More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Erik Larson
“You might as well attempt to control a tornado as to attempt to stop them from secession. They drive politicians before them like sheep.”
“This is just as I expected, and just what would happen with any declaration I could make,” Lincoln wrote. “These political fiends are not half sick enough yet. ‘Party malice’ and not ‘public good’ possesses them entirely.” Lincoln found further support for his own silence in the gospel of St. Matthew. “ ‘They seek a sign,’ ” he told Raymond, “ ‘and no sign shall be given them.’ At least such is my present feeling and purpose.”
Lincoln had only a partial grasp of this reality. “You think slavery is right and ought to be extended,” Lincoln wrote in a December letter to Alexander “Little Ellick” Stephens, the Georgia congressman, “while we think it is wrong and ought to be restricted. That I suppose is the rub. It certainly is the only substantial difference between us.” But it was here in this clash of moral perception that hatred simmered and violence became imaginable. More than simply a “substantial difference,” it was a chasm that even the most generous package of concessions could never bridge.
This was also Lincoln’s birthday. At fifty-two he was not exactly “old,” as he had described himself to his audience in Springfield, but certainly at a point where men understood that they had entered the far side of their lives.
Even as he said this, however, concern in Washington mounted that the electoral count might be disrupted. That day crowds of irate Southerners had gathered in Washington and converged on the Capitol clamoring to get inside. General Scott, however, was well prepared. Soldiers manned the entrances and demanded to see passes before letting anyone in. Scott had positioned caches of arms throughout the building. A regiment of troops in plainclothes circulated among the crowd to stop any trouble before it started. The throng outside grew annoyed at being barred from entry and began firing off
...more
Jan 6 wasn’t the first time the capitol was besieged during the electoral count. Interesting though that the only other time was just prior to a civil war and that it took federal troops to secure it. And the military secured democracy…very strongly
He explained that the struggle for independence and the enduring nature of the resulting confederation of states had often led him to ponder what guiding principle had made it so durable. “It was not the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the mother land,” he said, “but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but hope to the world for all future time.”
The US represents a place where all can be equal Should be a symbol for the world not just Americans
A few days later the Peace Convention approved a proposed Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution to be submitted to Congress for a vote. All seven of its clauses dealt with slavery, including one nicknamed the “Never-Never” clause, which would bar Congress from ever interfering with slavery as it existed in any state or territory in the country. The seven clauses underscored the fact that for all of the South’s efforts to blame the crisis on Northern tyranny in imposing tariffs, collecting revenue, and ordaining “internal improvements,” the crux of the crisis was in fact slavery. This was
...more
Stephen Douglas, his most bitter antagonist in the presidential election and in the Senate race before that, took the hat with a smile and held it for him.
Even with an aggressive rival, if you’re the boss, you can afford to be direct but polite. Don’t put your foot on someone’s neck unless you need to.
