Summary of Brad Meltzer & Josh Mensch's The Lincoln Conspiracy

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 When Abraham Lincoln was eighteen, he lost his sister, Sarah, who was two years older than he was. She had been his only companion after the death of their mother.
#2 Lincoln’s boyhood was marked by tragedy and grief, and his adult life was characterized by shocks of violence and suffering even greater than those of his youth. He was haunted by the specter of death.
#3 On May 22, 1856, Preston Brooks, a congressman from South Carolina, walked into the Senate chamber and confronted Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts. He had delivered a speech three days earlier against the institution of slavery, and Sumner had insulted several of his South Carolina colleagues.
#4 The assault was so violent that the cane broke in half, and Brooks kept beating Sumner with the half still in his hand. Don’t kill him! an older Senator cried out as the assault continued.

Sujets

• Heads of State
• Presidents
• Lettres et linguistique
• Biography
• Autobiography

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 31 mai 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9798822525245
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Brad Meltzer & Josh Mensch's The Lincoln Conspiracy
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

When Abraham Lincoln was eighteen, he lost his sister, Sarah, who was two years older than he was. She had been his only companion after the death of their mother.

#2

Lincoln’s boyhood was marked by tragedy and grief, and his adult life was characterized by shocks of violence and suffering even greater than those of his youth. He was haunted by the specter of death.

#3

On May 22, 1856, Preston Brooks, a congressman from South Carolina, walked into the Senate chamber and confronted Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts. He had delivered a speech three days earlier against the institution of slavery, and Sumner had insulted several of his South Carolina colleagues.

#4

The assault was so violent that the cane broke in half, and Brooks kept beating Sumner with the half still in his hand. Don’t kill him! an older Senator cried out as the assault continued.

#5

The country is splitting apart. The debate over slavery is the main reason for the division. In 1776, when the Declaration of Independence first introduced Thomas Jefferson’s famous phrase All men are created equal, slavery existed in each of the thirteen states.

#6

The institution of slavery had a profound impact on Southern life, and the economic prosperity it generated was used to support the white landowning class and their beliefs of racial superiority.

#7

The battle between North and South over the status of slavery was particularly fierce in Congress in the late 1850s. With margins so thin in Congress, one of the most important issues was the status of slavery in western territories.

#8

The caning of Senator Charles Sumner was a huge scandal, and it proved the South’s propensity for violence. In the North, however, it was widely praised.

#9

The town of Ottawa, Illinois, was the site of a Senate debate between two candidates in 1858. The Democratic Party and the Republican Party had very different identities from those they have today.

#10

The two candidates arrived to a chaotic scene. The morning’s stampede of people on dry dirt roads had created a massive plume of dust, which blocked the candidates’ approach. The two teams had to fight their way through the throng in a rough and tumble skirmish.

#11

Douglas, the senator from Illinois, had a reputation as a skilled, fierce debater. He began his speech by misrepresenting aspects of his opponent’s past, including a suggestion that Lincoln had been an excessive drinker. Lincoln responded by pointing out that Douglas’s words were racist.

#12

Lincoln’s speaking voice was high-pitched but expressive, and he used it to project sincerity and warmth. He was not as aggressive or combative as Douglas, and he often evoked the language of the Founding Fathers in his arguments against slavery.

#13

Lincoln’s campaign was long and brutal, and he barely won. However, his debates with Douglas made him a name, and Republican leaders began focusing on the upcoming Presidential election of 1860.

#14

Allan Pinkerton was the first private detective in America. He ran the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, and his name has recently gained national attention because of his work in law enforcement.

#15

In 1856, there were no women detectives, and none had ever been hired in any capacity by any police department or sheriff’s office. But Kate Warne, a 26-year-old widow with no children, came to Pinkerton with her credentials and her reasons for wanting to join his force.

#16

The night of the election, the men in the room drew ballots to determine who would be the martyr for the Southern cause. The plan began in three days, in a crowded place, in full public view.

#17

Allan Pinkerton was a criminal who became a detective. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1819. He grew up poor in a poor country, but he was determined to make something of himself. He eventually made it to the United States, and settled in Illinois.

#18

Pinkerton’s fame spread through the county, and soon, every customer who passed through his store wanted to hear about the counterfeiting arrests he had helped make. He became known as the country’s first private detective.

#19

In 1856, Pinkerton National Detective Agency hired Kate Warne, the first woman detective, who was able to crack many cases due to her intelligence and confidence.

#20

The Illinois Republican Party held their convention to select the party’s nominees for Governor and other statewide elected positions in the November elections. Lincoln was invited to speak, and he delivered one of the most famous speeches of his career.

#21

The crowd was excited to see Lincoln, and they passed him up along the cheering spectators. He stood on the stage and thanked them. The chairman, Oglesby, wanted to make Lincoln’s candidacy memorable. He had a cousin of Lincoln’s, a local farmer named John Hanks, retrieve some old walnut and locust rails that Lincoln and Hanks had supposedly split together.

#22

The political theater continued, as the chairman asked Abraham Lincoln to stand up and positively answer the question: Did he really split these two rails as a young man. I cannot say that I split these rails, Lincoln said. I have split a great many better-looking ones. The crowd liked the joke and responded with three cheers.

#23

Lincoln’s name recognition is so low outside of Illinois that a reporter from The New York Times couldn’t even get his name right the next day.

#24

Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809 in a small, one-room, dirt-floored log cabin in Kentucky. His family suffered a series of hardships when they moved to Indiana, and young Abraham spent most of his life laboring on farms.

#25

Abe’s childhood was filled with tragedy, but it also gave him the skills to be a great president. He never hunted large game again, and when he saw children torturing a turtle, he rushed in to stop them by force.

#26