General Discussion

During his first major speech about mob violence and political institutions:

"At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."

That was in 1838, 22 years before he became POTUS, but he had good reason to say it, from what he saw happening right in front of him.

Most Americans don't know how volatile the country's political situation was even before the Civil War. Some of the history of that time is flat-out nuts. Voting rights, even for white men, were a capricious mess. Interracial violence was a constant. Entire Presidential cabinets resigned for ridiculous reasons. Under Andrew Jackson, it was because the wives of cabinet members had ostracized the War Secretary's wife for being an uppity broad who was educated, and--the horror!--remarrying 'too soon' after her first husband's death.

Yes, that really happened. Bonus: His wife being the ring leader of the mean girls club destroyed the Presidential aspirations of John Calhoun, one of the most virulent racists ever elected to the Senate. Imagine how much worse this country would have become if he'd ever made it to the White House.

So thank you, Peggy Eaton, for being an uppity woman!

That's why Lincoln knew it was stupid internal stuff that would tear the country apart more than foreign actors.