We are now in our third week in this course, and my what ground we have covered thus far. We have more to cover today, because we are coming up to the 1850s now. We are talking about the crises of the 1850s that really begin with the compromise of 1850 that moved into the kansasnebraska act of 1854, and we are going to see still more earthquakes occurring. But as we do this, we have a character that we have to meet who is going to play a central role in this entire course, and that is Abraham Lincoln. Now we touched very briefly in our last session by way of introduction of lincoln, and just to go through some of the details once again Abraham Lincoln is born in 1809, born the 12th of february. His parents are thomas and nancy hanks lincoln, and lincoln himself was born in hodgenville, kentucky, in a log cabin, yes, quite literally. He doesnt stay in kentucky. In 1818, his parents uproot from kentucky and move northwards across the ohio river into southern indiana. That is where lincoln grows up. Alas, that is also where lincolns mother dies. Lincolns father goes back to kentucky, remarries, and lincoln now has a stepmother, Sarah Bush Johnston. Now in what is almost an inversion of the old hansel and gretel story of the wicked stepmother is actually something of the reverse for Abraham Lincoln, because Sarah Bush Johnston really becomes his mother fully as much as a mother could be. She and her stepson abraham, they were copacetic, something that cannot be said about lincolns relationship with his father, thomas. Where the relationship was in fact a good deal more tense. Lincoln would once described his father as being the sort of man who could bunglingly sign his own name. That wasnt a compliment. They are two different qualities. So different that when Thomas Lincoln once again picks up the family and moves westward across the wabash river to illinois, at that point young abraham, having turned 21, decides that he is going to strike out on his own. And the home that he strikes out upon has very little in common with the life of Thomas Lincoln. Thomas lincoln was content to be a farmer, a jacksonian, if there ever was a jacksonian. But the young Abraham Lincoln has other dreams. He has no use whatsoever for the agrarian life. He goes into some shortlived business in new salem, not that it succeeds, not that it prospers, but he keeps trying at until finally he gets himself elected to the Illinois State legislature in 1834, and he will serve four terms in the legislature. He is a whig, and one almost wants to say that he is a whigs whig, because his entire attitude in contrast with andrew jackson, what Abraham Lincoln embraces is the entire whig ethos of self transformation. Of henry clays America Henry clay will be for lincoln what lincoln called his beauideal of a statesman, and he is much more suspicious and in what he has to say about andrew jackson. It is not entirely a matter of applause. So the words we looked at last time, where lincoln is talking about how they labor for a while, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself, then labors on his own and then at length hires a new beginner to help him. This is his free labor. That is the system. That is the whiggish system of self transformation, selfimprovement, free labor. The just and generous and prosperous system that opens the way to all, gives hope to all and improvement of condition to all. If one continued in condition of higher labor, its not a fault of the system, but because of either a dependent nature which returns it or in providence folly or similar misfortune, there is and this is lincoln affirming not only the principles of free labor and whiggish selftransformation, but this is also the way lincoln draws his contrast with slavery. There is no permanent class of hired laborers amongst us, or at least there isnt in the north. Remember James Henry Hammond defending slavery on the grounds that every society requires a mudsill class to perform all of the mudsill duties, and said hammond, wasnt it the genius of the south that it had discover a specific group of people that would perform those mudsill duties and nothing but for the entirety of their lives, which were black slaves. By contrast, lincoln says there is no permanent class of hired laborers amongst us. There is no mudsill class. 25 years ago, i was a hired laborer. I was one of those mudsills, but the hired labor of yesterday labors on his own account and will hire others to labor for him tomorrow. Advancement, improvement in condition is the order of things in a society of equals. Of course improvement and advancement in condition are exactly the things that a slave cannot aspire to and which James Henry Hammond would be very disturbed to find a mudsill class aspiring to. People are surprised when they see this image. This is actually the first photograph of Abraham Lincoln. It doesnt quite look like the fella we meet on the 5 bill. It is a gregario type taken in about 1846, and in this lincoln does not look like somebody fresh off his fathers farm. Thats because by 1846, he wasnt. When he goes off to the legislature in 1834, he also carries with him the desire for advancement and the way to advancement for lincoln is to study law. And so he becomes a lawyer, apprenticing himself more or less as a junior partner to a prominent kentucky lawyer in springfield, illinois, named John Todd Stewart whom he had met during the Services Rendered during the black hawk war of 1832. That was where stewart and lincoln met. Lincoln works as a junior partner for John Todd Stewart, but eventually what he wants to do is to be on his own. And he achieves that in 1844, taking along with him as a junior partner of his own William Henry herndon, who will over the years to come become something of the boswell to lincolns johnson. Lincoln spends a great deal of his professional time as a lawyer, practicing on the 8th judicial circuit, which is mostly central illinois. At its apex, it is 14 counties in central