Summary Lincoln 's Letter

This text is a letter from Abraham Lincoln to Joshua Speed who was his close friend. Lincoln and Speed differ about the question of slavery. Speed defends the slavery, because he grew up in a large plantation home, near Louisville in Kentucky. On the contrary, Lincoln is against the slavery. Lincoln shows to Speed that the unionist crucify their feelings in order to defend the Union, they permit the slavery in the South. On the contrary, the pro slavery want to keep their right to the slave, they didn’t care to the Union. Even if Speed and Lincoln are friend, Lincoln explains that his moral values prevent him to defend the slavery. He shows the problem of the elections in Kansas: the Kansas must be admitted in the Union even if she is a slave state, if she votes fairly, or the Union would be dissolved. But if she votes unfairly, because of the action of the Missouri’s leaders pro slavery must she still be admitted in the Union?

Lincoln then, explains that he is against the Nebraska Law, which is not a law for him, but violence. Lincoln criticizes this Nebraska Law because it repeals the Missouri compromise which prohibited the slavery in the unorganized territories. With the Nebraska Law, the Kansas and the Kansas and the Nebraska are created, and others territories. The characteristic of this law is that the new territories can decide of their statute: they can be pro slavery or against it. This law will entail violence and conflict between the populations. Besides, Lincoln denounces the fact, that the Kansas decides to be a free state, but at the same time, she votes a law which permits to prevent the black people to be benefit from their rights. Then, Lincoln makes a harsh portrait of the slave- breeders, who are presented as loathsome/ detestable. To conclude, Lincoln explains that he is not a know nothing, which means against catholic immigration, because how can we be against racism of the black people and at the same time racist of the catholic white people? He denounces the hypocrisy of the America, because the constitution defends the equality between all men, but in fact, this principle excludes the black people, the catholic.

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