The Road to Civil War: Abraham Lincoln and John Brown

Introduction and Course Logistics

• Project Clarification and Future Outlook:     * The instructor mentions offering reparations regarding students' due diligence as they put together a program.     * The schedule for the following week will be discussed after the current lecture.     * Audience request for a map was acknowledged.

• Instructor's Cartographic Skills:     * The instructor jokes about the poor quality of his hand-drawn maps.     * He describes his drawing of Germany on the board as resembling "a flat tire on a car."     * His drawing of the United States typically ends up looking like a "really strange five legged dog."     * He suggests that students who received his map handouts should frame them and hang them in a noticeable place as a conversation piece because they are superior to his chalkboard drawings.

Contextualizing the American Civil War

• Final Events Before the War:     * There are two remaining major events that bring the nation to the "cusp of the doorstep" of the American Civil War.     * These events are the Lincoln-Douglas debates and John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry.

Deep Dive into Abraham Lincoln

• Instructor Bias and Personal Adoration:     * The instructor identifies Abraham Lincoln as his favorite president.     * He possesses a Lincoln bobblehead in his office.     * While he may not agree with everything Lincoln said or did, he views Lincoln’s life as the most remarkable narrative of struggle and triumph in human history.

• Historical Significance and Literary Footprint:     * In the breadth of human history, Lincoln is one of the most documented individuals.     * Ranking of the three most written-about people in history:         1. Jesus         2. Gandhi         3. Abraham Lincoln     * Numerical Data on Lincoln Literature:         * More than $75,000$ books have been written about Abraham Lincoln (not counting those still being published).         * Across from Ford's Theater in Washington DC is the Peterson Home where Lincoln died.         * In the Peterson Home, there is a sculpture of books that spans more than $3$ stories high, reaching the ceiling, representing the sheer volume of literature dedicated to him.

The Personal Reality of Abraham Lincoln

• Physical Appearance:     * Lincoln is described as "awkward" and "very strange" by those outside his close circle.     * He stood $6$ feet $4$ inches tall.     * The instructor notes that Lincoln also wore a top hat and often wore pants that were about $4$ inches too short, adding to his awkward appearance.

• Health and Early Trauma:     * Lincoln was kicked in the head by a horse as a young boy, causing a serious head injury. Because it was the $19$th century, the lingering mental health effects of this trauma are not fully documented, but modern medicine suggests such injuries have serious consequences.     * He suffered from "manic depression" (clinical depression) his entire life.     * There were multiple recorded episodes where friends refused to leave him alone in a room because they feared he would take his own life.

• Family Dynamics and Early Life:     * Relationship with Father: His father believed the only truly successful life was one of back-breaking physical labor. He did not respect Lincoln's preference for reading books over splitting logs.     * Migration: Lincoln was born in Kentucky (slave territory) to his father, mother, and sister. The family later moved to the frontier territory of Indiana when Lincoln was not yet a teenager.     * Death of Mother: Shortly after arriving in Indiana, his mother died from "milk sickness." This occurs when a cow eats a specific toxic plant and a human drinks the contaminated milk. Lincoln's father forced the young boy to help build his mother's coffin and bury her.     * Abandonment: Lincoln's father went back to Kentucky for two months to find a new wife, leaving Lincoln (under the age of $13$) and his sister alone on the Indiana frontier to survive.     * Sarah Bush Johnston: His father's second wife adored Lincoln and worked to develop his intellect.

• Tragedy in Adulthood:     * Lincoln had $4$ children with his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln.     * He outlived $2$ of his children during his life; only $1$ lived to adulthood.     * One child died in the White House while Lincoln was managing the Civil War.     * Mary Todd Lincoln ended her final days in an asylum, outliving her husband by only a few years.

• Public Persona and Mannerisms:     * Lincoln is the only president whose entire administration was consumed by war.     * He dealt with immense pressure through humor, often telling "off-color" jokes even in mixed company.     * He did not have the deep, booming voice often portrayed in Hollywood; his voice was high-pitched, frequently cracked, and he was mocked for having a "hick" accent.

