{"id":948,"date":"2013-06-28T20:36:08","date_gmt":"2013-06-28T20:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/?p=948"},"modified":"2016-06-20T14:32:36","modified_gmt":"2016-06-20T14:32:36","slug":"slavery-protest-march-3-1837","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/slavery-protest-march-3-1837\/","title":{"rendered":"Slavery Protest (March 3, 1837)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Contributing Editors for this page include Greg O&#8217;Reilly<\/em><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Ranking<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 36px;\">#53<\/span> on the list of 150 Most Teachable Lincoln Documents<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Annotated Transcript<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/40419\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;They believe that the institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy; but that the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than to abate its evils.&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>On This Date<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/panel\/this_date\/1837-03-03\" target=\"_blank\">HD Daily Report, March 3, 1837<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelincolnlog.org\/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&amp;day=1837-03-03\" target=\"_blank\">The Lincoln Log, March 3, 1837<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Custom Map<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps\/ms?msid=214923210427089848626.0004def4e79e2ae545ca4&amp;msa=0&amp;ll=38.997041,-89.108219&amp;spn=0.094989,0.181446&amp;iwloc=0004e0613762ce9f186cd\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-3525\" src=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/files\/2013\/06\/Screen-shot-2014-02-22-at-10.13.53-PM.png\" alt=\"Screen shot 2014-02-22 at 10.13.53 PM\" width=\"484\" height=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/files\/2013\/06\/Screen-shot-2014-02-22-at-10.13.53-PM.png 692w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/files\/2013\/06\/Screen-shot-2014-02-22-at-10.13.53-PM-300x272.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 484px) 100vw, 484px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps\/ms?msid=214923210427089848626.0004def4e79e2ae545ca4&amp;msa=0&amp;ll=38.997041,-89.108219&amp;spn=0.094989,0.181446&amp;iwloc=0004e0613762ce9f186cd\" target=\"_blank\">View in Larger Map<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Close Readings<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1NHm0NfC0bw?rel=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nPosted at YouTube by Understanding Lincoln course participant Greg O&#8217;Reilly, August 2014.\u00a0You can read\u00a0a transcript of this video <a href=\"http:\/\/goreilly11.wix.com\/lincoln-on-equality#!protest-on-slavery\/c19ii\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How Historians Interpret<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0&#8220;<\/strong>Lincoln wrote a protest and circulated it among his colleagues, all of whom refused to sign except for Stone, a native of Vermont and a graduate of Middlebury College. Stone was not seeking reelection because he would soon become a judge. \u00a0Lincoln declared in the document which he and Stone spread on the journal of the House of Representatives &#8216;that the institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy,&#8217; foreshadowing his great 1854 Peoria speech denouncing the &#8216;monstrous injustice of slavery.&#8217; In 1860, a newspaper widely regarded as his organ explained that &#8216;Lincoln could not, and did not vote in favor of the resolutions . . . because the old Calhoun doctrine embraced in the second of the series [\u2018that the right of property in slaves is sacred to the slave-holding states by the Federal Government\u2019] was abhorrent to his ideas of the true meaning of the Constitution.&#8217; \u00a0To announce that &#8216;slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy&#8217; was a remarkably bold gesture for 1837, when antislavery views enjoyed little popularity in central Illinois \u2013 or elsewhere in the nation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.knox.edu\/documents\/pdfs\/LincolnStudies\/Burlingame,%20Vol%201,%20Chap%204.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Burlingame,\u00a0<em>Abraham Lincoln: A Life<\/em>\u00a0(2 volumes, originally published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008)\u00a0Unedited Manuscript By Chapters, Lincoln Studies Center, Volume 1, Chapter 4 (PDF), p.398<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cLincoln\u2019s \u2018protest\u2019 differed from the resolutions primarily in its strong language against slavery and in omitting the description of slaveholders\u2019 property rights as \u2018sacred.\u2019 It foreshadowed Lincoln\u2019s public stance in the 1850s: slavery was unjust; northerners had an obligation to respect the constitutional compromises that protected the institution; the national government had the power to act against slavery in the District of Columbia; and Lincoln was not an abolitionist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;Eric Foner,\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=earytjxi6pEC&amp;lpg=PP1&amp;dq=1837%20Lincoln%20institution%20of%20slavery&amp;pg=PA26#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\">The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery<\/a><\/em>, (New York: W.W. Norton &amp; Company, 2011), p.26<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He understood but would not join abolitionist organizations that attacked the personal and human horrors of the institution. Lincoln first spoke publicly against slavery in 1837 with a short protest against resolutions that attacked abolition societies and defended states&#8217; rights to property in slaves. Joining with Dan Stone, a fellow Springfield lawyer and Whig, Lincoln called slavery unjust and bad policy but asserted that abolition societies &#8216;tend[ed] rather to increase than to abate its evils.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;Phillip S. Paludan, <a href=\"http:\/\/quod.lib.umich.edu\/j\/jala\/2629860.0015.203\/--lincoln-s-prewar-constitutional-vision?rgn=main;view=fulltext;q1=institution+of+slavery\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Lincoln&#8217;s Prewar Constitutional Vision&#8221;<\/a> in\u00a0<em>Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Society\u00a0<\/em>15 (1994)<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;\">NOTE TO READERS<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This page is under construction and will be developed further by students in the new \u201cUnderstanding Lincoln\u201d online course sponsored by the House Divided Project at Dickinson College and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. To find out more about the course and to see some of our videotaped class sessions, including virtual field trips to Ford&#8217;s Theatre and Gettysburg, please visit our Livestream page at <a href=\"http:\/\/new.livestream.com\/gilderlehrman\/lincoln\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/new.livestream.com\/gilderlehrman\/lincoln<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">Searchable Text<\/span><\/h3>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">March 3, 1837<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">The following protest was presented to the House, which was read and ordered to be spread on the journals, to wit:<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">&#8220;Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having passed\u00a0both branches of the General Assembly at its present session, the undersigned hereby protest against the passage of the same.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">They believe that the institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy; but that the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than to abate its evils.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">They believe that the Congress of the United States has no power, under the constitution, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the different States.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">They believe that the Congress of the United States has the power, under the constitution, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia; but that that power ought not to be exercised unless at the request of the people of said District.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">The difference between these opinions and those contained in the said resolutions, is their reason for entering this protest.&#8221;<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">DAN STONE,<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">A. LINCOLN,<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">Representatives from the county of Sangamon.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Contributing Editors for this page include Greg O&#8217;Reilly Ranking #53 on the list of 150 Most Teachable Lincoln Documents Annotated Transcript &#8220;They believe that the institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy; but that the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than to abate its evils.&#8221; On This Date [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10858],"tags":[10866,11667,11658,10861,70,10876],"class_list":["post-948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-great-emancipator","tag-antebellum","tag-legislative","tag-pragmatism","tag-public","tag-slavery","tag-younger-readers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4460,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948\/revisions\/4460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}