Chapter 2 Summary and Analysis

Chapter two shows that while Lincoln's ideals might have fit the Democratic Party better, he was a member of the Whig party from the early part of his career until its demise in the 1850s. The Whigs supported the ideals of Henry Clay, which included the ideas of abolishing slavery and colonization. The author suggests that a great many of Lincoln's ideals were born from his childhood with a father he resented, a father who often sent him off as a laborer to pay off debts, treating his child almost like a slave. Lincoln later married into a well-respected family and built a prosperous career, but he knew struggle and poverty early in life. Perhaps this allowed Lincoln to be more open to the ideals of the Whigs as well as the struggle of the blacks, both in slavery and out...