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates ($1858$)

• The Campaign:     * Lincoln ran for the US Senate in $1858$ against Stephen Douglas, the incumbent Illinois senator and the mind behind the Kansas-Nebraska Act.     * Lincoln proposed a series of $7$ debates scattered throughout Illinois.     * One specified location is Houghton (across the Clark Bridge from the instructor's current location), where life-sized statues of both men exist. Douglas is depicted as $5$ feet $4$ inches while Lincoln is a full head taller.

• Historical Debate Format:     * Debates lasted $3$ to $4$ hours.     * Thousands of people attended.     * Unlike modern debates with pre-screened questions, these involved the crowd shouting questions directly at the candidates.     * Candidates were expected to answer the specific question asked rather than engaging in diatribes.     * Stenographers recorded word-for-word transcripts which were then printed in newspapers across the country.

The Freeport Doctrine

• The Ideological Conflict:     * Lincoln’s Position: Limit slavery to prevent its spread, believing it would eventually die out.     * Douglas’s Position: Supported a "half and half" approach, but was trapped between two contradictory legal principles:         1. The Kansas-Nebraska Act: Promoted popular sovereignty (the people vote on slavery).         2. The Dred Scott Decision: Stated that there is no such thing as free territory and slavery cannot be limited anywhere.

• Lincoln’s "Politically Shrewd" Move:     * At the debate in Freeport, Illinois, Lincoln asked: "If the people of a territory don't want slavery, can they make it so?"     * This forced Douglas into a trap:         * If he said the people could exclude slavery, he would alienate Southern slave owners.         * If he said the people could not exclude slavery, he would alienate the anti-slavery North.

• The Freeport Doctrine Definition:     * Douglas responded that the people could vote against slavery and it was up to them to make sure the law prevented it from coming in.     * The Freeport Doctrine is an argument in favor of popular sovereignty despite the Dred Scott ruling.

• Historical Consequences:     * Lincoln lost the Senate race in $1858$.     * However, the Freeport Doctrine caused the Democratic Party to split.     * In the presidential election of $1860$, the split Democrats ran two candidates against Lincoln (the Republican), ensuring Lincoln’s victory.

John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry

• Background of John Brown:     * Previously involved in the Pottawatomie Creek massacre, where he and his followers killed and dismembered pro-slavery individuals.     * He was a federal fugitive hiding in Kansas and Missouri.     * He launched a raid in Southwest Missouri, freeing more than a dozen ($12+$) slaves and taking them to Canada via the Underground Railroad.

• The Magnum Opus - The Raid on Harpers Ferry:     * Date: $10/16/1859$.     * Location: Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), located at the intersection of two major rivers and a network of railroads.     * Support: Funded by the "Secret Six" from New England.     * Objective: Seize the federal arsenal/armory, arm the local slaves, and lead a violent uprising to overthrow the institution of slavery.

• Failure of the Raid:     * John Brown failed to notify the slaves he intended to arm.     * First Casualty: A baggage handler for the railroad saw the chaos and tried to warn a train. John Brown's men shot him in the back. Ironically, the first person killed in Brown's raid to free slaves was a free black man.     * The Engine House Standoff: The raid failed to secure the arsenal. Brown and his followers (including his sons) were trapped in an engine house roughly the size of a modern $2$-car garage.     * Anecdote of Brutality: John Brown's wounded son begged his father to put him out of his misery. Brown replied, "You need to learn to die like a man."     * Outcome: The US military was sent in to resolve the situation.

Questions & Discussion

• Discussion Topic: The instructor poses a philosophical question regarding John Brown: "Is this guy a madman, or is he a martyr?"     * There is an inherent contradiction in using extreme violence and dismemberment to end a system characterized by violence and dehumanization.     * The raid reflects the national sentiment that politicians had failed and violence was becoming the only perceived option.

• Audience Question: "Does anybody know who the three most written about people in all of that human history are?"     * Student Guess 1: Jesus (Correct, ranked number $1$).     * Student Guess 2: King David (Incorrect).     * Instructor Fact: Number $2$ is Gandhi, Number $3$ is Abraham Lincoln.