Abraham Lincoln and the Economy
This page will explore sources where Abraham Lincoln addresses his role in the economy, a role which he expanded while president. As you read each document, think about how the document reveals Lincoln's persective on the economy. Pay attention to tone and audience for each source in our analysis.
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To provide backgroud/context on this topic, check out the resources below:
"Abraham Lincoln and the Tarriff", Abraham Lincoln's Classroom, http://www.abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org/abraham-lincoln-in-depth/abraham-lincoln-and-the-tariff/
Daily Report:
HD Daily Report, March 9, 1832
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Historiography:
“In his 1832 campaign announcement, Lincoln above all championed government support for internal improvements which would enable subsistence farmers to participate in the market economy and thus escape rural isolation and poverty … Lincoln’s ambition, like that of many politicians, was rooted in an intense craving for deference and approval. But unlike many power-seekers, Lincoln was expansive and generous in his ambition. He desired more than ego-gratifying power and prestige; he wanted everyone to have a chance to escape the soul-crushing poverty and backwardness that he had experienced as a quasi-slave on the frontier.”
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Close Reading:
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Document Information
"It appears that the practice of loaning money at exorbitant rates of interest, has already been opened as a field for discussion; so I suppose I may enter upon it without claiming the honor, or risking the danger, which may await its first explorer. It seems as though we are never to have an end to this baneful and corroding system, acting almost as prejudicial to the general interests of the community as a direct tax of several thousand dollars annually laid on each county, for the benefit of a few individuals only, unless there be a law made setting a limit to the rates of usury.”
First Campaign Statement
(March 9, 1832)
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Matthew Pinsker: Understanding Lincoln: First Campaign Statement (1832) from Gilder Lehrman Institute on Vimeo.
Speech at River and Harbor Convention (July 6, 1847)
"The argument of the gentleman from New York upon the constitutionality of the power to make appropriations should be examined. I do not feel that I can do it –time will not permit—but some one more able, more competent to do the subject justice, will reply. All agree that something in the way of internal improvement must be done. The difficulty is to discriminate, when to begin and where to stop. There is great danger in going too far. Members of Congress will be influenced by sectional interests and sectional feelings. I have not taken the pains to write out my opinions upon the construction to be put upon the constitution."
Document Information
The Lincoln Log:
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Historiography:
“On the morning of July 6, 1847, David Dudley Field, prominent New York lawyer, spoke in defense of the position of the Polk administration. He rejected the obligation of the federal government to help develop the navigation of the Illinois River, which traversed a solitary state. Lincoln stood to offer a reply, speaking for the first time before a national audience. His full remarks were not recorded, but Field’s remarks brought out the best of Lincoln’s satire. Lincoln, who as usual had done his homework, learned that Field favored a federal appropriation for the Hudson River in New York. Lincoln asked “how many States the lordly Hudson ran through.” Lincoln’s remarks made an incredible impression on a leading New York newspaper editor. Horace Greely, a reformer and politician at heart, and founding editor of the New York Tribune,always had a nose for the up-and-coming. He thought he spied it in the tall congressman-elect. The next day, Greely wrote in appreciation, ‘Hon. Abraham Lincoln, a tall specimen of and Illinoian, just elected to Congress from the only Whig District in the state, spoke briefly and happily in reply to Mr. Field.’”
—Ronald C. White, A Lincoln: A Biography (New York: Random House Publishing Group, 2009), 136.
Annual Message (December 3, 1861)
"Under and by virtue of the act of Congress entitled “An act to confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes,” approved August, 6, 1861, the legal claims of certain persons to the labor and service of certain other persons have become forfeited; and numbers of the latter, thus liberated, are already dependent on the United States, and must be provided for in some way."
Document Information
The Lincoln Log:
The Lincoln Log, December 3, 1861
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Historiography:
“Lincoln’s annual message dealt with a series of other problems in a rather perfunctory fashion, making it one of the president’s less memorable state papers. Before its publication, a justice of the New York state supreme court, fearing that it would be undignified and marred by ‘low commonplaces,’ suggested that Seward should help write it. In fact, a portion of the message was evidently composed by Seward and inserted at the last moment. Because it was ‘peculiarly a business document,” it was, according to Senator William P. Fessenden, ‘considered here a dry and tame affair.’ He thought it was marred by ‘several ridiculous things,’ but condescendingly remarked, ‘we must make the best of our bargain,’ …While moderate Republicans hailed the message’s substance as “wise, patriotic, and conservative,” and its style as “plain, concise and straightforward,” others complained about its brevity and its failure to mention the Trent crisis or to deal more fully with the slavery issue, both of which loomed large in the public mind… Just before the message was submitted to Congress, Lincoln told his cabinet why he was soft-pedaling the slavery issue: “Gentlemen, you are not a unit on this question, and as it is a very important one, in fact the most important which has come before us since the war commenced, I will float on with the tide till you are more nearly united than at present. Perhaps we shall yet drift into the right position.’”
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (2 volumes, originally published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008) Unedited Manuscript by Chapter, Lincoln Studies Center, Volume 2, Chapter 24 (PDF), 2662-2667.