoln was the chief strategist of his own electoral campaign. He took a hand in the management of the Republican Speakers' Bureau, advised state committees on campaign tactics, hired and fired government employees to strengthen party support, and did his best to enable as many soldiers and sailors as possible to vote. Most of the citizens in uniform voted Republican. He was reelected with a large popular majority (55 percent) over his Democratic opponent, General George B. McClellan.

In 1864 the Democratic platform called for an armistice and a peace conference, and prominent Republicans as well as Democrats demanded that Lincoln heed Confederate peace offers, irregular and illusory though they were. In a public letter, he stated his own conditions:

Any proposition which embraces the restoration of peace, the integrity of the whole Union, and the abandonment of slavery, and which comes by and with an authority that can control the armies now at war against the United states will be received and considered by the Executive government of the United States, and will be met by liberal terms on other substantial and collateral points.

When Conservatives protested to him against the implication that the war must go on to free the slaves, even after reunion had been won, he explained, “To me it seems plain that saying reunion and abandonment of slavery would be considered, if offered, is not saying that nothing else or less would be considered, if offered.” After his reelection, in his annual message to Congress, he said, “In stating a single condition of peace, I mean simply to say that the war will cease on the part of the government, whenever it shall have ceased on the part of those who began it.” On February 3, 1865, he met personally with Confederate commissioners on a steamship in Hampton Roads, Virginia. He promised to be liberal with pardons if the South would quit the war, but he insisted on reunion as a precondition for any peace arrangement. In his Second Inaugural Address ( original text) he embodied the spirit of his policy in the famous words “with malice toward none; with charity for all.” His terms satisfied neither the Confederate leaders nor the Radical Republicans, and so no peace was possible until the final defeat of the Confederacy.

Postwar policy

At the end of the war, Lincoln's policy for the defeated South was not clear in all its details, though he continued to believe that the main object should be to restore the “seceded States, so-called,” to their “proper practical relation” with the Union as soon as possible. He possessed no fixed and uniform program for the region as a whole. As he said in the last public speech of his life (April 11, 1865), “so great peculiarities” pertained to each of the states, and “such important and sudden changes” occurred from time to time, and “so new and unprecedented” was the whole problem that “no exclusive and inflexible plan” could “safely be prescribed.” With respect to states like Louisiana and Tennessee, he continued to urge acceptance of new governments set up under his 10 percent plan during the war. With respect to states like Virginia and North Carolina, he seemed willing to use the old rebel governments temporarily as a means of transition from war to peace. He was on record as opposing the appointment of “strangers” (carpetbaggers) to govern the South. He hoped that the Southerners themselves, in forming new state governments, would find some way by which whites and blacks “could gradually live themselves out of their old relation to each other, and both come out better prepared for the new.” A program of education for the freedmen, he thought, was essential to preparing them for their new status. He also suggested that the vote be given immediately to some African Americans—“as, for instance, the very intelligent, and especially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks.”

On the question of reconstruction, however, Lincoln and the extremists of his own party stood even farther apart in early 1865 than a year before. Some of the Radicals were beginning to demand a period of military occupation for the South, the confiscation of planter estates and their division among the freedmen, and the transfer of political power from the planters to their former slaves. In April 1865 Lincoln began to modify his own stand in some respects and thus to narrow the gap between himself and the Radicals. He recalled the permission he had given for the assembling of the rebel legislature of Virginia, and he approved in principle—or at least did not disapprove—Stanton's scheme for the military occupation of Southern states. After the cabinet meeting of April 14, Attorney General James Speed inferred that Lincoln was moving toward the radical position. “He never seemed so near our views,” Speed believed. What Lincoln's reconstruction policy would have been, if he had lived to complete his second term, can only be guessed at.

On the evening of April 14, 1865, 26-year-old John Wilkes Booth—a rabid advocate of slavery with ties to the South and the flamboyant son of one of the most distinguished theatrical families of the 19th century—shot Lincoln as he sat in Ford's Theatre in Washington. Early the next morning Lincoln died.

