Extra Credit Questions

[AussieMick]

Hints are hard to think of ....
Coffee for anybody ?

[Gene C]

Cotton ?

[AussieMick]

Lincoln didn't refer to cotton ,Gene, in the statement that I read. He mentioned another substance much used by many people.
He was using it as an example.

[AussieMick]

Rogerm suggested the Mississippi. But Lincoln wasn't involved in creating that.
And Gene wrote Cotton. ... and of course Cotton was a major staple, but not the one Lincoln spoke of at this Springfield time.

[RJNorton]

I now think it must be sugar.

[AussieMick]

Yes, Roger. The product that Lincoln mentioned was indeed sugar.
Now .... what was the topic that Lincoln was talking about ?
What was it that enabled Louisiana sugar producers to become richer, and New Yorkers to improve their quality of life by access to cheaper sugar?

[Rogerm]

Their ownership of slaves?

[AussieMick]

No, Roger, not slaves.

It was a Stephen Douglas intiative ....

[Wild Bill]

The tariff.

[RJNorton]

Was it a method of transportation?

[AussieMick]

No, Bill. Though I think I know why you say that.
Roger is correct .... its to do with transportation.

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But of course what specifically was it?

[RJNorton]

I think this is wrong as it was constructed before the period you likely are discussing, but I will guess the Erie Canal.

[Gene C]

Trains

[AussieMick]

Not, trains Gene. Roger came closest with the Erie Canal. But I think all the topics/issues that were suggested are mentioned in
https://hbr.org/2003/08/abraham-lincoln-...al-economy

I was wanting the Illinois-Michigan Canal.

"Before the war, states were discrete and powerful political and economic units. Regional jealousies—not just between the North and the South but also between the urban East and the rural West—were strong. States in one part of the country frequently attempted to block federal financing of a canal or a harbor in another part on the grounds that it did not benefit them. Lincoln fought such parochialism. In a speech made long before he became president, he cited the benefits of the recently completed Illinois and Michigan Canal. It ran entirely within Illinois. But because of it, sugar, for example, could be carried from New Orleans to Buffalo, New York, more cheaply than along the old coastal route. This benefited both the merchants of New Orleans and the people of Buffalo, who, in Lincoln’s words, “sweetened their coffee a little more cheaply than before.”

I'm afraid the article doesnt (as far as I can see) actually state where and when Lincoln made that speech.

[RJNorton]

Please try without googling.

What was the very first country other than the United States to honor Lincoln with a postage stamp?