Abraham Lincoln's Peoria speech facts for kids
Abraham Lincoln gave a very important speech in Peoria, Illinois, on October 16, 1854. This speech was a big step for Lincoln. It showed his strong arguments against slavery and helped him become a major political leader.
In 1854, a new law called the Kansas–Nebraska Act was created. It was written by Stephen A. Douglas, a powerful senator. This law was meant to create new territories called Kansas and Nebraska. But it also said that settlers in these areas could decide if they wanted slavery or not.
Lincoln believed this new law went against an older agreement. This agreement was the 1820 Missouri Compromise. The Missouri Compromise had made slavery illegal north of a certain line, the 36°30' parallel. Lincoln saw the Kansas-Nebraska Act as a way to bring slavery into places where it had been banned.
Abraham Lincoln's Important Speech
Lincoln felt he had to speak out against the Kansas-Nebraska Act. He gave three public speeches in September and October 1854. Each speech was a direct answer to Stephen A. Douglas. The most complete speech was given in Peoria, Illinois, on October 16.
This three-hour speech happened on the lawn of the Peoria County Courthouse. Lincoln himself wrote down the speech later. In it, he gave strong reasons against slavery. He used moral, legal, and economic arguments. He also looked back at history, quoting the Founding Fathers. This speech was very important for Lincoln's future in politics.
Lincoln's Powerful Words
Horace White was a young journalist at the Chicago Evening Journal. He saw Lincoln speak for the first time at Peoria. White described Lincoln's appearance and how he spoke:
It was a warmish day in early October, and Mr. Lincoln was in his shirt sleeves when he stepped on the platform. I observed that, although awkward, he was not in the least embarrassed. He began in a slow and hesitating manner, but without any mistakes of language, dates, or facts. It was evident that he had mastered his subject, that he knew what he was going to say, and that he knew he was right.
— Horace White
White also described how different Lincoln and Douglas looked:
At the appointed time Douglas and Lincoln entered the hall, the former taking a seat on the front row of benches and the latter advancing to the platform. The two men presented a wide contrast in personal appearance, Lincoln being 6 feet 3 inches high, lean, angular, raw boned, with a complexion of leather, unkempt, and with clothes that seemed to have dropped on him and might drop off; Douglas, in contrast, was 5 feet 4 inches high, rotund, portly, smooth faced, with ruddy complexion and a lion-like mane, and dressed in clothes of faultless fit.
— Horace White
White used colorful words to describe Lincoln's speaking style:
Progressing with his theme, his words began to come faster and his face to light up with the rays of genius and his body to move in unison with his thoughts. His gestures were made with his body and head rather than with his arms. His speaking went to the heart because it came from the heart. I have heard celebrated orators who could start thunders of applause without changing any man's opinion. Mr. Lincoln's eloquence was of the higher type, which produced conviction in others because of the conviction of the speaker himself. His listeners felt that he believed every word he said, and that, like Martin Luther, he would go to the stake rather than abate one jot or tittle of it. In such transfigured moments as these he was the type of the ancient Hebrew prophet as I learned that character at Sunday-school in my childhood.
— Horace White
What Lincoln Said
Lincoln's speech gave a hint of his future political path. He spoke about how the country was changing its beliefs:
Little by little, but steadily as man's march to the grave, we have been giving up the old for the new faith. Nearly eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men are created equal; but now from that beginning we have run down to the other declaration, that for some men to enslave others is a 'sacred right of self-government.' These principles cannot stand together. They are as opposite as God and Mammon; and whoever holds to the one must despise the other.
— Abraham Lincoln
See also
