EARLY POLITICS
When Lincoln first entered politics, Andrew Jackson was the President. He disagreed with Jackson’s view that the government and economic enterprise should be separated. He said that, "The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people what they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot do so well, for themselves, in their separate and individual capacities." From the outset, he associated himself with the Whigs, who advocated using the powers of the Federal Government to encourage business and develop the country’s resources by means of a national bank.

Lincoln was elected to the Illinois State Legislature four times from 1834 to 1840. He devoted himself to a grandiose project for constructing a network of railroads, highways and canals with state funds. But the ensuing economic depression brought about the abandonment of most of these plans. During his single term in Congress (1847-49), Abraham Lincoln gave little attention to legislative matters as such. He proposed a bill for the gradual emancipation of slaves in the District of Columbia, but the bill was to take effect only with the approval of the "Free White citizens" of the district. It displeased abolitionists as well as slaveholders and never was seriously considered.

Lincoln devoted much of his time to presidential politics and he found a candidate in the Mexican War. With his ‘spot resolutions’, he challenged the statement of President James K. Polk that Mexico had started the war by shedding American blood upon American soil. Lincoln voted to condemn Polk and the war while voting for supplies to carry it on. At the same time, he was working for the nomination and election of the war hero Zachary Taylor. After Taylor’s success, Lincoln expected to be named commissioner of the general land office but was bitterly disappointed when he failed to get the job. He was 40 years old, frustrated in politics, and seemed to be at the end of his public career.

He predicted that the country would eventually become "all one thing, or all the other". He kept insisting that the civil liberties of every U.S. citizen, white as well as black, were at stake. He felt that the territories must be kept free because free states were places for poor people to better their condition. He agreed with Thomas Jefferson and other founding fathers that slavery should be merely contained, not directly attacked. In fact, he conveniently (where politically expedient) reassured his audiences that he did not endorse citizenship for Negroes or believed in the equality of the races. He told the crowd in Charleston, Illinois, "I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races." He believed that there was a physical difference between whites and blacks which would forever forbid the two races from living together on terms of social and political equality."

In the end, Lincoln lost the election to Douglas. Although the outcome did not surprise him, the defeat depressed him deeply. The bright point was that Lincoln had, nevertheless, gained national recognition and soon began to be mentioned as a presidential prospect for 1860.

On May 18, 1860, Lincoln was nominated on the third ballot at the Republican National Convention in Chicago. He then put aside his law practice and gave full time to the direction of his campaign. With the Republicans United, the Democrats divided, and a total of four candidates, he carried the election on November 6. No one in the Deep South voted for him but the popular votes were so distributed that he won a clear and decisive majority in the Electoral College.