The Great Triumvirate
By
Jessica L. Caswell
American History to 1877
HIST101
Dr. Brett F. Woods
March 16, 2015 Everyone thinks that Abraham Lincoln was America’s most fervent supporter of preserving the Union, but while Lincoln was still a boy, there were three politicians leading the charge to keep the Union from fracturing. These three political giants were celebrities in their time and their names are: Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun. Their differences ran the gamut and they more often worked against each other than with each other, but each of the men was deeply patriotic and ambitious. They all at one point in their careers served in the Senate and as the Secretary of State. Each of them
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His debates became the stuff of legends and for days afterward, newspapers would scramble to print as much of the debate as they could. Webster, an ardent supporter of the Constitution and national unity said, “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.” The third man in the Great Triumvirate was a South Carolinian Senator named John C. Calhoun. Of the three, he gained the highest political title as Vice President under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Calhoun’s loyalty to the Union was second only to his loyalty to South Carolina. In the beginning of his political career, he fought for the Union to stay together, but when it became a choice between his home state or the Union, he chose South Carolina. Calhoun did not desire secession, though. In his mind, disunion would equal failure. In 1812, war was on the horizon. The “warhawks” led by Henry Clay and John Calhoun were pushing Madison to a war with Britain. “What are we not to lose by peace,” Clay said in response to the anti-war critics. “Commerce, character, a nation’s best treasure, honor!” America went to war in spite of the New England states threatening secession. Eleven months after the start of the war, Webster was elected to Congress and while he was decidedly against the war; once it
The War Hawks were the group of people in the South who wanted war with Great Britain and to drive out the Native Americans. The War Hawks were led by Henry Clay, a man in Congress who was strongly advising President James Madison to declare war on Great Britain, therefore bringing the scenario directly to Congress. Congress itself were, for the most part, saying that they did not want war. The United States mainly wanted to stay neutral, not to get involved. The Annals of Congress stated “Why take to water, where you can neither fight nor swim?” (Doc K). The Annals talk about how the United States do not have any power to fight but the War Hawks pressed on.
The bloodiest war in American history, led by Abraham Lincoln for the north, and Jefferson Davis for the south, both presidents, but two different sides. Both garner for peace, yet one is willing to start a war, while the other is willing to accept it. This essay will compare and contrast the political, economical, and social outlooks on Lincoln’s and Davis’ Inaugural addresses throughout the civil war between the North and South. Slavery, laws, and state rights drove the South to start a war, and Lincoln received the war with open arms. Both sides wanted peace, but their means of achieving it and their leaders’ choices and beliefs differed greatly while still holding similarities.
In 1812, James Madison declared war on Britain. Many of the former presidents, including George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson had to deal with the issue with Britain. Britain was taking American ships, cargo, and often taking the crew into the British army. This practice was called “impressment”. When James Madison became president, he tried to avoid this issue with Britain with no such luck. James Madison wanted to try and have peace with Britain, however, they continued “impressing” American ships. On June 18, 1812 the war between America and Britain began.
Westerns started to rapidly point fingers at the British, which began the War of 1812. Blaming the attacks made by Tecumseh, who is a military leader for the Shawnee Indian tribe. This is only one of many reasons to begin the war because at the time of the war, president Madison asked congress to declare this war against Britain with all good intentions. These two had many difficulties with neutral shipping rights and the British also supported the Western Indians, which was frowned upon. “War Hawks” and “Jeffersonian Republicans” played a huge role in the start of this war as well, along with the British supporting the Western Indians which was looked at like an interference.
Although James McPherson presents Lincoln as having numerous qualities that defined him as a brilliant leader, he wastes no time in revealing what he believes to be Lincoln’s greatest strength. In his Introduction, McPherson states regarding Lincoln’s political leadership: “In a civil war whose origins lay in a political conflict over the future of slavery and a political decision by certain states to secede, policy could never be separated from national strategy…. And neither policy nor national strategy could be separated from military strategy” (McPherson, p.6). Lincoln could not approach the war from a purely martial standpoint—instead, he needed to focus on the issues that caused it. For the catalyst of the war was also the tool for its solution; a war started by differing ideologies could only be resolved through the military application of ideology. This non-objective approach to the waging of the war almost resembles the inspired approach McPherson brings to his examination of Lincoln himself.
