What was Lincoln’s attitude toward slavery as a public character and political leader? The first significant public act of his life, in the Illinois legislature at the age of twenty-eight, was the recorded protest against resolutions asserting the “sacred” right of property in slaves, a claim which Lincoln always resented as profanation. The protest, so moderate that it now appears apologetic, was then so bold that but one colleague could be found to stand with him. Illinois was still pro-slavery, with a
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