Abraham Lincoln: Ascent to Power 1840-1860

By Mary Beth Smith

Before Abraham Lincoln became the calm, wise and compassionate president whom all presidents try to emulate, he looked and acted much differently. He had no beard to hide his gaunt, wrinkled and pock marked face, no well-tailored suit to disguise his sloping, thin shoulders and wrinkled neck. Abraham Lincoln: Ascent to Power 1840-1860 contains many eye witness accounts of his appearance and personality during those years. His baggy trousers were always too short. His coat sleeves were short as well. His hair was seldom combed, his boots never polished, his hands were large and his feet huge. His humor, his well-prepared summations and speeches and his strange marriage—all are described in detail by his friends and neighbors.

While the excellent descriptions of Lincoln by his friends adds color, the book's main strength is its organization and simplicity. It describes the events that took place during the twenty years before the Civil War. It also analyzes the reasons the Civil War began. It is a good introduction to Lincoln and is helpful to those who are overwhelmed by the subject.

It shows how with hard work and with deliberate attempts to get speaking engagements he became famous in the State of Illinois. By careful and slow preparation and by his reading of poetry, Shakespeare and the classics he was able to make his great poetic speeches. But he also relied on logic as shown by his great Cooper Union Speech. Once he had made that speech in New York, he was invited to speak all over New England. This speech led the Republican party to nominate him for President.

Parts of his speeches are included and explained, including the Peoria Speech, the “Lost Speech,” and the “House Divided Speech.” The chapter on the crisis of 1850 contains portions of speeches by Clay, Webster and Calhoun with explanations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mary Beth Smith
• Release date: Oct 5, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370367610

Mary Beth Smith

Mary Beth Smith graduated from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland in Baltimore, Md. She worked as a computer programmer for 20 years. She enjoys cats, flying, motorcycling and lives in Cocoa, Florida with her husband novelist G. Ernest Smith.

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Introduction

Lincoln! Lincoln! Lincoln! the crowd cried. The tall, thin man stood up. At 6'4" he towered over everyone. He obligingly went to the platform and began to speak. As usual, his first few sentences sounded hesitant, his voice too high. But then he became more confident and his voice better modulated. But his words, not his voice, were what people most noticed.

His partner began to take notes on the speech, but awed by Lincoln's eloquence, dropped his pencil. A reporter also gave up and put down his pencil. The speech was never published. But Lincoln's friend Henry Whitney remained calm and took extensive notes.

Lincoln spoke of the caning of Senator Sumner and the refusal of others—Senators—to help him.

There was violence in Kansas and unless that stopped, Lincoln said, blood will flow…and brother's hand will be raised against brother. Lincoln said this so earnestly and almost "tragically" that a cold chill swept over Whitney.

A great principle is involved, that of the extension of slavery. The Missouri Compromise must be restored.

His message to Republicans was, "Bury all resentment, sink all personal feeling and unite on common ground. Slavery must be kept out of Kansas!"

The fathers agreed to slavery where it existed and to a Fugitive Slave Law, and that contract must be kept, but they were against extending slavery, and, Lincoln said, It is wise and right to do just as they did about it.

Slavery is wrong and although necessity forced the country to temporize with it now, as sure as God reigns, he said, and school children read, THAT BLACK FOUL LIE CAN NEVER BE CONCENTRATED INTO GOD'S HALLOWED TRUTH!

Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it.

Even if Kansas should come in as a slave State, on the one hand, or the Missouri Compromise should be restored on the other hand, "WE WILL SAY TO THE SOUTHERN DISUNIONISTS, WE WON'T GO OUT OF THE UNION AND YOU SHAN'T!!!"

The crowd rose as one man and cheered madly. For several minutes, said Whitney, the tumult ran riot.

Then Lincoln said, "Our moderation and forbearance will stand us in good stead when, if ever, we must make an appeal to battle and to the god of hosts!!!"

Again the crowd went wild. They rushed to Lincoln and tried to shake his hand. His partner William Herndon said, That speech was the grand effort of his life....He was seven feet high. Whitney said the effect was thrilling when Lincoln said, "We won't go out of the Union: and you SHAN'T. Journalists said the same thing and said, Never was an audience more completely electrified by his eloquence…." It unified the Republican Party.

Lincoln, in 1857, was the most popular man in Illinois.

It had not been easy getting to that point and popularity had not been his goal. He had hoped to do some good for mankind. He had given up politics when his term in Congress ended. He had not done much good there and had not tried to run again.

He was still intensely interested in politics, though. He followed it closely. But he went back to what he enjoyed most: riding the circuit with his friends.

