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Lincoln reversed the usual pattern of studying law and then becoming a politican. He first ran for the state legislature at 23 and won a seat in the second try as a Whig in 1834. There he met people with wider horizons. And he soon was convinced to study law. Lincoln was a effective young politician and poitics was his true love. Yet there was no real issue which motivated him. It was Stephen Douglas, the prominent Illinois Senator, that gave Lincoln an issue. Douglas proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Bill and popular soverignity. Now Linclon saw the possibility of slavery expanding. Lincoln did not dare to challenge slavery's existence--it was after all enshired in the Constitution and most Americans accepted or supported it. He had hoped, however, that it would slowly wither away. Now there was the possibility that it would expand. Lincoln ran against Stephen A. Douglas for Senator in 1850. Lincoln in the speech accepting the nomination made perhaps his most famous speech, questioning whether America could endure both half slave and half free. The famed Lincoln-Douglas debates framed for the entire country the issue of slavery. Douglas accused Linclon of codeling the blacks. Lincon replie that while blacks may not be equal that they are entitled to the income that they earn from their labor. Douglas also stressed the importance of majority rule. Lincoln evoked moral principles. Lincoln won a small majority, a major accomplishment in heavily Democratic Illinois. He lost the election in the Democratic state legislature. In debating with Douglas, a principal Congressional engineer of the Compromise of 1850 which had postponed Civil War, Lincoln gained a national reputation. He continued speaking out, assuming the middle ground between the abolistionists and the slave holders of the South. The Lincoln-Douglas deabates were a key element that was to enable him to win the Republican nomination for President in 1860.
Most Americans know at least some about Lincoln as president. Much less is known about his early political career. Lincoln reversed the usual pattern of studying law and then becoming a politican. He first ran for the state legislature at 23 and won a seat in the second try as a Whig (1834). There he met people with wider horizons. And he was soon convinced to study law. Lincoln was a effective young politician and poitics was his true love. We now know him as a lofty idealist, but as a young man, as many young man are, was a highly partisan Whig politican. He has been decribed as both 'scrappy' and very ambitious. [DeRose] He almost fought a duel with a political opponent. And once he had his law degree, he argued a case before the Supreme Court-- the only president to do so.
The Whigs dominated Lincoln for Congress (1846). One author writes, "The Whig leaders put together $200 for Lincoln. After the campaign, he returned $199.25. 'I did not need the money. I made the canvass on my own horse, my entertainment being at the house of friends, cost me nothing; and my only outlay was 75 cents for a barrel of cider, which some farmhands insusted I should treat them to.'" [DeRose] Linclon served in Congress during the Mexican War (1846-48) which he opposed. Congressman Lincoln began to moderate his partisan tactics in Washington, but he was still an ardent Whig. Once in Comgess, he contended, "The Whigs have fought long enough for princiole and ought to begin fightging for success." As a Congressman he was intriduced to issues including domestic improvements, stimulus spending, international trade, tariffs, banking, and much more. His heart-felt anti-slavery stance was clear from this early stage of his polirical career. He introduced a bill for the gradual end of slavery and emancipation in the District of Colombia where a slave market still functioned. [DeRose]
Abraham Lincoln was a virtually unknown Illinois lawyer. He had been a Whig and served one term in Congress. There was no real issue until 1854 that profoundly motivated Lincoln. This changed in The mid-1850s. It was Stephen Douglas, the prominent Illinois Senator, that gave Lincoln an issue. Douglas proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Bill and popular soverignity. Lincoln had been a long-term critic of slavery. He like many other northerners had assumed that slavery would gradually whither away. Now Linclon saw the possibility of slavery expanding. Lincoln was further outraged by Chief Justice Roger Taney's Dread Scott decesion (1857). He saw a conspiracy between Douglas and Taney to promote slavery. [Simon] Taney believed thst the Dread Scott decesion would finally solve and thus defuse the devisive slavery issue. Lincoln decided to run against Douglas for Senator in 1858. Lincoln in the speech accepting the nomination made perhaps his most famous speech, questioning whether America could endure both half slave and half free. As an underdog candidate, Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of debates. Douglas a formidable debater with experience in the Senate, readily accepted.
Yet there was no real issue which motivated him. It was Stephen Douglas, the prominent Illinois Senator, that gave Lincoln an issue. Douglas proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Bill and popular soverignity. Now Linclon saw the possibility of slavery expanding. Lincoln did not dare to challenge slavery's existence--it was after all enshired in the Constitution and most Americans accepted or supported it. He had hoped, however, that it would slowly wither away. Now there was the possibility that it would expand. Lincoln ran against Stephen A. Douglas for Senator in 1858. Lincoln in the speech accepting the nomination made perhaps his most famous speech, questioning whether America coul endure both half slave and half free. The famed Lincoln-Douglas debates framed for the entire country the issue of slavery. Douglas accused Linclon of codeling the blacks. Lincon replie that while blacks may not be equal that they are entiled to the income that they earn from their labor. Douglas also stressed the importance of majority rule. Lincoln evoked moral principles. Lincoln won a small majority, a major accomplishment in heavily Democratic Illinois. He lost the election in the Democratic state legislature. In debating with Douglas, a principal Congressional engineer of the Compromise of 1850 which had postponed Civil War, Lincoln gained a national reputation. He continued speaking out, assuming the middle ground between the abolistionists and the slave holders of the South. The Lincoln-Douglas deabates were a key element that was to enable him to win the Republican nomination for President in 1860.
Lincolmn in October 1859, Lincoln accepted an invitation to speak Henry Ward Beecher's church in Brooklyn, New York. The location was a stronghold of Lincoln's chief competitor for the Republican nomination, New York Senator
William Seward. Lincoln's opreparation required months of detailed research. His law partner, William Herndon, believes he spent more time preparing for this speech than any other speech he had made. Few presidencies were built on a single speech, but it was Lincoln's speech at the Cooper Union that made his presidency possible. The Lincoln-Douflas Debates had built Lincoln a national reputation, but he was still seen as a regional figure representing the rural Mid-West. It was not know if he could successfully appeal to more urbane Eastern coinstituencies. Lincoln knew what was at stake and gave a phenomnenal performance. The speech was originally scheduled to be given at Beecher's church, but the Young Men's Republican Union assumed sponsorship of the event and moved it to the Cooper Union which had recently opened and could seat a larger audience. Lincoln
not only raised the right issues, but he proved to be an entertaining speaker. [Holzer] This should not be dismissed as inconsequential. In the years before movies, radio, and television, the pagentry and activity of politics was an important form of entertaiment. Candidates that had both ideas and were entertaining had a decided advantage. One of the issues Lincoln raised were Southern threats of succession if he was elected. He told the audience, "And now, if they would listen - as I suppose they will not - I would address a few words to the Southern people." After speaking at length directlt to this point, Lincoln said, "Under all these circumstances, do you really feel yourselves justified to break up this Government unless such a court decision as yours is, shall be at once submitted to as a conclusive and final rule of political action? But you will not abide the election of a Republican president! In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! [Laughter] That is cool. [Great laughter] A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, "Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!" [Continued laughter] To be sure, what the robber demanded of me - my money - was my own; and I had a clear right to keep it; but it was no more my own than my vote is my own; and the threat of death to me, to extort my money, and the threat of destruction to the Union, to extort my vote, can scarcely be distinguished in principle.
DeRose, Chris. Congressman Lincoln: The Mking of America's Greatest President (2013), 352p.
Holzer, Harold. Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech that Made Abraham Lincoln President (Simon & Schuster, 2004).
Simon, James. Linclon and Chief Justice Taney (2006).
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