Lincoln, the 1860 Election, and the Future of Slavery in America
In 1860, Abraham Lincoln (and the Republican Party) stood as the only viable alternative to the moral indifference of Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas’s “popular sovereignty” and the pro-slavery politics of Vice President John Breckinridge of Kentucky. This lecture will argue that Lincoln was a savvy but principled politician who tried to restore the Spirit of ’76 as the leading principle of American self-government. Without a return to the equality principle of the Declaration of Independence, which Lincoln insisted included black people, he believed the nationalization of slavery wou...
Source: princeton.edu
