Illinois Ideological Battlegound of the Nation

ForFor thethe PeoplePeople A N e w s l e t t e r o f t h e A b r a h a m L i n c o l n A s s o c i a t i o n Volume 4, Number 2 Summer 2002 Springfield, Illinois Illinois Ideological Battleground of the Nation by Daniel Willis * tion of the spread of slavery under any ties, largely in response to the growing conditions whatsoever.2 Douglas was a controversy over the slavery issue he Lincoln-Douglas Debates believer in the theory of popular sov- sparked by the 1854 passage of the occupy a unique position in ereignty, which advocated that each Kansas-Nebraska Act, proposed by TIllinois history. For a short territory should make the slavery deci- none other than Stephen Douglas. time, the Prairie State represented and sion when it applied for statehood. The Kansas-Nebraska Act in effect highlighted the divisive forces affect- Douglas’s personal belief was that repealed the Missouri Compromise of ing the nation. In the aftermath of the slavery was unjust, but that the blacks 1820, which declared that all new debates, the positions held by were his intellectual and moral inferi- states north of 36°30’ north latitude Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. ors.3 Douglas argued that white voters would be free states (that is, slavery Douglas came to be seen as a direct in Illinois, Maine, and South Carolina would be forbidden within their conflict of two great principles. had the same right to enact their opin- boundaries) and all new states south of Lincoln is perceived as “the Great ions as law, no matter how different, as that line would be slave states. This Emancipator,” champion of a moral long as the Constitution did not forbid compromise was far from perfect, but absolute: the complete abolition of it.4 The most appealing feature of pop- it kept tempers cool on the slavery slavery. Douglas championed a differ- ular sovereignty was that it appeared topic for roughly thirty years, until the ent lofty principle: popular sovereign- to represent a workable compromise end of the Mexican War, when the ty, or the right of the people to decide on the volatile subject of slavery. In United States claimed a huge area of issues for themselves by popular vote comparison, Lincoln’s approach, the land as the spoils of war, much of it on a state-by-state basis. The conflict complete halt of the spread of slavery south of the compromise line. Debate between these two ideals is what and its gradual elimination, seemed to about whether the new territories makes the debates such an interesting be an inflammatory course of action, would be slave or free was sparked by and important part of history. perhaps leading to war. The fear of the the Wilmot Proviso, which stated that To understand the impact of these consequences of Lincoln’s plan, cou- slavery would be prohibited in any ter- debates on American history, one must pled with Douglas’s greater fame com- ritory won as a result of the war. examine the effects of these ideas on ing into the debates, certainly con- Congress was deadlocked until Henry subsequent historical events. In the tributed to Douglas’s election. Clay, the venerable statesman, and the case of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, The occasion for the debates was silver-tongued Daniel Webster were the short-term intentions and practical the Illinois Senate election of 1858. able to work out a long, complex com- goals of the speakers were to secure a Neither candidate was a stranger to promise deal in 1850.6 seat in the United States Senate. the political arena. Douglas, a Four years later, Douglas pro- However, the long-term significance Democrat, was the incumbent, and posed the fateful Kansas-Nebraska bill. and ideological implications of the one of the most well known, if not The measure would open the Kansas arguments put forth by the partici- universally liked, men in American Territory to popular sovereignty, pants were more far-reaching and pro- politics.5 Lincoln, a Republican, was a which meant that when the territory voked strong reactions that led to rev- former Illinois and United States had sufficient population to apply for olution and reform. Representative, and a respectable man, statehood, the legality of slavery Slavery, of course, was the major if not a famous one. Douglas’s would be decided by a majority of all issue in the nation at the time, and as Democratic party had been established voters in the area. Kansas would oth- such it dominated the debates.1 in the time of Thomas Jefferson, erwise have been a free state. Lincoln, as a member of the whereas the Republican party had sud- When Kansas applied for state- Republican party, had to run on its denly risen within only four years to