As president, Abraham Lincoln delivered two of the most famous addresses in American history. This thesis explores the political rhetoric of Abraham Lincoln before the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural, in the pre-presidential years from 1837 to 1860. It explores Lincoln’s highly significant and imaginative use of his two political touchstones Henry Clay and Thomas Jefferson. Knowing how Americans recognized these two famous politicians, Lincoln made reference in multiple public forums to Clay and Jefferson, especially concerning slavery and the political controversy around the spread of slavery in the 1850s. Lincoln is one of most researched figures in American history and for decades historians have published on virtually every aspect of his political career. Remarkably, the evolution of the Clay and Jefferson references and how Lincoln made use of them as rhetorical devices have only been hinted at by historians. Through the careful study of Lincoln’s speeches and letters it is possible to pinpoint the exact moments when Lincoln used Clay and similarly when he employed the memory of Jefferson. Lincoln’s rhetoric depended on the location of the address, such as northern or southern Illinois and the sentiments of the audience, always with the basic assumption that for the most part his auditors would think of Clay in light of his role in the 1820 Missouri Compromise and Jefferson as the author of the Declaration of Independence. Upon close examination a subtle but clear evolution in Lincoln’s rhetoric away from Clay and compromise and toward Jefferson and first principles. Two years in Lincoln’s political career highlight the arc of this evolution. Firstly .1854 and the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act obliged Lincoln to confront Southern politicians’ apparent success in enabling the extension of slavery into the western territories. Lincoln’s address at Peoria on October 16 was a turning point for him as well as the first time he used Jefferson as an antislavery touchstone alongside Clay. Peoria also established the framework for Lincoln to fight what he would soon label the Slave Power through to 1860. The second year of importance in Lincoln’s rhetorical evolution comes at the end of the decade. In 1859 Lincoln had emerged from the debates with Stephen Douglas as a politician of national prominence. In his Ohio addresses of 1859 Clay has all but vanished. Lincoln from this moment forward references Jefferson as his main touchstone in the fight against slavery. This shift to Jefferson illustrates Lincoln’s self-conscious ascent from local and Whig politician to becoming a player in national politics, someone who would seek the Republican Party nomination for president a year later. In contrast to 1854, 1859 has generally been downplayed or missed altogether as a time of importance in Lincoln’s rise to the presidency. Historians have long stressed the Great Debates of 1858 and 1860 election. Finally, at a single moment of insight, at the moment of his ascent to prominence, Lincoln shifted yet again in his use of his two great touchstones. Only at New Haven, immediately after his stunning success at Cooper Union, did Lincoln begin to see both Clay and Jefferson, as each in their own way inadequate to express American’s troubled relationship with slavery. No longer as much a time to reflect, in Lincoln’s mind the issue of slavery had grown so fraught as to beg the attention of the immediate generation and break away from the compromises of the past.