illinois, including the capital springfield where lincoln lives. His law practice is overwhelmingly civil law. Only about 5 of lincolns cases over the years touched on criminal matters. He is mostly a civil lawyer. Practicing civil law. He does wills and estates, he trespass and assumption, and he does collections. In fact, he does a lot of collections. Abraham lincoln was a repo man. But in fact, his caseload is really not the caseload of a specialist. He is providing Legal Services for all comers, so it is a very broadly based practice, and it is one that keeps him very busy. In his busiest year, 1853, lincoln has over 300 cases for which he is responsible. That is a lot. He is not only a civil lawyer, he is a trial lawyer. He is not one of these lawyers who sits in an office and reads moves papers from the inbox the outbox. He specializes in working in front of juries, convincing injuries, and on the old 8th judicial circuit, that was a challenge. And for two reasons, in those days, juries had a whole lot more in the way of discretion for how law was decided than they do for instance today. Today judges, legislatures, statutes pretty much layout with the law is and juries measure if the case measures up to that. In lincolns day, juries could buck directions given by judges are interpreting statutes or applying statutes. So that was a challenge for lincoln in appearing before these juries. He not only had to make a case, but he also had to make a theory behind the case for the benefit of the jury that he was talking to. The other thing about these juries is, these are not carefully selected, carefully screened juries. In these Little County courthouses through central illinois, a jury could as often as not be selected from whoever the spectators were standing in the back of the courtroom. That meant that lincoln had to learn how to communicate the clearest and most basic level. And he had to do it swiftly, convincingly, or he would soon be out of business. But on the other hand, daunting as that might be, as a trial lawyer, this is extremely good training for someone who will later on politically speaking have to be someone who specializes in convincing people of big arguments. So a lot of what makes lincoln such a great speaker, such a great writer, with such a tremendous capacity to convince people very logical, a lot of that grows out of his experience as a trial lawyer on the 8th judicial skcircuit, and by all measurements, he is successful as a trial lawyer. He enjoys the work of a trial lawyer, and he benefits from it quite readily, so that by the 1850s, he has accumulated a fairly healthy nest egg. He has a house of his own in springfield, illinois. He is sometimes taking in fees as high as 5,000 for a particular case, and in those days, 5,000 is a lot of money. A middleclass income in the middle 1850s would be, perhaps walt whitman estimated, 1000 a year. Lincoln can pull in 5,000 for one case. So hes doing well economically, also doing well socially. In 1842, he marries mary todd. Now if you notice, John Todd Stewart and Mary Todd Lincoln yes, they are related. Theyre cousins. That is how mary todd comes to springfield, shes coming from her home in lexington, kentucky, visiting springfield, and that is where she meets lincoln. Now it has to be said in all candor that meeting lincoln was not always the easiest thing to do because all right, lets be frank, the man is homely. He is, i am sorry. It really is true. Homely enough with the big ears, the big nose, the high hollow cheekbones, and although the collar his neck reminded you of a when he stood up, suddenly watching him standup was like watching a jackknife unfold. He was awkward. He spoke with a peculiar accent, very highpitched, twangy, border state kind of accent, and he did not sound elegant. Elegant was a word you use most about mary todd. Most of her todd relatives did not understand what it was she saw in lincoln and tried to talk her out of the match. But she did see things others did not, and so they were married in 1842. This is a big social step for Abraham Lincoln, because by marrying mary todd, he has effectively married into the first families of the illinois whig party. So he has moved up dramatically in economic terms and in social terms, but that does not mean that he is always the happiest and most contented of people. To the contrary, there is a streak of melancholy, of depression in lincoln he called the hypo, which could sometimes just cover him in gloom. To meet lincoln is to meet a complex, complicated person. Kellyanne. Do you think mary todd was just after his money . No, because in truth, her family was wealthier than he was. Her father was a very prominent merchant in kentucky. They are actually much more well off than lincoln. Now of course lincoln is coming up, but again people would w wond wonder, what does she see in this man lincoln . Not enough of it to be a really compelling argument. Not a gold digger argument. She sees qualities and him that others at first dont. Most of the time when they met lincoln, what they thought they were meeting as one illinois acquaintance described it, when you met lincoln for the first time, it was like meeting a rough, intelligent farmer. And that of course could easily make you underestimate him. He made jokes about his own looks. And why shouldnt he . If he didnt, someone else would, so he would be them to the punch. A photographer said, as photographers will, just look natural. Lincolns reply was, that is what i am trying to avoid. On another occasion he told a joke about a man riding through the forest on the path and coming from the other direction on the path, a woman on a horse who stops and stares at him. Very rude thing to do. He says, madam, what are you staring at . She says, you are about the ugliest man i have ever met. To which he says, well, i cant help that. But she replies, well, you could stay home. No, he made jokes about his own looks, but also intended to induce people to think here was a simple