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The City of Lincoln is the capital and the second-most populous city of the US state of Nebraska. Lincoln is also the county seat of Lancaster County and the home of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln's 2010 Census population was 258,379. Lincoln was founded in 1856 as the village of Lancaster, and became the county seat of the newly created Lancaster County in 1859. The capital of Nebraska Territory had been Omaha since the creation of the territory in 1854; however, most of the territory's population lived south of the Platte River. After much of the territory south of the Platte considered annexation to Kansas, the legislature voted to move the capital south of the river and as far west as possible. The village of Lancaster was chosen, in part due to the salt flats and marshes. Omaha interests attempted to derail the move by having Lancaster renamed after the recently assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Many of the people south of the river had been sympathetic to the Confederate cause in the recently concluded Civil War, and it was assumed that the legislature would not pass the measure if the future capital were named after Lincoln. The ploy did not work, as Lancaster was renamed Lincoln and became the state capital upon Nebraska's admission to the Union on March 1, 1867. The choice to name the capital city "Lincoln" caused quite a stir among constituents, whose sentiments were mixed regarding who should have won the Civil War. |