i'm sorry. but here's the thing. the one thing romans can't resist is a good meal. and i'm hopeful that soon, noda's food will be another culinary landmark in this eternal city. ♪ >> announcer: previously on "lincoln: divided we stand." >> he was supposed to be the rock star, an amazing politician of the day. >> but after his one term in congress, president taylor passes him over for this cabinet job. and he feels like a failure. >> when lincoln and his family leave washington, d.c., he was disappointed, but he worked

very, very hard to build up his law practice. >> lincoln was a great spinner of tales for juries. one time, he said, this reminds me of the little boy on the farm who comes running into his father and says, pa, pa, sister's in the barn, and she's got her pants down, and she's a-peein in the hey lost, and her friend, joe, has got his pants down and he's squatting to do the other thing. and his father says, boy, you've got the facts straight, but you've come to the wrong conclusions. then he would turn to the jurors and say, sometimes the facts don't give you the right conclusion. >> lincoln was honest abe, but he often cut his answers to serve his cause. >> there's a ten dency to say he's this moral paragon, or he's just a political animal. no.

he's a hybrid. if you want to understand him, you've got to understand both sides. >> by 1854, spain, france, and britain have abolished slavery, but it's very much alive in the united states. in may, president franklin pierce signs the kansas-nebraska act, giving slavery the opportunity to expand throughout 500,000 square miles of new territory. >> the kansas-nebraska act repealed the missouri compromise, which had said there can be no slavery north of the 36th 30 line.

but the kansas-nebraska act said settlers can decide for themselves whether slavery can be north of the line. >> it wasn't just talking about the modern day states of kansas and nebraska. it was talking about this immense territory that stretched all the way up to the canadian border, westward towards oregon. and the north goes ballistic, and lincoln goes ballistic too. >> lincoln says you can't have a democratic process to determine whether an undemocratic institution can exist. so lincoln recognizes that democracy can fail when the ideas of a society aren't founded on human equality. >> but the democrats doubled down. they are now the party of slavery. the kansas-nebraska act propels lincoln, an obscure prairie lawyer and a one-term congressman who considers himself a failure, back into politics. >> in the wake of the kansas-nebraska act, lincoln's

whig party begins to unravel over the issue of slavery. >> the whigs and democrats were not liberals and conservatives precisely as we divide parties today. the whigs were pretty progressive on slavery. the democrats were liberal in terms of voting opportunities, in terms of suspicion about immigration, but not liberal when it came to protecting southern slavery because the south then was the democratic base. >> but the whigs are unable to commit to a perspective on the question of the expansion of slavery, and so by the 1850s, the whigs essentially collapsed. >> but out of this collapse, a new anti-slavery party is born -- the republicans. >> lincoln begins to speak out on behalf of had republican party. and the first example of it is the peoria speech that he

delivers in october of 1854. >> this is the moment for his big comeback. it's a great speech. >> of the largest general question of domestic slavery, i wish to make and to keep the distinction between the existing institution and the extension of it so broad and so clear that no honest man can misunderstand me and no dishonest one successfully misrepresent me. >> lincoln puts forward very strong condemnations of slavery. he says it's a cancer eating away the life of the nation. >> let us turn slavery from its claims of moral right back upon its existing legal rights and its arguments of necessity. let us return it to the position our fathers gave it, and there let it rest in peace. >> he says that there can be no moral right in slavery. but at the same time, he really

believes that if we stop allowing slavery to expand, he feels like that's enough. very rarely in his life and in his career did lincoln actually talk about the concrete injustices of enslavement, the idea that enslaved people were being exploited was not something that was important to him. it must have been profoundly frustrating to have someone say there can be no moral right in slavery, but you can keep it where you already have it. it's like this guy gets it, but he doesn't quite get it. >> but he is an absolute sensation. republican papers go wild and praise him as the great orator of the day. democratic papers are fearful of this rising man. in washington, massachusetts senator charles sumner, anti-slavery man, gives a speech in which he castigates a fellow

