Who Was Abraham Lincoln 林肯 Chapter 4 The Great Debater

What brought Lincoln back to politics was the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. For a long time, Americans had been arguing about slavery. Should it be legal? And if so, where? In 1820, Missouri had become a state. Slavery was legal there. At that time, Congress had declared that this was as far north as slavery could go. In any land north of the Missouri border, slavery would never be allowed.

Then, in 1854, Congress went back on that decision. The Kansas-Nebraska territory was north of the border limiting slavery. But now Congress said that when the territory became two separate states, the people there could decide about slavery. They could make it legal if they wanted. Had Congress broken its promise? Abolitionists— people who were fighting to make slavery illegal—thought so. They hated the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Lincoln did, too, even though he was not exactly an abolitionist. He hated slavery and wanted it to end. But he thought the Constitution said slavery was legal in the United States. He was afraid that if Congress tried to force slave owners to give up their slaves, it would just lead to violence. And so, although slavery went against his own values, he supported the legal rights of slave owners.

Lincoln thought slavery could end another way. He thought slavery should only be allowed in the part of the United States where it was already legal. But it should not be allowed into any new territory. Then it would die out in time. People would come to see that slavery was bad for the country. They would be willing to end it without fighting. To Lincoln, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was a terrible step in the wrong direction. Congress was opening up huge new areas of the country to slavery.

So Lincoln returned to politics. The man responsible for the Kansas-Nebraska Act was Senator Stephen Douglas from Illinois. Lincoln and Douglas had been rivals for years—ever since they were in the state legislature together.

ABOLITIONISTS

MOVEMENTS OPPOSING SLAVERY BEGAN In AMERICA WHILE THE COLONIES WERE STILL UNDER BRITISH CONTROL. BY 1804, SLAVERY HAD BEEN MADE ILLEGAL In ALL THE NORTHERN STATES.

In THE 1830S And 40S, An ACTIVE ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT DEVELOPED In THE UNITED STATES. ABOLITIONISTS BELIEVED THAT SLAVERY WAS EVIL And SHOULD BE COMPLETELY ILLEGAL EVERYWHERE. MANY WROTE ARTICLES And PRESSURED THE GOVERNMENT FOR REFORM. SOME WERE ACTIVE On THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD—THE SECRET NETWORK THAT HELPED SLAVES ESCAPE TO FREEDOM.

NOT EVERYONE WHO WAS AGAINST SLAVERY WAS An ABOLITIONIST. SOME PEOPLE WERE AFRAID THAT ABOLITIONISTS WERE DANGEROUS. THEY WANTEd TO MAKE BIG CHANGES TOO QUICKLY. THE MOST EXTREME ABOLITIONIST WAS JOHN BROWN. HE TRIED TO START An ARMED SLAVE REBELLION, BUT HE WAS CAPTURED And HANGED.

STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Douglas had become famous, while Lincoln was still relatively 1 unknown. Now Lincoln was eager to challenge him.

Douglas, however, refused to set up a debate. So Lincoln followed him to an open-air speech in Springfield. Douglas defended the Kansas-Nebraska Act. He said that in America, people had the right to decide how they wanted to be governed. This meant that the people of every state should be able to decide freely whether or not to allow slavery. When Douglas had finished, Lincoln yelled to the crowd that tomorrow he would explain why Douglas was wrong.

The next day, a huge audience gathered. Lincoln spoke 2 for three hours. Douglas’s arguments, he said, only made sense if you didn’t think of blacks as people. Lincoln thought blacks should have the same right to decide about their lives as white people. He said that America had been founded on the belief that “no man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent,” no matter what color the person was.

DRED SCOTT DECISION

THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT WAS NOT THE ONLY THING THAT MADE LINCOLN AFRAID THE COUNTRY WAS MOVING In THE WRONG DIRECTION. In 1857, THE SUPREME 3 COURT HAD DECIDED 4 On THE CASE OF DRED SCOTT. SCOTT WAS A SLAVE WHOSE MASTER HAD BROUGHT HIM TO LIVE In ILLINOIS And In WISCONSIN TERRITORY. SLAVERY WAS ILLEGAL In BOTH PLACES. SCOTT SAID THIS MEANT HE WAS NOW FREE. THE COURT DECIDED AGAINST HIM. THEY SAID IF A SLAVE HAD BEEN BOUGHT LEGALLY, HE WAS STILL A SLAVE, NO MATTER WHERE HE WAS. In EXPLAINING THEIR DECISION, ONE OF THE JUSTICES WROTE THAT BLACK PEOPLE “HAD NO RIGHTS WHICH THE WHITE MAN WAS BOUND TO RESPECT.”

DRED SCOTT

Lincoln’s speech made him famous. In 1854, he decided to run for Senate. He came very close, but was not elected. In the meantime, the important issues of the day were breaking up the old political parties. There were many issues, but slavery was the one on everyone’s mind. Many Democrats 5 had left their party in anger over the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Whigs, too, were split on the issue of slavery. Lincoln was no longer sure where he fit in.

A new political party was being founded in order to fight slavery. Its members called themselves Republicans. Lincoln had been a loyal Whig all his life. But now he became a leader in the new party. Their first presidential candidate was the explorer and military leader John C. Frémont. Lincoln was almost chosen as the candidate for vice 6 president, but he didn’t quite make it. In any case, Frémont lost. James Buchanan, who supported slavery, became president.

Refusing to be discouraged, Lincoln challenged Douglas for his seat in the Senate. The Illinois Republicans nominated him unanimously. His acceptance speech was based on a quotation 7 from the Bible. The phrase became one of his favorites: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” The United States, he said, could not continue as half-free and half-slave. Either slavery would end, or it would take over the whole country. Or the country would be destroyed.