Abraham Lincoln delivered a powerful closing argument at the final Lincoln-Douglas Debate. Republicans triumphed in contests around the country. But then the Illinois Senate race got an October surprise. Blumenthal, Sidney: All...

As Stephen Douglas staggered under alcohol, illness and the repetition of old ideas, Abraham Lincoln found the clear distinction between them in their debates -- and hammered his opponent pitilessly over his indifference to slavery. Sou...

In an attempt to respond to Stephen Douglas' relentless race-baiting, Abraham Lincoln reaches the moral nadir of his political life. But from the depths of this disaster he starts finding an argument that he will wield with far more effectivene...

The Lincoln-Douglas debates had some eloquence, lots of repetition and much in the way of grubby politicking. Stephen Douglas hit hard at Abraham Lincoln in the first contest in Ottawa, and Lincoln hit back at the second in Freeport. So...

Abraham Lincoln's House Divided speech drew clear lines between Democrats and Republicans as the 1858 U.S. Senate campaign in Illinois got underway.Sources used:Blumenthal, Sidney: All The Powers of Earth. Simon and Sch...

A rift between Stephen Douglas and President James Buchanan appeared to give Abraham Lincoln a break in his run for U.S. Senate. But Lincoln began scrambling to pull Republicans behind him after Douglas started flirting with a bipartisan anti-B...

The Scott family's decade-long fight to claim the freedom owed to them under the law ran into state and federal judges determined to close the courts -- and broader citizenship -- to Black Americans. For white Americans like Abraham Lincoln, th...

The 1856 presidential election took place amid a backdrop of violence in Kansas and Congress. Abraham Lincoln threw himself into the fight for the Republican Party and free territories. Sources used:"1856 Democratic Party Platfo...

As the Whig Party withered away in 1855, Abraham Lincoln found himself pulled toward the new Republican Party -- an organization that not only stood foursquare against slavery's expansion, but brought an economic vision that reflected northern ...

Being an enslaved person in America in the 1850s meant the ever-present threat of violence and separation from loved ones. And throughout the decade, the white South became increasingly determined to spread it as far as they could. Sour...

The Kansas-Nebraska Act threw American politics into chaos in 1854. The two-party duopoly that existed for the previous 20 years was swept away in the space of a few months. As Abraham Lincoln fought for the anti-Nebraska coalition in Illinois,...

Nursing his own ambitions and trying to hold onto his power in the U.S. Senate, Stephen Douglas agreed to introduce legislation repealing the Missouri Compromise and opening the upper Midwest to slavery. The brazen assault by pro-slavery forces...

Abraham Lincoln would never had become president had he not locked horns with Stephen Douglas, whose rapid rise through Illinois politics quickly made him a national icon. Douglas' life had some parallels to Lincoln's, and in many ways, his att...

Abraham Lincoln's racial attitudes were complicated. He was willing to defend fugitive slaves and appears to have lived in what was (for its time) an integrated neighborhood. But he also defended a slaveholder in court, and advocated for scheme...

Abraham Lincoln's law practice was dominated by debt cases and the messy but commonplace disputes that make up a legal practice then and now. He plied his trade throughout central Illinois and was a popular companion for other attorneys in his ...

Mary Lincoln's domestic life often involved working as a single parent and managing tight finances while her husband was out making a living. Both parents were devoted to their children, and faced devastation when their son Eddie became sick in...

As he returned for the final congressional session of his term, Abraham Lincoln tried to lay the groundwork for the future of his party -- by proposing the abolition of slavery within the District of Columbia, and in using the patronage powers ...

The Whigs were desperate for victory in 1848, and Abraham Lincoln joined a group promoting the candidacy of General Zachary Taylor. Lincoln showed that he could be an effective speaker -- but he could not have foreseen that his efforts would he...

The U.S. invasion of Mexico in 1846 sparked a humanitarian catastrophe that had profound consequences for both countries. Abraham Lincoln joined a Whig fight against the war. 

As Abraham Lincoln moved to secure the Whig nomination for Congress in 1846, he had to confront the ambitions of an old friend for the seat, and the growing power of the abolitionists within his district. 

By 1842, Abraham Lincoln had completed a long and painful journey into the middle class. He was an established attorney and had married into a prominent family. But politics would force him to reckon with the costs of his decisions -- and later...

As Abraham Lincoln recovered from his nervous breakdown, he further focused on ways to allow his head to control his heart. Yet as 1842 unfolded, he found himself in a potentially deadly fight with a political rival, and growing closer to Mary ...

His personal and professional bonds all snapped at once at the end of 1840. It proved a prelude to the worst emotional crisis of Lincoln's life, one that he would need a full year to pull himself out of. 

With the Whig Party appearing poised for a major breakthrough in 1840, Abraham Lincoln campaigned hard, showing a desperation that led him to attack individuals and fall back on the shameful race-baiting that defined his youth. Toward the end o...

As an economic depression hardened party lines, Abraham Lincoln became an enthusiastic Whig partisan, fighting hard to get his law partner into Congress. During the contest, the lynching of a black man and the later murder of a newspaper editor...