After the Dredd Scott decision in 1857, Republican editor Horace Greely stated, it was “entitled to just so much moral weight as would be the judgment of a majority of those congregated in any Washington bar-room.” (Richardson). This demonstrates the extent to which this government branch, as well as the government as a whole, which was designed to ensure equal treatment before the law, was influenced by the agenda of a select few affluent individuals with racial biases. As the party organization grew and expanded, they had early electoral success, but to show themselves as the true antithesis of the Democratic party they needed an ideological leader, a charismatic man to help push them down the path of equality among men and they found this with Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln pulled from a blend of abolitionist talking points mixed with sophisticated language to connect to more conservative Northerners, allowing his popularity to skyrocket in the late 1850s. In 1859, at the Wisconsin Agricultural Fair, Lincoln gave a speech where he spoke of farmers, not the rich men being the true bedrock of society displaying the early economic beliefs of the