When Abraham Lincoln gave his Cooper Union Address it is doubtful that he knew its impact on the country and ultimately the future of the Union. In his Cooper Union Address, future president Abraham Lincoln thoroughly rebuked the southern Democrats Stephen A. Douglas’ statements about the Republicans’ slavery stance by using not only the oppositions wording against them, he supported his arguments with true examples sited from the signatories of the Constitution and their past voting record, from information gleaned during his career as a lawyer, and from his sense of honor and ethics. Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party had some very strong constituents, mainly those with very strong Free Soil tendencies. For this reason along with personal beliefs on Lincoln’s part the Republicans, led by Lincoln in the presidential election, were strongly against the expansion of slavery into the territories
On January 27, 1838, more then twenty-five years before his first inaugural address, a 28 year-old Lincoln gave a speech before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield Illinois on the topic of ‘The Perpetuation of our Political Institutions’. This young lawyer who had been elected as a state representative gave a very ambitious speech which not only highlighted the issues facing the political institutions of the time, but drew on issues of national importance, including slavery, mob violence, and the future of the nation itself. Drawing from certain events of the time, Lincoln stresses the need for political reform in order to quell rising dissolutions towards governmental policies, which, if not suppressed will inevitably lead to the collapse
Calhoun, also, believed that the South needed the man power behind the slaves as protection against the Union otherwise they would be weakened. Yet, his strongest argument for slavery was that with the institution everyone in the nation and the world have benefitted from the use of slavery. That without it, the nation wouldn’t have been able to be as strong as it is. When you look towards these two men and their arguments either for or against slavery, one thing is very clear, they both believe that the States should have final words towards the allotment of
Calhoun bluntly states in his opening sentence he knew that if something was not done about the abolition of slavery it would end in disunion. He claims to have tried to agitate both parties toward some kind of resolve but to no avail. He then asks Congress the pressing question: “How can the Union be preserved?”
With the eruption of the Civil War came one of the biggest tribulations and trials that this country has ever faced, but as we understand the motives of one of the greatest Presidents in American History we can see that the Civil War was inevitable. From his original intentions of merely preserving the Union and holding the country together, to permanently abolishing slavery we can observe why prevailing in the struggle of the Civil War is one of Lincoln’s defining legacies. Thus, as the civil war draws to a close, an old tumultuous era has ended, and a new more prosperous era has
Despite the disparity in the popularity ratings between the two presidents, John Adams and Abraham Lincoln are both indispensable figures in American history. In times of crisis, both of these men made big, consequential decisions to keep the country from falling apart. However, while Lincoln is commemorated for abolishing slavery and leading the Union in the Civil War, John Adams is remembered for the mistakes of his presidency—the Alien and Sedition Acts he issued that took away certain constitutional rights endowed to the American people. Both presidents thought they were doing what was necessary at the time to keep the United States from falling apart, but the contrasting approaches they used left opposite impressions. This can be contributed to the fact that almost all aspects of their lives, personal and professional, were opposite. So, while both presidents essentially did the same thing in saving America from falling apart, their reputations are so different now because of the way their lives and situations influenced the decisions they made.
On June 1, 1812, the United States’ fourth President James Madison signed a declaration of war against Britain approved by Congress. This is obscurely known as the War of 1812, which was also the first war of the 19th century and lasted from 1812 to the spring of 1815. The War of 1812 is widely known as the “forgotten war” because the war has left very little to the popular memory. Despite the opposition from an entire region, mainly the Federalists, of the United States for the War of 1812, there were many reasons for the United States to commence the war. The War of 1812 was caused by numerous reasons including British impressment of American sailors and their refusal to acknowledge American neutrality rights, the United States’ widespread belief the British were encouraging Indian rebellion, the actions of some newly-elected Congressmen dubbed the “War Hawks,” and the American desire for more land.
Twenty-nine years after the signing of the Treaty of Paris of 1783, which ended the Revolutionary War between America and Britain, was the year that marked the beginning of a new conflict that would last America the next three years, the War of 1812. On June 16th of that year, President James Madison declared the start of a war that would greatly impact the future of our country. Britain, still one of the world's greatest superpowers, was currently warring with France at the time of the declaration, however, Britain's reputation as a formidable opponent stood strong. The War of 1812 held a great significance in the history of America: Reasonable purposes for conflict, major conflict with Native Americans, great controversy among its supporters and opposers, numerous honorable battles, the inclusion of African Americans in the war, a memorable conclusion, and notable results.
Archaeologists have traditionally viewed the list of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas through the 1858 Illinois state voting campaign as amongst the most important declarations in American imperial history. Those concerns they addressed were not only of crucial significance to the regional dispute over states’ rights and slavery but also covered deeper into issues that would proceed to change political dialogue. What is usually neglected is that these contests were a component of the comprehensive campaign, that they were intended to achieve some main policy objectives, and that they showed the features of mid-nineteenth-century political speech . Douglas, being part of Congress as from 1843 and a famous nationwide spokesperson for the Democratic body, was contesting for another election for a third season in the Senate, whereas Lincoln was vying for the same seat as a Republican1. Due to Douglas’s political development, the campaign captivated nationwide attention.
On July 11, 1804, a bullet from Aaron Burr’s pistol put an end to the life of Alexander Hamilton. However, it did not put an end to Hamilton’s vision for America. In 1806, a twenty-nine year old Kentuckian entered the U.S Senate and breathed life into Hamilton’s vision. His name was Henry Clay. For the next forty years, the man whom Abraham Lincoln called “My beau-ideal of a statesman” to natiously strove to implement a federal economic policy that closely followed