Reputation and character

“Now he belongs to the ages,” Stanton is supposed to have said as Lincoln took his last breath. Many thought of Lincoln as a martyr. The assassination had occurred on Good Friday, and on the following Sunday, memorable as “Black Easter,” hundreds of speakers found a sermon in the event. Some of them saw more than mere chance in the fact that assassination day was also crucifixion day. One declared, “Jesus Christ died for the world; Abraham Lincoln died for his country.” Thus the posthumous growth of his reputation was influenced by the timing and circumstances of his death, which won for him a kind of sainthood.

Among the many who remembered Lincoln from personal acquaintance, one was sure he had known him more intimately than any of the rest and influenced the world's conception of him more than all the others put together. That one was his former law partner William Herndon. When Lincoln died, Herndon began a new career as Lincoln authority, collecting reminiscences wherever he could find them and adding his own store of memories. Although admiring Lincoln, he objected to the trend toward sanctifying him. He saw, as the main feature of Lincoln's life, the far more than ordinary rise of a self-made man, a rise from the lowest depths to the greatest heights—“from a stagnant, putrid pool, like the gas which, set on fire by its own energy and self-combustible nature, rises in jets, blazing, clear, and bright.” To emphasize this point, Herndon gave his most eager attention to evidences of the dismal and sordid in Lincoln's background. An extremely significant event in Lincoln's development, as Herndon viewed it, was a “romance of much reality” with Ann Rutledge. Lincoln loved no one but Rutledge and, after her death, never ceased to grieve for her. His memory of her both saddened and inspired him. As for his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, she married him out of spite, then devoted herself to making him miserable. So Herndon would have it, and after him countless biographers, novelists, and playwrights elaborated upon his views, which persist as accepted knowledge about Lincoln despite their refutation by historical scholarship.

Lincoln has become a myth as well as a man. The Lincoln of legend has grown into a protean god who can assume a shape to please almost anyone. He is Old Abe and at the same time a natural gentleman. He is Honest Abe and yet a being of superhuman shrewdness and cunning. He is also Father Abraham, the wielder of authority, the support of the weak; and he is an equal, a neighbour, and a friend. But there is a malevolent Lincoln as well, and to many Southerners from the time of the Civil War and to some conservative critics today, Lincoln is the wicked slayer of liberty and states' rights and the father of the all-controlling national state.

Lincoln's reputation began to grow while he was still alive. In the midst of the Civil War, for instance, the Washington Chronicle found a resemblance between him and George Washington in their “sure judgment,” “perfect balance of thoroughly sound faculties,” and “great calmness of temper, great firmness of purpose, supreme moral principle, and intense patriotism.” The Buffalo Express referred to his “remarkable moderation and freedom from passionate bitterness,” and then added, “We do not believe that Washington himself was less indifferent to the exercise of power for power's sake.” An English newspaper, the Liverpool Post, suggested that “no leader in a great contest ever stood so little chance of being the subject of hero worship as Abraham Lincoln,” if one were to judge only by the way he looked. His long arms and legs, his grotesque figure, made him too easy to caricature and ridicule. “Yet,” this newspaper concluded, “a worshiper of human heroes might possibly travel a great deal farther and fare much worse for an idol than selecting this same lanky American.” His inner qualities—his faithfulness, honesty, resolution, insight, humour, and courage—would “go a long way to make up a hero,” whatever the man's personal appearance.

Lincoln's best ideas and finest phrases were considered and written and rewritten with meticulous revisions. Some resulted from a slow gestation of thought and phrase through many years. One of his recurring themes—probably his central theme—was the promise and the problem of self-government. As early as 1838, speaking to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield on “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions,” he recalled the devotion of his Revolutionary forefathers to the cause and went on to say:

Their ambition aspired to display before an admiring world, a practical demonstration of the truth of a proposition, which had hitherto been considered, at best no better, than problematical; namely, the capability of a people to govern themselves.