legislator for his pro-slavery views, maybe makes fun of him a little bit. mild considering what 21st legislative confrontations are like. the nephew of that aggrieved party was a congressman named preston brooks. and one day preston brooks walks in with a cane and begins beating charles sumner over the head. sumner is caned into incensability on the floor of the united states senate. how did the south react? brooks was flooded with gifts of new canes. >> 1830 to 1860, there are over 70 acts of violence between members of congress north and south. these are canings, duels, stabbings. folks in the south lashing out, and they're trying to keep a

stasis. >> bif more states come in that are free, the legislators will be free, the congressmen, the senators. they fear even if it's 50 years in the future, they'll vote to eradicate slavery, and their investment is all bound around the idea of human enslavement. >> announcer: this cnn original series, lincoln: divided we stand, is brought to you by consumer cellular where low rates and award-winning service are just the beginning. stay restless with the icon that does the same.

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that makes you a billionaire. (drum beat to heartbeat) ♪ ♪ so let's not waste the fortune within us... invest it. invest in each other and the moments we share. cos you're rich in life when you're a heartbeat billionaire. invest your heartbeats in the life artois. from 1854 through 1857, though no longer an elected official, lincoln becomes a vocal activist for the republican party. he makes speeches throughout illinois railing against the expansion of slavery. and as partisan lines across the country deepen, more controversial legislation ignites more political unrest.

>> dred scott is a black man, enslaved. he had been taken into free territory, and abolitionists sued for his freedom and for the freedom of his family. it goes to the supreme court. >> in an infamous ruling, the court says that slaves are slaves wherever they are, that slavery is in a sense national. >> and black men have no rights that white men are bound to accept. and black people are not citizens of the united states. and by the way, if you are a slaveholder, you can take your property anywhere you darn well please. and that really sets off lincoln. >> usually a supreme court ruling settles matters. this one didn't.

it caused the biggest uproar generated by any supreme court decision in history. >> lincoln argues publicly that the ruling should be ignored. a brazen stance for a man who preaches fervently on the sanctity of the constitution. >> to say you don't have to respect a supreme court decision is almost as outrageous as saying you don't have to respect a person's humanity based on color. and so lincoln is absolutely focused during this period. he's inexhaustible. he is able to lurch from town to town, making long speeches, so he's constantly on the road. >> he was gone many weeks of the year, and this was hard for a young wife. but lincoln and mary both had a political vision. she knew that he was building his political network and how important that was.

mary saw an opportunity in that moment as she saw lincoln rising even greater as a leader, a spokesperson. she knew her husband perhaps finally could get the senate seat he deserved. >> in 1855, lincoln runs unsuccessfully for the u.s. senate. three years later, he's determined to try again. >> so in 1858, the republicans have a convention and choose him as the nominee, and lincoln gets to address the convention. >> lincoln reads the speech to his advisers before he gives it, and they say, don't give the speech. it is too radical. >> what you've said in the opening lines is going to end your political career. >> but lincoln ignores the advice of senior party members and delivers the speech as it is

written. a house divided against itself cannot stand. i believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. >> words taken from the gospel. >> i do not expect the union to be dissolved. i do not expect the house to fall. but i do expect it will cease to be divided. it will become all one thing or all the other. >> he wows this convention, and he begins his campaign for the senate. think of illinois in 1858 as a microcosm of america. the northern part of illinois were anti-slavery and pro-republican. the southern part of the state was pro-slavery. >> abraham lincoln was running against the leader of the

democratic party. >> it was the most famous man in america, stephen a. douglas. >> douglas was like this tremendously institutionalized figure. and douglas was the author of the kansas-nebraska act. >> everybody thought that lincoln was a sacrificial lamb in that race. >> douglas spent a fortune in this campaign in rallies and bands and travel arrangements. >> stephen douglas has his own campaign train. the back of the train has got a cannon on it. so every time the train gets into a town, they set off the cannon as if to announce the great man has arrived.

douglas is drawing big crowds wherever he campaigns. so lincoln begins to show up at douglas' speeches and rallies. he's getting bigger crowds than ever by campaigning in stephen douglas' wake. >> the democratic press marks lincoln for appropriating douglas' crowds. so his advisers come up with an alternative. >> lincoln writes a letter that will change his career and really change politics. >> he challenges douglas to debates. >> here was a onetime congressman, abraham lincoln. he was going to take on stephen a. douglas? oh, my goodness, you could hear the laughter.

