Joyce Young introduced our speaker Bill Clark, noting that he attended Dayton Public Schools and went to the University of Michigan law school. He was a judge advocate in the Korean War  and a bankruptcy judge in Dayton. He and his wife Kathy have four daughters, eight grandchildren, and four great grandchildren. He and John Landesweiler were in high school at the same time and John was a point guard. When their two schools played one another, John’s team won…”42 to 14!” John shouted out….to everyone’s laughter, not knowing whether John just made that up on the spot, or if it was the truth…Would it meet the 4-Way Test? We’ll never know for sure.

Bill said he’s studied Lincoln all his life and has been a member of the Lincoln Society, founded in 2003, since its beginnings. It is planning to put a bronze statue of Lincoln at Third and Main streets at  Courthouse Plaza. The $200,000 needed for the 11-foot statue is being raised but is only about half-way there, he said. The statue is to be unveiled at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 17 to commemorate the speech against slavery delivered by Lincoln on Sept. 17, 1859.

Judge Clark gave a brief history of the 1850s-60s, telling of the turbulent decade, a time when Lincoln moved back and forth between his private law practice and politics. His law office was in Springfield, Ill. Lincoln’s law practice flourished and he had the railroad as one of his clients. The slavery issue was paramount during these times and the Fugitive Slave Act required escaped slaves to be returned to their owners. Lincoln served in the Illinois House of Representatives for 12 years as a member of the Whig Party. He was elected to the U.S House of Representatives in 1846. He agreed not to run for a second term and returned to his successful law practice after that.

The Republican Party was born during this time and the Kansas-Nebraska Act was enacted in 1854, which led to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and popular sovereignty to the territory, with people voting whether they wanted to be a free or slave state. Lincoln began working on his speaking abilities at this time as he planned on getting back into politics. He had been born in 1809 and was only 40 years all this was going on, Judge Clark said.

Many Southerners were moving to Kansas so they could vote for Missouri to be a slave state, he said. The John Brown raid led to Kansas vs. John Brown and Lincoln’s political ambitions increased, though he lost as a U.S. Senate candidate in the Illinois legislature to Stephen A. Douglas in 1858. It wasn’t until the 17^th Amendment was passed that there was a popular vote for the U.S. Senate, Judge Clark said. Before that it was voted for by the state legislators, he said.

The Dred Scott Decision stated that a slave is not a citizen but property and had no right to citizenship, Judge Clark said.

Lincoln was against popular sovereignty and spent weeks in the library reading newspapers and about how many of the framers of the constitution voted against slavery at some time or other during their careers. The Republicans invited Lincoln to Ohio to speak against slavery in the fall of 1859. He traveled by train and spoke in Columbus at the state capitol and then took the train to Dayton the same day, Sept. 17. He spoke at the Court House. He then went on to Cincinnati and spoke to a huge crowd there.

When he spoke in New York City he wowed a crowd at Cooper Union and was nominated in May 1860 for the presidency. “You know the rest of the story,” Judge Clark said, knowing time was running out and the meeting was at an end. “He is thought to have been the best president, or at least in the top two or three,” he said. His request was that our club  “help us (the Lincoln Society) with the statue.” 

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