man. But one of his legal associates, leonard sweat made the most perceptive comment about lincoln. If anyone took a Lincoln Lincoln mended man would find his back in a ditch. He used people to his own advantage. But even success, economically and socially, is not the most important thing to lincoln. What he wants is success politically and political success is going to mean election to congress. And that is what in 1846 he sets out to do, to get himself elected to congress from the 7th Congressional District in midstate illinois and he is duly elected. He is not at this moment what you would think of as being an apostle of opposition to slavery. Years later, he would say im naturally antislavery, if slavery is not wrong nothing is wrong. Something being opposed to slavely did not turn him into an abolitionist. In 1937, sitting in the state legislature, he joined with another whig representative decrying slavery as bad practice, bad policy, and injustice. But he doesnt do more than that. When he goes to washington as a member of congress, he backs a bill to abolish the slave trade in the district of columbia, this is before the compromise of 1850. But the bill goes nowhere, and lincoln doesnt press on it. So he is opposed to slavery. He is antislavery, hes just not what you call an activist on the subject. That is until 1854. The reason he is not an activist on the subject is because 1854, he is convinced that slavery is a dying system which is on its own way out. Lincoln believes, first of all, that the founders constructed the United States constitution to be an antislavery document. Not that the constitution abolished slavery, but that the constitution created the system and represented the intentions of founders who believed they had put slavery on the road to extinction. It would happen gradually, it would happen painlessly, but it would happen. It would be inevitable. The second thing is lincoln believes that by confining slavery to the southern states, slavery will turn out to be a system which uses up its own oxygen. That the kind of agriculture the slavery will represents, as tobacco did in the 18th century, wear out the soil, and when is uneconomical, slavery will come to an end but it will do it on its own. No one needs to behave like garrison and the abolitionists. Nobody needs to push hard on the slave states and alienate and anger them. It is simply a process, and we will let this process unfold. So he is antislavery, but he doesnt feel any need to take active measures against slavery because he believes it is inevitable. It is going to die out on its own. It is a system doomed by its own logic to fade away. That was no longer a tenable notion after the kansasnebraska act. The kansasnebraska act, by opening up the vast stretches of the Louisiana Purchase to the possibility of legalized slavery through Stephen Douglass doctrine of slavery, suddenly that was like a blinding flash of lightning. Suddenly slavery was no longer going to be confined to the southern states, it was no longer to asphyxiate on its own. To the contrary the kansa kansasnebraska act opened up the possibility that it was going to spread and mutate like an irresistible virus. That it was going to swallow up the whole of the american west. Both the Louisiana Purchase and the mexican cession, and then it was going to turn back to the free states of the north and legalize slavery there. That was why the kansasnebraska act was such a shock. Thats why we get salmon chase and the appeal of the independent democrats. As we get Charles Sumner and the crime against kansas. We get bleeding kansas. Lincoln testifies to this. The nebraska bill astounded us. We are thunderstruck and stunned, and we reeled and fell into utter confusion, but we rose. Each fighting, grasping at every reach, a pitchfork, a chopping ax or a butchers cleaver. Not literally. But rhetorically and politically, yes. Just as the Anthony Burns rendition had put him of florence into the position one night we went to bed old, compromised whigs and waked up the next morning, stark raving mad abolitionists, the nebraska bill had something of the same effect on lincoln. He wakes up, slavery not going away on its own. It will not go peacefully. It will turn and strangle the rest of us. That means we have to do something about it. And we have to do something about slavery, and it is this which transforms lincoln into the public opponent and critic of slavery and slavery extension. He goes public for the first time in october of 1854 in a lengthy speech that he gives in peoria, illinois, which is in some respects one of the greatest speeches lincoln ever gives. There are other speeches of lincolns which are more eloquent, like the greettysburg address of course, but in terms of offering a comprehensive view of the most important questions of the day, nothing, nothing beats the peoria speech. On october 16, 1854, in it lincoln addresses the fundamental political issue which is the repeal of the missouri compromise, which is another way of saying the kansasnebraska act, because kansasnebraska act did in fact repeal the missouri compromise. The repeal of the missouri compromise is wrong, letting slavery into kansas and nebraska. But the problem here is more. Than just the technicalities of the kansas nebraska bill allowing slavery to be legalized if people want it in the western territories. After all, stephens rationale for attaching the popular sovereignty doctrine to the organization of kansas and nebraska really went Something Like this. Look, if we argue about slavery here in washington d. C. , its going paralyze congress, the executive and the judiciary. The federal governments got the peoples business to do. It does not need to be sitting around all day and arguing about slavely. That slavery out into the territories and let the people there decide for themselves if they want to have slavery. All right, fine. If they dont want to have slavery, that is fine too. But the goal is get the question out o