hood as a slave state, both pro- and platform, which called for the preven- become one of the major national par- continued on page 5 2 For the People President’s Column by Robert S. Eckley The second item recalling the Civil National Committee, a key player in War in the old secretary was a small the Civil War political scene. How this he Civil War and Lincoln, that copy of the New Testament published volume ended up in my grandfather’s forever-linked and unsymmetri- in New York in 1861. Scratched inside desk remains a mystery because he Tcal couple, which began several the back cover in pencil is this mes- became an orphan in 1865 at age weeks after Lincoln’s first inauguration sage: “Found in the Rebel fort at New fifteen. and virtually ended in the same inter- Madrid after the Bombardment march The purpose of this recital is to val after his second, brought together 13th 1862 and signed G.W. Yates, Co. pose the question: What similar cache puzzling combinations of memories D, 10th Regt Ill Vol.” On that same of letters, books, or memorabilia do and memorabilia which filled me with day, Confederate General John P. you have in an attic, desk, chest, or just intrigue when I encountered these McCown ordered evacuation of his in boxes? And are you considering, as objects as a teenager. As we approach forces from New Madrid to avoid cap- I am, what is the best disposition of the opening of the new Lincoln ture, for which he was relieved of his those that may have historic value Library in November and construction command. George Yates was my beyond the confines of purely family of the co-joined museum, with their grandfather’s cousin. New Madrid is, traditions? Letters, manuscripts, and extensive conjunction of books, manu- of course, just downstream from documents, in particular, could be of scripts, and artifacts, perhaps family Island No. 10 in the Mississippi River interest to scholars in pursuit of collections have broader relevance. near where wise maneuvering of Lincoln and Civil War questions, and In the small drawer inside the top Union forces led to an almost blood- their accessibility in public libraries of the secretary, I found an envelope less surrender of several thousand could enhance their usefulness. The containing two wooden chips. Pasted Confederate troops on April 7 to those opening of the Abraham Lincoln around one was the following typed under the command of Union General Presidential Library on November 18 statement: “A piece of platform floor John Pope. I am reminded as I hold is a fitting occasion to be thinking from the historic ‘Lincoln Car’ saved the tiny book in my hand of Lincoln’s about such questions. while repairing the 1904, Worlds Fair, line from his second inaugural address: Stimulated to collect Lincoln St. Louis, MO,” signed W.O. (?) Siron. “Both [parties] read the same Bible, memorabilia by a son of Henry Clay The second label said: “A piece of and pray to the same god, and each Whitney, author of Life on the Circuit frame work from the historic ‘Lincoln invokes His aid against the other.” with Lincoln, Governor Henry Horner Car,’ etc.,” and signed as the first, The third and most significant (1932–1940) gathered together 5,500 except that Siron’s initials are indis- heirloom also is the most difficult to Lincoln items of varying description, tinct, causing me to doubt my first evaluate. Henry J. Raymond’s Life and which he left to the Illinois State reading of the initials. I would be less Public Services of Abraham Lincoln, was Historical Library in 1940. This added than candid if I did not indicate that I an early, if not the first, biography pub- meaningfully to the Library’s Lincoln have always thought the provenance of lished in 1865 after the assassination. Collection, which began with the the chips could be doubtful, that my Mark E. Neely, Jr., called it “an undis- Library in 1889. In 1953, the grandfather perhaps was taken in by a tinguished biography which mostly Abraham Lincoln Association donated side show entrepreneur at the St. stitched together Lincoln’s state its papers to the Collection, including Louis World’s Fair a century ago. That papers,” Paul Angle ignored it in his many letters written by Mary Todd is, until recently, when the Illinois 1946 selective bibliography, and Allen Lincoln. Later, more Lincoln family State Historical Library displayed C. Guelzo, in his introduction to the papers were obtained from Robert some of its Lincoln artifacts. 1998 republication of Holland’s 1866 Todd Lincoln Beckwith. These and Among the items displayed was a Life, comments on its lessor emphasis other increments have made the collection from Grace Bedell, the on Lincoln’s early years.

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