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in 1858, abraham lincoln challenges illinois senator stephen a. douglas, the most powerful politician in america, to a series of public debates. >> douglas had everything to lose by accepting lincoln's

invitation, creating lincoln as a person of equal political stature. but he can't say no because to say no would be to look cowardly. >> they arranged for seven debates, one in each congressional district where they had not yet spoken. >> lincoln/douglas debates were one of the highlights of the period. people didn't have tv. watching politicians make speeches was entertainment. >> the super tall abraham lincoln versus the little giant as he's called, short, squat, stephen a. douglas is off to the races with 16 minutes of vitriol, attacking lincoln personally and attacking him politically. >> their orator cal styles could not be more difficult, as different as their physical appearance. lincoln was laid back. he stood in one spot. he rarely moved.

stephen douglas pranced along the stage like a caged lion. he gestured wildly. >> he rips his shirt. he spits. he shouts. he tears at his hear. >> in the very first debate, lincoln starts off somewhat technical on certain aspects of legislation, and douglas immediately challenges lincoln, saying, you're a radical republican, and you were part of an abolitionist party. >> you know, a lot of times in our contemporary discourse and in the past, radical ideas are demonized. i mean the idea of abolition is demonized because abolishing slavery was a radical idea. he basically has to defend himself against being an abolitionist. >> and lincoln did not succeed. douglas is a master of twisting

facts, of lying so quickly that people have forgotten that it's a lie when the second one comes. >> lincoln comes out of the first debate feeling defeated, much to mary's dismay. >> mary is always lincoln's biggest booster. >> she sat up in the gallery with her notebook and took down who in the crowd was happy or unhappy and who was for and against lincoln. >> after the first debate, she was a little skeptical about the chances for victory and not entirely happy. she doesn't come back. >> after the first debate, lincoln's supporters said to him, for god's sake, lincoln, charge. he needed to do much better. so lincoln does charge, and he often used jokes. >> he kept this brilliant wit.

something i appreciate about him is some of his responses. >> the next debate when stephen a. douglas said he was hypocritical, a woman shouts out, you're two-faced. lincoln said, if i was two-faced, you think i'd use this one? this is a comeback. he's like a club comic. he had a great comic sense and knew how to use it to get the crowd on his side. >> once lincoln begins to win over the crowds, he turns the conversation back towards policy. >> douglas had said, we can resolve this problem of conflicts over slavery in the territories by just saying, when settlers move in there, they can decide whether to have slavery. they called this popular sovereignty. >> to douglas, it seemed like the essence of democracy. let the voters decide. to lincoln, it was immoral, and so lincoln backed him into a really brilliantly constructed

corner. he says to douglas, if a southern community decided to ban slavery by vote, would you accept that? and douglas said yes, i'm going to stand by popular sovereignty. he was saying that individual southern communities could reject slavery. southern democrats would never support douglas for president after that. >> though it's just an illinois senate race, douglas' celebrity and lincoln's sharp rhetoric garner national attention. >> their debates fire up the nation. here's this country lawyer using humor and logic to condemn the man who's the architect of the kansas-nebraska act, the policy that has divided the nation. >> and newspapers fed the beast. newspapers were not only covering the debates, they were riling up converts to their causes. they were strictly, openly

partisan the way some people believe broadcast and cable television is today. >> after the second debate, according to the republican newspapers, when the debate was over, abraham lincoln was carried off in triumph on the shoulders of his supporters. according to the democratic newspapers, when the debate was over, an exhausted abraham lincoln had to be carried off by his supporters. >> with the media fueling partisan fires, regional tribalism only escalates. but as the republican anti-slavery agenda gains traction in the north, threats of secession begin to permeate the south. >> announcer: this cnn original series, "lincoln: divided we stand," is brought to you by fidelity investments.

