Chapter 4: “Plunder & Conquest”

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Welcome to the Deep Dive.

We're the place where we take your sources, dig through them and pull out the key insights, giving you that shortcut to, well, really knowing your stuff.

And today we're diving into a specific, really fascinating chapter from Doris Kearns Goodwin's team of rivals, the political genius of Abraham Lincoln.

That's right.

Our mission here is to unpack this dense history in politics for you, make it clear, engaging, especially since you're just listening.

No visuals needed.

We're focusing on Lincoln's early days in Congress, his personal challenges and how he started building the relationships and the thinking that shaped his future, even while his big rivals were already hitting the national stage.

Okay, let's set the scene.

The year is 1847.

Washington, D .C.

Well, it's a city of huge contrasts, isn't it?

Oh, absolutely.

You've got this grand capital building, but it's not even finished yet.

And it's looking down on these muddy streets.

One observer actually mentioned seeing pig sties, cow sheds, even geese wandering around freely.

Hard to picture now.

But at the same time, this is where the political giants were.

Exactly.

And into this mix steps Abraham Lincoln.

December, 1847.

He's a relatively unknown, one -term Whig congressman from Illinois.

He arrives with his wife, Mary, and their two little boys.

And the country itself is in turmoil.

It's still dealing with the fallout from the Mexican -American War and this huge, divisive question of slavery expanding into new territories.

It's incredibly high stakes.

The whole fabric of the Union feels like it's under threat.

So this period, it's really crucial for understanding Lincoln's development, right?

It's not just about his later presidency.

Precisely.

It's formative.

You see him navigating this complex landscape, learning, making connections.

We meet him here as, well, a work in progress politically.

And we also meet the rivals of the title, these figures who will later, ironically, end up in his cabinet.

That's the fascinating twist.

You have William Henry Seward, ambitious, eloquent, a New York Whig, then Salmon P.

Chase from Ohio, very determined and abolitionist.

And Edward Bates, the principled Whig from Missouri.

Each one offers a different lens on power, strategy, and how they tackle the huge moral issues of the day.

Different paths, really.

Okay, let's dig into Lincoln's actual arrival and his congressional debut.

What was DC really like back then, this city in progress?

Well, forget the polished Capitol you see today.

It was small, sprawling.

Only Pennsylvania Avenue was properly paved.

The Capitol Dome, like we said, unfinished.

Population around 40 ,000.

Yeah, about that, including several thousand enslaved people.

It was just a different world compared to, say, London or Paris, or even compared to Lincoln's hometown of Springfield, Illinois, just in a different way.

Dusty.

But packed with political heavyweights.

Absolutely packed.

You had legends like John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, John Calhoun walking those streets, plus future Confederate leaders like Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stevens, and Lincoln's own future rival, Stephen Douglas.

So the atmosphere was intense, politically charged.

And Lincoln himself, how did he fit in?

He seems to have found his social rhythm pretty quickly.

He did, surprisingly quickly, maybe, at Mrs.

Briggs Boarding House, which stood where the Library of Congress is now.

He became quite popular, famous for his story.

Yes, the That Reminds Me Line.

Exactly.

A young doctor boarding there remembered Lincoln putting down his knife and fork, elbows on the table, starting with That Reminds Me, and launching into some anecdote.

People would literally gather around just to listen to the fun.

Even his bowling was memorable.

Clumsy, but zestful.

Ah, yes.

That genial, approsable quality, his droll geniality, it really made him a favorite among the other boarders, mostly fellow congressmen.

But it was a very different story for Mary Lincoln.

A stark contrast.

She was mostly stuck in their single room with the kids, Robert, who was five, and little Eddie, just two.

And two energetic young boys in a boarding house probably didn't win her many friends among the other residents.

No, apparently their boisterous antics weren't too popular.

Plus, she lacked female companions, and the social norms of the time meant she couldn't really attend gatherings without Abraham, who was always busy.

She felt quite isolated.

So isolated that she left after just a few months.

She did.

She took the boys and went back to her father's home in Lexington, Kentucky.

And this separation, it actually ended up being the longest continuous time they spent apart in their entire 23 -year marriage.

Wow.

That really underscores the personal sacrifice involved in his political career, even early on.

It really does.

A significant personal cost.

And all this is happening against the backdrop of the Mexican -American war controversy.

Remind us how that started.

Well, about 18 months before Lincoln even got to Washington,

President James Polk had ordered US troops into disputed territory between Texas and Mexico.

Claiming Mexico fired first on American soil.

