2:14 PM
Welcome back to my blog!
I received a very helpful email from Carol Johnson from the Library of Congress, Photographic Library. Check out the Library of Congress Exhibit online & the Lincoln Papers...
Hi Elizabeth:
Thank you for spreading the word about the Lincoln exhibit.
Here is the link to the online exhibit:
With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition
I think this is a better link.
Complete Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress
It leads to the Lincoln papers at the Library. From here you can search on "Kansas Nebraska"
I hope you find something useful.
Carol
Above is William A. Richardson, House of Representatives of Illinois (1847 to 1856)Daguerreotype Collection of Matthew Isenburg.
Behind him reads, Nebraska Bill and was most likely taken while he was Chairman of the Committee on Kansas-Nebraska Territory (32nd–33rd Congresses). You have to wonder how many times he spoke to Lincoln.
If you recall in the last posting I wanted to find two letter Abraham Lincoln wrote on January 4, 1855(Draft Resolutions for Illinois General Assembly concerning repeal of the Kansas-Nebraska Act).
This is where the internet is great....I found them in seconds on the Library of Congress' web page. Before, I would have gone by subway down to Washington DC and if there wasn't a finder's guide, it might have taken days to find these. Thank You, Library of Congress!!!
The documents were even transcribed by LOC....what a treat! I'd like to read more of the 20,000 documents in this collection....and as you can see below Lincoln seems to writes out his bullet points. I hightlighted in red the info I found important to know..... I never realized that Lincoln was against slavery until later when he was President. And it is interesting that California may have been divided because of the slavery issue.
note- For those unfamilar with the [ ] - this is used to explain what the original document meant and not something written by Lincoln.
Resolved by the People of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly:
That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Representatives requested, as follows, towit
1 To use their utmost endeavors to repeal so much of the fourteenth, and thirty second Sections of the act of Congress, entitled "an act to organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas"2 Approved ... as is found in the words following, towit --
[ Space for insertion of text.]
2-- To use their utmost endeavors to procure the revival, and re-enactment, of the eighth Section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union, approved, March sixth eighteen hundred and twenty--3
3-- To use their utmost endeavors to prevent the said Territories of Nebraska and Kansas, or either of them, or any part of either of them, ever coming into the Union as a Slave-state, or states--
4 To use their utmost endeavors to prevent domestic slavery ever being established in any country, or place, where it does not now legally exist--
5-- To resist, to their utmost, the now threatened attempt to divide California, in order to erect one portion thereof into a Slave-state--4
6. To resist, to their utmost, the now threatened attempt to revive the African slave-trade--5
[Note 1 This document is a set of draft resolutions, drawn up by Lincoln in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, to be introduced into the Illinois General Assembly early in 1855. It would appear to be a revision and refinement of an earlier, more alarmist version of these resolutions. See Abraham Lincoln, Draft Resolutions for the Illinois General Assembly concerning Repeal of the Kansas-Nebraska Act [1855].]
[Note 2 Sections 14 and 32 of the Kansas-Nebraska Act are identical, applying respectively to the territories of Nebraska and Kansas. Each calls for the repeal of Section 8 of the Missouri Compromise, which prohibited slavery North of latitude 36û 30', in the Louisiana country, exclusive of the state of Missouri. ]
[Note 3 Section 8 of the Missouri Compromise prohibited the introduction of slavery into that portion of the Louisiana county north of latitude 36 degrees, 30 minutes north, exclusive of the state of Missouri. ]
[Note 4 Such an effort to divide California could only have been initiated within the state of California. ]
[Note 5 The reopening of the African slave trade was agitated somewhat in the South in the mid-to-late 1850's. ]
Abraham Lincoln, January 4, 1855 (Draft Resolutions for Illinois General Assembly concerning Repeal of Kansas-Nebraska Act;)
Whereas the African -Slave trade ought not to be revived by law --And whereas the principle of non-intervention by congress, as laid down in those parts of Sections fourteen and thirtytwo of the act of congress entitled "An act to organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas" Approved ... which reads as follows, towit
[ Space for insertion of text.]
requires the repeal of all laws of congress abolishing, or hindering said African Slave-trade; and requires that all persons wishing to own slaves should be left "perfectly free" to purchase them on the coast of Africa, and
Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Illinois, that our Senators in Congress be instructed and, our Representatives requested, to use their best endeavors to procure the repeal of the above recited parts of said Act to organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas--
Resolved further, that our said Senators be instructed, and our said Representatives requested; to procure the revival and re-enactment, of the eighth section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March sixth, eighteen hundred and twenty--3
Resolved further, that they use their utmost endeavors to prevent the said Teritories of Nebraska and Kansas, or either of them, or any part of either of them, ever coming into this Union as a Slave-state or states--
Resolved further, that they use their utmost constitutional endeavors to prevent Slavery ever being established in any county or place, where it does not now legally exist--
Resolved further, that our said Senators and Representatives, resist to
[Note 1 This document is a set of draft resolutions, drawn up by Lincoln in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, to be introduced into the Illinois General Assembly early in 1855. They reflect something of the emotion and sense of political urgency that the act created in a substantial number of citizens. Those who reacted in this way were not confined to any one political party, and their coalescence into a political action group based on "anti-Nebraska" sentiment was a pivotal event in the political rise of Abraham Lincoln, who became a powerful and important spokesman for this cause. With these resolutions, which he would later refashion and refine somewhat in a later draft ( q. v.), Lincoln acted to take a leadership role in the "anti-Nebraska" movement.]
[Note 2 Sections 14 and 32 of the Kansas-Nebraska Act are virtually identical, applying respectively to the territories of Nebraska and Kansas. Each asserts that the Compromise of 1850 established a "principle of non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the States and Territories," and that the intent of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was therefore "to leave the people...perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way..." No reference is made to a revival of the African slave trade. The implication of the resolution apparently is that the "principle of non-intervention," if taken most literally, would allow such a revival.]
[Note 3 Section 8 of the Missouri Compromise prohibits the introduction of slavery into that portion of the Louisiana country north of latitude 36 degrees, 30 minutes north, exclusive of the state of Missouri.]
[Note 4 Though dividing California into two states, slave and free, could not have been done by a simple act of Congress, the idea behind this resolution may have been that the national representatives could be rallied to campaign against such an intra-state development.]
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