Again and again he returned to this idea, especially after the coming of the Civil War, and he steadily improved his phrasing. In his first message to Congress after the fall of Fort Sumter, he declared that the issue between North and South involved more than the future of the United States.

It presents to the whole family of man, the question, whether a constitutional republic, or a democracy—a government of the people, by the same people—can, or cannot, maintain its territorial integrity, against its own domestic foes.

And finally at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, he made the culminating, supreme statement, concluding with the words:

…that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Dalai Lama

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 12:53:00 +0000

Political leader. Born Lhamo Thondup on July 6, 1935, in Taktser, China, northeast of Tibet, to a peasant family. He is the head of state and spiritual leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile based in Dharamshala, India. Tibetans believe him to be the reincarnation of his predecessors. For nearly 50 years he has strived to establish Tibet as a self-governing, democratic state.

Lhamo Thondup was the fifth child in a family of 16 children, of whom only nine survived. After several months of searching for a successor to the 13th Dalai Lama and following many significant spiritual signs, religious officials located Lhamo Thondup, at age 2, and identified him as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso. Young Lhamo was renamed Tenzin Gyatso and proclaimed the 14th Dalai Lama. Dalai Lamas are believed to be the reincarnation of Avalokitesvara, an important Buddhist deity and the personification of compassion. Dalai Lamas are also enlightened beings who have postponed their own afterlife and chosen to take rebirth to benefit humanity. "Dalai" means "ocean" in Mongolian (the name "Gyatso" comes from the Tibetan word for ocean). "Lama" is the equivalent of the Sanskrit word "guru," or spiritual teacher. Put together, the title of Dalai Lama is literally "Ocean Teacher," meaning a "teacher spiritually as deep as the ocean."

Buddhism was created in the sixth century BCE, with the birth of Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, making it one of the oldest religions practiced today. Originating in India, the religion spread throughout most of eastern and southern Asia. Buddhism came to Tibet in the eighth century CE. Unlike other religions that are centered on a supreme being, Buddhism is centered on four basic truths: Life is not perfect; people are left unsatisfied trying to make life perfect; people can realize there is a better way to achieve fulfillment; and by living one's life through wisdom, ethical conduct, and mental discipline, people will reach enlightenment.

Within these truths are countless layers of teachings on the nature of existence, life, death, and the self. Buddhism encourages its followers not to believe in those teachings, as followers of other religions believe in their religion's central figures and dogma, but rather to explore, understand, and test the truths against their own experiences. The emphasis here is on the exploration. The Buddhist belief in rebirth is a concept of "renewal" and not exactly reincarnation of a spirit or body. Under Buddhism, the consciousness of a person can become part of the consciousness of another person, as a flame moves from one candle to another. The second flame is not identical to the first, nor is it totally different. Thus, Buddhists believe life is a continual journey of experience and discovery and not divided between life and the afterlife.

Tenzin began his religious education at age six. His schooling consisted of logic, Tibetan art and culture, Sanskrit, medicine, and Buddhist philosophy, which is divided into five other categories dealing with the perfection of wisdom, monastic discipline, metaphysics, logic, and epistemology, or the study of knowledge. At the age of 11, Tenzin met Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian mountaineer, who became one of his tutors, teaching him about the outside world. The two remained friends until Harrer's death in 2006.

In 1950, at the age of 15, Tenzin assumed full political power as the Dalai Lama. However, his governorship was short. In October of that year, the People's Republic of China invaded Tibet against little resistance. In 1954, the Dalai Lama went to Beijing for peace talks with Mao Zedong and other Chinese leaders. However, in 1959, continued suppression of the Tibetan people by Chinese troops led to their uprising. The Dalai Lama and his closest advisers believed the Chinese government was planning to assassinate him. Consequently, he and several thousand followers fled to Dharamshala in northern India and established an alternative government there. At the time, the People's Republic of China considered him a symbol of an obsolete religious movement and not in line with communist philosophy. More recently, the Chinese government alleges he is a separatist and a traitor for advocating Tibetan self-rule, and a terrorist for inciting Tibetan rebellion.

