The Darkening Land

Becoming Lincoln

The 1856 presidential election took place amid a backdrop of violence in Kansas and Congress. Abraham Lincoln threw himself into the fight for the Republican Party and free territories.
Sources used:
"1856 Democratic Party Platform," hosted on the University of California Santa Barbara's American Presidency Project.
Blumenthal, Sidney: All The Powers of Earth. Simon and Schuster, 2019.
Burlingame, Michael, Abraham Lincoln: A Life. (Vol. 1). The John Hopkins University Press, 1995.
Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. 1953 Edition hosted by the University of Michigan.
Davis, Rodney and Wilson, Douglas, ed. Herndon's Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements about Abraham Lincoln. University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Davis, Rodney and Wilson, Douglas, ed. Herndon on Lincoln: Letters. Knox College Lincoln Studies Center, 2016.
Donald, David Herbert, Lincoln: A Biography. Simon and Schuster, 1995.
Donald, David Herbert, Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War. Alfred A. Knopf, 1960.
Etcheson, Nicole, "A Living, Creeping Lie: Abraham Lincoln on Popular Sovereignty." Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association; Vol. 29, Issue 2, Summer 2008.
Foner, Eric, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery. W.W. Norton and Company, 2011.
Hernon, William with Weik, Jesse, Herndon's Lincoln, ed. Davis, Rodney and Wilson, Douglas. Knox College Lincoln Studies Center, 2006.
Holt, Michael, The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War. Oxford University Press; 1999.
Inskeep, Steve, Imperfect Union: How Jesse and John Fremont Mapped te West, Invented Celebrity, and Helped Cause The Civil War. Penguin Press; 2020.
Leech, Liz, "Kansas Territorial Elections 1855: Let 'Em Vote or They'll Tear the House Down," on JeffersonJayHawkers.com.
"Republican Party Platform of 1856," hosted on the University of California Santa Barbara's American Presidency Project.
Sumner, Charles, "The Crime Against Kansas," via the U.S. Senate website.

Wilentz, Sean, The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln. W.W. Norton and Company, 2005.