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DAILY ABRAHAM LINCOLN BLOG
In addition to the stalled situation of the Union Army, President Lincoln was concerned about the development of military ordnance for both the army and the navy.   He was particularly anxious about the use of  Navy mortars on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.   Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Fox writes Navy officer Andrew Foote: ...Read More
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Abraham Lincoln In Depth
Abraham Lincoln In Depth

Abraham Lincoln and Literature
Shakespeare can be a politician’s best friend. He certainly was Abraham Lincoln’s favorite author. In an 1860 biography of candidate Lincoln, journalist William Dean Howells wrote that Mr. Lincoln was “a diligent student of Shakespeare, to know whom is a liberal...

Abraham Lincoln's Contemporaries
Abraham Lincoln's Contemporaries

Abraham Lincoln and Henry W. Halleck
Henry W. Halleck was well trained by a West Point education and 15 years of active service in the army. He had codified his knowledge in Elements of Military Art and Science. But “Old Brains” was not well suited for military command– either in the field o...

Abraham Lincoln's White House
Abraham Lincoln's White House

Noah Brooks (1830-1903)
Noah Brooks was a journalist and frequent visitor to the White House. He became a friend of President Lincoln in Illinois in 1856 before moving to California in 1859. He came to Washington as a correspondent for the Sacramento Union in 1862 after his wife...
Abraham Lincoln:
The Impact on the War, Part B
Abraham Lincoln:
The proclamation, Part B
Abraham Lincoln:
New Years Day Reception

Abraham Lincoln & Friends
Abraham Lincoln & Friends

Edward L. Baker (1855-1874)
Edward L. Baker was editor and co-owner of Illinois State Journal in Springfield, Illinois. He had also married Mrs. Lincoln's niece, Julia Edwards. He also was a lawyer and a friend of Mr. Lincoln who claimed that he took a message from Mr. Lincoln in Sp...

Abraham Lincoln & New York
Abraham Lincoln & New York

Cooper Union Speech
The Cooper Union speech which Abraham Lincoln delivered on February 27, 1860 "probably did more to secure his nomination, than any other act of his life," wrote contemporary biographer Isaac Arnold, who was like Mr. Lincoln a prominent Illinois Republican. On the ...

Abraham Lincoln & Freedom
Abraham Lincoln & Freedom

Hampton Roads Conference
In January 1865, pressure intensified on Mr. Lincoln to bring the Civil War to a speed close. Francis P. Blair, Sr., the influential head of a conservative Republican family, undertook an informal but inconclusive mission to Richmond and reported back to the Pres...
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The Lehrman Institute
Lewis E. Lehrman, Founder
When using this research please
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and The Lincoln Institute.
Lincoln at Peoria
The Turning Point
by Lewis E. Lehrman
Lincoln at Peoria explains how Lincoln's speech at Peoria on October 16, 1854, was the turning point in the development of his antislavery campaign and his political career and thought.
FEATURED ARTICLE
Those who challenged Mr. Lincoln in debate quickly learned how daunting it could be. One early Lincoln biographer, Ohio journalist Joseph H. Barrett, wrote that Mr. Lincoln “met [Douglas] in debate at Springfield, during the time of the State Fair, early in October, 1854, and the encounter was a memorable one in the great campaign then in progress. They met a few days later at Peoria, where Mr. Douglas had no better fortune. Subsequently to that encounter, he showed a decided preference for speaking at other times and places than Mr. Lincoln did.”1 Senator Stephen A. Douglas, a pugnacious debater and one of the most accomplished political speakers in the country, shied away from further confrontations with Mr. Lincoln in that campaign. Lincoln had a well-justified reputation for clear, crisp analysis of issues. Lincoln scholar Lewis E. Lehrman noted in Lincoln at Peoria that the Peoria speech exemplified the rhetorical techniques that would propel him to the presidency:
With research and study conducted in the State Capitol, the forty-five year-old attorney carefully prepared a counterattack on the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Years of studying Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, preparing for jury trials, litigating in the courts of Illinois, and researching American political history had prepared Lincoln’s mind and speech to argue the issues raised by the new legislation. To his natural aptitude for learning Lincoln now joined a mature intellect, a driving instinct for political organization, and a masterful grasp of the facts and logic of the case against Kansas-Nebraska.2
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