Since the Chinese invasion, the Dalai Lama has taken numerous actions in hopes of establishing an autonomous Tibetan state within the People's Republic of China. In 1963, he issued a draft constitution for Tibet containing a number of reforms to democratize the government. Called the Charter of Tibetans in Exile, it grants freedom of speech, belief, assembly, and movement. It also provides detailed guidelines for Tibetans living in exile. During the 1960s, the Central Intelligence Agency funded and trained Tibetan forces to resist the Chinese invasion and occupation with the Dalai Lama's full knowledge and support. The program was a failure as thousands of lives were lost in the resistance and is now considered merely a Cold War tactic on the part of the United States to challenge the Chinese government's legitimacy in the region.

In September 1987, the Dalai Lama proposed the Five Point Peace Plan for Tibet as the first steps in a peaceful solution to reconcile with the Chinese government and end the volatile situation there. The plan proposed that Tibet would become a sanctuary where enlightened people can exist in peace and the environment can be preserved. In June 15, 1988, the Dalai Lama addressed members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. There he proposed talks between the Chinese and Tibetans that would lead to a self-governing democratic political entity for Tibet. The entity would be associated with the People's Republic of China, and the Chinese government would be responsible for Tibet's foreign policy and defense. In 1991, the Tibetan government-in-exile declared the Strasbourg Proposal invalid because of the current Chinese leadership's negative attitude toward the proposal.

The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, and in the tradition of Bodhisattva he has spent his life committed to benefiting humanity. He has written numerous books and conducted hundreds of conferences, lectures, and workshops at major universities and institutions throughout the world on engaging in wisdom, compassion, and more recently environmental sustainability. Unlike his predecessors, the Dalai Lama has met with many Western leaders and has visited the United States, Europe, Russia, Latin America, and many countries in Asia on a number of occasions. Known as an effective public speaker, he is often described as charismatic. His message is always one of peace and compassion for people all over the world. During his travels abroad, the Dalai Lama has stressed the need for a better understanding of and respect among different faiths of the world. His Holiness has made numerous appearances at interfaith services and has met with several heads of other religions, including Pope John Paul II and Dr. Robert Runcie, the Archbishop of Canterbury, as well as Gordon B. Hinckley, the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Patriarch Alexius II of the Russian Orthodox Church.

In 1989, the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent efforts for the liberation of Tibet and his concern for global environmental problems. The Committee's citation read, "The Committee wants to emphasize the fact that the Dalai Lama in his struggle for the liberation of Tibet consistently has opposed the use of violence. He has instead advocated peaceful solutions based upon tolerance and mutual respect in order to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of his people." In recent years, a number of Western universities and institutions have conferred peace awards and honorary doctorate degrees upon the Dalai Lama in recognition of his distinguished writings in Buddhist philosophy and of his outstanding leadership in the service of freedom and peace.

In the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics unrest broke out in Tibet in anticipation of media attention and increased repression by the Chinese government. The Dalai Lama pleaded for calm and condemned Chinese violence. This was met with frustration by many in Tibet, who considered his comments ineffective, and allegations by the Chinese that he incited the violence, an accusation that he strongly denies. While the United Nations has passed several resolutions on China calling for the respect of fundamental human rights and a cessation of human rights violations, and has expressed concern about continuing human rights violations in Tibet, little has been done to resolve the problem. In recent years, proposed resolutions to protect Tibetan human rights have been postponed or reworded to ease any pressure on the Chinese government.

Currently, Chinese President Hu Jintao has shown no signs of moving toward peace and reconciliation with Tibet. Experts say he and the Chinese government have survived any negative publicity during the Olympic Games and are just waiting for the Dalai Lama, now 74, to die and thereby finally dispel any lingering hopes for an autonomous, democratic Tibet. In December 2008, the Dalai Lama announced his semiretirement after having gallstone surgery. The future course of the movement for a free Tibet is led by the elected parliament-in-exile under Prime Minister Samdhong Rinpoche.

