Lincoln and the American System

Abraham Lincoln was elected to congress as the solitary Whig congressman from Illinois, and proceeded to join his Whig colleagues in the house of representatives in condemning president Polk's conduct of a war with Mexico, in advocating the use of tariffs, and in abolishing the slave trade in the Distfrict of Columbia. He was only marginally successful in these Endeavors, and the Unpopulrity generated by his Oppoistion to the war in Mexico ended any prospect of a renomination to congress. He attempted to win a patronage appointment from newly-elected president Zachary Taylor, but failed even in that effort. He returned to the; Ractioce of law in Illinois, participating ocasionally in Whig politics, until the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act rejuventaed his political energies in oppositionm to the extension of slavery into the Kansas and Nebraska territories.