1850 American Gold Baron

Chapter 482 Defending freedom = supporting the Republican Party

Author: fish nest

The year 1856 was an important turning point in Lincoln's life.

This year, Lincoln decided to devote himself wholeheartedly to politics and try to save the country that was about to fall apart.

In 1855, Lincoln entered Congress as a representative of Illinois and successfully entered the highest stage of American politics.

Moreover, this time, Lincoln entered the American political arena as one of the founders of the Republican Party, and his political status has been qualitatively improved compared to before.

Perhaps he himself did not expect that he, a poor boy from a lower-class background, would become one of the most important figures in the history of the Republican Party.

This new young political party would dominate the development of the United States in the second half of the 19th century and create the rise of this powerful country. A hundred years later, the Republican Party is still one of the two major ruling parties in the United States.

Being a member of the House of Representatives is already a level beyond the reach of ordinary people, but Lincoln achieved this in just a few years.

Completed the gorgeous transformation from a political amateur in the countryside to entering the Congress with the gentlemen in formal suits.

Lincoln did not stop his climb up. He knew very well that if he wanted to influence American politics, being a mere Illinois congressman was not enough.

Now, he is working hard to become a senator and governor of Illinois.

"Everyone, may I ask why we are gathered here?"

Lincoln's slender fingers pointed to the theme of today's speech: the United States - a great and free country.

"free!"

The sacred word freedom resounds in the open squares of Springfield for a long time.

People at this time still remember the lawyer's speech in front of the Crystal Palace in New York when the Kansas crisis broke out last year.

Unlike those politicians who only talk the talk and are only interested in showing off, after Lincoln's speech, he actually donated all his assets to support the people of Kansas in defending freedom and preventing Kansas from becoming a bank.

Nuzhou.

Kansas did not become a slave state in the end, which was a great victory in the eyes of northerners.

As for Lincoln, after donating all his property, he almost divorced his wife, who weighed more than 200 pounds, due to property issues.

The well-dressed gentlemen regarded this topic as a joke before and after tea, joking that Lincoln was a fool and one-minded.

When it comes to donating money, donating hundreds or thousands of dollars in a high-profile way is just as meaningful as buying a headline in a newspaper to advertise yourself.

Donate everything? Only fools donate everything.

And Lincoln was such a fool.

But the majority of ordinary citizens did not find it funny at all. Instead, they felt that Mr. Lincoln was not a fool, but a man worthy of respect.

In his early years in Illinois, Lincoln often litigated lawsuits for the poor in Illinois for free and accumulated a good reputation in Illinois.

Therefore, Lincoln returned to Illinois and announced his entry into politics. When he participated in the election for Illinois state representative, Lincoln became the Illinois representative with an absolute advantage.

Lincoln received almost as many votes as the other members of the House of Representatives combined, which is very rare in American history.

Therefore, there was a joke at the time: Lincoln's political opponents did not believe that such a result was true.

Lincoln ran for the Illinois General Assembly twice in 1832 and 1836, when he ran for the Democratic Party.

Recently, the Democratic Party has repeatedly been suspected of election fraud. Lincoln's political opponents took advantage of others by reporting Lincoln's election fraud and demanding a new election.

However, after investigation later, it was found that there was indeed fraud in this election, but the election fraud was caused by a Democratic candidate who secretly stuffed more than 30 electoral votes for Lincoln into his own ballot box.

This incident also became a joke for a while. After these two incidents, Lincoln's already tall image became even taller in the minds of the people of Illinois.

The people of Illinois will vote for Lincoln even if they close their eyes and cover their ears.

The gentlemen who came here to listen to Lincoln's speech came with a political speculation mentality. To be precise, they came to evaluate whether Lincoln was worth political investment.

And those ordinary people who spent a week or two or even a month's salary at their own expense to come to Springfield really came to hear Lincoln's speech.

After all, the most valuable thing in a poor person's body is his simple patriotism.

In this era when information is underdeveloped and the poor generally have low literacy levels, they are the group of people who are most easily induced.

Rather than saying that they came to listen to Lincoln's speech, it is better to say that they saw hope in Lincoln and placed their hopes on this eloquent lawyer with a hard-working background.

"Yes, more than 80 years ago, our ancestors united under the banner of freedom, wrested precious freedom from the British, and established the greatest country in human history!"

Lincoln spoke passionately and passionately.

"My dear freedom-loving compatriots, I stand here today just to share an important topic with you: the greatness of a free country.

What makes America great? Your ancestors who came to the New World on the Mayflower will tell you it is freedom.

The soldiers who died in the War of Independence will also tell you that it is freedom, because the word freedom has long been engraved on their tombstones and engraved in the hearts of every American who yearns for freedom.

Because of freedom, our country has become the only Garden of Eden given by God to the world.

Because of freedom, our country is able to attract a steady stream of immigrants who yearn for freedom every year from all over the world, fearing no hardship, no fear of life and death, and crossing the ocean to come to this great free country."

Rapid industrialization will strengthen the power of the bourgeoisie, and the bourgeoisie will do its best to instill in the people a view to divert class conflicts, that is, the wealth of the capitalists is the wealth of the entire nation. Therefore, countries that have experienced rapid industrialization in modern times, especially late-developing countries

Often something called national pride arises.

The United States is no exception.

