The Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln — Volume 2: 1843-1858

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.2
Word count
496K words
Chapters
50

Tags

English Originals World HistoryPolitics Political SpeechesAmerican HistoryPower GameCivic AwarenessAbolitionismEpistolary FormDocumentary Narrative

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. The Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln — Volume 2: 1843-1858 by Abraham Lincoln. Author: Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865. Language: English. Class: E456: History: America: Civil War period (1861-1865). Release Date: Sep 30, 2004.

Editor's review

This volume continues from the previous one and covers 1843 to 1858, the crucial fifteen years in which Lincoln moved from local politician to the national stage. The papers show his sustained response to party politics, territorial expansion, and the controversy over slavery, and reveal how, in debates and correspondence, he gradually tightened his arguments and honed his wording. Compared with the earlier volume, these writings aim more at public persuasion, with fuller sentence structures and clearer positions, while retaining the directness and restraint of the letter form. For scholars, the material from this period helps trace the formation of his political judgment; for general readers, it offers a way to observe without relying on secondhand accounts. When reading, it is advisable to follow two threads: party realignment and the slavery debate, around which the other material is organized.

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Reading tips

  1. Follow party realignment and the slavery controversy as two main threads, marking relevant pieces as you read.
  2. Read texts on the same issue from different years side by side to observe changes in position and wording.
  3. Before reading longer debates and open letters, establish the background of events, then return to the original text for close reading.
  4. Read the same type of text from Volume 1 and this volume in sequence to appreciate the development of the style.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
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  11. 11
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  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
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  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50

FAQ

Can I read this volume without having read Volume 1? Yes, but you will lose the comparison of stylistic development. This volume follows the previous one chronologically, and its issues are more focused, so it can stand alone; if you want to see clearly how Lincoln's expression moved from local to public, reading both volumes in sequence is more complete. At least familiarize yourself with the basic landscape of American politics in the 1840s first.
Does this volume include the famous debates? The volume's time span ends in 1858, a period of increasingly active political activity, and the papers involve the public controversies and correspondence of the time. For specific contents, consult the original table of contents; do not assume a particular piece is included. Readers may check the contents first and select by topic rather than reading every piece from beginning to end.
Why is this series published by Project Gutenberg? Project Gutenberg is an early public-interest project providing free ebooks, and its texts mostly come from public-domain works, making them easy for readers to access and cite freely. This book is an electronic text released by it and belongs to public-domain material. Note the version information and page citations when reading; for academic writing, check authoritative print editions separately.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 Author

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was an American political figure, best known for leading the nation through the Civil War and for advancing the abolition of slavery during his presidency. This site holds 23 of his works, including the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address, and several volumes of his papers and writings, many of which center on the Lincoln-Douglas debates, wartime political decisions, and his speeches. These texts are marked by clear, restrained, and forceful expression, offering both a sense of the historical moment and Lincoln's commitment to Union and freedom. Public information is limited; this note draws only on the works in the collection to outline his subjects and influence, without unverified personal details.