Abraham Lincoln Transcript

Sometimes an initial lack of success leads to bigger things. In 1858, Abraham Lincoln ran against Stephen A. Douglas for Senator of Illinois. Lincoln set the tone for that campaign when he addressed the volatile slavery issue with his prophetic statement, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Douglas accepted Lincoln’s challenge to participate in seven debates throughout Illinois. Between August and October, crowds as large as 20,000 stood for three hours in each city to hear them speak. A New York Evening Post reporter wrote, “In repose, I must confess that Long Abe’s appearance is not comely, but stir him up and the fire of genius plays on every feature. Listening to him, calmly and unprejudiced, I was convinced that he has no superior as a stump speaker.” Interestingly, Katherine Stubergh-Keller modeled Lincoln’s face from a copy of the 1860 Leonard Volk life mask, made when Lincoln was still a private citizen campaigning for president. She then loaned the mask to Disney to make their famous Talking Lincoln at Disneyland. Lincoln lost the senatorial election, but in debating with Douglas, he gained a national reputation that won him the Republican nomination for president in 1860. In the months between his election and inauguration, seven states of the Deep South, those most dependent on slavery, left the Union. Just a few weeks later, Confederate officials demanded the surrender of Fort Sumter in the harbor off Charleston, South Carolina. On April 12, 1861, they fired on the fort, and the bloodiest war ever fought on American soil began. Four more slave states left the Union before Lee surrendered to Grant on April 9, 1865, bringing an end to the Civil War. About three million Americans fought, and roughly 600,000 died. Lincoln’s deep commitment to preserving the Union, no matter what the consequences to himself, had triumphed. Just over a week later, on Good Friday, John Wilkes Booth shot and mortally wounded Lincoln at Ford’s Theater. The nation’s greatest president died the next morning, April 15, 1865.