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as regional tensions around the issue of slavery escalate across the country, lincoln and douglas personify the mounting conflict on stages across illinois. >> then lincoln goes to charleston. here is the place where he's got to shine because this is central

illinois. this is the swing area where the election will be decided. >> douglas was a vicious racist who kept saying the republicans want black men to marry your daughter. you end slavery, blacks will flood into the state and take over. >> douglas said the declaration of independence was not designed to apply to anybody other than white people. >> and he uses the n-word a lot. there was a tendency by the democratic papers to sanitize it, but he used it a lot. >> and he asked lincoln, are you really in favor of equality between black people and white people? >> people laugh as if it's absurd to think that a mainstream candidate for statewide office would ever really harbor such radical thoughts. and lincoln begins with the most extraordinary statement in the entire debates. >> i am not, nor have i ever been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and

political equality of the white and black races. >> he said, i'm not in favor of blacks voting. i'm not in favor of blacks holding office. >> lincoln says that not only does he not want a black woman for a slave, but he doesn't want a black woman for a wife. >> he's staying stuff that is just shockingly bad. there's no way to polish it up. it's just bad. you think of him as a great emancipator, but he had horribly anti-black, racist views. >> there's a physical difference between the white and black races. there must be a position of superior and inferior. i, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. >> lincoln believed that he belonged to the superior race. he believed that slavery was wrong and that no man should own another, but whether or not

freedom would mean equality was something very different. >> one of the things that people say is that lincoln was a man of his time, but frederick douglass and william lloyd delaware ison were men of this time. lincoln was born into a nation with laws designed to uphold slavery, but we know he envisioned a world in which slavery did not exist. so if we know that lincoln can imagine a different future for slavery, we shouldn't let him off the hook for failing to imagine a different future for race relations in the country. >> by the final debate, douglas has lost his voice. he's barely croaking his way through, and abraham lincoln gets the final word. >> he says the perpetuation of slavery was a compromise necessary for the creation of the union, but the founders did not intend for slavery to expand or for the institution to be

perpetuated forever. >> lincoln reminds the crowd that only 82 years before, the founding fathers liberated the united states from the tyranny of kings. >> he says, whether it comes from the mouth of a king who seeks to detry the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle. >> saying that slave owners are like tyrants and therefore slaveowners are fundamentally un-american. nothing about that anti-slavery approach is predicated on concern with black people. it's fundamentally about lincoln's ideals for the nation, and i think that's one of the major appeals of anti-slavery to a lot of white northerners. >> lincoln's nuanced stance allows northern republicans to stand proudly against slavery while remaining firmly committed

to white supremacy. his measured rhetoric has the country abuzz with news of the dazzling orator from illinois. >> but illinois was a deeply racist state. >> plus the state was gerrymandered and tilted toward the democrats who had created the district lines. >> he loses. >> you would think that's it for his political career, but he says, the fight must go on. and these debates provide a platform for what is going to be his launch into the presidency.

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bounce back. revitalift hyaluronic acid serum from l'oréal paris. we're worth it. as the country prepares for the 1860 presidential election, new york senator william seward is the controversial front-runner for the republican nomination. >> they're opposed to seward. they don't like his methods. he is corrupt. he is too much the new yorker. >> the editor of the new york tribune and his friends invite a

series of republicans to come and give speeches in new york. >> they want to hear from a variety of speakers who might be alternatives to seward. >> and of course the man who engaged stephen douglas so brilliantly was invited. >> and it's really a screen test for a presidential nomination. >> on the very day of the speech, lincoln walks all the way up broadway to matthew brady's photo gallery, the most famous gallery in the united states, to make a photographic record of this important visit to new york city. >> it's so important to realize that photography is a new phenomenon in american culture. >> you have this visual culture that comes up in the 1850s and 1860s that visit iifys and really makes politics real. >> and lincoln knows how to present himself. and that's part of what lincoln's genius was as a

politician. >> that's a remarkable shot. perhaps the most important photograph of lincoln ever taken. the union is in trouble. this is going to be the most important election that the country has ever seen. who do you want to lead you through that? here's this tall, elegant figure in a tuxedo, looking us right in the eye. his left hand is on a book. it brings home that theme of education, of learning. but look at that right hand. the sleeve comes out from underneath the coat. this was strength. this was someone who worked on the frontier. carl samberg, the great biographer of lincoln, once said that lincoln was equal parts velvet and iron. the left hand is velvet. the right hand is iron. >> that's not accidental stuff. that's lincoln composing himself as a public figure.

