Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin (2012)
This is a wonderfully vivid account of Lincoln’s life and political career. DKG chronicles the rise of the Republican party as she traces the cause and the course of the Civil War, through the lens of the rivalry between principal political opponents leading to the nomination and election of 1860. It is particularly insightful as she brings Abraham Lincoln to life through his words. She uses an incredible amount of primary sources, letters, speeches, and personal recollections of the people who knew the great Lincoln. It is my hope you will see Lincoln as a man of great principle and leadership. He truly was an exceptional human being alive at the right time and in right place. He embodies many of the best qualities of America.
Chapter 5 “The Turbulent 50s” (p140-169)
· Annotate as you read to help comprehension
· Pay close attention to each person’s attitude regarding the EXPANSION OF SLAVERY.
· Pay close attention to the laws: Omnibus Bill, Compromise of 1850, Fugitive Slave Law, Kansas Nebraska Act (Repeal of the Missouri Compromise 1854), Uncle Tom’s Cabin
· Pay close attention to Lincoln, Lincoln, Lincoln… what does he say, what does he believe, why is he special?
You will meet each of the following characters in these pages:
· Abraham Lincoln and wife Mary Todd Lincoln
o “Riding the Circuit” Lincoln’s attitude/character (p149-53)
o P159
o P168 Springfield more description
o P166 Lincoln and Moral Persuasion
o P167 -68 quote about similarities North and South
· Senator William H. Seward (p153) and wife Frances Seward (early feminist) (p153-55)
· Senator Salmon P. Chase (p146) and daughter Kate Chase (p156-59)
· Senator Charles Sumner (p147) Abolitionist
· Senator Daniel Webster
· Senator John C. Calhoun
· Senator Henry Clay
· Senator Stephan Douglas (Dem, proponent of Popular Sovereignty)
· Presidents Zachary Taylor + Millard Fillmore (only briefly)
· Edward Bates (p159)
· Ralph Waldo Emerson (reaction to Fugitive Slave Law p160-61)
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin (2012)
Chapter 5 “The Turbulent 50s” (p140-169)
Lincoln Characteristics:
Used metaphors, references to literature, and classical history.
P141 Jackson said: “The nullifiers in the south intend to blow up a storm on the slave question… be assured these men would do any act to destroy the union and form a southern confederacy bounded, north by the Potomac river.”
P142 Calhoun, 1850 discussion of the issue of slavery in the Senate “It is a great mistake to suppose that disunion can be effected by a single blow. The cords which bind these states together in on common Union are far too numerous and powerful for that. Disunion must be the work of time. It is only through a long process… that the cords can be snapped until the whole fabric falls asunder. Already the agitation of the slavery question has snapped some of the most important. (if this continues) nothing will be left to hold the states together except force.”
He wanted to restore the “equilibrium of the Union” (p144)
P143 Clay, asking for Omnibus Bill (Compromise 1850) and prophecy of war, the country stood “at the edge of the precipice… (halt) before the fearful and disastrous leap is taken in the yawning abyss below, which will inevitably lead to certain and irretrievable destruction.” His prophecy, dissolution would bring, “war so furious, so bloody, so implacable and so exterminating…” he pleaded for compromise.
P145 Webster, Agues to compromise, reject the Wilmot Proviso, and support Clay’s compromise “I wish to speak today, not as a Massacy7setts man, nor as a northern man, but as an American. I speak today for the preservation of the Union. Hear me for my cause.”
P 146 Seward rejected compromise, no Fugitive Slave Law, and no slavery in the territories… and there is a higher Law… “We are not slave holders. We cannot…be either true Christians or real freemen, if we impose on another a chain that we defy all human power to fasten on ourselves… But there is a higher law than the constitution…part of the common heritage of mankind bestowed upon them by the Creator of the universe. We are his stewards.”
P150 Lincoln and the Circuit, it was a community event, and Lincoln’s character, and telling tales. “Lincoln was singularly good at his work, earning the respect and admiration of fellow lawyers… exceptional skill in addressing juries, his warm-hearted nature, his exceeding honesty & fairness...” He made “warm and intimate friends”
“No lawyer on the circuit was better loved than Lincoln… He arrogated to himself no superiority over anyone… He was remarkably gentle with young lawyers…Lincoln did not drink, smoke tobacco, use profane language, or engage in games of chance… “Lincoln possessed an extraordinary ability to convey practical wisdom in the form of humorous tales his listeners could remember and repeat.”
P152 Lincoln did not have formal education but he studied hard at everything. Self-educated and curious…
P166 Lincoln, Characteristics “For the first time in his public life, his remarkable array of gifts as historian, storyteller, and teacher combined with a lucid, relentless, yet always accessible logic…
Lincoln used irony and humor, laced with workaday, homespun images to build an eloquent tower of logic…
Using Figurative language to drive home a point, gracefully educating while entertaining… communicating an enormously complicated issue with wit, simplicity, and a massive power or moral persuasion.”
P167 “No man is good enough to govern another man, without that other’s consent. I say this is the leading principle-the sheet anchor of American republicanism…
Allowing slavery to spread forced the American people into an open war with the Declaration of Independence…”
Lincoln understood the complexity of the problem of slavery for all concerned, empathy, tenacity, and authenticity of feeling… he did not demonize the south, as that would drive them away all the faster:
P167 Lincoln on Slavery and Rejecting the Kansas Nebraska Act, 1854 “Lincoln pointedly denied fundamental differences between Northerners and Southerners. “they are just what we would be in their situation. If it did not now exist among us, we would not introduce it. If slavery did not exist amongst them, they would not introduce it. If it did now exist amongst us, we should not instantly give it up… When it is said that the institution exists; and that it is very difficult to get rid of it, in any satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the saying. I surely will not blame them for not doing what I should not know how to do myself… when they remind us of their constitutional rights, I acknowledge them and I would give them any legislation for the reclaiming of their fugitives.”
“in order to win a man to your cause you must first reach his heart. “the great high road to his reason.”