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DAILY ABRAHAM LINCOLN BLOG

Monday, February 3, 1862 Tired of the procrastination of General George B. McClellan, President Lincoln wrote McClellan a sharp letter that followed up on his Special War Order #1 of January 31: Lincoln was responding to a 22-page memo from McClellan: “You and I have distinct, and different plans for a movement of the Army ...Read More
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Abraham Lincoln In Depth

Abraham Lincoln In Depth

Abraham Lincoln the Athlete

“For such an awkward fellow, I am pretty sure-footed. It used to take a pretty dextrous man to throw me,” recalled President Lincoln on the night of his reelection as President in 1864. “I remember, the evening of the day in 1858, that decided the contest for th...

Abraham Lincoln's Contemporaries

Abraham Lincoln's Contemporaries

Abraham Lincoln and The Eighth Circuit

His friends believed Abraham Lincoln loved life on the Eighth Circuit. There was a simple camaraderie on the circuit that Mr. Lincoln enjoyed as he moved from town to town each spring and fall. “The vanity of human wishes, it appears to me, could in no case be, w...

Abraham Lincoln's White House

Abraham Lincoln's White House

John A. Dix (1798-1879)

John Dix served as Secretary of the Treasury under President James Buchanan form January to March 1861 after Southerners deserted Buchanan's cabinet. President Lincoln recognized his political influence, especially among Democrats, by appointing him a major gener...
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

Ebenezer Peck

"I have just written [Norman] Judd that I wish him and you to meet me at Freeport next Friday to give me the benefit of a consultation with you," Mr. Lincoln wrote Chicago lawyer and Republican political leader Ebenezer Peck in August 1858. Senator Stephen "Dougla...

Abraham Lincoln & New York

Abraham Lincoln & New York

Simeon Draper (1804-1866)

Real estate businessman Simeon Draper was "an active politician, very popular with his fellow workers in the Republican organization, and prominent in the movements of the party," according to William Allen Butler.1 Gideon Welles had a bad opinion of ...

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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Lewis E. Lehrman, Founder
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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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