Right.

Polk argued Mexico had fired upon American soldiers on American soil.

He then asked Congress not to declare war, but to recognize that a state of war already existed.

Clever framing, politically.

And initially, there was a wave of patriotism.

Yes, a lot of initial enthusiasm.

People saw it as romantic venture.

About 300 ,000 volunteers flooded recruiting centers.

But beneath that, questions about the war's justification were already starting to simmer,

especially among wigs like Lincoln.

And Lincoln, the freshman congressman, decides to make his mark on this very issue.

He even wrote to his law partner, William Herndon, about distinguishing himself.

He did.

On December 13th, 1947, he wrote, as you are also anxious for me to distinguish myself, I have concluded to do so before long.

Pretty direct statement of ambition.

And just nine days later, he acts on it.

The spot resolutions.

Exactly.

He introduces this resolution, demanding President Polk show Congress the specific spot, the precise location on American soil where American blood was allegedly shed.

A direct challenge to the president's whole justification for the war.

A very bold move for a newcomer.

It earned him the nickname Spotty Lincoln from his critics.

And then he followed that up by voting with his fellow wigs on the Ashman Resolution.

Which declared the war was started unnecessarily and unconstitutionally by Polk.

Yes.

So he wasn't just questioning.

He was voting to formally condemn the president's actions.

And he didn't stop there.

He gave a major speech in January, 1848.

He did.

And it was powerful, if maybe not the most diplomatic.

He accused Polk's justifications of being, from beginning to end, the sheerest deception.

He even compared Polk's mind to a tortured creature on a burning surface, unable to find rest.

Strong stuff.

Very strong.

It shows his conviction, but maybe not the smoothed over political language he'd develop later.

It really highlights how deeply he felt Polk was misleading the country.

What was the immediate reaction back home?

Swift and harsh.

The main democratic newspaper in Illinois, the state register blasted him, called it a treasonable assault upon President Polk.

They even compared him to Benedict Arnold.

Ouch, Benedict Arnold?

Yeah, they predicted he'd be a one -term congressman.

And they were right about that, at least initially.

His own law partner, Herndon, was genuinely worried, saying he feared that Lincoln's anti -war stance would destroy his political future.

And did it?

Did it have lasting consequences?

It certainly cost him dearly in the short term.

His stance was unpopular in Illinois, which largely supported the war.

It was blamed for the defeat of the Whig candidate who ran to succeed him.

So yes, his congressional ambitions were effectively derailed for the time being.

A clear example of sticking to principle having real political costs.

Absolutely.

A tough early lesson for him.

So while Lincoln is taking this principle but politically damaging stand, how are his future rivals handling the same situation?

Seward, for instance.

Seward had a very different approach, much more pragmatic.

Goodwin points out that Seward understood better than Lincoln, manifest destiny was in the air.

People wanted expansion.

So even if he didn't love the war.

Right, he wasn't really for it, but his political astuteness told him it was a mistake to argue against it.

He actually warned fellow Whigs not to look like they were apologizing for our national adversaries.

Keep the party viable, basically.

What about Chase, the abolitionist from Ohio?

Chase faced a tricky dilemma.

As an anti -slavery figure, he certainly wasn't keen on a war that might expand slave territory, but he publicly muted his opposition.

Why?

Politics.

He needed the support of Ohio Democrats to win a seat in the US Senate.

And as Goodwin notes, actively assaulting a democratic president wasn't going to help him achieve that goal.

It shows that balancing act leaders often face.

And Bates,

the Missouri Whig.

Bates was much closer to Lincoln's position.

Very strong vocal opposition.

He called Polk's justifications gross and palpable lying.

He saw it connected to slavery.

Directly.

He believed the war was really about plunder and conquest and part of a Southern conspiracy to extend the reach of slavery.

He was quite disgusted with Whigs who supported the war just to protect their own popularity.

So three potential future allies, three very different responses to the war.

It really highlights their different styles.

It really does.

And all this sets the stage for the next big flashpoint.

Yeah.

The Wilmot Proviso.

Ah, yes.

This seems like a pivotal moment.

Explain what it was.

It was an amendment proposed by David Wilmot, a Pennsylvania congressman, attached to a bill funding the war effort.

It simply stated that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory acquired from Mexico.

Seems straightforward, but it had huge implications.

Massive.

It turned the abstract debate about slavery's future into a concrete political fight over specific territory.

It became, as Goodwin says, a battleground in the conflict between North and South.

You had to pick a side.

And Lincoln's side was clear.