Frida Kahlo

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 12:27:00 +0000

Artist. Born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón on July 6, 1907, in Coyocoán, Mexico City, Mexico. Considered one of Mexico’s greatest artists, Frida Kahlo began painting after she was severely injured in a bus accident.

Kahlo grew up in the family’s home where she was born—later referred as the Blue House or Casa Azul. Her father, Wilhelm (also called Guillermo), was a German photographer who had immigrated to Mexico where he met and married her mother Matilde. She had two older sisters, Matilde and Adriana, and her younger sister, Cristina, was born the year after Frida.

Around the age of 6, she contracted polio, which caused her to be bedridden for nine months. While she did recover from the illness, she limped when she walked because the disease had damaged her right leg and foot. Her father encouraged her to play soccer, go swimming, and even wrestle—highly unusual moves for a girl at the time—to help aid in her recovery.

In 1922, Kahlo enrolled at the renowned National Preparatory School. She was one of the few female students to attend the school, and she became known for her jovial spirit and her love of traditional and colorful clothes and jewelry. That same year, famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera went to work on a project at the school. Kahlo often watched as Rivera created a mural called The Creation in the school’s lecture hall. According to some reports, she told a friend that she would someday have Rivera’s baby.

While at school, Kahlo hung out with a group of politically and intellectually like-minded students. She became romantically involved with one of them, Alejandro Gómez Arias. On September 17, 1925, Kahlo and Gómez Arias were traveling together on a bus when the vehicle collided with a streetcar. As a result of the collision, Kahlo was impaled by a steel handrail, which went into her hip and came out the other side. She suffered several serious injuries as a result, including fractures in her spine and pelvis.

After staying at the Red Cross Hospital in Mexico City for several weeks, Kahlo returned home to recuperate further. She began painting during her recovery and finished her first self-portrait the following year, which she gave to Gómez Arias. Becoming more politically active, Kahlo joined the Young Communist League and the Mexican Communist Party.

Kahlo reconnected with Rivera in 1928. He encouraged her artwork, and the two began a relationship. The couple married the next year. During their early years together, Kahlo often followed Rivera moved around a lot based on where the commissions that Rivera received were. In 1930, they lived in San Francisco, California, where Kahlo showed her painting Frieda and Diego Rivera at the Sixth Annual Exhibition of the San Francisco Society of Women Artists. They then went to New York City for Rivera’s show at the Museum of Modern Art and later moved to Detroit for Rivera’s commission with the Detroit Institute of Arts.

In 1932, Kahlo incorporated more graphic and surrealistic elements in her work. In her painting, Henry Ford Hospital (1932), a naked Kahlo appears on a hospital bed with several items—a fetus, a snail, a flower, a pelvis, and others—floating around her connected to her by red, veinlike strings. As with her earlier self-portraits, the work was deeply personal, telling the story of her second miscarriage.

Kahlo and Rivera’s time in New York City in 1933 was surrounded by controversy. Commissioned by Nelson Rockefeller, Rivera created a mural entitled Man at the Crossroads in the RCA Building at Rockefeller Center. Rockefeller halted the work on the project after Rivera included a portrait of communist leader Vladimir Lenin in the mural, which was later painted over. Months after this incident, the couple returned to Mexico and went to live in San Angel, Mexico.

Never a traditional union, Kahlo and Rivera kept separate, but adjoining homes and studios in San Angel. She was saddened by his many infidelities, including an affair with her sister Cristina. In response to this familial betrayal, Kahlo cut off most of her trademark long dark hair. Desperately wanting to have a child, she again experienced heartbreak when she miscarried in 1934. She and Rivera went through periods of separation, but they joined together to help exiled Soviet communist Leon Trotsky and his wife Natalia in 1937. The Trotskys came to stay with them at the Blue House for a time in 1937 as Trotsky had received asylum in Mexico. Once a rival of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, Trotsky feared that he would be assassinated by his old nemesis. Kahlo and Trotsky reportedly had a brief affair during this time.

