Abraham Lincoln's approach to the dilemmas in his life can be summarized by one word: logic. Both his simple upbringing and his experiences as a lawyer in Illinois formed his thinking and problem solving style. He was forced financially and geographically to educate himself by reading repeatedly any literature he was fortunate enough to obtain. A perfect example of his determination to learn is cited by his thorough knowledge of the Bible. "There is hardly a speech or state paper of his in which allusions and illustrations taken from the Bible do not appear" (Arnold, 21). This necessity to educate himself also caused him to seek isolation when faced with a difficult problem.

One of Lincoln's strong points as a problem solver was to take the problem and strip it down to find a simple, logical answer. This characteristic was only solidified by his work as a lawyer. In one such case a woman whose son was on trial for murder approached Lincoln. The key witness in the trial claimed to have seen the man deliver the fatal blow when the moon was in its' most enlightening position. Lincoln approached this dilemma by simply producing an almanac that stated the moon was never even out that night, thus discrediting the witness entirely and winning the case for the man. This case exemplified his skill as a lawyer and as a problem solver.

Lincoln's train of thought was most visible in his numerous debates and speeches. He was and is regarded as one of the greatest orators of all time. He did not earn this distinction because of a deep vocabulary or eloquent use of words, but through his concise, straightforward use of the simplest of words. Getting his point across with emotion and a persuasive demeanor. Lincoln knew that a majority of his audience was not sufficiently educated and would not comprehend elaborate and complicated speeches. Therefore, he logically wrote his debates in a manner that everyone could understand. This proved an extremely successful approach solidified by his enormous success in these debates and addresses to the public. The Gettysburg Address exemplifies this approach to the fullest extent. It is no more than two full paragraphs in length and the vocabulary it contains could be comprehended by anyone with a fair education, yet it is regarded by historians as one of the greatest speeches of all time.

The one event that will always be linked with Abraham Lincoln is the Civil War. This was by far the greatest dilemma to face Lincoln and probably the largest conflict to confront any president in history. The conflict began before Lincoln had even taken the oath of office when seven states seceded from the union prior to his inauguration. Lincoln's approach to the impeding break-up of the United States did not vary from the approach he used throughout his entire life. After speaking with his advisors Lincoln retired to his office alone and surveyed the problem. Instead of ordering complex military action as a solution, he stripped down the problem and determined that one small action, as opposed to a complex strategy would sufficiently display the government's stance on the situation. He sent troops into South Carolina at Fort Sumter that triggered what would be the Civil War. During the war Lincoln seized full command of military forces and used a simple strategy by merely countering every move the South made. In 1864 Lincoln was faced with the problem that there was no end to the war in site. He knew that his approach of counter offenses was solid in preventing the loss of the war but gave only a slight chance of taking total control of the conflict. Lincoln approached the predicament logically and devised an intelligible solution. He would simply relinquish command of the armed forces to General Ulysses S. Grant who was much more educated in the art of war than himself. This proved a successful solution as the North went on to win the war convincingly from that point on making Grant a hero.

President Lincoln was a man of great intellectual ability and could find a logical answer to almost any problem he faced. His unique simplicity is a refreshing change from a world where many people believe that a complicated approach to problem solving showcases their intellect better than choosing the most sensible approach.

In class we were given the assignment of creating a group problem and writing an essay on how we would approach solving this problem. We decided to use a problem that a person in our group was forced to confront while in high school. Her sister was not eating while away at school, and when she was at home she would eat and then make herself throw it back up. When making this web page on our historical figure we were asked to predict how they might have reacted to the problem we chose. Here is my forecast on what Lincoln may have done.

Lincoln was a man who would not take action before he completely surveyed the situation and had all the information needed to develop a relevant approach to the problem. After he had everything he needed to ensure that a problem was present he would do what he did best, take action. Lincoln would surely have confronted the girl and tried to resolve the problem between the two of them. He would have used his simple, persuasive way of speaking to convince her that she was causing harm to her body that could prove to be fatal. If this proposition proved unsuccessful he would have immediately gone to a secondary plan because he was not a man who would allow problems to linger around unsolved. This plan would probably have been to inform the parents of the situation and given them all the options that he thought would be best for the girl since they would be the utmost authority on her.