Consistent.

He favored the ban on slavery from entering the territories.

His view was, yes, the Constitution protects slavery where it exists, but we shouldn't actively help it spread.

He argued, we should never knowingly lend ourselves directly or indirectly to prevent that slavery from dying a natural death.

Containment.

What about Bates?

He opposed slavery's expansion too.

He did support the proviso, but Goodwin suggests his reasoning was maybe more practical rather than a moral question.

He worried slave owners moving West would stifle the growth of free white communities.

And he worried about the division it was causing.

Deeply.

He blamed both Northern abolitionists and Southern extremists for the intense agitation over the slavery issue, fearing it would literally pull the country apart.

And the Southern reaction led by Calhoun.

Fierce opposition.

John C.

Calhoun denounced the proviso as unconstitutional.

He argued it violated Southern rights to take their property and slave people into territories owned by the nation as a whole.

He saw it as a power shift.

Exactly.

Banning slavery from new territories would eventually give free states more power in Congress, leaving the South vulnerable, subject to the dictates of an increasingly hostile North.

He warned this was something the South would never accept.

And newspapers like the Richmond Inquirer were already talking about the end of the Union.

They were.

That paper editorialized that the madmen have, we fear, cast the die and numbered the days of this glorious union.

It really shows how high the stakes felt even then in the late 1840s.

The threat was palpable.

Let's quickly touch back on Lincoln's personal life during this time.

His family eventually rejoined him.

Yes.

After that long separation, Mary and the boys came back to Washington in the fall of 1848.

But the letters exchanged during their time apart really show the strain.

Lincoln wrote about how life felt exceedingly tasteless with nothing but business.

Mary clearly missed him deeply, too.

It's a constant theme, the personal cost.

Meanwhile, the political wheels kept turning.

The 1848 election.

The Whigs go for a war hero.

Right.

They nominate General Zachary Taylor, hero of the Mexican War.

The thinking was maybe military glory could work its magic once more, like it had for William Henry Harrison.

And Lincoln, despite his anti -war stance, supported Taylor.

He did, pragmatically.

He figured Taylor was the only Whig they could actually elect.

He saw it as a way to turn the tables on the Democrats who started the war.

He had that great line about the war being the gallows of Haman, which they built for us and on which they're doomed to be hanged themselves.

But Seward wasn't thrilled.

Not at all.

Taylor was a slaveholder, had no real political affiliation before this.

Seward disliked the party's vague platform that dodged issues like the Wilmot Proviso.

But his mentor, Thurlow Weed, convinced him.

Yes, Weed argued Taylor was fundamentally a nationalist.

So Seward went along, hoping it would broaden the Whig party and ultimately help the cause of universal freedom.

Always playing the long game, Seward.

This election also saw the emergence of a new party, didn't it?

The Free Soil Party.

It did.

Salmon P.

Chase was a key figure here.

He felt the time was right for a party dedicated solely to stopping slavery's expansion.

He organized a big convention in Buffalo in August 48.

10 ,000 people showed up.

Impressive numbers.

And Chase drafted the platform.

Their motto was free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men.

And the core pledge was to prohibit slavery extension.

But Bates, who agreed with the principle, refused to join them.

Correct.

Even though he opposed slavery's expansion, Bates declined the free soil nomination.

He was still a slave owner himself, for one thing, and he didn't believe a party based on just one issue, a sexual issue, could survive nationally.

A very complex position.

And it's around this time during the 48 campaign that Lincoln and Seward actually meet properly.

Yes.

Lincoln went on a campaign tour for Taylor through the Northeast.

It was his first foray into presidential politics on a larger stage.

He gave a speech in Worcester, Massachusetts that really impressed people.

The Boston Daily Advertiser noted his intellectual face, his searching mind, and cool judgment.

And then the meeting in Boston at the Tremont Temple.

That was the key moment.

Seward was the main speaker, the star attraction.

He spoke very directly about slavery, predicting the time was coming for further demonstrations against it, ultimately leading to emancipation.

Very bold.

And Lincoln spoke after him.

Yes.

Lincoln gave what was described as a most forcible and convincing speech.

But he focused more on attacking the Democratic candidate, Cass, and the free soiler, Van Buren, whom he humorously called the artful dodger.

He largely avoided a deep dive into the slavery question itself in that public speech.

But the real conversation happened later that night.

That's the fascinating part.

They ended up sharing a hotel room in Worcester.

Seward recalled they spent the greater part of the night talking.

Seward pushed his view, insisting that the time had come for sharp definition of opinion and boldness of utterance on slavery.

And Lincoln's reaction.

He listened intently with a thoughtful air and then conceded,

I reckon you are right.

We have got to deal with this slavery question and got to give much more attention to it hereafter than we have been doing.

Wow.

A private acknowledgement, even if his public stance was more cautious then,

it really foreshadows their future dynamic.

Absolutely.

Despite their physical differences, Seward's messy blonde hair, Lincoln's shock of black hair, you see the seeds of a future understanding being planted right there.

So the Whigs win the election with Taylor, their last victory as it turns out.

Their last national victory, yes.

But significantly, the free soil candidate Van Buren got over 10 % of the vote in the North.

That showed anti -slavery wasn't just a fringe movement anymore, it was a real political force.

And when Lincoln returned to Congress for that short final session, he actually tried to address slavery in DC.

He did, perhaps spurred by that conversation with Seward.

He drafted a proposal for gradual compensated emancipation in the District of Columbia.

But it was a complex compromise, wasn't it?

It included a fugitive slave provision.

Exactly.

It had compensation for owners, allowed officials to bring in slave servants, but critically, it also required DC authorities

to arrest and deliver up all fugitive slaves escaping into said district.

Which immediately drew fire.

From both sides.

Abolitionist Wendell Phillips famously called him that slave hound from Illinois because of the fugitive slave clause.

Southerners opposed any federal interference with slavery in DC.

So the compromise failed.

Completely, support just evaporated.

The bitter divisiveness, as Goodwin puts it, made any middle ground impossible.

Lincoln, ever the realest, saw it was futile and dropped the matter.

And then his term ended in March 1849.

What next for Lincoln?

He tried to get a government job.

He did.

He really pushed for an appointment as commissioner of the General Land Office.

It was a significant patronage position for Illinois,

but he didn't get it.

He joked about not being able to say no.

Yeah, he quipped about his inability to say no, suggesting maybe he wasn't suited for that kind of bureaucratic role anyway.

He even kind of poignantly applied for a patent for a device to lift boats over river shoals using inflatable chambers.

A metaphor perhaps for his own career needing a lift.

Because his political prospects looked pretty dim at that point.

Very dim.

His home district had gone Democratic, partly blamed on his war stance.

He was out of office, no clear path back.

His single term in Congress, Goodwin notes, added practically nothing to his reputation at the time.

But it wasn't a total loss.

He made connections.

Crucially important connections.

He had forged relationships and impressed men who would contribute significantly to his future success.

People like Caleb Smith of Indiana, who'd be vital in 1860, and Joshua Giddings, the fiery anti -slavery congressman from Ohio.

Even Alexander Stephens, the future Confederate VP, recognized something special in Lincoln.

Yes,

Stephens noted Lincoln always commanded the riveted attention of the House.

It shows that even then, Lincoln had this ability to connect and earn respect, even from opponents, a core element of his leadership potential.

So he returns to Springfield, focuses on law again.

He does.

He told friends he felt like he was losing interest in politics,

but he stayed involved behind the scenes, criticizing Stephen Douglas, trying to rebuild the Whig party locally.

His law practice really took off though, provided a good income, allowed Mary to expand their home.

But this period of relative quiet was shattered by personal tragedy.

Deeply shattered.

First, Mary's father died, then her grandmother, whom she adored, and then the most devastating blow.

The death of their son, Eddie.

Yes, on February 1st, 1850, little Eddie died from what was likely tuberculosis.

He was only three.

Mary was just inconsolable, wouldn't eat.

Lincoln, grieving himself, had to plead, eat Mary, for we must live.

Goodwin suggests this loss profoundly affected Mary.

Left an indelible scar on her psyche.

It seemed to worsen her mood swings, leading to outbursts against Lincoln, sometimes quite physically, according to some accounts.

And Lincoln's way of coping.

He developed what friends called a protective deafness.

He'd quietly leave the room, take the other children for a walk, sometimes spend the night at his office or the library until the storm passed.

An incredibly difficult period.

Some speculated a happier marriage might've kept him a lawyer.

Some did.

But Goodwin counters that Lincoln's fierce ambition and extraordinary drive were evident from very early on.

He wasn't just going to settle, he was likely just waiting for events to turn.

And his resilience forged through this grief was immense.

And while Lincoln is dealing with this personal devastation and professional uncertainty, his rivals are making major moves.

Seward heads to the Senate.

Big time.

Taylor's victory gave the Whigs control in the New York legislature, which elected senators back then.

