Nate Thiel - Outside Reading 2

While reading the book Lincoln at Gettysburg, i have learned that Lincoln used to be a very powerful man who based his decisions on his own thoughts. However, I now see that most of his own thoughts were based on the decisions and actions of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. I also find it interesting that even though Theodore Parker did not support Lincoln as a candidate for Presidency, Lincoln later used some of Parkers exact words in the Gettysburg Address: “of the people, for the people, by the people.” It is weird, per se, that even though some people – like Parker – who are in the same political party, can support, or lack thereof, people that the others in the party do support. For example, Theodore Parker outwardly opposed: Daniel Webster, whereas Abraham Lincoln not only supported Webster, but he admired him as well. Lincoln was, in fact, much like Webster and Clay – all three of them were dedicated to the effort to preserve the Union. They demonstrated, as thought by Lincoln, that a person can continue to be opposed to slavery, while they temporarily make compromises to the South so as to keep the nation together.