After the restoration of the Second French Empire, the United States became the only remaining republic in the world, with an ideology and political system that was very different from that of other European countries.

Under the influence of concepts such as Manifest Destiny, the American people are also willing to believe that their country is God's chosen country, and that their country's ideology and political system have unique advantages.

And freedom is a value that is regarded as the foundation of the United States and written into the Constitution.

Nature is sacred in the eyes of the public, and they do not allow anyone to tarnish this word.

Like the poorest patriot in London's East End, even the poorest patriot in America can't help but puff up his chest when he thinks of his freedom.

No matter how powerful the United Kingdom is, all the British people are still the subjects of Queen Victoria. We in the United States are different. No matter how poor we are, we are no one's subjects, but free people with free bodies.

When Lincoln saw the audience in the audience involuntarily puffing up their chests, he continued to strike while the iron was hot.

"Now someone is openly trampling on the freedom that our ancestors bought with their blood and lives. Can we accept it?"

"cannot!"

"Yes! No!" Lincoln waved his powerful fist in mid-air.

"Freedom is the value for the existence of our country, and we should fight for freedom.

I believe that everyone should enjoy freedom, which is a basic right given to us by God.

But now, our freedom is threatened, and the evil system of slavery is endangering our freedom and dignity, and eroding our country.

What the southern slave owners are using their whips to whip is not the black slaves, but the sacred freedom in our constitution! They are using their whips to whip freedom unscrupulously.

My compatriots who yearn for freedom, what should we do?"

"Destroy that damned slavery! Free the slaves!"

"As a Republican, I firmly believe that slavery is immoral, unjust, and a stain on the image of the American country! It is also a desecration of human dignity!

I would like to call on everyone to join us and support the Republican Party! Destroy the evil system of slavery. We must use our voices and actions to defend freedom so that the light of freedom can shine on every inch of American land!"

As soon as Lincoln said this, the audience burst into warm applause.

At this moment, in their minds, defending freedom is equivalent to abolition of slavery, and abolition of slavery is equivalent to supporting the Republican Party. Supporting the Republican Party is naturally to defend freedom.

They couldn't help but feel proud in their hearts. It turned out that voting for the Republican Party and supporting Mr. Lincoln meant using actions to defend freedom!

The speech had achieved the desired effect, but Lincoln still did not stop speaking. He criticized the Democratic Party:

"I want to criticize those Democrats who supported slavery. They gave up freedom in order to protect slavery. They betrayed the core values ​​of our country and desecrated freedom to pursue short-term interests.

This is unforgivable and we must unite to defeat their plot. Gentlemen! We must unite and fight for our freedom."

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Lincoln instilled the chicken soup of freedom into an ignorant audience in Springfield, and Liang Yao also led troops in Portland to defend the freedom of settlement of Chinese immigrants.

Governor Stevens of the Northern Oregon Territory was fighting Indians near Puget Sound, which later became the Seattle area.

Therefore, it was already May 1856 when Stevens took a break from the war and brought his beggar-like soldiers to the north shore of Portland.

Under the protection of the Oregon militia, Chinese immigrants had already laid the foundations in large areas of the North Shore, and so quickly that even the houses were taking shape.

Seeing this scene, Stevens' nose twisted in anger.

Stevens has spent a lot of time dealing with Chinese immigrants, and he knows that as long as the houses are not built, the Chinese immigrants are relatively easy to drive away.

Once the house is built, these Chinese who regard the house as their life may not be able to drive them away with guns.

Stevens ran to Liang Yao angrily and asked Liang Yao sternly: "Your Excellency? What do you mean?!"

"What do you mean, I was just going to ask you!"

Liang Yao threw a Lee-Enfield P53 rifle in front of Stevens. The inscription of the Birmingham Armory on the gun was still clearly visible.

"Do you recognize this gun?"

"What's so strange about a British rifle?" Stevens glanced at the rifle on the ground and said calmly.

"A beautiful traitor like you can join the Democratic Party. No wonder the Democratic Party is getting worse day by day." Liang Yao sneered.

"What do you mean, who are you calling a traitor?" Stevens was furious.

"I said you were a traitor, not a traitor. Where did these guns come from?" Liang Yao asked sternly.

"I bought it from the British!" Stevens said confidently.

"Buy?" Liang Yao sneered.

"Let's not say that this is an active weapon of the British. Will the British sell it to you? Even if they sell it, the purchase price of the British Army from the Birmingham Arsenal is 3 pounds, 9 shillings and 8 pence. Can you afford this kind of gun?

?”

Stevens was speechless for a moment. Of course he couldn't afford such expensive guns. In fact, these guns were given to him by Yilu.

He allowed the British to build a port stronghold at Bellingham, 30 kilometers away, to provide a docking place for British ships.

In return, the British gave him 1,500 so-called state-of-the-art rifles.

The prisoners all confessed to Liang Yao the dirty things Stevens had done.

This speech is the content of Lincoln's speech at the Bloomington Convention in Springfield, Illinois in 1856. Unfortunately, the speech at that time has not been completely preserved.

There are only some records of the parties involved, newspaper articles and other fragmented documentary materials. They are not first-hand information and some of the contents may not be credible. They also contain a lot of private work of the recorders and writers.

Historically, it was also after this speech that Lincoln became a popular figure in the Republican Party, laying the foundation for winning the 1860 election.