Lincoln 1860

Lincoln 1860

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Abraham Lincoln's Political Experience


In recent weeks, I've been noticing a growing number of "hits" on this blog resulting from searches of "Abraham Lincoln political experience" and searches similar to this. Although I did post an "opinion piece" back in January which very briefly mentioned Lincoln's political experience, I thought I'd use this post to discuss it in greater detail.

Abraham Lincoln's political experience began with a loss when he ran for the state legislature of Illinois in 1832. Although he won nearly all of the votes in his own village of New Salem, he lost the overall vote across the district. Later in life, Lincoln loved to point out that it was the only time in his life that he lost an election on a direct vote of the people. He ran again in 1834, was this time the second highest vote getter and obtained a seat in the legislature. He served 4 consecutive terms in the Illinois legislature, eventually rising to become the Whig party leader there. It was in this capacity as a state representative and party leader that Lincoln learned the fundamentals of politics which would later serve him so brilliantly.

Lincoln's national political experience prior to running for and being elected president was limited to a single term in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1846 to 1848. A lot of searches I've been noticing are for "Lincoln U.S. Senate." No, Mr. Lincoln was a Congressman, not a senator. His single term in the House (as a member of the Whig party) was mostly undistinguished. His one shining moment came in January 1848 when he made a powerful speech in Congress criticizing President James K. Polk for leading the nation into an unnecessary war, that being the Mexican War (which had begun in 1846). He challenged President Polk to provide proof of the need for the war, the amount of money spent on it, and the future plans of the administration once the war was over. He also claimed that the president's actions were unconstitutional. Unfortunately for Lincoln, his speech was ignored by the administration, unnoticed by the national press, and angered many of his constituents, who ended up questioning his patriotism. The speech was used against him in future years. After having promised to limit his time in Congress to a single term, Lincoln returned to private law practice in Springfield in 1849.

Lincoln continued to be involved in politics although he did not hold any elective office after his Congressional term until he won the presidency in 1860. After the collapse of the Whig Party in the early 1850's, Lincoln joined the new (at that time) Republican Party and was for a time considered to be a possible vice-presidential candidate in the 1856 election.

It was not until his contest for U.S. Senator in 1858 that Abraham Lincoln truly burst onto the national political stage. The series of debates with his opponent, Stephen Douglas, captured the attention of the nation. At that time, U.S. Senators were chosen by the legislatures of the respective states, and Lincoln eventually lost his bid for the Senate, the more politically experienced Douglas emerging as the winner. But through these brilliant debates, mostly argued over slavery, Lincoln became the towering national figure he was apparently destined to be.

To summarize, Lincoln was a state legislator for 8 years and a U.S. Congressman for 2 years before he was elected president. He didn't have much experience as an office-holder, but he went on to become the country's greatest president. Other men (see John Quincy Adams and James Buchanan) had far more experience than he, yet failed miserably in their presidencies. This is why in my opinion, at least, political experience is not a predictor of success or failure of a potential president.

For an outstanding recounting of Lincoln's early political career in the state legislature of Illinois and his term in Congress, the reader can do no better than David Herbert Donald's superb biography, "Lincoln." Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team Of Rivals" focuses more on Lincoln's politics at the national level, but is also quite good. Entire books have been written about the Lincoln-Douglas debates, but the classic reference work is Harold Holzer's "The Lincoln-Douglas Debates, the First Complete Unexpurgated Text" from 1993.

I hope this brief "lesson" about Mr. Lincoln's political experience is helpful. Please feel free to comment.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

In case you or your readers are interested, the Whig party has been revived as the "Modern Whig Party." It is legitimate with a national headquarters in Washington, DC and currently has 10,000 members (6,500 affiliated with the military). You can see for yourself at http://www.modernwhig.org

There also are a few Whig blogs out there, the best being http://whigsinvirginia.blogspot.com. Thanks!

Marathon Pundit said...

Careful. The Quincy Herald-Whig might sue!!! Seriously, they own the Whig.com domain.

Anonymous said...

I hope the Obama campaign finds a way to use Lincoln's experience to their advantage. McCain keeps holdng up his "experience" as being so great but if you look on his web site under "About John McCain, 3/4 of it talks about his military career 40 years ago with very little about what he has actually DONE in office!

Here's what I'd like see for a commercial ...

(fade in)

A former state legislator

Only one term in Congress as a Representative for 2 years

Out of office for 12 years before becoming President

Considered the biggest liberal in American history

When he freed the slaves

Abraham Lincoln

Was he ready to lead?

Barack Obama for President

Geoff Elliott said...

Obama and his supporters would have to be careful to not overstep their comparisons to Lincoln, in my opinion.

It's fine to say something like you wrote, but it would be wrong to state "Here's what Lincoln would do today."

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the information about President Lincoln. I think it's beside the point "what Lincoln would do today." The fact is there are many similarities between Lincoln and Obama in their experience and in speaking out against a war. The experience question is the McCain campaign's whole thrust of why Obama's "not ready to lead." It's a legitimate question to ask (McCain) if he thinks Lincoln would be ready to lead today. H Taylor: I love your proposed ad and hope you submitted the idea to the Obama campaign just in case they're not aware of the similarities! Just goes to show we don't necessarily need an experienced politician in the White House, but we do need a smart one, and that, Lincoln was and I believe Obama is!

Anonymous said...

actually Lincoln, JFK, and Teddy Roosevelt all lacked experience, yet were above excellent presidents. Perhaps Obama too.

Geoff Elliott said...

Kyle,

Thanks for your comment. I understand your point about JFK and TR, but actually both men had a good amount of political experience prior to their presidencies. JFK served as a U.S. Congressman as well as a U.S. Senator before becoming president. TR had a wide range of experience as well. He not only served as a U.S. Congressman, he was also governor of New York. And he was an assistant Secretary of The Navy as well.

There still is a lot of debate back and forth about "experience" in today's elections. It is still my point of view that we cannot (and must not) choose a candidate for any office, local, state, or national, based on experience alone.

Even so, judging based on experience is far better than choosing a candidate because he or she would be someone we'd like to drink beer with.

Anti Hero said...

This is quite helpful for my research project. I like how informitive and neat this blog is....unlike mine.

Anonymous said...

I hope you do not mind if my daughter reflects on your blog for her project she is working on?
You have some great stuff here.
Appreciate your efforts.
Dawn

Geoff Elliott said...

Dawn,

Your daughter is more than welcome to use this Abraham Lincoln Blog for her report or project.

All I ask is that she mention the blog as a source for her information concerning Lincoln. She doesn't have to mention my name.

Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help. And let me know how the project went.

Geoff

 
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