Lincoln was plagued by depression. One of his goals as he saw it was to fight his mental illness.

Lincoln felt he had a purpose greater than that. He did not know what it was. He felt he would have to wait until he was spurred into action by some external force, which he may have believed to be God.

As a lawyer he honed skills of delivering arguments, summations, boiling cases down into simple terms so that local and naïve jurors would understand the points he was trying to get across.

When he traveled to Ohio to give an argument in the McCormick Reaper case, the more sophisticated lawyers rejected his help and ridiculed his dress and manners. After this experience, he worked hard on improving his presentation.

The Dred Scott case and the repeal of the Missouri Compromise motivated him to return to politics.

He was ready for that now. He had learned how to craft and give eloquent speeches. He had seen Ohio lawyers in action and he had tried to emulate them.

He probably was not aware yet of his purpose in life which was to rid the nation of slavery. But he was moved by the injustice of it. He had learned from Sumner, Seward and other abolitionists that slavery was wrong, and why, and had agreed with them. Later he would learn how horrible slavery really was from a former slave, Frederick Douglass.

Slavery galvanized him into getting back into politics and speaking for the new party, the Republican party, whose major purpose was to keep slavery from spreading.

One of his most famous speeches began this way:

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.

We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation.

Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only, not ceased, but has constantly augmented.

In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed—

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

I believe this government cannot endure; permanently half slave and half free.

I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided.

It will become all one thing, or all the other.

He didn't expect to be president but as one of the only moderate Republicans, he was encouraged to run. The Democrats were divided into three parties and the Republicans won.

As soon as he was elected the Southern States seceded one by one, the Confederates attacked Fort Sumpter and the Civl War began. From that time forward, Lincoln made mostly correct decisions as President, guiding us through that horrible war, and then was elected for a second term. Then fate intervened. He was killed, people mourned, but he would forever be remembered as the United State's greatest President.

Chapter I

Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd

She was very high strung…nervous, impulsive, irritable, having an emotional temperament much like an April day, running all over with laughter one moment, at the next crying as though her heart would break.-- Margaret Woodrow, Mary Lincoln's cousin

Mary was a pretty young woman, fashionably plump with a glowing complexion, reddish-brown hair, a turned up nose and a mouth that turned up at the ends which made her look as if she was perpetually smiling. She was short—5' 2" tall—and well educated. She spoke French fluently.

Mary's father, Robert Smith Todd, had been a state senator and president of the Lexington Branch Bank of Kentucky. He was the son of General Levi Todd and a friend of the great Henry Clay. While at a dinner for Henry Clay, young Mary spoke up promising her support in his run for the presidency. She said that she, too, expected to live in Washington one day. One of her mother's ancestors was a friend of George Washington. Robert Todd and Mary's mother, Elizabeth Parker, had inherited land and slaves from the Parker family.

When Mary was six, her mother died from an infection after giving birth. Mary never got over the feeling of abandonment. Her father left for fourteen months and finally brought back his second wife, Betsey Humphreys, who, some of the children thought, was cold towards them. Betsey was much more loving towards her own children. To make matters worse, Robert Todd was away from home much of the time. Mary spent as much time as she could at a good boarding school, refusing to come home on the holidays because the atmosphere was so cold there. She may have been overly praised for her beauty and intelligence which left her thinking she had to be the most attractive and intelligent woman in the room at all times.

Her sister, Elizabeth Edwards invited Mary to live with her and her husband Ninian. Ninian Edwards was the son of the former territorial governor.

Mary became part of a group of young people called the Coterie. It included Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, Lyman Trumbull, Edward Baker and James Shields. Some of these men would become political colleagues later.

At one of their parties, Lincoln stared at pretty Mary and she stared back. Encouraged by her stare he walked over and asked her to dance saying, I want to dance with you in the worst way.

And he did, she told a friend later.

They met in 1839. Her sister, Frances, said, He was the plainest man in the room. He was tall, almost a giant at 6'4". His clothes were as nice as anyone's but were wrinkled. His hair was always messed up. Stephen Douglas was much better looking, with his leonine head. But he was short and Mary was not attracted to short men.

She didn't want a socialite either—a person with good family connections. One man who asked her to dance said he was the grandson of Patrick Henry. "A grandson of Patrick Henry—what an honor, she said sarcastically. She wanted an intelligent man with a good future. Speaking about a friend who had married for money, she said, I would rather marry a good man. A man with a good mind. A man with hope and bright prospects ahead—fame and power—than to marry all the houses—gold and bones in the world."¹ My hand will never be given where my heart is not, she added.