>> hours later, lincoln makes his way to the cooper union great hall. it's got 2,000 seats for an audiences that described as the pik and flower of the new york. >> the young men's republican club, which was really not a club for young men. it was really the organization of east coast republican leadership. >> and they're charging 25 cents a ticket. these people came to be entertained. lincoln's the last in this series. he knows so well that this is the do or die experience of his lifetime. the editor of the new york evening post introduces him as the warrior of the west, and lincoln is brought to the stage. the first part was meant to mock stephen douglas. lots of laughter and shouts of

"hit him again." and then he abruptly switches and gets more serious. and he says, now, if people in the south would listen, we do not mean to threaten your property. all we want to do is control the spread of an institution that you know is wrong. >> he goes through every single argument that has been thrown against the republicans and logically deconstructs it. >> and then he ends with -- >> let us have faith that right makes might. and in that faith, there to do our duty as we understand it. >> it was a magical performance. >> and at the end, people are saying, this is the greatest speech we've heard in new york ever. >> the audience leapt to its feet. people threw hats in the air. then he goes off to a banquet in his honor. by the time he gets on the trolley, his feet hurt so much,

he's limping. but did he go back to the hotel? no. he cut across to the offices of the new york tribune and he read proof of the speech before it was set in type and edited it. he wanted this to be perfect because lincoln cared about getting it into the press. that's where campaigns were won and lost. >> and before long, copies of the brady photo spring up in illustrated weeklies alongside stories of lincoln's rise. >> lincoln is coming of age in the world of mass journalism, and he's a master of communication. >> he was illustrating a speech, delivering it, promoting it all in the same 24 hours. the post cooper union momentum built spontaneously. >> lincoln begins touring new

england, performing variations on the cooper union speech for eager audiences. >> in connecticut, rhode island, new hampshire, two-hour speeches everywhere, always ending with "right makes might". >> lincoln schedules a stop in exeter, new hampshire, where his oldest son, robert, is in boarding school. >> robert thinks this is really embarrassing. i have to sit with my blue-blooded friends and here my western father give a speech. one of the boys said, too bad bob has such an ugly father. robert is sinking in his chair in shame. and then according to the exeter press, lincoln stands up, and the dazzling begins. and then when it's over, the boys all come and slap bob on the back and say, wow, your father is something else.

>> in may of 1860, the republican national convention is held in chicago. going into the convention, senator william h. seward of new york remains the front-runner. >> lincoln sneaks in as a fresh-faced, moderate candidate from the west. >> lincoln was a dark horse candidate. >> the balloting begins. on the first ballot, seward is out in front. no surprise there. but lincoln is second. they go to a second ballot. seward stays more or less the same. lincoln begins to catch up. the crowd is getting excited for lincoln. the third ballot comes along. lincoln draws even with seward.

and the head of the ohio delegation announces that ohio is going to change four of its votes for lincoln. >> the entire hall erupts. >> lincoln emerged as the republican nominee. >> the cincinnati newspaper said that an entire tribe of shrieking comanches and an acre of hotel gongs could have been lost in the hall. you wouldn't have heard them at all with the woof that went up for lincoln. >> where was lincoln when all these ballots were being cast? he was sitting in the office of the republican newspaper in springfield, illinois, in his favorite chair, waiting for the telegram he accepts the

handshakes of all of his friends, and he says, thank you, thank you, gentlemen. but i've really got to go home. there is a little woman who is going to be more interested in this than you are, and makes his way home to tell mary that her dream has come true. through all of the defeats, disappointments, setbacks, he still, through words and a bit through images, he had made himself the leader of the republican party. >> announcer: this cnn original series, "lincoln: divided we stand," is brought to you by

