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A Future President, a Future Senator, and a Duel that Echoes through History
- 2023/02/19
- 再生時間： 7 分
- ポッドキャスト
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あらすじ・解説
If I told you two politicians were so infuriated with one another that one would challenge the other to a duel, you would be forgiven for thinking it is a recent news story. Or, if you realized that no one has publicly challenged anyone to a duel for over 200 years, you might be thinking of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. In either case, you’d be mistaken. I’m talking about President Abraham Lincoln and Senator James Shields. Of course, this was before either were elected to those offices.
In August of 1842, the Illinois State Bank went bankrupt. It announced that it would no longer accept its own paper currency from private citizens. The only acceptable currency would be gold and silver. Something most citizens did not have. Shields, then the State Auditor, became a target of the opposition party. Lincoln, a self-described “prairie lawyer” at the time, wrote a scathing editorial in the Springfield newspaper about Shields. And because he was friendly with the editor of the paper, he was able to write it under an alias.
Hear the full story on Historic Footnotes