Abraham Lincoln’s Early Life
Early Life
Lincoln was born on Feb. 12, 1809, in a log cabin in Hardin (now Larue) County, Ky. Indians had killed his
grandfather, Lincoln wrote, "when he was laboring to open a farm in the forest" in 1786; this tragedy left his father, Thomas
Lincoln, "a wandering laboring boy" who "grew up, literally without education." Thomas, nevertheless, became a skilled
carpenter and purchased three farms in Kentucky before the Lincolns left the state. Little is known about Lincoln's mother,
Nancy Hanks Lincoln. Abraham had an older sister, Sarah, and a younger brother, Thomas, who died in infancy.
Lincoln's mother died in 1818, and the following year his father married a Kentucky widow, Sarah Bush Johnston. She
"proved a good and kind mother." In later years Lincoln could fondly and poetically recall memories of his "childhood home."
In 1830 the Lincolns left Indiana for Illinois. Abraham made a second flatboat trip to New Orleans, and in 1831 he
left home for New Salem, in Sangamon County near Springfield. The separation may have been made easier by Lincoln's
estrangement from his father, of whom he spoke little in his mature life. In New Salem, Lincoln tried various occupations and
served briefly in the Black Hawk War (1832). This military interlude was uneventful except for the fact that he was elected
captain of his volunteer company, a distinction that gave him "much satisfaction." It opened new avenues for his life.
Illinois Legislator
Lincoln ran unsuccessfully for the Illinois legislature in 1832. Two years later he was elected to the lower house for the
first of four successive terms (until 1841) as a Whig. His membership in the Whig Party was natural. Lincoln's father was a
Whig, and the party's ambitious program of national economic development was the perfect solution to the problems Lincoln
had seen in his rural, hardscrabble Indiana past. His first platform (1832) announced that "Time and experience . . . verified . . .
that the poorest and most thinly populated countries would be greatly benefitted by the opening of good roads, and in the
clearing of navigable streams. . . . There cannot justly be any objection to having rail roads and canals."
As a Whig, Lincoln supported the Second Bank of the United States, the Illinois State Bank, government-sponsored
internal improvements (roads, canals, railroads, harbors), and protective tariffs. His Whig vision of the West, derived from
Henry CLAY, was not at all pastoral. Unlike most successful American politicians, Lincoln was unsentimental about
agriculture, calling farmers in 1859 "neither better nor worse than any other people." He remained conscious of his humble
origins and was therefore sympathetic to labor as "prior to, and independent of, capital." Slavery was the opposite of
opportunity and mobility, and Lincoln stated his political opposition to it as early as 1837.
Lawyer and U.S. Representative
Encouraged by Whig legislator John Todd Stuart, Lincoln became a lawyer in 1836, and in 1837 he moved to
Springfield, where he became Stuart's law partner. Lincoln courted Mary Todd, a Kentuckian of much more genteel origins
than he. After a brief postponement of their engagement, which plummeted Lincoln into a deep spell of melancholy, they
were married on Nov. 4, 1842. They had four sons: Robert Todd (1843-1926), Edward Baker (1846-50), William Wallace
(1850-62), and Thomas "Tad" (1853-71). Mary Todd Lincoln was a Presbyterian, but her husband was never a church
member.
Lincoln served one term (1847-49) as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, where he opposed the Mexican
War--Whigs did everywhere--as unnecessary and unconstitutional. This opposition was not a function of internationalist
sympathy for Mexico (Lincoln thought the war inevitable) but of feeling that the Democratic president, James Polk, had
violated the Constitution. Lincoln had been indifferent about the annexation of Texas, already a slave territory, but he opposed
any expansion that would allow slavery into new areas; hence, he supported the Wilmot Proviso, which would have barred
slavery from any territory gained as a result of the Mexican War. He did not run for Congress again, returning instead to
Springfield and the law.
The Slavery Issue and the Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Lincoln "was losing interest in politics" when the
Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by Congress in 1854. This
legislation opened lands previously closed to slavery to the
possibility of its spread by local option (popular sovereignty);
Lincoln viewed the provisions of the act as immoral.
Although he was not an abolitionist and thought slavery
unassailably protected by the Constitution in states where it
already existed, Lincoln also thought that America's founders
had put slavery on the way to "ultimate extinction" by
preventing its spread to new territories. He saw this act,
which had been sponsored by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas, as a new and alarming development.
1856 he joined the newly formed Republican Party, and two years later he campaigned for the Senate against Douglas.
In his speech at Springfield in acceptance of the Republican senatorial nomination (June 16, 1858) Lincoln suggested that
Douglas, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, and Democratic presidents Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan had conspired to
nationalize slavery. In the same speech he expressed the view that the nation would become either all slave or all free: "A
house divided against itself cannot stand."
The underdog in the senatorial campaign, Lincoln wished to share Douglas's fame by appearing with him in debates.
Lincoln knew that Douglas--now fighting the Democratic Buchanan administration over the constitution to be adopted by
Kansas--had alienated his Southern support; and he feared Douglas's new appeal to eastern Republicans now that Douglas was
battling the South. Lincoln's strategy, therefore, was to stress the gulf of principle that separated Republican opposition to
slavery as a moral wrong from the moral indifference of the Democrats, embodied in legislation allowing popular sovereignty
to decide the fate of each territory. Douglas, Lincoln insisted, did not care whether slavery was "voted up or voted down." By
his vigorous showing against the famous Douglas, Lincoln won the debates and his first considerable national fame. He did
not win the Senate seat, however; the Illinois legislature, dominated by Democratic holdovers in the upper house, elected
Douglas.
