O Grew up on the Wild Kentucky and Indiana Frontier

ABRAHAM LINCOLN 1809-65

 born in 2-12-1809  log cabin  Hardin County, KY o grew up on the wild Kentucky and Indiana frontier  father: Thomas Lincoln o farmer  mother: Mary nee Hanks o dead when AL = 9 o step-mother w/children of her own (though had special affection for Abe)  both = semi-literate  education: o essentially none o self-taught o great memory  literary influences: o bible o Shakespeare o John Stuart Mills o Lord Byron o Robert Burns o Aesop’s fables, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress  1830: 21 o family moved to Illinois o worked as . a clerk in a country store . became a local postmaster . and lawyer . served 4 terms in the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly  1834: elected to 1st of 4 terms as Illinois state legislature  1836: passed the state bar  1837: lawyer in Springfield, new capital  1842: married Mary Todd o wealthy KY family now living in Illinois o had 4 sons . only 1 lived to adulthood  1846: US Congressman, House of Representatives o against the Mexican War (unjustified, unconstitutional) o  tried, unsuccessfully, to censure Pres. Polk o  no re-election  politically: o Whig – favored a loose interpretation of the Constitution o conservative o unionist – protect the Union o slavery: keep the new territories free  1850: o Missouri Compromise  1854: o Republican Party (new party of slavery opposition from Whig & Democrat parties) o Kansas-Nebraska Act . Lincoln = re-enters politics  1858: o Republican party nominates Abe to run against Stephen A. Douglas for the Illinois US Senate seat o “Lincoln-Douglas Debates” (Lincoln won) o election – Lincoln lost  1860: o elected President, November o took office 3-4-1861 o Confederacy secession before even in office o Civil War April 1861 o 1863: Gettysburg Address o 1863: Emancipation Proclamation o 1864: 2nd Inaugural o 4-15-1865: dead, shot by John Wilkes Booth  Stages of Ending Slavery in US: o initially, just contain it in states & let it die natural death o then, Civil War o Emancipation Proclamation o 13th Amendment  STYLE: o ordinary speech o backwoods humor (+ satirical humor of the times) o egalitarian principles of the Declaration of Independence o logic o grace o moral purpose: principled opposition to slavery o preservation of the Union  “ HOUSE DIVIDED” Speech

 June 16, 1858  Illinois Republican convention (closing)  in Springfield  Lincoln = nominated for Republican candidate for US Senator from Illinois o Republican contender Lincoln o vs. o Democratic incumbent Stephen Douglas  FOUNDING IDEALS: o from The Declaration of Independence o All men are created equal o All men have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness o If a government does not protect these rights, the people have the right to alter or abolish their government o popular sovereignty: . government = for the people, by the people, of the people . a pre-Civil War doctrine asserting the right of the people living in a newly organized territory to decide by vote of their territorial legislature whether or not slavery would be permitted there (M-W D) . in Kansas-Nebraska Bill  HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:  COMPROMISE of 1850: o Missouri Compromise o balanced the # of free & slave states o instituted the Fugitive Slave Law . (see THOREAU) o seemed to appease both North & South . esp. those who worried @ breaking apart the UNION  KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL: o 1854 o overrode earlier legislation o written by US Senator (Illinois) Stephen Douglas o allowed white men to vote on slavery issue o in these new territories from Louisiana Purchase . transcontinental railroad, through southern route (Nebraska to CA) o  anti-slavery New Englanders & pro-slavery Missourians moved in to establish residency o  violence (precursor of CIVIL WAR)  DRED SCOTT DECISION: o 1857 o Supreme Court decision o asserts that blacks could not become US citizens o thus, had no legal rights o a slave (Dred Scott) in a free state = still a slave  PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: o Franklin Pierce, 14th (1853-57) - Democrats refused to nominate him for re-election o James Buchanan, 15th (1857-61) . who “indorsed” the KNB & DS decision  SLAVERY: o in the New World since Columbus o 1808: US participation in the international African slave trade = abolished o remained legal within the US o 1-1-1863: Emancipation Proclamation, freed only those in seceded states o 13 th Amendment: abolished slavery in US  MARK 3.25: o “If a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” o Lincoln: “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.” . either all-free . or all-slave . fears leaning of all-slave o also echoed in: . Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan (kingdom), Abigail Adams letter, Thomas Paine in Common Sense, Sam Houston Miss. Compromise debate (nation),  MACHINE: o conspiracy, “preconcert” o these 3 bits of legislation = leaning to pro-slavery o KNB created “a nitch” in the Constitution to allow for the DS decision . (see THOREAU)  traces the HISTORY to see it working as a process, a MACHINE  1854: o majority of states & territories = free o KNB . January 5, 1854 . repeals congressional ban on slavery . “opened all the national territory to slavery” . popular sovereignty:  “squatter sovereignty”  “sacred right of self government”  leave it to the PEOPLE to decide . proposed AMENDMENT to KNB –  “to expressly declare that the people of the Territory may exclude slavery”  turned down  1857: o delayed decision in Dred Scott case o until after the presidential election o Buchanan endorses the KNB & DSD . even mentioned DSD in his inaugural speech . (hint: it was already a done-deal) o BUT: endorsement = NOT of the PEOPLE . “fell short of a clear majority by nearly 400, 000 votes…”  Stephen Douglas vs. Buchanan – o SD: doesn’t care if slavery = voted up or down . Lincoln suggests this = his “principle” to influence public opinion  “ The working points of the machinery are:” o blacks = no citizenship … despite US Constitution o neither Congress nor states can exclude slavery  increases the chances of the “permanency to the institution” of slavery o shaping public opinion – . free if brought into a free state? . DSD   if the PEOPLE elected Buchanan & he supports DS, then DS = seemingly endorsed by the PEOPLE  PERVERTED VIRTUE: o corrupting the principle of the Declaration of Independence & US Constitution o “squatter sovereignty” o shaping PUBLIC OPINION . “…was so perverted in this attempted use of it [KNB] as to amount ot just this: That if any one man, choose to enslave another, no third man shall be allowed to object.” . DSD “fell short of a clear majority by nearly 400, 000 votes…” . “Auxiliary to all this, and working hand in hand with it, the Nebraska doctrine, or what is left of it, is to educate and mold public opinion, at least Northern public opinion, not to care whether slavery is voted down or voted up. This shows exactly where we now are; and partially, also, whither we are tending.”  federally sanctioned moral INDIFFERENCE on slavery  past, present, future – where we are, where we’re going  PEOPLE = not FREE: o the PEOPLE were to be left perfectly free under the US Constitution o BUT o DSD & KNB created “a nitch” in the USC allowing for slavery  CONSPIRACY? o why was the amendment shot down o why was the DSD postponed until after the presidential election o why Pierce’s congratulations before leaving office o why was the DSD re-argument delayed o why did Buchanan encourage its acceptance beforehand o why did Buchanan & others hastily endorse it afterwards . “We cannot absolutely know that all these exact adaptations are the result of preconcert. But …..in such a case, we find it impossible not to believe that Stephen and Franklin and Roger and James [Democrats Senator Douglas, former President Franklin Pierce, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, President James Buchanan] all understood one another from the beginning, and all worked upon a common plan or draft drawn up before the first blow was struck.” . appearances . conspiracy . usurpation of public opinion  Mission: To Defeat this pro-slavery agenda o to overthrow the “present political dynasty” of which Buchanan = head  Stephen A. Douglas = NOT the man for that job o SAD = caged, toothless lion o b/c he doesn’t care about the issue of slavery, whether its passed or struck down o all on inference & implication – no direct avowing o reduced slavery to a matter of property rights (not about human rights)  1856: o Republicans lost the presidential election of 1856 o we came together then to fight “a common danger” o we were of “strange, discordant, & even hostile” backgrounds o “Did we brave then to falter now?”  anti-slavery = “great cause”   EFFECTS: o Lincoln faces Douglas in series of great debates o loses the election o gains national recognition

