The Life and Writings of Abraham Lincoln by Abraham Lincoln Page B

Edward. The journey to Washington gave Lincoln his first view of the eastern part of the country. In Washington he came in contact with slavery, for the District of Columbia was an important slave-trading center, and the auctioning of human beings could be seen from the windows of the Capitol itself.
    On December 6, the new Congressman from Illinois took his seat in the House of Representatives. On December 22, he introduced a series of resolutions sharply questioning whether or not the “spot” on which the first blood of war had been shed was Mexican or United States territory. The border between Texas and Mexico was in dispute, so the question was not without significance. He spoke again on January 12. On this occasion he not only attacked the war policy of the President and the Administration but went on to generalize about revolution.
    The Democratic newspapers in Illinois immediately seizedupon these two speeches and used them in an attack on Lincoln and the Whig party. Illinois had enthusiastically supported the War, sent armies and supplied leaders. Shields and Baker had gone to win glory on the field of battle. Mass meetings were held at which Lincoln was attacked and his “Spot” resolutions held up to scorn. The word “Spot” was to stick to him for many years in all sorts of derisory connotations, and his theories of revolution were to be used against him even during his campaign for the Presidency. His own native honesty and his inexperience had defeated him. It was obvious that he could not hope for re-election. He had been rash enough to oppose a war and support an unpopular cause without compromise or equivocation.
    Nevertheless, during the remainder of his term in Congress, he threw his efforts into furthering the political cause of the Whig party. He worked for the election of Zachary Taylor; he traveled in New England; he wrote letters and kept in touch with party affairs throughout the country. The Whig party was dying. Its principles were no longer valid, for the issue of the day, rising steadily into greater and greater prominence, was slavery, and the issue could no longer be avoided. The Democratic party stood for the extension of slavery; the Whigs stood for nothing except opposition to the Democrats. A new party was being born, a party composed of all those who hated slavery. This was the Free Soil party, which was attracting all the liberal-minded people of the Northeast. The Free Soil party was short lived; it accomplished little of importance, but it was indicative of the revolt against the inaction in the old Whig party. It died out in 1852, and its members became absorbed in the new Republican party which was to sweep into power in 1860 with Lincoln as its Presidential nominee. Yet, by one of those curious turns of historical circumstance, Lincoln now went to New England to try to put down this revolt—to attempt to strangle at its very inception the political movement that eventually was to carry him togreatness. And to compound inconsistency he went there in behalf of Zachary Taylor, whose chief claim to the Presidency was his military record in the Mexican War that Lincoln had opposed.
    During this political campaign in New England, Lincoln first met William H. Seward and heard him deliver a speech against slavery. Lincoln was not only impressed by the nature of Seward’s argument, he was even more impressed by the manner of Seward’s speaking, for he spoke quietly, without the flamboyance or rhetoric that was so popular at the time. Seward was a man of importance in the East; his star was rising daily as the political leader of the anti-slavery forces. Lincoln’s own speaking technique shows Seward’s influence from this time on. He had never been given to excessive rhetoric, but now his words became even simpler and more direct.
    Lincoln went on to Springfield, where he made certain that his popularity with his constituents had vanished. Taylor was elected in November—an