Research Catalog

Lincoln and citizenship

Title
Lincoln and citizenship / Mark E. Steiner.
Author
Steiner, Mark E., 1955-
Publication
Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press, 2021.

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TextUse in library JFD 21-3008Schwarzman Building - Milstein Division Room 121

Details

Description
ix, 177 pages : illustrations (black and white); 22 cm.
Summary
  • "This book is about citizenship, or membership in a political community, and Lincoln's evolving understanding of who belonged and who didn't belong in that community between 1837 and 1865"--
  • At its most basic level, citizenship is abou twho belongs to a political community, and for Abraham Lincoln in nineteenth-century America, the answer was in flux. The concept of "fellow citizens," for Lincoln, encompassed different groups at different times. In this first book focused on the topic, Mark E. Steiner analyzes and contextualizes Lincoln's evolving views about citizenship over the course of his political career. As an Illinois state legislator, Lincoln subscribed to the by-then-outmoded belief that suffrage must be limited to those who met certain obligations to the state. He rejected the adherence to universal white male suffrage that had existed in Illinois since statehood. In 1836 Lincoln called for voting rights to be limited to white people who had served in the militia or paid taxes. Surprisingly, Lincoln did not exclude women, though later he did not advocate giving women the right to vote and did not take women seriously as citizens. For years Lincoln presumed that only white men belonged in the political and civic community, and he saw immigration through this lens. Because Lincoln believed that white male European immigrants had a right to be part of the body politic, he opposed measures to lengthen the time they would have to wait to become a citizen or to be able to vote. Unlike many in the antebellum north, Lincoln rejected xenophobia and nativism. He opposed black citizenship, however, as he made clear in his debates with STephen Douglas. Lincoln supported Illinois's draconian Black Laws, which prohibited free black men from voting and serving on juries or in the militia. Further, Lincoln supported sending free black Americans to Africa--the ultimate repudiation and an antithesis of citizenship. Yet, as president, Lincoln came to embrace a broader vision of citizenship for African Americans. Steiner establishes how Lincoln's meetings at the White House with Frederick Douglass and other black leaders influenced his beliefs about colonization, which he ultimately disavowed, and citizenship for African Americans, which he began to consider. Further, the battlefield success of black Union soldiers revealed to Lincoln that black men were worthy of citizenship. Lincoln publicly called for limited suffrage among black men, including military veterans, in his speech about Reconstruction on April 11, 1865. Ahead of most others of his era, Lincoln showed just before his assasssination that he supported rights of citizenship for at least some African Americans. --
Series Statement
Concise Lincoln library
Uniform Title
Concise Lincoln library.
Subjects
Genre/Form
History.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents
Introduction : "my fellow citizens" -- When Lincoln whigged out on suffrage -- Lincoln knew something -- A white man's republic -- Dred Scott and black citizenship -- Citizenship and the Civil War -- Conclusion : "the great task remaining".
Call Number
JFD 21-3008
ISBN
  • 9780809338122
  • 0809338122
LCCN
  • 2020029107
  • 40030619109
OCLC
1178868175
Author
Steiner, Mark E., 1955- author.
Title
Lincoln and citizenship / Mark E. Steiner.
Publisher
Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press, 2021.
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Creator/Contributor Characteristics
University and college faculty members
Series
Concise Lincoln library
Concise Lincoln library.
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Local Note
AUTH: SOUTH TEXAS COLLEGE OF LAW, HOUSTON.
Chronological Term
1800-1899
Other Form:
Online version: Steiner, Mark E., 1955- Lincoln and citizenship Carbondale, IL : Southern Illinois University Press, 2021. 9780809338139 (DLC) 2020029108
Other Standard Identifier
40030619109
Research Call Number
JFD 21-3008
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