STYLE:  ordinary speech  satirical humor of the times  egalitarian principles of the Declaration of Independence  logic  grace  moral purpose: principled opposition to slavery  preservation of the Union

THEMES:  perverted virtue: o fallen away from Founding Values . all men = equal . basic human rights o government = of, by, for the People (popular sovereignty) . BUT . usurp & control public opinion  popular sovereignty = impossible: o able to be hijacked/commandeered (Buchanan election, DSD) o gap between North & South ideologies = too wide (no possible consensus) o represents, in Douglas, non-action & indifference, which leads to more violence  anti-slavery = great cause  conspiracy of federally endorsed moral indifference  KNB = undermines the US Constitution

 http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/inside.asp?ID=17&subjectID=2  VIDEO: http://sonoma.edu/nbisp/resources/lincoln/house-divided.html  Emancipation Proclamation: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/ “ SECOND INAUGURAL” Speech

 March 4, 1865  Appomattox, VA within a month (4-9-65)  Assassination (4-14/15-65)  Civil War = going “reasonably satisfactory & encouraging to all” o “[w]ith high hope for the future”  1 st Inaugural = long o had to detail the course ahead o impending war  didn’t want war: o wanted to “sav[e] the union without war” o BUT insurgents sought to “destroy it without war” o “Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.”  Slavery: o = “the cause of the war” o South: wanted to “strengthen, perpetuate, & extend” it o North/Government: wanted to “restrict” it in the territories  BOTH SIDES: o neither wanted war o neither expected war o neither thought slavery would end before war o both wanted “easier triumph” o both read same bible, prayed to same God o both asked God to be on their side (irony) . “It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered--that of neither has been answered fully.  “The Almighty has his own purposes.” o Matthew 18.7: “‘Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.’ o “If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through his appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him? . Civil War = God’s punishment o Fondly do we hope--fervently do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. o Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, ‘The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’” . God’s will be done. So be it.  RALLY: o “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.” . non-confrontational . on the side of moral right . “strive on” . heal: veteran, widow, orphan  Abe = aware of the costs of war . peace ------ brink of victory: o Grant’s driving of Robert E. Lee back to Richmond o Sherman’s march to the sea through Georgia  justifies the war o didn’t want it o this is why we went, though o cause = slavery  sensing the North’s victory, holds olive branch o reconciliation o time to heal & unite o we’re similar in many ways  similarities between North & South: o reconciliation o theme . same Bible, God   argument to those believers   evangelical view of history  evangelical view of history: o war = God’s scourge for the sin of slavery . which puts the sin of slavery on ALL Americans, North & South . that’s why ALL must suffer o if you believe in God, then war = scourge, judgment o if you believe in God, then His judgments = righteous  doesn’t blame the South o blames the SIN . common enemy that they could reunite against . (Strawman Argument) o makes reconciliation  knows the costs of war o wounded veterans o widows o orphans  Restoring the Union: o justifies the war o doesn’t make anyone angry o finds common ground (God) o blames Sin, not Southern o war = God’s punishment, thus just . providential explanation of the war helps heal, reunite o knows cost of wars o time to heal o look forward to peace & working w/other countries  tone = o humility o magnanimousness o war-weary o devout    Text: http://www.literaturepage.com/read/lincoln-second-inaugural-address-1.html