While she never considered herself a Surrealist, Kahlo befriended one of the primary figures in that artistic and literary movement, Andre Breton, in 1938. That same year, she had a major exhibition at a New York City gallery, selling half of the 25 paintings shown there. Kahlo also received two commissions, including one for famed magazine editor Clare Boothe Luce, as a result of the show. Kahlo was asked to paint a portrait of Luce’s daughter, actress Dorothy Hale. Rather than a traditional portrait, she painted the story of Hale’s tragic end—her suicide by jumping out of a high-rise building. While the work, The Suicide of Dorothy Hale (1939), has been heralded by critics, its patron was horrified at the finished painting.

In 1939, Kahlo went to live in Paris for a time. There she exhibited some of her paintings and developed friendships such artists as Marcel Duchamp and Pablo Picasso. She divorced Rivera later that year. During this time, she painted one of her most famous works, The Two Fridas (1939). The paintings shows two versions of the artist sitting side by side, with both of their hearts exposed. One Frida is dressed nearly all in white and has a damaged heart and spots of blood on her clothing. The other wears bold colored clothing and has an intact heart. These figures are believed to represent “unloved” and “loved” versions of Kahlo.

Oddly, Kahlo and Rivera did not stay divorced for long. They remarried in 1940, and yet the couple continued to lead largely separate lives. And both became involved with other people over the years.

Kahlo received a commission from the Mexican government for five portraits of important Mexican women in 1941, but she was unable to finish the project. She lost her beloved father that year and continued to suffer from chronic health problems. Despite her personal challenges, her work continued to grow in popularity and was included in numerous group shows around this time.

In 1944, Kahlo painted The Broken Column, which depicted a nearly nude Frida split down the middle revealing her spine as a shattered decorative column. She also wears a surgical brace and her skin is studded with tacks or nails. Again, Kahlo shared her physical challenges through her art. Around this time, she had several surgeries and wore special corsets to try to fix her back. She would continue to seek a variety of treatments for her chronic physical pain with little success.

Her health issues became nearly all-consuming in 1950. After being diagnosed with gangrene in her right foot, Kahlo spent nine months in the hospital and had several operations during this time. She continued to paint and support political causes despite having limited mobility. In 1953, Kahlo received her first solo exhibition in Mexico. She may have been bedridden at the time, but she did not miss out on the exhibition’s opening. Arriving by ambulance, Kahlo spent the evening talking and celebrating with the event’s attendees from the comfort of a four-poster bed set up in the gallery just for her. Kahlo’s joy was dampened a few months later when part of her right leg was amputated to stop the spread of gangrene.

Deeply depressed, Kahlo was hospitalized again in April 1954 because of poor health, or, as some reports indicated, a suicide attempt. She returned to the hospital two months later with bronchial pneumonia. No matter her physical condition, Kahlo did not let that stand in the way of her political activism. Her final public appearance was a demonstration against the U.S.-backed overthrow of President Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala on July 2. About a week after her forty-seventh birthday, Kahlo died on July 13 at her beloved Blue House. There has been some speculation regarding the nature of her death. It was reported to be caused by a pulmonary embolism, but there have also been stories about a possible suicide.

Since her death, Kahlo’s fame as an artist has only grown. Her beloved Blue House was opened as a museum in 1958. The feminist movement of the 1970s led to renewed interest in her life and work, as Kahlo was viewed by many as an icon of female creativity. In 1983, Hayden Herrera’s book on the artist, A Biography of Frida Kahlo, also helped to stir up interest this great artist. More recently, her life was the subject of a 2002 film entitled Frida, starring Salma Hayek as the artist and Alfred Molina as Diego Rivera. Directed by Julie Taymor, the film was nominated for six Academy Awards and won for Best Makeup and Original Score.