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"Speech of Daniel Webster, in Reply to Mr. Hayne, of South Carolina."
The provisions of the Whig Party’s American System highlighted tensions between those who believed in states’ rights and those who believed in the new nationalism. An 1830 bill introduced by Democratic Senator Robert Y. Haynes to restrict sales of western lands led to his memorable debate with Whig leader Daniel Webster of Massachusetts. Hayne argued that the Union was a compact between independent states, who could choose to withdraw. Webster protested that the people of the U.S. had established the Constitution and that its laws bind the states in a perpetual union. He memorably asserted that only the collective nation could protect personal freedoms. Abraham Lincoln would later draw on this speech in his first inaugural address, delivered after seven southern states had left the Union.Tags lincoln-section-1 -
"Speech of Henry Clay, In Defence of the American System."
Lincoln idolized U.S. Senator Henry Clay (Whig Party, Kentucky) and supported his ideas for economic modernization, which Clay called the American System. This system included tariffs to protect American industry and agriculture, sales of public land to provide funding, infrastructure spending to improve transportation, and a national bank to provide a stable currency. Between 1816 and 1828, Congress enacted programs in each of these areas. Southerners objected in particular to the tariffs, which they felt benefited only other regions. In response, Clay delivered his widely lauded Defence of the American System speech over three days to a packed chamber. He attacked the opposing Democrats’ emphasis on limited government and sectional autonomy with a compelling argument for protective tariffs.Tags lincoln-section-1 -
"Speech of Hon. Abraham Lincoln, Delivered in Springfield, Saturday Evening, July 17, 1858."
The Illinois Republican Party selected Lincoln to run against Democrat Stephen Douglas in the 1858 U.S. Senate election. The printing above is of Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech from the nominating convention in which he asserted that voters must choose between supporting or opposing slavery—there could be no middle ground. He memorably argued, “[T]his government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. It will become all one thing or all the other.” This speech convinced Frederick Douglass that Lincoln might be capable of uniting “all the moral and political forces” opposing slavery.Tags lincoln-section-2 -
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"Star Trek" Comes to Duke Poster
The Duke University Union (DUU) is the largest student organization at Duke and has provided diverse creative events and media since 1954. In 1979, James Doohan, best known for his role as “Scotty” in the TV and film series Star Trek, was hosted by DUU for a presentation on film production and the future of U.S. space travel. -
"Students Occupy Allen Building"
The front page headline of the April 4, 2016 edition of The Duke Chronicle -
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"The Black Demands" February 13, 1969.
Thirteen demands of the Afro-American Society -
"The Black Demands" from the Allen Building Takeover
On February 13, 1969, African American students staged a takeover of the Allen Building, renaming it the “Malcolm X Liberation School.” Their demands (seen here) included better financial aid for black students and the establishment of “a fully accredited department of Afro-American studies.” Though the African American students exited peacefully, a large number of other students remained outside the building, and police used teargas to disperse the crowd. Allen Building Takeover collection, 1969-2002. -
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"The Duke that Nan Built" Timeline, Towerview Magazine (April 2004)
This retrospective, published in Towerview magazine in 2004, records some of the highlights of Nannerl Keohane's tenure as university president. Keohane was the first woman to serve as Duke President. Note the changes from Keohane's presidency that endure today, including the 1995 designation of East Campus residence halls as first-year housing and the 2001 founding of the Robertson Scholars program. -
"The Following Correspondence which Took Place".
In his second inaugural address (March 4, 1865), President Lincoln condemned slavery as theft of labor and more directly than ever before invoked the brutality inflicted during more than 250 years of slavery. Acknowledging the sins of “American Slavery,” he raised the question of what was due to those who had been enslaved—without providing an answer. Meanwhile, the war continued. In Ulysses S. Grant, Lincoln finally found a military leader with an aggressive instinct to match his own. The president grew to trust his top commander’s decisions, despite the resulting increase in casualties. The brutal Overland Campaign forced the Confederates to abandon Richmond, their capital, on April 3, 1865. Confederate General Lee’s army surrendered a hundred miles west in Appomattox, Virginia, on April 9, 1865. The above Union battlefield printing published the letters exchanged between Lee and Grant discussing the surrender. In them, Grant exhorts Lee to avoid “any further effusion of blood.”Tags lincoln-section-3 -
"The Glass Menagerie" script page 38, script cover,
Duke Players is Duke's oldest student theater organization. It has been producing shows since 1920, although the organization was not officially founded until 1931. This production of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie took place in Page Auditorium in 1949, following the play’s premiere in 1944. -
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