The Fiery Trial_ Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery - Eric Foner [214]
1847
October: Unsuccessfully represents Robert Matson, who seeks to retain ownership of slaves he has brought from Kentucky to Illinois.
December: Introduces a resolution in the House of Representatives asking President James K. Polk to identify the “spot” of American soil where Mexico allegedly launched war against the United States.
1848
Campaigns in New England for Whig presidential candidate Zachary Taylor.
1849
January 10: Reads to the House of Representatives a bill for gradual abolition of slavery in Washington, D.C., but does not introduce it.
1852
July 6: Gives a eulogy on Henry Clay.
1853
Illinois enacts a law barring African-Americans from entering the state.
1854
January: Stephen A. Douglas introduces the Nebraska bill which, when passed in May as the Kansas-Nebraska Act, repeals the Missouri Compromises and applies the principle of “popular sovereignty” to these territories.
October 16: Lincoln gives a speech against the Kansas-Nebraska Act in Peoria.
1855
February: Fails in his bid for election to the U.S. Senate.
1856
May 29: Takes part in the Bloomington, Illinois, convention of the Republican party; delivers his “lost speech.”
September–October: Campaigns for John C. Frémont, Republican candidate for president.
1857
March 6: Supreme Court issues its Dred Scott decision, stating that blacks cannot be citizens of the United States and that Congress lacks authority to bar slavery from any territory.
June 26: Lincoln gives a speech in Springfield criticizing the Dred Scott decision.
1858
Serves on the Board of Managers of the Illinois Colonization Society.
June 16: Gives his House Divided speech at the Republican state convention in Springfield.
August–October: Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas debate.
November: Democrats retain control of the Illinois legislature, ensuring defeat of Lincoln’s candidacy for the U.S. Senate.
1860
February 27: Lincoln gives a speech at Cooper Institute, New York City.
May 18: Is nominated for president by the Republican National Convention in Chicago.
November 6: Is elected the sixteenth president of the United States.
December 20: South Carolina secedes from the Union; six other southern states soon follow.
1861
February 4: Seceded states meet in Montgomery, form the Confederate States of America, and elect Jefferson Davis president.
March 2: U.S. Congress adopts the proposed Thirteenth Amendment forbidding future national action against slavery.
March 4: Lincoln gives his first inaugural address.
April 12: The attack on Fort Sumter begins the Civil War.
April 15: Lincoln calls for troops to put down the rebellion; four more states secede by May.
May 24: General Benjamin F. Butler declares that fugitive slaves at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, are “contraband of war” and will not be returned to their owners.
August 6: Lincoln signs the first Confiscation Act, which nullifies owners’ claims to slaves employed by the Confederate army.
September 11: Lincoln orders General John C. Frémont to modify the order in which he had declared slaves of Confederates in Missouri free.
November: Proposes his plan to Delaware for gradual, compensated emancipation.
December 3: Gives his annual message to Congress, recommending a program of compensated emancipation and colonization of freed slaves outside the United States.
1862
March 6: Sends a message to Congress calling for aid to states that adopt plans of gradual, compensated emancipation.
March 13: Signs an additional article of war passed by Congress, forbidding the army from returning fugitive slaves.
April 16: Signs a bill for immediate abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, with compensation to loyal owners and funds for colonization.
May 19: Nullifies the order of Major General David Hunter freeing slaves in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
May 20: Signs the Homestead Act.
May–June: Peninsular campaign of General George B. McClellan fails.
June 19: Lincoln