150 Years Ago: Lincoln, a Comet, and the Politics of a Nation Divided
The year 1858 was one of turmoil and wonder. One hundred and fifty years ago the world was coming together. The United States signed a commercial treaty with hitherto self-isolated Japan, gold seekers rushed to Pike’s Peak, there was talk of a railroad to California, and the first briefly successful transatlantic telegraph cable was laid.
The world was also coming apart, or at least rearranging itself in unfamiliar ways. The British Crown abolished the East India Company and began to imperialize the subcontinent. Progress towards emancipation of Russian serfs accelerated, while in the United States, the dispute over slavery intensified. Bernadette of Lourdes believed she saw the Virgin Mary.
In Illinois, a skinny, tall, lawyer with considerable insight but not much national experience was campaigning in a crucial election to be sent to Washington.
And all around the world that fall people looked up at an immense, luminous, white bar across the night sky and wondered what it might mean.
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The world was also coming apart, or at least rearranging itself in unfamiliar ways. The British Crown abolished the East India Company and began to imperialize the subcontinent. Progress towards emancipation of Russian serfs accelerated, while in the United States, the dispute over slavery intensified. Bernadette of Lourdes believed she saw the Virgin Mary.
In Illinois, a skinny, tall, lawyer with considerable insight but not much national experience was campaigning in a crucial election to be sent to Washington.
And all around the world that fall people looked up at an immense, luminous, white bar across the night sky and wondered what it might mean.