Before engaging in the debates with Senator Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln was relatively unknown in the political world and was just beginning his career in politics. Abraham Lincoln’s reputation was just starting to grow, and his life was about to make a drastic change. The Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 were a turning point in Abraham Lincoln’s political career.
Lincoln had served four terms in the Illinois legislature, and now desired an office with greater prestige. Lincoln had served the Whig Party well, and election to Congress became his goal.
In 1843 and 1844, Lincoln lost the nomination for Congress to other candidates. Although disappointed, he kept striving for his goal. Finally, in 1846, his hard work had paid off. Abraham Lincoln won the Whig nomination for the U. S. House of Representatives.
Lincoln started his Congressional career on December 6, 1847. He failed to make the reputation he had hoped for in Congress. Some of his main tasks included, a bill that would free slaves in the District of Columbia and supporting the Wilmot Proviso, banning slavery in territories acquired from Mexico. He also supported the Whig policy which had the government paying for internal improvements, and in 1848, he worked on the nomination and election of Zachary Taylor, the Whig candidate for President. Already in his political career, Lincoln had a strong stand on slavery. His term ended on March 4, 1849. Lincoln’s stay in Congress was brief and frustrating. He opposed the Mexican War so vigorously that he lost much of his popularity with his constituency. At the expiration of his term in 1849 he returned home and sank into the political background.
At that point, Lincoln decided to return to Springfield, Illinois and revive his law career. He practiced law more seriously than ever and represented big businesses and corporations in many lawsuits, and soon prospered. After successfully defending the Illinois Central Railroad in an important tax case, he became known as the leading lawyer of Illinois. His reputation all over the state had grown steadily. However, Lincoln knew that law was not his dream.
Abraham Lincoln decided to reenter politics. At that point in time, there had been a sudden change in the national theme towards slavery. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 had prohibited slavery in territories north of Missouri’s so...
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...tly he who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions” (Phillips 38). The above quotation was part of Lincoln’s remarks in the first Lincoln-Douglas debate at Ottawa on August 21, 1858. Also, Lincoln was one of the best extemporaneous debaters of all time (Phillips 145). Lincoln listened to what the people wanted, which gained him popularity and respect. During the debates, he was always confident, mostly because he stood up for what he believed was right. Even if Lincoln’s ideas were of the minority, he would not back down. These verbal skills benefited him throughout his political career. Besides national interest, Lincoln received worldwide appeal. This tall, honest politician was now known across the globe.
The Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 marked a turning point in Abraham Lincoln’s political career, and lead to his popularity among the United States. Finally, without the debates, a great leader, Lincoln, would never have been produced. “Abraham Lincoln was a great writer and a great orator as well as a great leader” (Ayres IX). Abraham Lincoln started his political career as a nobody, but in the end was greatly admired.
Lincoln was a very smart lawyer and politician. During his “House Divided” speech he asked the question, “Can we, as a nation, continue together permanently, forever, half slave, and half free?" When he first asked this question, America was slowly gaining the knowledge and realizing that as a nation, it could not possibly exist as half-slave and half-free. It was either one way or the other. “Slavery was unconstitutional and immoral, but not simply on a practical level.” (Greenfield, 2009) Slave states and free states had significantly different and incompatible interests. In 1858, when Lincoln made his “House Divided” speech, he made people think about this question with views if what the end result in America must be.
The Lincoln-Douglas debates were part of a larger campaign to achieve political adjectives from the two. Lincoln was running for Douglas’ seat in the senate as a republican. Douglas had been a member of congress since 1843, a national figure for the Democratic Party, who was running for re-election. The debates attracted national attentions, mostly due to Douglas’ persona. Lincoln took advantage and made a name for himself as a prominent contender in national politics. At the time, the Democratic Party was going through a sectional riff, at the time of the debates. Douglas had recently gone against president Buchanan and the southern democrats when he apposed the admission of Kansas as a slave state. Douglass was against the Lecompton constitution; the stand was popular among republicans. The outcome, would have maintained the unity between the Nor and south sections of the Democratic Party. Buchanan, along with the southern democrats, were in favor of Lincolns candidacy, they feared Douglas’ going interest, and for his lack of support to the Democratic leaders. With Douglas receiving support from republicans, Lincoln would have to keep Illinois republicans from supporting Douglas. Lincoln would use the morality of slavery to wedge support away from Douglas’ famous popular sovereignty, while winning support of abolitionist. The house divided quote Lincoln used in his speech was taken from Mark 3:25.
