A. Lincoln

by Ronald C. White, Jr.

  “could thunder out” Elizabeth Lodd Grimsley, “Six Months in the White House,” JISHS 19, nos. 3-4 (October 1926-January 1927): 64.

  Lincolns were becoming fond Lemple, Abraham Lincoln, 60.

  continued to lobby AL to the Editors of the Illinois Journal, June 5, 1850, CW, 2:79.

  “Thewantoftime”AL to Lewis C. Kercheval and Others, July 24, 1850, CW, 2:82-83.

  “I fear” AL, “Eulogy on Zachary Laylor,” July 25, 1850, CW, 2:89-90.

  “itisno[tbecause]” AL to John D. Johnston, January 12, 1851, CW, 2:96-97.

  “Say to him” Ibid., 97; and Donald, Lincoln, 153.

  “I have been thinking” AL to John D. Johnston, November 4, 1851, CW, 2:111.

  “The infant nation” “Eulogy on Henry Clay,”July 6, 1852, CW, 2:121—32.

  CHAPTER 11. Let No One Be Deceived: 1852-56

  “We were thunderstruck” AL, “Speech at Peoria, Illinois,” October 16, 1854, CW, 2:282.

  “all questions” Johannsen, Douglas, 408.

  “out Southernized the South” John Niven, Salmon P. Chase: A Biography (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 237-38.

  “destroyall sectional parties” Johannsen, Douglas, 409, 431, 439—445.

  “We arraign this bill” “An Appeal of Independent Democrats,” Congressional Globe, 33 Cong., 1st sess., 280—82.

  popularly known as Know-Nothings See Douglas M. Strong, Perfectionist Politics: Abolitionism and the Religious Tensions in American Democracy (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1999); David M. Potter, The Impending Crisis: 1848—1861, ed. Don E. Fehrenbacher (New York: Harper and Row, 1976), 250-53.

  “I do not perceive” AL to Owen Lovejoy, August 11, 1855, CW, 2:316.

  “I am not a Know-Nothing” AL to Joshua Speed, August 24, 1855, CW, 2:323.

  “Although volume upon volume” AL, “Fragment on Slavery,” [July 1, 1854?], CW, 2:222.

  “but a grown up” See Harvey Wish, George Fitzhugh: Propagandist of the Old South (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1943), especially 82—93.

  “If A. can prove” AL, “Fragment on Slavery,” [July 1, 1854?], CW, 2:222.

  ideas in these notes “Fragment: Notes for Law Lecture,” [July 1, 1850], CW, 2:81-82; “Fragment on Government,” [July 1, 1854], CW, 2:221; “Fragment on Slavery,” [July 1, 1854?], CW, 2:222; “Fragment on Slavery,” [July 1, 1854], CW, 2:222-23; “Fragment on Sectionalism,” [July 23, 1856], CW, 2:349—53; “Fragment on Stephen A. Douglas,” [December 1856?], CW, 2:382-83; “Fragment on the Dred Scott Case,” [January 1857], CW, 2:387-88; “Fragment on the Formation of the Republican Party,” [February 28, 1857], CW, 2:391.

  “whittling sticks” Donald, Lincoln, 170.

  “The Declaration of Independence” Illinois Journal, July 11, 1854.

  “the great wrong” AL, “Speech at Winchester, Illinois,” August 26, 1854, CW, 2:226.

  “If we were situated” AL, “Speech at Bloomington, Illinois,” September 12, 1854, CW, 2:230-32.

  Douglas prepared to speak Johannsen, Douglas, 453—54; James W. Sheahan, The Life of Stephen A. Douglas (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1860), 271—73.

  “had been nosing” Illinois State Register, September 27, 1854.

  “pander to prejudice” AL, “Speech at Bloomington, Illinois,” September 26, 1854, CW, 2:234,236,240.

  “a thin, high-pitched falsetto” Horace White, “Abraham Lincoln in 1854,” Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society, 1908 13 (1909): 32.

  “I do not propose” Lincoln made much the same speech at Springfield on October 4, 1854, and again on October 16. The Springfield speech exists only in brief summary, thus the text employed here is of the later Peoria speech. AL, “Speech at Peoria, Illinois,” October 16, 1854, CW, 2:248-49, 255, 265—66, 275—76. For an excellent examination of Lincoln’s Peoria speech in its historical context, see Lewis E. Lehrman, Lincoln at Peoria: The Turning Point (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2008).

