tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12159522.post784418146685211253..comments2024-01-03T15:30:05.586-05:00Comments on Home in the railroad earth: Lincoln's "Lost Speech" and Science Fictionsteve on the slow trainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18257811143869341854noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12159522.post-27492330504189038332007-09-09T23:40:00.000-04:002007-09-09T23:40:00.000-04:00It's amazing (and for a writer a little bit dispir...It's amazing (and for a writer a little bit dispiriting) what wonders one cent will buy on Amazon. <BR/><BR/>This sounds intriguing though. I love the phrase "the spell of his oratory." Even without knowing the words he said, I can sense its power.Patry Francishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10961915797919017179noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12159522.post-55580306356810487312007-08-31T22:20:00.000-04:002007-08-31T22:20:00.000-04:00That does sound like a more likely reason.One day ...That does sound like a more likely reason.<BR/><BR/>One day I'll have to sit down and read Herndon. I wonder if Lincoln ever anticipated that Herndon would write such an influential biography.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12159522.post-73740073082494363562007-08-28T19:59:00.000-04:002007-08-28T19:59:00.000-04:00Peter--Some scholars have suggested just that--tha...Peter--Some scholars have suggested just that--that Lincoln feared the speech would not play well in southern Illinois and that he worked to suppress the text. (If so, he was probably thinking of the 1858 senatorial contest rather than the 1860 presidential nomination.) Elwell Crissey suggests what I think is a more likely reason:<BR/><BR/>"...when Lincoln finally mounted the platform at 5:30 o'clock, the convention's business had been disposed of, all speakers scheduled to appear had spoken; Lincoln's call to the platform was intended only to conclude the day with some laughs--nothing more. None of the newspapermen anticipated from this tail-end jokester a serious address; therefore, none of them was prepared to report a serious address. By the time they realized the importance of what Lincoln was saying, the spell of his oratory had them ensnared."<BR/><BR/>While Lincoln had some notes, the speech was mostly extemporaneous. If the Whitney reconstruction was close to what Lincoln said, the speech would have hurt him in southern Illinois. But with the Anti-Nebraska party, (the term Republican wasn't used to describe the convention), it helped bring the circuit lawyer, one-term congressman, and failed senatorial candidate to the forefront.steve on the slow trainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18257811143869341854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12159522.post-63786508073699232292007-08-27T22:05:00.000-04:002007-08-27T22:05:00.000-04:00Maybe Lincoln, who later took such pains to contro...Maybe Lincoln, who later took such pains to control how his speeches were transcribed in the papers, wanted this one lost. If Lincoln’s opponents could have misconstrued the speech as advocating slavery’s abolition, he may not have won the nomination over Seward. As it was, as I recall, "A house divided cannot stand" didn't hurt Lincoln much only because Seward's "irrepressible conflict" speech helped sour Seward to Westerners and made him seem unelectable to pragmatic Republicans that year.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com