Abraham Lincoln, Public Speaker

II: Abraham Lincoln's "Little Engine": His Political Speaking, 1854–1860

II ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S "LITTLE ENGINE" His Political Speaking, 1854-1860 "That man who thinks Lincoln calmly sat down and gathered his robes about him, waitingfor the people to call him, has a very erroneous knowledge of Lincoln," reported William Herndon, his law partner and biographer. "He was always calculating, and always planning ahead. His ambition wasa little engine that knew no rest."1 What we know about Abraham Lincoln as a campaigner is too often limited to what has been written about his seven famous debates with Stephen A. Douglas in 1858. "The confrontations on the Illinois prairies," wrote Robert W Johannsen, "have often been wrenched out of time and place and invested with certain mythic qualities that converted a significant political contest into a timeless and epic struggle between good and evil." Asa result, a distorted or incomplete picture emerges of how Lincoln performed at the hustings.2 The period from 1854 to 1860 encompassed four elections, over 175 speeches, and Lincoln'smost intense and energetic politicking.3 Itwas during nineteen months in the years 1854, 1856, 1858, 1859, and 1860 that Lincoln's strategies on the stump were particularly in evidence and that his national reputation asa masterfulpublicspeaker and debater grew. In contrast to his presidential years, when he was reluctant to speak publicly, these were years when he sought out audiences, usuallyspoke for two or three hours or more, and was most willing to accommodate almost any request to speak, even last-minute invitations. Much of the time, he wasopposing the widely acclaimed Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas and other formidable speakers. 1. William H. Herndon and Jesse W Weik,Herndon's Life of Lincoln (New York, 1930), 304. 2. Robert W Johannsen, The Lincoln-Douglas Campaign of 1858," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, LXXII (Winter, 1980), 246. 3. This number has been determined by consulting Roy P Easier (ed.), The Collected Vforks of Abraham Lincoln (9vols.; New Brunswick, N.J., 195?), and Earl Schenck Miers (ed.), Lincoln Day by Day: A Chronology, 1809-1865 (3 vols.; Washington, D.C., 1960), II. 15 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, PUBLIC SPEAKER An overview of these busy Lincoln years will help to get behind the "mythic qualities" of the Lincoln-Douglas debates in order to put them into perspective and to present an image nearer that of the real Lincoln. 1854 When he completed his one term (1847-1849) in the United States House of Representatives, a somewhat disillusioned Lincoln resumed his law practice in Springfield, Illinois, with, he said, a "greater earnestness than ever before." But his "little engine" moved him to change course in the congressional campaign of 1854. He explained that the repeal ofthe Missouri Compromise had aroused him to tackle national issues. In the Kansas-Nebraska problem, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the ensuing sectional storm, Lincoln possibly saw cracks in the armor of his old rival Douglas. Considering that possibility, one historian has said that "Lincoln, stirred to the depths, was a different man from the easy going lawyer whose jokes were a byword in central Illinois. "4 In 1854 Lincoln suggested that he had taken the stump "with no broader practical aim" than "to secure, if possible, the reelection of Hon. Richard Yates to Congress."5 But herein Lincoln did not tell all, for he wasvery much interested in winning a United States Senate seat himself. True to his announced objective, Lincoln made five speeches in Yates'sbehalf, but it was when Douglas reappeared in the state thata changed Lincoln emerged. Now pickingup steam, Lincoln launched a campaign that carried him through the next four elections, with Douglas as the primary target. Lincoln was in Bloomington on September 25 to hear the senior Illinoissenator and to reply on the followingday. The controversy continued in Springfield, with Douglas again speaking and Lincoln replyingthe day after in what Paul Angle has called Lincoln's "first great speech." The reporter Horace White, of the Chicago Press and Tribune, gives us a picture of the Rail Splitter that day. Mr. Lincoln was in his shirt sleeves when he stepped on the platform. I observed that, although awkward, he was not in the least embarrassed. He 4. Easier (ed.), Collected Works, IV, 67; Paul M. Angle, "Lincoln's Power with Words," Abraham Lincoln AssociationPapers (Springfield, 111., 1935), 72. 5. Easier (ed.), Collected Works, IV, 67. 16 LINCOLN'S "LITTLE ENGINE" began in a slow...