In Abraham Lincoln Chapter 2, author George McGovern writes about
Lincolns early political career. In this chapter, McGovern argues that
Lincolns political career varied from successful to unsuccessful. He
lost many battles for a seat in public office, but also prevailed in
other battles, securing a spot as the state legislator of Illinois and a
Whig Party representative, taking a seat in the US House of
Representatives. McGovern also shares with us the strong, supportive
commitment Lincoln held with the Whig Party, promoting the Whig agenda
of development and populism. After realizing the downward spiral the
party had been thrown into, he was ready to join the Republican Party in
1856. Lincoln made it clear he opposed the expansion of slavery, but
was not an abolitionist, believing that Congress had no right to
interfere with the Constitution, which protected slavery. We also learn
about the political battles between himself and Stephen Douglas, a
proslavery senator. The biography also mentions the conflict between the
Democrats and Whigs as a result of Stephen Douglas's Kansas Nebraska
Act, which divided the territory immediately west of the Missouri River
in two, the north becoming Nebraska in the south become in Kansas,
leaving residents to determine whether slavery would be legal or not in
their territory. Lincoln also opposed the war against Mexico, believing
that it was unnecessary so he introduced the "Spot Resolutions" in 1848
demanding from President James Polk where the first American blood was
shed, whether it was on American or Mexican soil, which sparked much
controversy. The evidence the author uses can be found in the specific
dates and places he uses to make his book historically accurate.
McGovern also includes many of Lincolns quotes from his speeches such as
his excepted speech at the Statehouse in Springfield, 1858. Lincoln
experienced many controversial struggles in his early political life,
but ultimately overcame them.
The authors purpose and point of view, shown in this biography, is
to educate his readers about some of the possibly unheard of orforgotten
information about Lincolns early political life. Many are often only
taught about Lincolns life after he was elected president, so it is
important that we are informed about the realities Lincoln faced in his
past years which shaped his presidency later in life. We mainly hear
Lincoln's voice in this biography, but I would like to hear a bit more
about the voices of his fellow candidates for Congress, John J. Hardin
and Edward Baker, who happened to be friends with Lincoln. What were
their views on slavery? Did they agree with Lincoln's political choices?
I would also like to hear the voices of some of the members of the
Whig Party. What were their views on Lincoln? The main purpose of this
biography is to inform us about Lincolns early political choices.
In class, we discussed what we thought were some of the authors
strong points such as his ability to describe the events in great detail
and write about these events in a way that was very comprehensible. We
also got into groups and arranged some of Lincolns characteristics on
small cards ranking them from least prominent to most prominent, such as
abolition and religion as least prominent and politics and humbleness
leaning towards the more prominent side. We bounced some ideas off of
each other on what we believed were Lincolns most distinguishing
political characteristics and most of the class generally put the cards
in the same places, because the author had gotten his point across clear
enough so that we were all on the same page. We discussed how Lincolns
early choices greatly affected the choices he made later in his
presidency. We also shared some memorable quotes that really stood out
to us, mine being part of his speech in 1858 at the statehouse in
Springfield, "I do not expect the Union to be dissolved-I do not expect
the house to fall-but I do expect it will cease to be divided." This
really helped us to dig deeper into his political life and get a better
understanding of his personal views.
We also discussed some of the historical questions about the
reading. One in particular was, "what surprised you about Abraham
Lincoln?" One of the answers was they were surprised he wasn't
religious, even though he believed the Scriptures to be true and often
used Biblical references in his speeches. Another answer was they were
surprised that even though he opposed the expansion of slavery, he was
not an abolitionist because he believed that it win against the
Constitution, which protected slavery. We always assume that Lincoln
wanted freedom and equal rights for the slaves, but in fact, this proved
to be not entirely true. He wanted nothing more than to follow the
Constitution. Many of us were surprised about these decisions that he
had made, some of which contradicted our previous assumptions about
Lincolns views.
A few questions sill remain: How did the Republican Party first get
started? We only hear that it was an emerging party and hear nothing
about who had founded it. Also, who ultimately seemed to hold victory in
the debates between Lincoln and Douglas? Were there times when one
seemed more superior to the other? Did the debates vary depending on
what region they were speaking in?