  It reentered the national dialogue Philip F. Detweiler, “The Changing Reputation of the Declaration of Independence: The First Fifty Years,” The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Series 19, no. 4 (October 1962): 557—74.

  “The Declaration of Independence” Jean V. Matthews, Rufus Choate: The Law and Civic Virtue (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1980), 99.

  a historical signpost Pauline Maier, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), 160-208.

  “false and dangerous assumption” John C. Calhoun, “Speech on the Oregon Bill,” June 27, 1848, The Papers of John C. Calhoun, ed. Clyde N. Wilson and Shirley Bright Cook (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1999), 534-35.

  “The anti-Nebraska speech” Illinois Journal, October 5, 1854.

  “under the pretense” Donald, Lincoln’s Herndon, 77—78.

  “I have been perplexed” AL to Ichabod Codding, November 27, 1854, CW, 2:288.

  “he took the stump” AL, “Autobiography,” CW, 4:67.

  “No—I can’t” William Jayne (WHH interview), August 15, 1866, HI, 266.

  “What would have happened” AL, “Speech at Chicago, Illinois,” October 27, 1854, CW, 2:283-84.

  wrote to ask AL to Charles Hoyt, November 10, 1854, CW, 2:286.

  “I do not ask” AL to Joseph Gillespie, December 1, 1854, CW, 2:290.

  “the names” AL to Hugh Lemaster, November 29, 1854, CW, 2:289.

  “It will give me pleasure” Charles Hoyt to AL, November 20, 1854, ALPLC.

  “We want some one” Hugh Lemaster to AL, December 11, 1854, ALPLC.

  “a total stranger” AL to Elihu Washburne, December 11, 14, 1854, CW, 2:292,293.

  wrote the names “List of Members of the Illinois Legislature in 1855, “ [January 1, 1855?], CW, 2:296-98.

  “I cannot doubt” AL to Elihu B. Washburne, January 6, 1855, CW, 2:303-4.

  “You ought to drop” Joseph Gillespie to WHH, January 31, 1866, Hi, 183.

  BALLOTS FOR UNITED STATES SENATE Fehrenbacher, Prelude, 175.

  “I regret my defeat” AL to Elihu B. Washburne, February 9, 1854, CW, 2:306.

  brokeoff her long friendship Baker, Mary Todd Lincoln, 150.

  “he would never strive” Joseph Gillespie, memorandum, April 22, 1880, Gillespie MSS, Chicago Historical Society.

  “his defeat now gives me” AL to Elihu B. Washburne, February 9, 1854, CW, 2:1855,307.

  “Not too disappointed” Horace White, The Life of Lyman Trumbull (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913), 45.

  “I was dabbling” AL to James Sandford, Mortimer Porter, and Ambrose K. Striker, March 10, 1855, CW, 2:308.

  “No other improvement” AL, “Communication to the People of Sangamo County,” March 9, 1832, CW, 1:5.

  problems and roadblocks George Rogers Taylor, The Transportation Revolution, 1815-1860 (New York: Rinehart, 1951), 79.

  represent the railroads Steiner, Honest Calling, 138; in Lincoln’s debates with Stephen A. Douglas in 1858, the senator from Illinois tried to make an issue of Lincoln’s associations with the railroads. On October 22, 1858, Lincoln gave a speech clarifying his relationship with the Illinois Central Railroad. Chicago Press and Tribune, October 27, 1858, in LEGAL, 2:412—14.

  “A stitch in time” AL to Milton Brayman, March 31, 1854, LPAL, 1:8.

  The railroad protested For Illinois Central Railroad v. the County of McLean, see “Illinois Central Railroad v. McClean County, Illinois, and Parke” in LEGAL, 2:373—415; Steiner, Honest Calling, 150—54; and Duff, A. Lincoln, 312-17.

  “is the largest law” AL to Thompson R. Webber, September 12, 1853, LEGAL, 2:376-77.

  Lincoln argued Steiner, Honest Calling, 153—54.

  Lincoln brought suit “Illinois Central Railroad v. the County of McClean,” in LEGAL, 2:404-12.

  a rising Illinois lawyer Benjamin P. Thomas and Harold M. Hyman, Stanton: The Life and Times of Lincoln’s Secretary of War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962), 63-64
.