in 1860, after a meteoric rise from obscurity, abraham lincoln, wins the republican nomination for president. >> for a long time, once you get the nomination, you go back home. you're not going around, shaking hands, and kissing babies. that's the 20th-century invention. it's really up to the party bosses, how to best present the candidates. >> lincoln is sitting at home, saying nothing. the great orator is silenced. >> but in a little parlor in

springfield, mary lincoln was finally able to come into her own. even though her husband can't campaign, that won't stop her. the press is invited into their home. she entertains. she demands that there be lots of beer on hand. she was very comfortable speaking about her husband. she took to that role, quite well. >> marital harmony returns to the lincoln household. their partnership had always been founded in mutual ambition, and flourishes when they work to towards the same goal. >> the republican party does not want lincoln's anti-slavery views to be the major focus of the campaign. they're much happier focusing on his personal story. >> even the stories that show lincoln being the sort of humble

rail-splitter, being the country bumpkin. >> the plain truth was lincoln was a lawyer and politician, and had been a rail-spliler a very long time before. >> so, these images of him as the boy who rises from obscurity, are very much part of his appeal. >> lincoln receives mail from prospective voters and those wishing him well. one letter from grace, a young girl from new york, makes a particularly interesting suggestion. >> i've got four brothers, and part of them will vote for you, anyway. and if you let your whiskers grow, i will try to get the rest of them to vote for you. you would look a great-deal better for your face is -- all the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you. and then, you would be president. my father is going to vote for you. and if i was a man, i would vote for you, too.

>> lincoln writes back to her. >> as to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affectation if i were to begin it now? >> but at some point, he must have reflected on that, and he decides to grow the beard. >> reporter: but as the republicans continue to curate lincoln's public image, the democrats scramble to organize their candidates. >> steven douglas is the overwhelming favorite to be the democratic nominee. >> but southern democrats never forgave douglas for trying to temperize during his debates with lincoln. >> ultimately, the decmocrats from the south walk out of their own convention. they will assemble, and nominate the vice president of the united

states. john c. breckenridge. a kentuckian. and defiantly, nominate stephen douglas. >> so now, you have a southern candidate and a northern candidate on the electoral ticket. and to make it worse, you have a middle group, who -- both their houses. creates what's called the constitutional-union party and nominates john bell of tennessee. so now, southern votes are split, not two ways but, three ways. and it becomes obvious, just from doing the numbers, that lincoln was going to win this election. >> on november 6th, 1860, a record, 81% of voters turn out for what would become the most significant presidential election in american history.

>> lincoln spends most of the day in the springfield telegraph office. every time the keys clatter, he knows that returns are coming in from another city. it's tense. but in the middle of all this, lincoln gets up and has ice cream with mary. and then, he goes back to the telegraph office. by about midnight, he understands that he will win the presidency. >> as suspected, he'll win it not so much because he will win a clear majority. but because the others will fall so far behind him, in their division. >> when lincoln got the news that he would be the next president of the united states,

he went rushing home. and he said, we are elected, mary. >> this was their triumph. but lincoln wins in the most sectional vote in the history of the presidency. that's a recipe for disaster. >> lincoln only wins 39% of the popular vote. >> he realizes that the political triumph has occurred, but the burdens of what's awaiting him is, suddenly, apparent. >> it's the worst situation anybody's ever been handed, as president. literally, tag, you're it. the whole country starts to come apart. >> as soon as he's elected, start to bolt. >> they recognize the threat of lincoln being president. the threat of this new party, united, in opposition to the expansion of slavery coming to power is enough to have the south say this is what we've been warning against.

we will secede. >> lincoln's next moves will determine whether the american experiment survives. will he be remembered as the greatest president of the united states? or the last? live, from cnn center, this is cnn "newsroom" with robyn curnow. hi. welcome to all of our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. thanks so much for joining me this hour. i'm robyn curnow and i do want to get straight to our lead story. the engine failure of the united airlines flight from denver is having some very serious consequences. boeing wants all 777s that use the same engine as that flight grounded. united st