Lincoln: American Civil War and Dred Scott Essay

Submitted By zulumoedude
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Pages: 3

Lincoln was the head and leader of the Republicans. Lincoln’s views and ideologies guided the republican party, this includes the idea of free labor. Lincoln believed that slavery degraded labor and that slavery would ultimately drive free labor out of the territories. Lincoln as well as other fellow republicans believed in stopping the expansion of slavery would preserve the heritage of economic independence for all white Americans. Republican praised the North as a society of opportunity where enterprising individuals could rise through hard work and discipline, while viewing and condemning the South as stagnant, economically backwards, and hierarchical. Republican ideology was very much against slavery and it showed in their literary publications. With works like Uncle Toms Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, republican writers, editors, and speakers stressed the simple fact that slavery is morally wrong and that it goes against Christian beliefs. Abraham Lincoln once declared “that we have before us this whole matter of the right and wrong of slavery in this union, though the immediate question is as to its spreading out into new territories and states.” Lincoln as well as his fellow republicans were certain that the slave power had set out to destroy the liberties if Northern whites. When the owner of a Missouri slave, named Dred Scott, had taken him to live in a free state, the slave sued for his freedom stating that because his master had taken him to a free state he was now a free man. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the southern slave owner and Dred Scott had to remain a slave. Lincoln denounced the court on its decision that was pro slavery. He believed that Congress ought to ban slavery in all the territories. Lincoln was once quoted once saying “we know the court, and we shall do what we can to have it over-rule this.” For a lot of republicans the courts decision foreshadowed the spread of slavery throughout the nation. They were very worried that if all the territories were not open to slavery, how long would it take for a move to be made by the South to reintroduce slaves and slavery in the free states. The Lincoln-Douglas debates were between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas during the