Join Our Discussion of "Lincoln in New England: In Search of His Forgotten Tours"

Abraham Lincoln went to New England only twice in his lifetime. During his first trip in 1848 he was an awkward, ungainly, westerner little known to the sophisticated East other than a reputation for telling funny stories. He was serving his only term as a U.S. congressman and charged with going to Massachusetts to campaign for Zachary Taylor, the Whig nominee for president. Picking Taylor caused one faction of the Whigs to split off and form their own Free Soil Party, which threatened to sink the Whig chances. While speaking in nine locations over nearly two weeks, Lincoln was exposed to even more splits in the Whig Party, Conscience vs. Cotton Whigs, and a growing abolitionist movement. He was also influenced by the great Transcendentalist writers like Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. While mostly he attracted crowds for his entertainment value, Lincoln came…