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 was a very influential event that occurred in American history and has much significance, even till this day. The debates were in contest for the United States Senate seat in Illinois. The main topic involved in the debates was based around slavery and the separation of the union because of it. Both Lincoln and Douglas refer to the U.S. Constitution in their remarks and state different opinions surrounding what they interpret the meaning of certain parts regarding slavery to be.
At the beginning of Abraham Lincoln’s political career, he appeared more reserved and Douglass the exact opposite. As The Radical and the Republican progresses chapter after chapter, encounter after encounter, Douglass and Lincoln eventually swap muses. Lincoln becomes the emancipator, and Douglass becomes the logistics, as opposed to Lincoln relying on conservatism and Douglass on radicalism. Their goal for a slave-free and equality future left them with no choice other than to collaborate. Although their work together was somewhat brief, many believe Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln left the most apparent impact on America’s history as a
Abraham Lincoln wrote one of the greatest speeches in American history, known as the Gettysburg Address. It was not only used as a dedication to the fallen troops of the North and South, but as a speech to give the Union a reason to fight and attempt to unite the divided nation. The sixteenth president’s handling of his speech at Gettysburg demonstrated how the effectiveness of juxtaposition, repetition, and parallelism, could bring unity to a nation deeply divided on beliefs. His speech touched the hearts of many and indirectly put an end to the Civil War. Lincoln may have been considered a tyrant at the time, but he was a great leader of a nation, a war, and a democracy.
Abraham Lincoln's ability to speak with eloquence and force is what won the Civil War; there can be no doubt about it. His role as a motivator and often an inspiring teacher to all had more of an effect on the troops and the American people than a loss or a victory of any battle ever did. Lincoln's speeches are some of the most celebrated in history for many good reasons. He was always aware of his audience and never failed to impress with his use of logic and knowledge. However, what are most remembered about Lincoln's speeches are his metaphors and imagery used to provoke emotions or ideas from the reader. Lincoln spoke with such depth and power that any who heard him could not help but be awestruck. Many wonder if the outcome of the Civil war would have changed if Davis could have employed Lincoln's profound metaphors on the Confederacy.
Police corruption is a difficult issue cities have to deal with and one of the oldest problems in the police force. Corruption can be defined as the mistreatment of public power for personal benefit or private and the use of excessive force either emotional or physical. In this essay I will explain in detail federal indictments of Los Angeles Country Sheriff officers use of mistreatment of jail inmates and visitors. Another topic I will explain is the transfer of Los Angeles Country Sheriff hired officers with questionable background. Finally I will end by analyzing the hiring of new Sheriff deputies under the “Friends of the Sheriff” program. There are several ways police departments could take to reduce police corruption. The three areas I think should change are the training officers further in how to diminish abuse, improving personal character of officers, and incentives program.
Abraham Lincoln’s greatest challenge during his presidency was preserving the Union during the Civil War after the Southern states seceded from the Union. There were many dividing issues in the U.S. before his election in 1860, and his presidential victory was the final straw that led to the Civil War. The North and the South were already separating due to regional differences, socially, politically, culturally, and economically. Slavery was one of the biggest factors that led to the division between the North and the South. Preserving the Union while half of the country refused to regard federal law while in secession was extremely challenging, yet Abraham Lincoln decided to fight war against the South not only for the sake of abolishing slavery, but most importantly for the sake of preserving the Union. He was dedicated to fighting for the equality of all men in the U.S., as mentioned in his famous Gettysburg Address: "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." He used this to argue a basic point: if all men are created equal, then all men are free. His House Divided speech showed his determination to keep the...
The Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850 were two acts that tried to solve the problems between the note and the south. However, the political action that the north took caused the creation of the “personal liberty” laws, which oddly changed north’s perspective towards slavery. The disagreement on the extension of slavery was not only the eyes of the north anymore. Although, the Compromise of 1850, put a more humane side to the solution, the problem towards slavery is yet to be solved..
The Illinois Senate race of 1858 between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas had famous Lincoln- Douglas debates that helped elevate Lincoln to a higher star status within the Republican party which greatly influenced his popularity for the 1860 presidential elections. Douglas’ Freeport Doctrine decreased Douglas’ influence and popularity in the South, making the election of 1860 largely sectional which the more populated, more Republican North won. The underlying discussion over slavery ─ i.e. Dred Scott decision, Freeport Doctrine, etc. ─ brought up the ideological debate of the position and place of blacks, thus the ideological battle of race in America that was fought and largely dominated by the South for almost a century. Without the crisis of the 1850’s and what was the central debate at the time. Neither the Civil War, fourteenth through fifteenth amendment, nor the ideological battle over rave would have happened when they did.
Abraham Lincoln was an intricate yet prosperous person, shown through his movement from poverty to politics. Lincoln was born to poverty in Kentucky in 1809 and settled in Illinois at the age fifteen. He was captain of the militia in Illinois during the Black Hawk War of 1832 and served four terms as a Whig in the state legislature and in Congress, from 1847 to 1849. Lincoln strayed away from politics for a little while to return to law but his interest rekindled as a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act .
There are certain historical facts, which have been lost in the public memory, as certain legends have taken the place of reality. In order to fully understand what happened, it is necessary to comprehend that the Northern states were far from being uniformly the champions of equal rights that is generally indicated by popular belief. By this understanding, that is that the abandonment of African-Americans did not constitute a drastic change of moral position for many people in the North, it is easier to understand their subsequent actions in ignoring the plight of African-Americans in the South after the Reconstruction era. An example of one of these overlooked historical facts would be that there were still slaves in the nation’s capital in 1860; and, at that time, the President-elect, Abraham Lincoln, offered, “to support a constitutional amendment to insulate the institution of slavery in the slave states from federal interference. ”6....
Abraham Lincoln is regarded by many Americans as the greatest president to ever hold office in the history of the United States, and his reputation is definitely well deserved. Lincoln wasn't scared to stand up and fight for what he knew was right. He was convinced that within the branches of government, the presidency alone was empowered not only to uphold the Constitution, but also to protect, and defend it. Lincoln was able to lead our country and preserve the Union, keeping the United States from splintering during the devastating times of the Civil War. As President, he built the Republican Party into a strong national organization, and he rallied most of the northern Democrats to the Union cause. On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation that changed the war into a battle for freedom and declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy. That November, Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address, which stated how a country must be dedicated to human freedom in order to survive. He dedicated the battlefield to the soldiers who had perished, and called on the living to finish the task the dead soldiers had begun. (Donald, 1995) Lincoln believed that democracy could be a lasting form of government. He showed a nobility of character that had worldwide appeal, and he was a man of great integrity. However, Lincoln was not only the 16th president of the United States, he was an American hero. Lincoln was a well-rounded individual and he had numerous outstanding qualities. However, it is important to remember that Lincoln also led a private life, complete with close friends and family.
Martin, Rich. "Police Corruption: An Analytical Look into Police Ethics." The FBI Enforcement Bulletin May 2011: 11+. Academic OneFile. Web. 9 Feb. 2015.
Feminism is inseparable from postmodernism. Most of the research in social sciences was, in fact, carried out by feminists in the latter half of the twentieth century. Many feminists discarded the eighteenth century liberal feminism and responded to the fundamental philosophical discourses in the twentieth and twenty first centuries. In the postmodern period feminist observations and discourses have became prominent.