Lincoln Lecture in Salzburg, Austria

[Amy L.]

12. Dez. 2019, Salzboirhe (that’s how they say it)

Notes and thoughts from author James H. Read’s Lecture:
“The Road Not Taken: Abraham Lincoln and the Peaceful Abolition of Slavery”

I believe unfortunately the author didn’t get into much of the meat of his ideas for the book, because the lecture was mostly an overview of what lead to the American Civil War. The lesson to us ~ 12 attendees:
• DOB, where lived, Missouri Compromise, Bleeding Kansas, Fort Sumter, etc.
• Lincoln was no Abolitionist
• The 3/5 Clause was not going to guarantee an advantage for the South in the Legislature for much longer, because immigrants kept moving to the North.
• The 1860 election showed that the Republicans were not Sectional (that they could be conservative and compromising), because some Republicans were elected in the South.
• Lincoln fought Sectionalism (or, tried to influence southern Sentiment) by appointing Republicans to southern positions (aka Post Master)

Interesting points:
• There would not have been a 13th Amendment if the war had not happened. It’s true. The North was just as rife with racism. It would have taken YEARS for Congress to grant equal rights to African Americans without the war.
• The South violently suppressed Freedom of Speech. (I remember in Congress there was a gag rule against discussing Slavery, but that there was such suppression and limit of constitutional rights… Two Americas.)
• If the South were left alone (like, if the leadership was as inept as James Buchanan) and allowed to secede, there would STILL have been war. The South’s economic engine was the trading of slaves. They needed buyers. If the West became Free States, that meant less buyers of enslaved African Americans. And then also the clear and immediate ambition, the South would want more land and resources (esp. California). And there would be war. (I’d never thought of that! Read says, ”Lincoln did.“)

The last chapter of the book will discuss what America’s divisions today share with divisions at the time of the Civil War, but that will not be the main theme of the book.

My questions to the author:
• Did the Kansas-Nebraska Act bring Lincoln out of his shell because he felt strongly about Slavery? Or was it that he felt strongly about the power and threat of the Slavocracy? (hmm, or better, both. The causes are not mutually exclusive...)
• Were Southern Plantation owners really so powerful and aristocratic? Was the slave economy really so successful, especially in comparison northern Industrialization? What about Hinton Rowan Helper’s “The Impending Crisis of the South”? Helper’s analysis showed the North leaps and bounds ahead of the South, and perfectly capable of surviving without the resources and labor of the South, and that the South was in the North’s hand. …
• What was the importance of the example of successful American Democracy to the wider world?
• States’ Rights – Could States justifiably veto Federal Law? (think I got this question from looking into James Read’s previously published book, “Majority Rule versus Consensus: The Political Thoughts of James Calhoun”) The author replied something like, “Funny question. I wrote a book about that.” Well.

Closing thoughts:
• I unfortunately did not closely concentrate to the lecture and parts of the discussion. Perhaps there were more points of speculation…
• I must say, it was neat to meet an author, and someone brave enough to attempt another Lincoln book.

Also, ich möchte etwas auf Deutsch schreiben, weil:
• bei dieser Veranstaltung Deutsch gesprochen war,
• in Lincolns Springfield die Leute um herum sicher Deutsch geredet haben,
• John Nicolay, in seinem politischen Kreis, auf D. gequatscht hat,
• ihr alle Google Translate nutzen könntet.
Wir haben kurzzeitig geredet – Viele Frauen waren freimütig über die notwendige Gleichberechtigung von den Sklaven. Aber ich denke, die Frauen haben nicht absichtlich ihre Rechten opfernd zur Seite gelegt, um die Schwarzen zu unterstützen. Schwarzen haben gegen 1870 ihre Rechte zu wählen bekommen, 1920 ENDLICH wir Frauen. Frauen sind unter den Bus geworfen.