Posted on 03/03/2020 5:01:11 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1855-1860: Seminar and Discussion Forum
Bleeding Kansas, Dred Scott, Lincoln-Douglas, Harper’s Ferry, the election of 1860, secession – all the events leading up to the Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts
First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: Sometime in the future.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed.
Posting history, in reverse order
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by reply or freepmail.
NEW YORK, March 3.
MY DEAR PIKE: I reckon that rumor lies this time too. I don't know, of course; but I should need to have strong evidence to make me believe those letters were puffs for lobby use. However, if there is any proof let us have it.
I wish you would come back and go to work here again. Horace rather sweats under the toil, and cries for help now and then. You might as well stay here till the first of June as not.
C. A. DANA.
SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 500
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
Abraham Lincoln Spoke at Cooper’s Union
“Religion and good morals are the only solid foundation of public liberty
and happiness.” -—Samuel Adams
On February 27, 1860, Abraham Lincoln spoke at the Cooper Union in New York City.
This speech in many ways first showed Lincoln as a serious and viable candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1860. Originally scheduled to be given at Henry Ward Beecher's church, it was moved to the recently opened Cooper Union to accommodate a larger crowd.
It was the first in a series of speeches being sponsored by the opponents of New York Senator William H. Seward, who were anxiously searching for an alternative candidate for the Party's nomination. Many at the time stated it was “the pinnacle of his success” in lobbying for the Republican presidential nomination. It was given eight months before the election. The speech was lengthy, and carefully worded. Many concluded that it was a principled stand against the expansion of slavery. But most would miss the point entirely about why the speech was such a success before the large New York City audience of 1500.
It was a success because in the speech Lincoln pledged that the Republican Party would never interfere with southern slavery, thereby eliminating the prospect that large numbers of black people would live among New Yorkers and compete with them for jobs. Slavery’s “presence among us makes that toleration and protection [of slavery] a necessity,”
He stated that the country must keep slavery because it already existed in many states. All the constitutional guarantees of slavery should be “fully and fairly, maintained,” said “the great emancipator,” a line that drew a thunderous applause from the New Yorkers.
“It is a very great mistake to imagine that the object of loyalty is the authority and interest of one individual man, however dignified by the applause or enriched by the success of popular actions.” —Samuel Adams, Loyalty and Sedition, essay in The Advertiser, 1748
The crowd also cheered his support for the Republican Party’s opposition to the extension of slavery into the territories for the same reasons. Many northern whites wanted to keep slaves out of the West to keep blacks out. The North was a pervasively racist society where free blacks suffered social, economic, and political discrimination. Many northern voters sought to bar slaves from the West. This is another reason why New Yorkers cheered Lincoln’s Cooper Union speech. This, and the fact that they knew that he was also a lifelong advocate of “colonization” – of deporting all the free blacks in the U.S. to Africa, Haiti, and Central America.
“Here comes the orator! With his flood of words, and his drop of reason.” -—Benjamin Franklin
As a result of the speech and his visit to New York, notoriously crooked and corrupt New York/Tammany Hall political boss Thurlow Weed became the first to assist Lincoln in planning his presidential campaign.
“It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth-—and listen to the song of that syren, till she transforms us into beasts.” -—Patrick Henry
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
See replies #6 to #10 on last week’s thread.
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3819303/posts#6
Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher
NEW YORK, March 4,1860.
FRIEND PIKE: I don't happen to have that $10 to spare to-day; but I'll do the next best thing — I'll double the bet. Do you “take it”? You ought to be rejoiced to see your favorite phrase used grammatically for once.
Why don't you go in for having the printing done by the lowest bidder? There is no other way. When you see the Charleston convention in blast, you'll see stars. Then you'll see that the people are stronger than Washington City.
HORACE GREELEY.
J. S. PIKE, ESQ.
SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 500
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
NEW YORK, March 5, 1860.
FRIEND PIKE: Your grammar is perfect. The bet is all right — $20 to $20 on Douglas's nomination. Now if you want to go $20 more on Seward against the field for our nomination, I take that. I can spare the money, for I don't want to go to Chicago, and mean to keep away if possible.
If Douglas shall be nominated, I think Bates will have to be, unless we mean to rush on certain destruction. However, we shall see what we shall see.
“Capital States” and “Labor States” is foolish. Slave States and Free States tells the story, and no one can misunderstand it.
Why don't you go in hard for awarding the printing to the lowest bidder? I should be perfectly willing that Mrs. B. should have it all under that rule, if you can get it. Under the present system, I object. And a “National Printing Office” would be worse than this. Do try to help along some practical reform. I've written Sherman to send me a table of the mileage. Then we'll see who votes and how when that question comes up, and what they make or lose by it.
HORACE GREELEY.
J. S. PIKE, Esq., Washington, D. C.
SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 501
March 5. . . . Did little in Wall Street. Columbia College trustees met at two P.M. and accomplished little, except to decide on building a president’s house on the college grounds, which might better have been left undone. Mr. Ruggles appeared at the meeting, unexpectedly and perhaps rather imprudently. . . .
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
Possibly, our FRiend PeaRidge is here fantasizing about Tammany Hall's notorious Grand Sachem, Democrat "Boss" William Tweed, not long-time Adams Republican, then Whig & Republican, supporter of New York Senator William Seward against Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 convention, Thurlow Weed.
After the 1860 Republican convention, both Weed and Seward did support Lincoln, but Weed opposed Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in favor of a more gradual process.
Please add me to your list.
This brings us to the matter of the Lost Cause orthodox party line which, as best I can tell, goes something like this:
Progressive Democrat "Ape" Lincoln, versus Conservative Republican Jefferson Davis**:
**according to Lost Cause orthodoxy.
Lincoln’s way with words was astounding. Can’t think of a better analogy to give to people than calling slavery a snake that is the same bed as a child(America). Really drives the point home.
Welcome aboard.
I think you nailed most of the lost cause “beliefs”. The fact that these beliefs are not supported at all by the writings and speeches at the time is of no consequence. Our neo-confederates on this site are historical mind readers that truly know what the southern leaders meant.
I want to draw attention to one part of Lincoln’s New Haven speech because it supports my contention from a previous thread that the slavery issue and the abortion issue have many similarities. With the democrats being just as wrong then as they are now.
“You say that you think slavery is wrong, but you denounce all attempts to restrain it. Is there anything else that you think wrong, that you are not willing to deal with as a wrong? Why are you so careful, so tender of this one wrong and no other? You will not let us do a single thing as if it was wrong; there is no place where you will allow it to be even called wrong! We must not call it wrong in the Free States, because it is not there, and we must not call it wrong in the Slave States because it is there; we must not call it wrong in politics because that is bringing morality into politics, and we must not call it wrong in the pulpit because that is bringing politics into religion; we must not bring it into the Tract Society or the other societies, because those are such unsuitable places, and there is no single place, according to you, where this wrong thing can properly be called wrong!”
Modern Democrats use to admit that abortion was, if not wrong, at least not desirable. Bill Clinton’s “safe,legal, and rare”, statement. Just as Democrats before 1850 said slavery was wrong. Now though democrats say that abortion is a positive good and empowering to women. They attack anyone who won’t agree with them. Just as democrats then started attacking anyone who would not agree with them that slavery was a positive good.
It’s amazing to me that the issue might change, but the arguments and tactics the democrats use are the same.
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