MTL - Rebirth in America: Great Slave Owner-Chapter 21 lincoln

"What are you looking at? You are so fascinated by it?" Nicole woke up in the morning and saw Tangning was reading a newspaper fascinated, so she encircled him from behind and asked curiously.

Downing pointed to an article in the newspaper titled "Illinois Senatorial Election Debate - Should Slavery Be Abolished?" and replied to Nicole, "I'm looking at this!"

The reason why Downing paid attention to this news was because one of the debates involved was the famous US President Lincoln. At this time, he was running for the Senate of Illinois as a Republican candidate, and his opponent was the representative of the Democratic Party. Douglas.

For this campaign, the two sides had seven debates (also known as the Great Debate of 1858), which on the surface was Lincoln and Douglas competing for the Senate seat of Illinois, but at a deeper level, This was also the battle for abolition and slavery that lasted for many years in American history at that time, and it was also a historical event that affected the course of American history. It is not only the debate between the two sides on the issue of slavery's existence and abolition, but also the struggle of Lincoln and Douglas's respective ideological concepts and the parties they represent.

In fact, in the early days of the founding of the United States, the debate about slavery began. Because of the different solutions to slavery, the United States was divided into North and South: the seven northern states (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Lord Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey) that gradually took steps to abolish slavery were called the Free States , the six southern states that maintained slavery (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia) were called slave states.

At that time, the North and the South were roughly equal in terms of economy, population, and land area, and the political power of the two sides was almost the same, so a balanced situation was formed across the country, which was reflected in the issue of slavery. , the 1787 Philadelphia Constitutional Convention determined that the black population was calculated according to three-fifths of the population when electing the House of Representatives, which is a manifestation of this compromise.

However, this compromise is only a helpless move to treat the symptoms rather than the root causes. With the continuous expansion of the United States, especially Missouri and Nebraska have successively requested the establishment of states to join the Union. According to the original agreement, these two states should belong to the free states, but the slave states are afraid of the joining of these two states. It would destroy their traditional dominant position in Congress, so they tried to join the Union as a slave state, which caused dissatisfaction in the North. Thus, the two sides launched a tit-for-tat contest over slavery, and the debate between Lincoln and Douglas in 1858 was the product of this north-south contest.

According to the agreement, seven debates were distributed in different parts of Illinois. In each debate, one person took the stage to speak for an hour to express his views; then another person came to the stage to speak for an hour and a half. On the one hand, the former is criticized; in the end, the person who takes the stage first takes half an hour to supplement his own views and refute the criticism of the other;

This approach was dictated by the unique location of Illinois—it sits on the north-south divide in the United States, with the south of the state favoring slavery preservation and the north favoring its abolition. Therefore, this arrangement can be heard by people all over the state, thereby ensuring the fairness of the debate.

Naturally, Nicole didn't know the importance of this debate, so she glanced at it and said disapprovingly, "Didn't our people win? What are you worried about?"

Tangning shook her head, "Although on the surface, Mr. Douglas did win, but if you look at the votes alone, Lincoln got 4,085 more votes than Douglas, and his loss was due to the division of the electorate. unreasonable, making it lower than Douglas in the state legislature.

Because at that time the Democratic Party controlled the majority of the states with fewer voters in Illinois, and controlled the state legislature, and the senator was elected by the state legislature, so Douglas, who did not receive as many votes as Lincoln, was elected as the senator.

And as a veteran politician, Mr. Douglas actually had seven debates with Lincoln, a new political lawyer, which was too much for his popularity. You see, after this, those who opposed slavery in the North The guy will definitely pay attention to him. In a few years, this battle between the north and the south will be inevitable! "

Hearing Tangning say this, Nicole recalled Tangning's speculation last time, and couldn't help but exclaimed, "Do you really think those northerners will come and beat us because of black slaves?"

"The core of the dispute between the North and the South is not actually the black slaves, but the economic model of the two sides. In order to develop industry, the North hopes to raise import tariffs, and the South can provide them with cheap raw materials and buy them. High-quality industrial products.

From our southern point of view, this is absolutely unacceptable. If the import tariff is increased, not only will we not be able to buy cheap British industrial products, but also as a return system, the United Kingdom will definitely increase the import tariff on our cotton. Profits on cotton would be lower and no one would even buy it.

Tell me, is there any other solution to such an irreconcilable contradiction besides war? " Tangning explained.

"Then if the war really comes, do you think we will win?" Nicole asked while staring at Tangning.

Tangning shook her head and replied, "To be honest, I'm really not optimistic, because our industry is really bad, unless the UK is willing to stand firmly on our side, it will be very difficult to win, but with the current mainstream public opinion in Europe, it is very difficult to win. Look, our slavery really can't be brought to the table, so the UK can only support it secretly, with limited strength, and another important reason is that we have too few people." The Charter Movement has just ended, the consciousness of civil rights has risen, and even Marx and Engels have had a place in the public opinion circle. It is conceivable that if the British government publicly supports slavery in the United States, it will be boycotted.)

"How many more people in the north than us?" Nicole asked inexplicably.

"Although the total number of people is about the same, the problem is that 30 or even 40 percent of us here are black slaves. Do you think he will fight hard for our war?" Tangning asked rhetorically.

"You're right, what are your plans if we lose?" Nicole asked again.

PS: Thanks to book friends "Xiao Wu and Brother Gu" for their support!