Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas, John Breckenridge And The Election Of 1860

 

Abraham Lincoln

The election of 1860 is like no other in the history of the American Republic. There is talk of civil war if Lincoln’s Black Republicans take the election. Many newspapers predict an “irresistible conflict.” One that will determine once and for all if the country is to be “free labor” or “slave labor.”

For a while, the South strutted after the Supreme Court decision handed down with Dred Scott. The court ruled that slaves were property. “Protected by all the Constitutional guarantees of property and went where the Constitution went; neither a territorial legislature nor Congress could exclude slavery from a territory because they could not exclude the Constitution therefrom.”

To many Southerners and President Buchanan, it seemed as if the case was closed. Slavery was the law of the land. Nothing could stop it.

Not so for Abraham Lincoln.

During the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858, Abraham Lincoln goaded Stephen Douglas until he took the bait and acknowledged the decision meant nothing more than that black people, not being citizens, could not sue in court. Nowhere in the case did it mention the territories. So, the decision did not impact slavery in the territories.

“No matter what the decision of the Supreme Court may be on that abstract question,” Douglas told the crowd. “Still, the right of the people to make a slave territory or a free Territory is perfect and complete under the Nebraska bill.” And then, as if to make his point, Douglas added, “I hope Mr. Lincoln deems my answer satisfactory on that point.”

Douglas’s decision that day became known as the Freeport Doctrine (named after the Illinois town that hosted the debate). It helped Douglas win the Senatorial election. But it created a rift in the Democratic Party that lost him the 1860 Presidential election. 

Broaching the subject was a significant risk for Lincoln, but paid big dividends. John Nicolay and John Hay later said Lincoln told them, “If Douglas answers, he can never be President.”

Countdown to 250 - July 4

 

Celebrating America's 250th Anniversary with five days of banners depicting our country's birth and heritage. This one covers the landing at Jamestown, the Trans-Continental Railroad, the Wright Brothers, Woman's Suffrage, World War II, Martin Luther King, and the celebration of America 250.

Happy 250th Birthday America!

If There's An Apple Tree In Your Backyard, You Can Thank Johhy Appleseed

 

Johnny Appleseed wandered the country, barefooted with a tin can for a hat

Like Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, and other frontier legends, Johnny Appleseed is one of those mythical characters every schoolchild learns about. But unfortunately, his story has become so entwined in the folklore surrounding him that it’s hard to unravel truth from fiction.

He was born John Chapman in Leonidas, Massachusetts, on September 26, 1774. His father served as a Minuteman in the Revolutionary War. He fought at Bunker Hill and served with Washington’s troops in New York. Johnny’s mother died in 1776, most likely from tuberculosis.

In 1797 or 1798, Johnny made his way to western Pennsylvania, where he planted his first orchard on Brokenstraw Creek. A few years later, he lived near French Creek planting orchards.

Johnny was a shrewd businessman. He seeded orchards several steps in advance of settlers moving into new territories, so he could have young apple trees ready for the immigrants when they arrived.

An article published in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine said: “Johnny would shoulder his bag of apple seeds, and with bare feet penetrate to some remote spot that combined the picturesque and fertility of [the] soil, and there he would plant his seeds, place a slight inclosure around the place, and leave them to grow until the trees were large enough to be transplanted by the settlers.”

Did Betsy Ross Really Make the First American Flag?

Flag Committee visiting Betsy Ross

Elizabeth Ross was an obscure Philadelphia upholsterer and occasional flag maker until 1870, when her grandson, William Canby, presented a paper before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

 

The nation’s centennial celebration was approaching, and Canby’s story arrived at just the right time.

 

America had a new hero. Her name was Betsy Ross.

 

As the story goes, Betsy wasn’t just a flag maker. She was quite a storyteller, too, and the tale she passed down to her children and grandchildren was a whopper—whether or not it was true.

 

Here’s the story as Canby told it.

 

Sometime between May 23 and June 7, 1777, George Washington, Robert Morris, and Colonel George Ross walked into Betsy Ross’s upholstery shop on Arch Street in Philadelphia.

 

Washington showed Betsy a rough design for a new flag and asked if she could make it. She said she could try, but the design needed work. One problem was the stars. The original sketch called for six-pointed stars. Betsy suggested using five points instead.

Countdown to 250 - July 3

Celebrating America's 250th Anniversary with five days of banners depicting our country's birth and heritage. This one covers the signing of the Declartion of Independence, the Louisiana Purchase, the fall of the Alamo, Gettysburg, World War II, and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

John Adams, The First & Second Continental Congress & The Battle of Lexington-Concord

 

John Adams

Massachusetts chose John Adams to represent it as a delegate to the First Continental Congress. To say he was anxious about his abilities was an understatement. Adams wrote that he was “unequal to this business.” He didn’t think he had a strong enough mastery of politics.

Adams considered his responsibilities for nearly two months. He had many doubts about his abilities and those of his fellow congressmen. “We have not men fit for the times. We are deficient in genius, in education, in travel, in fortune, in everything. I feel unutterable anxiety.”

If that were true, the colonies were in it together. What they didn’t know about politics, parliamentary procedures, administering a government, and eventual war, they would learn.

The Massachusetts Committee for Congress rode out of Boston shortly after 4 p.m. on August 10, 1774. John Adams rode beside fellow congressmen Thomas Cushing, Samuel Adams, and Robert Treat Paine.

Their journey was a pleasant one.

Little Big Horn: The Battle That Changed The American West

 

General George Armstrong Custer

July 4, 1876. The United States was throwing the biggest birthday party it had ever seen.

 

Then the telegraph started clicking.

 

The reports drifted east from the Montana Territory. At first, they sounded like rumors. Then more dispatches arrived.

 

Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer was dead. So were over 260 officers and men of the 7th Cavalry.

 

The New York Herald called it “the most appalling disaster that has ever befallen our arms upon the Plains.” The Chicago Tribune told readers that Custer and his command had been massacred. 

 

Newspaper extras sold almost as fast as the presses could print them. Crowds gathered outside newspaper offices, waiting for every new dispatch.

 

Nobody could quite believe it. George Armstrong Custer never lost a battle. Especially to Indians.

 

By 1876, Custer was one of the most famous soldiers in America. He’d graduated dead last at West Point. After the Civil War started, none of that mattered. Custer had a knack for charging straight at the enemy.