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Illinois Legislature
Illinois Legislature When Mr. Lincoln served in the Illinois Legislature, wrote contemporary biographer Josiah G. Holland, “The agitation of the slavery question was just beginning to create uneasiness among slaveholders and politicians; and during the winter the subject was broached in the legislature. Resolutions were introduced of an extreme pro-slavery character, and the… Mr. Lincoln […]
John W. Bunn (1831-1920)
John W. Bunn (1831-1920) John W. Bunn came to know Lincoln when the teenager moved from New Jersey to Springfield in 1847 to work in his brother Jacob’s store. The much older Jacob was a prominent… Abraham Lincoln and Friends >
Speech at Springfield, June 16, 1858
Speech at Springfield, June 16, 1858 Mr. PRESIDENT and Gentlemen of the Convention. If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it… Mr. Lincoln and Freedom >
House Divided Speech
House Divided Speech “Douglas is working like a lion. He is stumping the state, everywhere present and everywhere appealing to his old lieges to stand by him. Never did feudal baron fight more desperately against the common superior of himself and his retainers.” So reported Chester P. Dewey of the New York Evening Post on […]
Speech at Springfield, June 26, 1857
Speech at Springfield, June 26, 1857 Stephen A. Douglas spoke about Utah, Kansas-Nebraska Act, the unrest in Kansas and the Dred Scott decision to an audience in Springfield in June 1857. Mr. Lincoln was present. Two weeks later, he replied… Mr. Lincoln and Freedom >
Dred Scott
Dred Scott The first major eruption in Mr. Lincoln’s and the nation’s attitude toward slavery was the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. The second major upheaval was the Supreme Court’s decision on the Dred Scott case. Psychohistorian Edward J. Kempf wrote: “In 1850, while the Supreme Court of Missouri had the Dred Scott […]
Thomas J. Pickett (1821-1891)
Thomas J. Pickett (1821-1891) Thomas J. Pickett, born in Kentucky, founded more than a dozen newspapers in three states. Pickett moved to Illinois where he became editor of several newspapers in northwest… Abraham Lincoln and Friends >
John Eaton (1829-1906)
John Eaton (1829-1906) Treat recalled Lincoln’s first case before the Illinois Supreme Court: “This is the first case I have ever had in this Court, and I have, therefore, examined it with…” Abraham Lincoln and Friends >
Legal Cases
Legal Cases Lincoln legal and political colleague William Pitt Kellogg recalled: “During the canvass of 1860 I met, at Pekin, Judge T. Lyle Dickey, a prominent Democratic lawyer and judge. He related to me that as early as 1855 on one occasion when he was attending court, he and Mr. Lincoln slept in the same […]
Experiences with Slavery
Experiences with Slavery “The first impression of slavery which Abraham Lincoln received was in his childhood in Kentucky. His father and mother belonged to a small company of western abolitionists, who at the beginning of the century boldly denounced the institution as an iniquity. So great an evil did Thomas and Nancy Lincoln hold slavery […]