Transcript American Political Theory

American Political Theory
Erik Rankin – Chapter 21 Lincoln
S06
Speech on Dred Scott Decision (1857)
• Discuss Dred Scott case
• Lincoln is debating Stephan Douglas
• Lincoln summarizes Douglas opinion on
Republican interpretation of the
Declaration of Independence pg.233
• Is the slave woman an equal?
• How yes and no?
• Douglas and Taney interpret the Dec to
not include negroes
Speech on Dred Scott Decision (1857)
• Lincoln speaks of the founders intent in the
phrase “all men are created equal”
• How did he interpret it?
• Are we all equal? In what ways?
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They meant simply to declare the right, …
How does it relate to Britain
Read Douglas speech
Mere wreck mangled ruin
What's wrong with the Douglas interpretation to
Lincoln?
• Top of pg 235, Lincoln gets smart!
• Gets better, “It will run thus:…”
Speech on Dred Scott Decision (1857)
• Mixing of blood
• Why is Douglas frightened?
• Discussion of mulattoes
• Why does he do this?
• Do you get the feeling that Lincoln is
hammering the facts into Douglas
• Clarification of the Republican party
platform at the end of the passage
Letter to Boston Republicans
• Reason for letter
• Discussion of the Jefferson Party
• What was it about according to Lincoln?
• Do you agree?
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What of democracy today?
How do Republican’s feel?
Drunken coat fight? Huh?
“This is a world of compensations; and he
who would be no slave, must consent to
have no slave.”
1st Inaugural Address
• March 4th 1861
• Had the war began?
• What happened two weeks before?
• Secession was a grim reality at Abraham
Lincoln's inauguration
• He begins by dispensing with trivial issues
a President normally speaks of in an
inaugural, speaks only of:
• Secession
• Slavery
1st Inaugural Address
• South viewed the election of Lincoln,
the Republican, as an endangerment to
their “peace and personal security”
• Does Lincoln mean to interfere with
slavery?
• Did the South have the legal authority
to secede?
• Texas v. White (after war)
• Did Lincoln have the legal right to
emancipate the slaves?
1st Inaugural Address
• Dislike but support of Fugitive Slave
law
• Pg. 240 he begins to talk specifically
about secession
• The Union is perpetual
• Is the Union just a collection of states?
• Constitution is a contract between the
people and the fed government
• Lincoln argues that the Union existed
before the Constitution
1st Inaugural Address
• He will not let the south secede
• Does the Union recognize the
legitimacy of the Confederacy?
• Lincoln wants no bloodshed, unless he
is forced
• He asks the South why?
• Are there other ways to deal with
governmental problem?
• What is the real danger in what the
south is doing?
1st Inaugural Address
• Discussion of polar issue of slavery
• Separation is not possible
• Not like a husband and wife getting
divorced
• “Physically speaking, …”
• War will not solve anything
• Reaffirmation that the government
belongs to the people
• Proposed amendment?
1st Inaugural Address
• What is the duty of the President according
to Lincoln?
• How much damage can one person do in
four years?
• Why does he say this?
• What is the best way to deal with this
situation?
• Ending (know this!)
• William H. Seward, his Secretary of State asked
Lincoln to soften his ending and this is what
Lincoln produced
Gettysburg Address
• In June 1863 Confederate forces under
Robert E. Lee moved north in an effort to
win a dramatic victory that would reverse
the South's declining fortunes
• On July 1-3, Lee's forces fought the Union
army under the command of George C.
Meade, and before the fighting ended, the
two sides suffered more than 45,000
casualties
• Lee, having lost more than a third of his
men, retreated, and the Battle of Gettysburg
is considered a turning point in the American
Civil War
Gettysburg Address
• The dedication of the battlefield and
cemetery thus provided Lincoln with an
opportunity for a major address, but he
disappointed many of his supporters when
he gave this short talk.
• In fact, many of the spectators did not even know
the president had started speaking when he
finished.
• But in this talk Lincoln managed, as the
great orator Edward Everett (the main
speaker at the dedication) understood, to
combine all the elements of the battle and
the dedication into a unified whole.
Gettysburg Address
• Discussion of present
• Creation of country
• Liberty
• All men created equal – echoes this test that is
being rehashed from the Declaration
• Test of a nation, to make good on the
promise of equality
• Not able to memorialize the dead but they
are able to do something, what?
• Of the people, for the people, by the
people
Lincoln Journal Entry
• What surprised you about the Lincoln
readings so far?
• Do you feel that the abolition of slavery
is a passion for him?
• Of the Lincoln lore, why do read very
little of his not as popular works?
• What do you think of his writing skills?