American Political TheoryErik Rankin – Chapter 21 Lincoln

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Speech on Dred Scott Decision (1857)

• Discuss Dred Scott case• Lincoln is debating Stephan Douglas• Lincoln summarizes Douglas opinion on

Republican interpretation of the Declaration of Independence pg.233

• Is the slave woman an equal?• How yes and no?

• Douglas and Taney interpret the Dec to not include negroes

Speech on Dred Scott Decision (1857)

• Lincoln speaks of the founders intent in the phrase “all men are created equal”• How did he interpret it?

• Are we all equal? In what ways?

• They meant simply to declare the right, …• How does it relate to Britain• Read Douglas speech• Mere wreck mangled ruin• What's wrong with the Douglas interpretation to

Lincoln?• Top of pg 235, Lincoln gets smart!• Gets better, “It will run thus:…”

Speech on Dred Scott Decision (1857)

• Mixing of blood• Why is Douglas frightened?• Discussion of mulattoes• Why does he do this?• Do you get the feeling that Lincoln is

hammering the facts into Douglas• Clarification of the Republican party

platform at the end of the passage

Letter to Boston Republicans

• Reason for letter• Discussion of the Jefferson Party

• What was it about according to Lincoln?• Do you agree?

• What of democracy today?• How do Republican’s feel?• Drunken coat fight? Huh?• “This is a world of compensations; and he

who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave.”

1st Inaugural Address

• March 4th 1861• Had the war began?• What happened two weeks before?• Secession was a grim reality at Abraham

Lincoln's inauguration• He begins by dispensing with trivial issues

a President normally speaks of in an inaugural, speaks only of:• Secession• Slavery

1st Inaugural Address

• South viewed the election of Lincoln, the Republican, as an endangerment to their “peace and personal security”

• Does Lincoln mean to interfere with slavery?

• Did the South have the legal authority to secede?• Texas v. White (after war)

• Did Lincoln have the legal right to emancipate the slaves?

1st Inaugural Address

• Dislike but support of Fugitive Slave law

• Pg. 240 he begins to talk specifically about secession• The Union is perpetual• Is the Union just a collection of states?• Constitution is a contract between the

people and the fed government• Lincoln argues that the Union existed

before the Constitution

1st Inaugural Address

• He will not let the south secede• Does the Union recognize the

legitimacy of the Confederacy?• Lincoln wants no bloodshed, unless he

is forced• He asks the South why?

• Are there other ways to deal with governmental problem?

• What is the real danger in what the south is doing?

1st Inaugural Address

• Discussion of polar issue of slavery• Separation is not possible

• Not like a husband and wife getting divorced

• “Physically speaking, …”

• War will not solve anything• Reaffirmation that the government

belongs to the people• Proposed amendment?

• What is the duty of the President according to Lincoln?

• How much damage can one person do in four years?• Why does he say this?

• What is the best way to deal with this situation?

• Ending (know this!)• William H. Seward, his Secretary of State asked

Lincoln to soften his ending and this is what Lincoln produced

1st Inaugural Address

Gettysburg Address

• In June 1863 Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee moved north in an effort to win a dramatic victory that would reverse the South's declining fortunes

• On July 1-3, Lee's forces fought the Union army under the command of George C. Meade, and before the fighting ended, the two sides suffered more than 45,000 casualties

• Lee, having lost more than a third of his men, retreated, and the Battle of Gettysburg is considered a turning point in the American Civil War

Gettysburg Address

• The dedication of the battlefield and cemetery thus provided Lincoln with an opportunity for a major address, but he disappointed many of his supporters when he gave this short talk. • In fact, many of the spectators did not even know

the president had started speaking when he finished.

• But in this talk Lincoln managed, as the great orator Edward Everett (the main speaker at the dedication) understood, to combine all the elements of the battle and the dedication into a unified whole.

Gettysburg Address

• Discussion of present• Creation of country

• Liberty• All men created equal – echoes this test that is

being rehashed from the Declaration

• Test of a nation, to make good on the promise of equality

• Not able to memorialize the dead but they are able to do something, what?

• Of the people, for the people, by the people

Lincoln Journal Entry

• What surprised you about the Lincoln readings so far?

• Do you feel that the abolition of slavery is a passion for him?

• Of the Lincoln lore, why do read very little of his not as popular works?

• What do you think of his writing skills?