  “During August” AL to Peter H. Watson, July 23, 1855, CW, 2:314-15.

  Lincoln finally wrote AL to John H. Manny and Company, September 1, 1855, CW, 2:325.

  “a tall rawly boned” Robert Henry Parkinson, “The Patent Case That Lifted Lincoln into a Presidential Candidate,” ALQ 4, no. 3 (September 1946): 114-15.

  “roughlyhandled” HL, 220.

  “Since then we have had thirty six” AL to George Robertson, August 15, 1855, CW, 2:318.

  “You say that sooner” AL to Joshua F. Speed, August 24, 1855, CW, 2:320-23.

  “Revolutionize through the ballot box” Herndon and Weik, Abraham Lincoln, 2:49.

  “as the warm and consistent” Mark A. Plummer, Lincoln’s Rail-Splitter: Governor Richard J. Oglesby (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001), 18—19.

  “The latter part” Beveridge, Abraham Lincoln, 2:359.

  “buckle on his armor” AL, “Speech at Decatur, Illinois,” February 22, 1856, CW, 2:333.

  “Did Lincoln authorize you” Herndon and Weik, Abraham Lincoln, 2:51—52.

  “he had got to be” Henry C. Whitney, Life on the Circuit with Lincoln (Boston: Estes and Lauriat, 1892), 75.

  “A man couldn’t think” AL, “Speech at Bloomington, Illinois,” May 28, 1856, CW, 2:340-41.

  “proscribe no one” William E. Gienapp, The Origins of the Republican Party, 1852-1856 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), 294-95.

  “The Union must be preserved” AL, “Speech at Bloomington,” May 31, 1856, CW, 2:341.

  “I have heard or read” HL, 236.

  CHAPTER 12. A House Divided: 1856-58

  “secreted” Henry C. Whitney (JWW interview), [1887-89], Hi, 733-34.

  “as pure a patriot” Jesse W. Weik, “Lincoln’s Vote for Vice-President in the

  “Philadelphia Convention of 1856,” Century Magazine 76 (June 1908): 186-89.

  received votes from eleven states Proceedings of the First Three Republican National Conventions of1856, 1860, and 1864 (Minneapolis, Minn.: Charles W. Johnson, 1893), 61-62.

  “When you meet Judge Dayton” AL to John Van Dyke, June 27, 1856, CW, 2:346.

  “the gallant Fremont” Urbana Union, June 26, Day by Day, 2:172.

  “It is constantly objected” AL, “Fragment on Sectionalism,” [ca. July 23, 1856], CW, 2:349-53.

  “showed how the South” AL, “Speech at Princeton,” July 4, 1856, CW, 2:346-47.

  “demonstrated in the strongest manner” AL, “Speech at Chicago, Illinois,” July 19, 1856, CW, 2:348-49.

  “All this talk about the dissolution” AL, “Speech at Galena, Illinois,” July 23, 1856, CW, 2:353-55.

  “to learn what people differ” AL, “Speech at Kalamazoo, Michigan,” August 27, 1856, CW, 2:361-66.

  “His language is pure” Amboy (Illinois) Times, July 24, 1856.

  “Altho’mr L is” Mary Lincoln to Emilie Lodd Helm, November 23, 1856, MTL, 46.

  “The storm of abolition” George Licknor Curtis, Life of James Buchanan: Fifteenth President of the United States (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1883), 2:176.

  “assailed as the enemies” AL, “Speech at a Republican Banquet, Chicago, Illinois,” December 10, 1856, CW, 2:383-85.

  “Twenty-two years ago” AL, “Fragment on Stephen A. Douglas,” [December 1856], CW, 2:382-83.

  “Do you know where Lincoln lives?” Wayne C. Lemple, By Square and Compasses: The Building of Lincoln’s Home and Its Saga (Bloomington, 111.: Ashlar Press, 1984), 41.

  a sharp comment Baker, Mary Todd Lincoln, 116.

  “commenced raising” Mrs. John Lodd Stuart to Betty Stuart, April 3, 1856, John L. Stuart-Milton Hay Collection, ALPLM.

  The final cost Richard S. Hagen, “What a Pleasant Home Abe Lincoln Has,” JISHS 48, no. 1 (Spring 1955): 5-27.