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858
The Lincoln-Douglas debates were a series of formal political debates between the challenger, Abraham Lincoln, and the
incumbent, Stephen A. Douglas, in a campaign for one of Illinois' two United States Senate seats. Although Lincoln lost
the election, these debates launched him into national prominence which eventually led to his election as President of the
United States.
Lincoln and Douglas agreed to debate in seven of the nine Illinois Congressional Districts; the seven where Douglas had
not already spoken. In each debate either Douglas or Lincoln would open with an hour address. The other would then
speak for an hour and a half. The first then had 30 minutes of rebuttal. In the seven debates, Douglas, as the incumbent,
was allowed to go first four times.
First Debate: Ottawa, Illinois
August 21, 1858
It was dry and dusty, between 10,000 and 12,000 people were in attendance when the debate began at 2:00 p.m. There
were no seats or bleachers.
Douglas charged Lincoln with trying to “abolitionize” the Whig and Democratic Parties. He also charged Lincoln had
been present when a very radical “abolitionist” type platform had been written by the Republican Party in 1854. Douglas
accused Lincoln of taking the side of the common enemy in the Mexican War. Douglas also said Lincoln wanted to make
Illinois “a free Negro colony.” Douglas asked Lincoln seven questions.
Lincoln during his turn did not respond to the questions and was on the defensive denying the allegations Douglas had
made. Lincoln charged Douglas with trying to nationalize slavery.
In his rebuttal Douglas concentrated on the charge that Lincoln had been present when a very radical “abolitionist” type
platform had been written by the Republican Party in 1854.
Source: Neely, Mark E. Jr. 1982. The Abraham Lincoln Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc.
Second Debate: Freeport, Illinois
It was a cloudy, cool, and damp day. Special trains brought people from Galena, Chicago, Rockford, and other cities in
northern Illinois. Estimates as high as 15,000 were reported in various newspaper accounts.
Lincoln answered the seven questions Douglas posed at Ottawa and then asked four of his own. Douglas' response became
known as the Freeport Doctrine which had ramifications at the 1860 Democratic National Convention.
Source: Neely, Mark E. Jr. 1982. The Abraham Lincoln Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc.
Third Debate: Jonesboro, Illinois
September 15, 1858
Approximately 1,500 from the sparsely populated heavily Democratic area attended. Most of those in attendance had
moved to the area from slave-holding states or were descendants of people who had moved from slave-holding states.
Douglas charged Lincoln and the Republicans said one thing in nothern Illinois, something different in central Illinois,
and something all together different again in southern illinois. Douglas charged Lincoln stood for racial equality. Lincoln
denied he said different things in different parts of the state and then quoted various documents and speeches by
Democrats to prove they said different things in different parts of the states.
Source: Neely, Mark E. Jr. 1982. The Abraham Lincoln Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc.
Fourth Debate: Charleston, Illinois
September 18, 1858
Eleven railroad cars of people from Indiana were among the approximately 12,000 in attendance.
Answering Douglas' charge made in Jonosboro that he favored racial equality Lincoln explained his views on race.
Lincoln then charged that Douglas was plotting to create a constitution for Kansas without allowing it to be voted upon by
the people of Kansas. Lincoln gave a detailed "history" of the 'Nebraska Bill' [Kansas-Nebraska Act] and explained a
conspiracy existed to nationalize slavery.
Douglas denied any conspiracy with Roger Taney, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanon and restated the charge that
Lincoln favored equality of the races.
Source: Neely, Mark E. Jr. 1982. The Abraham Lincoln Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc.
Fifth Debate: Galesburg, Illinois
October 7, 1858
More than 15,000 people jammed the campus of Knox College. Heavy rain had fallen the day before and a raw wind blew
during the debate.
Douglas went to great length to explain his opposition to the Lecompton Constitution and his opposition to any
compromise on the subject. He made his typical statement concerning the Declaration of Independence being written by
white men and meant to apply only to white men.
Lincoln emphasized the Declaration of Independence was meant to apply to all men.
Source: Neely, Mark E. Jr. 1982. The Abraham Lincoln Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc.
Sixth Debate: Quincy, Illinois
October 13, 1858
Many of the approximately 12,000 in attendance were 'Old Whigs' and they listened as both Lincoln and Douglas claimed
to be the 'political descendent' of Whig Henry Clay.
Lincoln denied he said different things in different parts of the state. Lincoln emphasized that slavery was morally wrong
and promised Republicans would attack slavery only where the Constitution allowed--in the territories.
Douglas denied there was a conspiracy to nationalize slavery and refused to argue whether slavery was right or wrong
insisting that each local area should decide the slavery issue for itself.
Source: Neely, Mark E. Jr. 1982. The Abraham Lincoln Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc.
Seventh Debate: Alton, Illinois
October 15, 1858
People were charged one dollar for a round trip ticket to ride a steamboat from St. Louis. It was a cloudy day with only
5,000 in attendance despite the fact that the Chicago and Alton Railroad offered half price fare from Springfield and other
locations.
Douglas attacked Lincoln's House Divided Speech and championed Popular Sovereignty.
Lincoln pointed out the Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed Henry Clay's Missouri Compromise [many 'Old Whigs' in
attendance]. Lincoln used Clay's statements that slavery was evil and Lincoln charged that by excluding the Negro from
the Declaration of Independence Douglas de-humanized and took away from the Negro "the right of striving to be a man."
Source: Neely, Mark E. Jr. 1982. The Abraham Lincoln Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc.