Chapter 6: The Gathering Storm

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Imagine stepping back into a moment in American history when the nation felt truly on the brink, like a house divided against itself.

Political alliances were just crumbling, new ones emerging, and the very definition of who was equal was fiercely and sometimes violently debated.

Yeah, it's a period that not only defined the future of the United States, but also forged some of its most, well, iconic leaders.

It really is.

In the mid -1850s, well, they were an absolute pressure cooker, weren't they?

Especially with the Nebraska Act, that controversial law allowing settlers in new territories to decide on slavery for themselves,

reigniting old deep tensions.

Absolutely.

The future of the Union, as they knew it, truly hung by a thread.

It's hard to overstate the stakes back then.

Definitely.

Today, we're taking a deep dive into this pivotal era, focusing on Abraham Lincoln's early political career as brought to life in Doris Kearns Goodwin's team of rivals.

Right.

Our mission is to untack the moments that shaped him, the seismic shifts in American politics

and the clashes of these titans that ultimately set the stage for the Civil War and his presidency.

And you'll meet a formidable cast.

Abraham Lincoln, of course, the ambitious Illinois lawyer, often frustrated, but always learning.

Then there's his dazzling rival, Stephen Douglas, the brilliant, but let's say, complex Edwin Stanton, and future key figures like Salmon Chase, William Seward, and Edward Bates, each with their own principles and ambitions in this rapidly changing landscape.

By the end of this deep dive, you'll walk away with, hopefully, a richer understanding of leadership, coalition building, and moral courage during a time of intense division.

We'll explore not just the events, but why they mattered, painting a vivid picture of how choices made then echoed through history.

So let's jump right in.

A significant early setback for Lincoln, right?

The 1855 Senate race.

Yeah, exactly.

As 1854 turned into 1855, the passage of the Nebraska Act truly reawakened Lincoln's political ambition for high office, specifically the U .S.

Senate.

He'd successfully rallied an anti -slavery coalition in Illinois, and it seemed like he was perfectly poised for victory, didn't it?

He was tantalizingly close.

When the state legislature finally convened after a massive blizzard delayed things,

Lincoln was the clear favorite among anti -Nebraska members.

But the opposition had a tricky maneuver up their sleeve.

They certainly did.

Lincoln had, I think, 45 votes initially, reached 47 later, just four shy.

But a crucial group of five anti -Nebraska Democrats, led by Norman Judd, refused to vote for a weak Lincoln's party at the time.

Right.

Even though they shared the anti -slavery goal, the party label was just too much for them politically back home.

Exactly.

And the Douglas Democrats, they planned to shift their votes to Governor Joel Madison, who hadn't taken a public stance on Nebraska, hoping to peel away anti -Nebraska votes and block Lincoln.

So Lincoln faced this choice.

Lose to Madison, who might tilt pro -slavery or sacrifice his own ambition.

And he made that critical, really difficult decision.

He told his floor manager, Stephen Logan, to switch his votes to Lyman Trumbull, the anti -Nebraska Democrat, famously saying, the cause in this case is to be preferred to men.

Wow.

You can imagine the reaction from his friends, like David Davis, just seeing that victory slip away.

Oh, absolutely dismay.

But publicly, Lincoln was magnanimous.

Trumbull won, and Lincoln congratulated him, saying Madison's defeat gave him more pleasure than my own gives me pain.

That act, though, it paid dividends later.

It certainly did.

Trumbull and Judd never forgot his generosity.

They became crucial allies down the road, right?

They did.

But privately, it was different.

Mary Lincoln, his wife, felt it was cold, selfish, treachery.

She never forgave Trumbull or Judd.

Apparently, she even blocked Judd from a cabinet post years later.

Ouch.

And Lincoln himself.

Privately, he described his defeat as agony, feeling wounded in the house of his friends.

It wasn't easy, even if it was strategic.

This moment reveals so much.

His early commitment to a greater cause over personal gain, but also the deep personal cost.

And that ability to transcend slights.

That's a recurring theme, isn't it?

Precisely.

A defining trait.

But his trials weren't over, not by a long shot.

No kidding.

Because just as he was processing that political defeat, a very different kind of public humiliation awaited him.

This time in court, the infamous Reaper suit in the summer of 1855.

Right.

The McCormick v.

Manning patent case.

Lincoln was eager, you know, to test his legal skills against these big national figures.

He was hired initially by the Manning Company.

But his appearance kind of worked against him.

The source mentions him looking quite rural in Springfield, no coat or vest, modest home.

Yeah.

Peter Watson, this young associate from a fancy Philadelphia firm, was apparently quite unimpressed.

Then the case got moved to Cincinnati, which removed the need for a local Illinois lawyer anyway.

And that's when Edwin Stanton enters the picture.

A renowned lawyer brought in to basically take over.

Exactly.

And Lincoln, unaware of this shift,

travels all the way to Cincinnati with his brief prepared, ready to argue.

Only to be met with, well, open disdain from Stanton.

Calling him a D .D.

long -armed ape.

That's brutal.

Incredibly so.

Stanton made sure Lincoln was removed from the case, didn't invite him to meals, judicial dinners, just a complete public snub.

Humiliating.

Yet Lincoln stayed.

He didn't just pack up and leave.

No.

And this is fascinating.

Despite the humiliation, he stayed and observed the arguments, especially Stanton's.

He called it a revelation.

It spurred him to say, I am going home to study law.

He realized he needed to step up his game, didn't he?

College trained men are coming west.

Soon they will be in Illinois.

And when they appear, I will be ready.

Turning that into motivation.

Exactly.

But Stanton's behavior,

it makes you wonder, does the book give some context, right?

His past was pretty dark.

It really was.

Tampered youth.

Then his father dies suddenly.

Family plunges into poverty.

He has to leave college.

Then just tragedy after tragedy.

His daughter Lucy dies.

His wife Mary dies.

The grief apparently verged on insanity.

Then his brother Darwin commits suicide.

Just awful.

Yeah.

It transformed him from bright and cheery to silence and gloom.

Made him aggressive in court, intimidating witnesses, and he was under immense pressure with the Reaper trial itself, seeing it as crucial for his career.

So perhaps that explains some of the harassability, the lack of sleep, the lashing out.

Doesn't excuse it, but provides context.

It does.

But here's the really mind blowing part, isn't it?

Years later, after that experience,

Lincoln offers this guy, Stan, the job of Secretary of War during the Civil War.

The most powerful civilian post.

It's absolutely extraordinary.

It just showcases Lincoln's incredible ability to prioritize talent and competence for the Union above any personal grievance or past insult.

Political genius, really.

While Lincoln's dealing with these personal setbacks, the whole country's political map is being redrawn, right?

The Nebraska Act is just tearing the old parties apart.

Completely.

Both the Whigs and the Democrats were fragmenting.

And into that vacuum steps for a time, the Know Nothing Party.

Ah, yes.

The anti -immigrant, anti -Catholic movement.

They had a surge in the mid -1850s.

They did.

But ultimately, even they couldn't bridge the North -South divide over slavery.

That issue just overwhelmed everything else.

And Lincoln, what was his take on the Know Nothings?

He had nothing but the stain for their discriminatory beliefs.

Famously asked his friend, how can anyone who abhors the oppression of Negroes be in favor of degrading classes of white people?

He even said he'd rather emigrate to Russia.

A place with no pretense of loving liberty.

Strong words.

Very strong.

And out of the ashes of the Whigs and fractured Democrats, this new anti -slavery coalition starts forming the Republican Party.

And figures like Sam and Chase jumped right in.

Yeah.

Chase, unburdened by old Whig loyalties, went all in.

Campaigned tirelessly by railroad, horseback, canoe, you name it, and became the first Republican governor of Ohio.

A major win.

Seward in New York took a more calculated approach, though, with his manager, Thurlow Weed.

Right.

They had to navigate tricky New York politics, get Seward reelected to the Senate first, keep all the factions happy.

Only then, once he was secure, did Seward make his big move, joining the Republicans with a rousing speech calling for organization against slavery's extension.

And Lincoln, seeing all this unfold, decides Illinois needs its own Republican Party.

Yes.

In early 1856, he saw the momentum, the growing national tension, and started carefully bringing together all the anti -Nebraska factions in Illinois under this new Republican banner.

And the timing.

Wow.

Just as this is happening, things explode out West.

Bleeding Kansas.

Yeah.

That name says it all.

Pro -slavery border ruffians clashing violently with anti -slavery settlers.

It wasn't abstract debate anymore.

It was literal bloodshed.

Became a huge rallying cry in the North.

And then, as if that wasn't enough, the violence hits Washington, D .C.

itself.

The caning of Charles Sumner.

Just shocking.

The week before the Illinois Republican convention, news arrives.

Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina walks into the Senate chamber and beats Senator Sumner senseless with a heavy cane.

Because Sumner had given this fiery anti -slavery speech, the crime against Kansas, where he personally attacked Brooks' relative, Senator Butler, and also Stephen Douglas.

The assault was brutal.

Sumner had severe brain and spinal injuries, kept him out of the Senate for three years.

It absolutely galvanized anti -slavery feeling in the North.

Pushed moderates right into the Republican camp.

But in the South.

Brooks was hailed as a hero.

Newspapers praised his attack.

This antipodal reaction, as Goodwin calls it, just showed the North and South were speaking completely different languages.

They couldn't even agree on whether beating a senator nearly to death was acceptable.

It really brought the conflict home.

Made the stakes crystal clear.

You had to choose a side.

Absolutely.

So emotions are sky high when the Illinois Republicans gather in Bloomington.

All shades of anti -slavery opinion were there.

And Lincoln gives this speech.

The famous lost speech.

Exactly.

Apparently so powerful, so full of fire and energy and force, that the reporters just stopped writing to listen.

We don't have a transcript, but everyone agreed it was incredible, and it cemented Lincoln as the leader of the new party in Illinois.

So the Republican party is now a real force.

By late spring 56, they have branches in 22 states and hold their first national convention in Philadelphia.

Right.

Both Seward and Chase had their eyes on the prize, the presidential nomination.

Chase especially felt entitled after winning Ohio.

But they both got passed over.

Yep.

The nomination went to John Charles Fremont, the explorer.

Maybe the party felt he was a safer, less controversial choice than Seward or Chase at that point.

And Lincoln.

He wasn't even there, right?

He was back in Illinois attending court.

Correct.

And he gets this surprising news.

He'd received 110 votes for vice president on the ballot.

Second place.

What was his reaction?

Classic Lincoln humor.

He supposedly joked, there's another great man in Massachusetts named Lincoln, and I reckon it's him downplaying it.

Huh.

But surely that unexpected showing, it must have lit a fire.

Oh, you have to think it stimulated Lincoln's aspiration for higher office.

Absolutely.

It put him on the national map, even in a supporting role.

Meanwhile, another future rival, Edward Bates, he's still holding out, sticking with the dying Whig party.

Yeah, Bates was cautious.

He feared the Republicans' focus on slavery would cause an irreparable divide.

He ended up supporting Millard Fillmore, who was running on the American party the Know Nothings ticket.

Bates prioritized unity over confronting slavery directly, believing in just enforcing existing laws, even the Fugitive Slave Act.

So the 1856 election is this three -way race.

Democrat Janus Buchanan wins.

He did.

Showed significant strength in the South, but also won crucial Northern states like Pennsylvania and Illinois states that would be key battlegrounds in 1860.

Thurlow Weed's caution to Seward proved right.

The Republican party wasn't quite strong enough nationally yet.

Okay, so the Republicans are consolidating, Lincoln's profile is rising, but then the Supreme Court weighs in, and it's a bombshell.

A massive bombshell.

The Dred Scott decision of 1857.

As Buchanan is preparing for his inauguration, the court is finalizing Dred Scott v.

Sanford.

Buchanan even mentions in his inaugural address that slavery in the territories is a judicial question, and he'll cheerfully submit to the court's ruling.

Turns out he already knew it was coming.

He'd been tipped off.

Wow.

And two days later, Chief Justice Roger Taney delivers the ruling.

Describe it.

It was breathtaking.

The 7 -2 decision declared that black people, enslaved or free, were not considered citizens under the Constitution.

Taney wrote they were so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.

Just horrific language.

And functionally.

Functionally, it blew up decades of compromise.

It declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, saying Congress had no power to forbid slavery in the territories because slaves were private property protected by the Constitution.

Essentially, slavery could go anywhere.

The court tried to settle the issue, but instead just threw gasoline on the fire.

Totally.

Justice Frankfurter later called it one of the court's great self -inflicted wounds.

The South celebrated it as a huge victory.

Republicans.

They were outraged.

Sheer blasphemy, some called it.

Frederick Douglass famously said Taney could not change the essential nature of things making evil good and good evil.

How did Lincoln respond?

He wasn't one for just, you know, angry outbursts.

His response was typical Lincoln.

Speaking in Springfield, he didn't just attack the court.

He meticulously exposing flaws of logic.

He argued that black people had been part of we the people in several states when the Constitution was ratified.

And his point about the Declaration of Independence.

Right.

He said while the founders didn't mean all men equal in all respects at that moment, they meant equality in certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness was a standard maxim, a goal for society to constantly strive towards.

A powerful forward looking interpretation.

Seward, though, he went for the jugular, right?

Oh, yeah.

Seward gives this sensational speech accusing the Buchanan administration of a corrupt conspiracy with the Supreme Court, implying the president knew the outcome beforehand and influenced it.

That couldn't have gone over well.

Not at all.

Buchanan was furious, banned Seward from the White House.

Chief Justice Taney was enraged too, later saying he would have refused to administer the oath of office if Seward ever became president.

So Dred Scott just deepened the chasm.

It constitutionalized slavery's expansion and fired up the anti -slavery movement like never before.

Absolutely pivotal.

And just six months later, Seward doubles down with another provocative speech.

The irrepressible conflict speech.

Exactly.

October 1858.

He declares this irrepressible conflict between the North's free labor system and the South's slave labor system, saying the U .S.

must and will sooner or later become either entirely a slaveholding nation or entirely a free labor nation.

A stark choice.

It became a rallying cry in the North, right?

A mighty battle cry.

But it horrified opponents who branded him an extremist, a repulsive abolitionist.

The irony, Goodwin points out, is that Seward personally was quite conciliatory.

He loved hosting dinner parties, bringing political foes together.

Trying to keep them in the bonds of good fellowship, even while delivering these bombshell speeches.

Yeah.

He even later admitted regretting the impact of high sounding words like irrepressible conflict.

But the words were out there and they defined him powerfully articulating the core conflict, even if he didn't fully grasp their explosive impact at the time.

Which brings us right to the doorstep of maybe the most famous Senate race in American history.

1858, Lincoln versus Douglas in Illinois.

The rematch in a way.

Lincoln, now the acknowledged leader of the Illinois Republicans, definitely had first claim to challenge Douglas.

And that sacrifice he made back in 55 for Trumbull, it paid off.

Guys like Jed were now firmly in his corner.

But then there's this twist involving Kansas again.

The Lakompton Constitution.

Right.

The pro -slavery Lakompton Constitution was being pushed by President Buchanan, even though most Kansans opposed it.

And Stephen Douglas, the champion of popular sovereignty,

dramatically breaks with his own party and president over it.

Why?

Because it wasn't the true will of the people in Kansas.

Precisely.

Douglas argued it violated his core principle that the people of the paratory should decide.

It didn't embody their will.

And Republicans outside Illinois, people like Seward and Horace Greeley, the influential editor, they were thrilled.

They saw Douglas as an ally now.

Yeah, Greeley even urged Illinois Republicans to endorse Douglas for Senator.

Can you imagine?

Lincoln must have been horrified.

He saw the catastrophic implications immediately.

He believed Douglas's break was just a temporary spat over the facts in Kansas, not a change of heart on the principle of slavery's morality.

Supporting Douglas, he argued, would destroy the Republican Party in Illinois.

He felt his own friends were pressuring him.

Can't you go for Douglas now?

It must have been incredibly frustrating.

Hugely.

But Lincoln held firm.

And his Illinois supporters rallied.

They declared him the first and only choice.

They even held an unprecedented state convention to officially nominate him for Senator.

A huge boost and a clear message to those Eastern Republicans.

And it's at that convention, June 16, 1858, that he gives the speech.

The house divided speech.

Iconic.

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

He lays it out.

The nation can't endure permanently half slave and half free.

It's going to become all one thing or all the other.

And he uses that brilliant metaphor, the house being built by four conniving Democratic carpenters.

Douglas, former President Pierce, Chief Justice Taney, and current President Buchanan.

Yeah, arguing they were working on a common plan to nationalize slavery.

He even predicted a future Supreme Court ruling that might say northern states couldn't ban slavery either.

Foreshadowing, perhaps.

It was a powerful call to arms.

Fight this conspiracy, return slavery to the path of ultimate extinction the founders intended.

And crucially, he made it clear.

Douglas, with his moral indifference to slavery, could not be trusted to lead that fight.

Absolutely.

It's at the terms of the debate perfectly.

The stage was set for the Lincoln Douglas Debates.

Seven debates across Illinois.

A true clash of ideologies and a huge public spectacle.

Massive.

Tens of thousands of people came out like political tailgate parties almost.

Carl Schertz described the crowds like two armies in battle array watching their champions fight.

And the contrast between the two men was stark, wasn't it?

Very.

Douglas, the little giant, short, stout, forceful, traveling in a fancy private train car.

Lincoln, tall, lank, and ungainly, traveling more modestly, often on regular trains or buggies.

They traded barbs, too.

Douglas hit Lincoln for supposedly keeping a grocery that sold liquor, linked him to abolitionists.

And Lincoln, with that wit, poked fun at Douglas's round, jolly, fruitful face, always seeking office, compared to his own poor, lean, lank face.

He had a way of deflating attacks with humor.

But the core of it was deadly serious.

The meaning of the Declaration of Independence.

Fundamentally, Lincoln argued slavery violated the Declaration's promise.

The founders tolerated it temporarily, he said, but intended its ultimate extinction.

The Declaration was a standard maxim, a goal to strive for.

Whereas Douglas hammered on popular sovereignty, self -government.

Let the people in each place decide, famously saying he cared more for self -government than for all the Negroes in Christendom.

Yeah, a chilling line.

Lincoln's rebuttal was sharp.

Self -government is when you govern yourself.

When you govern yourself and another man, that's despotism.

If the Negro is a man, Lincoln insisted, why then my ancient faith teaches me that all men are created equal?

But Douglas played the race card hard, didn't he?

Accusing Lincoln of wanting Negro citizenship and full equality, knowing how unpopular that was in Illinois with its discriminatory black laws.

Relentlessly.

And Lincoln, well, he had to walk a fine line politically.

He stated he had no purpose to introduce political and social equality between races.

Wasn't for black voters or jurors acknowledged a physical difference.

That sounds jarring to modern ears.

It does.

But then in the same breath, he insisted there is no reason in the world why the Negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, especially the right to eat the bread, which his own hand earns.

He kept coming back to that fundamental

moral core, even while navigating the intense prejudices of the time.

And we have to remember the context, right?

Even leading antislavery figures often didn't believe in full equality or integration.

Tocqueville predicted racism would persist long after slavery ended.

Exactly.

Lincoln was operating within those constraints, but constantly pushing towards the Declaration's promise.

Frederick Douglass, who certainly didn't always agree with Lincoln, later paid him that incredible compliment.

Lincoln was the first great man he had met who never reminded him of the color difference between them.

That speaks volumes.

So the debates end.

Election day, November 1858.

What happens?

Another heartbreak for Lincoln in a way.

His Republicans actually won the popular votes statewide.

But because of how the legislative districts were drawn gerrymandering, the Democrats kept control of the legislature.

And the legislature chose the senator back then.

So Douglass gets reelected.

Douglass gets reelected.

Despite the sting, Lincoln again showed that magnanimity.

Wrote to Senator Crittenden, who'd swayed some votes to Douglass, saying he suspected nothing dishonorable.

But he wasn't as crushed as in 55.

No.

Goodwin suggests he was less disheartened.

He knew he'd won the popular vote.

More importantly, he felt he'd made some marks, which will tell for the cause of civil liberty long after I am gone.

The debates had given him a national platform to find the issues.

He saw it as a hearing on the question of the age.

And he wasn't giving up.

That cause must not be surrendered at the end of one or even one hundred defeats.

He even quipped, another blow up is coming and we shall have fun again.

He sensed the fight was far from over.

And he was right.

Losing that Senate race ironically propelled him towards the presidency.

It made him a national figure, the voice articulating the anti -slavery position against Douglass while also splitting the Democrats.

Precisely.

Not a defeat, but a crucial step on the path to the White House.

So wrapping up this deep dive, what really stands out to you for me, it's seeing how those early setbacks, the Senate laws, the Stanton snub, they weren't just failures.

They were essential experiences that forged his resilience as strategic thinking, his commitment to principle over ego.

I agree completely.

It shows how adversity can shape leadership and his ability to articulate profound moral ideas.

The declaration's promise while navigating incredibly complex racially charged politics.

That's just remarkable.

He kept his moral compass pointed north even when the political winds were blowing fiercely.

It makes you think about his belief that he who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions.

In our own time with social media, constant information, deep divisions,

what does it mean to mold public sentiment today?

That's a great question.

What role do leaders or even individuals play in shaping not just policy, but the underlying feelings and beliefs of society?

How does that influence the direction of our own sometimes divided house?

Something to definitely ponder.

Well, thank you for joining us on this deep dive.

We hope this exploration has given you a valuable shortcut to understanding this pivotal time and maybe inspired you to explore team of rivals even further.