And Seward's ally, the master political strategist, Thurlow Weed, worked his magic to get Seward nominated and elected, navigating splits within the party.

And Seward makes a splash immediately, that Cleveland speech.

A huge splash.

He declared there were two antagonistical elements in America,

freedom and slavery.

He argues slavery was inherently aggressive while freedom was passive.

He called for ending black codes, discriminatory laws against black people and attack the fugitive slave law.

And his conclusion was pretty radical for the time.

Incredibly radical.

He finished by saying, slavery can and must be abolished and you and I can and must do it.

Even a decade later,

Lincoln wouldn't be quite that explicit publicly.

Weed was worried about that language.

Yes, we thought it was too provocative, might align Seward with extremists.

So Weed worked behind the scenes to reassure moderate legislators, promising Seward will be loyal to President Taylor.

It worked.

Seward got elected.

But the reaction from the South was immediate.

Instant backlash.

One Southern Senator read Seward's closing words aloud in the Senate, causing a shudder.

He received threatening letters, warning him about his odious neck if he ever set foot in Georgia.

He arrived in Washington with an aura of celebrity, even notoriety.

And Chase also gets to the Senate, but through a more controversial route.

Yes.

Chase's path to the Senate in Ohio was a masterclass in political maneuvering, but one that definitely raised eyebrows.

The Ohio legislature was deadlocked Whigs, Democrats and a small block of free soilers.

None had a majority.

Giving the free soilers huge leverage.

Exactly.

And Chase used it.

He cut a deal with the Democratic boss, Samuel Madary.

Chase would deliver two key free soil votes to the Democrats, helping them organize the state house.

And in return.

In return, the Democrats would ensure Chase got the Senate seat.

Crucially, they also agreed to repeal Ohio's discriminatory black laws, a key demand from one of the free soilers involved.

So Chase worked tirelessly behind the scenes.

Ceaselessly.

Planting newspaper articles, secretly funding supportive papers, pushing legislation.

His motto, he told one ally, it was everything but sacrifice of principle for the cause and nothing for men except as instruments of the cause.

He saw his ambition and the cause as linked.

Completely intertwined.

But it drew heavy criticism.

The Ohio State Journal accused him, saying every act of his was subsidiary to his own ambition.

He meant his own.

Horace Greeley's influential New York Tribune questioned the ethics of the machinations involved.

Did this reputation stick with him?

It did.

Goodwin says that shadow never wholly dispelled.

It caused him unified Ohio support when he ran for president in 1860.

Just how tactics can have long -term consequences.

But the deal did achieve a key free soil goal, repealing the black laws.

That's the complexity.

His methods were questioned, but the outcome did advance the antislavery cause in Ohio and Chase became a strong antislavery voice in the Senate.

So as the 1840s end, you have this stark contrast.

Seward and Chase are in the Senate, national players.

Bates is a respected national figure.

And Abraham Lincoln.

Yeah.

He's back in Springfield, practicing law, telling stories on the legal circuit, thinking deeply about the country's direction, but essentially on the political sidelines.

Patiently, as Goodwin puts it, waiting for events to turn.

It's a powerful snapshot.

This chapter really shows those different paths to influence, doesn't it?

Lincoln's early stumbles and principled stands,

Seward's pragmatism, Chase's strategic, if controversial, deal -making.

Absolutely.

And you see the importance of coalition building, how alliances formed and shifted, sometimes based on principle, sometimes on pure calculation.

The Free Soil Party is a prime example.

And the slavery issue just looms larger and larger, forcing these figures to grapple with it more directly, setting the stage for everything to come.

It really becomes the unavoidable issue.

Moral growth and transformation are central themes here.

Plus, Lincoln's personal resilience, facing political failure and that devastating personal loss of Eddie, yet still having that inner drive.

That resilience is incredible.

It clearly shaped the leader he would become, equipping him for the unimaginable trials ahead.

So here's a thought to leave you with.

This period for Lincoln looks like failure,

like stagnation, grief.

But maybe it was actually essential, a necessary crucible.

That's a great question.

What does it tell us about leadership?

That sometimes the most important preparation happens quietly, through observation, learning, building character, even through enduring hardship, long before the big moments arrive.

Something to definitely mull over.

It suggests that periods of setback can be periods of profound, unseen growth.

A powerful lesson from this chapter.

Well, thank you for joining us for this deep dive into Lincoln and his rivals during these critical early years.

We hope it brought this piece of history to life for you.

A warm thank you from the last minute lecture team.