They began to meet at Elizabeth Edward's house and talked and read poetry to each other. They both loved poetry especially Robert Burns. Elizabeth said, Mary led the conversation—Lincoln would listen and gaze on her as if drawn by some superior power. She also said, I warned Mary that she and Mr. Lincoln were not suitable. Mr. Edwards and myself believed they were different in nature, and education and raising....They were so different that they could not live happily as man and wife.²

In December of 1840 Mary and Lincoln became unofficially engaged. Around the same time Ninian and Elizabeth Edwards told Lincoln he could no longer see Mary in their home. Mary complained to Mercy Levering about "the crime of matrimony. Lincoln said, It took one d to spell God but it took two d's to spell Todd."

However, they decided to marry. Elizabeth said everything was ready for the wedding, even down to the supper. But Mr. Lincoln cut off the engagement—cause insanity.³

No one knows why he broke off the engagement. He was a discerning man—perhaps he could see she would be a difficult wife. Perhaps he had witnessed one too many of her temper tantrums. Perhaps she had hinted she was in love with someone else. No one knows.

He intended to write Mary a letter breaking off the engagement. When he showed it to Joshua Speed and asked him to deliver it, Speed said, I shall not deliver it. Words are forgotten and misunderstood. They pass. But once you put your words in writing, they stand as a living and eternal monument against you. If you have the will and manhood enough to go and see her, speak to her what you say in that letter.

Lincoln went to see her and told her in person. When he told her he did not love her she said, The deceiver shall be deceived. Woe is me. Some think she may have tried to hurry the relationship along by pretending to be in love with another man. Offended, Lincoln may have decided to call it quits.

When he came back Speed said, Tell me what you said and did. When Lincoln said he held Mary on his lap when she began to cry, Speed said, That was a mistake but it cannot be helped.⁴

Some said Lincoln was in love with the beautiful Matilda Edwards. It is unlikely that Lincoln would have thought he had a chance with this gorgeous creature. Matilda said later, He never even stooped to pay me a compliment.⁵

The Hypo

Soon after the breakup, Lincoln became clinically depressed. He went to see Dr. Anson Henry who prescribed blue mass pills to be taken three times a day. Blue mass pills contained mercury which caused Lincoln to behave erratically later. Luckily he stopped taking them shortly after becoming president. They were prescribed for depression and sometimes for constipation. They also had an antibacterial effect.⁶

Depression was called the Hypo in Lincoln's time. People understood its danger. Joshua Speed said, I had to remove razors from his room—take away all knives and other such dangerous things—it was terrible. He told Speed he would kill himself except for the fact he had done nothing to make people remember he had lived. He wanted to do something that would help his fellow man.

From January 13 to 19 he stayed in his room. On January 20th he remarked that Dr. Henry is necessary for my existence.⁷ Lawyer James Conkling wrote, He is reduced and emaciated in appearance and seems scarcely to possess strength enough to speak above a whisper. Orville Browning, who boarded where Lincoln did, said, He talked incoherently and was delirious to the extent of not knowing what he was doing.

Ninian Edwards said, Lincoln…went as crazy as a loon. Lincoln didn't attend the legislature in 1841 and 1842 for this reason. Speed said, In the winter of 1841 a gloom came over him till his friends were alarmed for his life. Though a member of the legislature he rarely attended its sessions.⁸

He was unable to think or write. On January 23 he wrote a letter to Stuart about the deplorable state of my mind at this time. He was able to give him some political news. Your reelection is sure, if it be in the power of the Whigs to make it so. But then he could write no more. It is not in my power to do so. I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would be not one cheerful face on the earth. Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell; I awfully forbode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better, it appears to me.

For many months afterwards friends worried about suicide. In the summer of 1841 he spent four months at Joshua Speed's family estate.

Lincoln's biographer, Albert Beveridge, described the Speed house which was designed by Thomas Jefferson. It still stands and is a Kentucky historical landmark:

The Speed house was then one of the largest in or near Louisville. A red brick building, it still stands in perfect repair and is impressive for its generous proportions and the beauty of its simple lines. The house is of two stories, the family living principally in the main or second story. Some ten steps lead to the beautiful portico and doorway. A long, broad hall extends through the entire length of the house, and at the back part of this main story is a veranda looking over level and extensive acres to the forest a mile or more away.⁹

Speed's mother presented Lincoln with a Bible and told him to read it carefully and do what it said. He wrote a letter to her daughter saying that he intended to read it regularly. He said, I doubt not that it is really, as she says, the best cure for the 'Blues'.¹⁰

Not long after his election to the presidency, he sent Mrs. Speed a photograph of himself with this