  “A more immense judicial power” Alexis de Locqueville, Democracy in America, ed. Harvey C. Mansfield and Debra Winthrop (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 141.

  he petitioned the Missouri Circuit Court See Don E. Fehrenbacher, The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978), 285-334.

  “The decision will be” Richard Malcolm Johnston and William Hand Browne, Life of Alexander H. Stephens (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott and Company, 1884), 318, 141; and New York Courier, December 18, 1856.

  “What would be the effect” AL, “Fragment on the Dred Scott Case,” [January 1857?], CW, 2:387-88.

  “blacks are not citizens” James F. Simon, Lincoln and Chief Justice Tanej: Slavery, Secession, and the President’s War Powers (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006), 115-16.

  “it is understood” James Buchanan, “Inaugural Address, March 4, 1857,” Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1961), 112.

  “been regarded as beings” Simon, Lincoln and Chief Justice Tanej, 122.

  “main proposition” Johannsen, Douglas, 569—71.

  “The curtain of 1860” New York Herald, June 23, 24, 1857.

  “But we think the Dred Scott” Fehrenbacher, Dred Scott Case, 351.

  “I think the authors” AL, “Speech at Springfield, Illinois,” June 26, 1857, CW, 2:398-410.

  “too much on the old” Johannsen, Douglas, 573.

  “an intolerable nuisance” St. Louis Republican, August 24, 1856.

  “do not warrant” Chicago Tribune, September 26, 1856.

  wanted the best lawyer For an excellent discussion of the case, see “Hurd Et Al. V. Rock Island Bridge Company,” in LEGAL, 3:308-83.

  preparation for the trial Ibid., 326—27.

  resumed his closing argument See the long excerpt of a newspaper report of Lincoln’s closing argument, ibid., 359—65.

  a case growing out For a full description of the Duff Armstrong case, see “People V. Armstrong,” in LEGAL, 4:1-45.

  Lincoln’s cross-examination Hannah Armstrong (WHH interview), [1866], HI, 526.

  “The almanac floored” Duff, A. Lincoln, 350—55.

  “of his kind feelings” William Walker to WHH, June 3, 1865, Hi, 22; “People V. Armstrong,” 23—26.

  “It was generally admitted” J. Henry Shaw to WHH, August 22, 1866, HI, 316; andj. Henry Shaw to WHH, September 5, 1866, HI, 332-34.

  “Why—Hannah, I shant” Hannah Armstrong (WHH interview), 1866, HI, 526.

  “altogether the most exquisite” AL, Speech at Springfield, June 26, 1857, CW, 2:400.

  The meeting at Lecompton For a discussion of the controversial Lecompton Convention, see Johannsen, Douglas, 576—84.

  “I have spent too much” Ibid., 590.

  “bring more weight” Potter, Impending Crisis, 320—21.

  “your general view” AL to Lyman Trumbull, November 30, December 18, 28, 1857, CW, 2:427,428,430.

  “the unexpected course” Lyman Trumbull to AL, January 3, 1858, Lyman Trumbull Papers, Library of Congress.

  “of that Friend” Ibid.

  “There seems to be” Chicago Press & Tribune, April 21, 1858.

  “Let us have a state convention” AL to Ozias M. Hatch, March 24, 1858, CW, First Supplement, 29—30.

  “is the only one who improves” The Collected Works prints two separate lectures, but they may well have been two parts of a single lecture. AL, “First Lecture on Discoveries and Inventions,” [April 6, 1858], 2:437; “Second Lecture on Discoveries and Inventions,” [February 11, 1859], 3:356—62.

  “too far in advance” John Armstrong (WHH interview), [February 1870], HI, 574-75; HL, 2:68-69.

  “Cook County Is for” Donald, Lincoln, 205.

  If we could first know AL, “A House Divided: Speech at Springfield, Illinois,” June 16, 1858, CW, 2:461.

  use of a biblical metaphor The metaphor “A house divided against itself” appears in Matthew 12:25, Mark 3:25, and Luke 11:17.

  Whatever its past use Campaign Circular from Whig Committee, March 4, 1843, CW, 1:315; AL to George Robertson, August 1
5, 1855, CW, 2:318; T. Lyle Dickey to WHH, December 8, 1866, HI, 504.

  “angry agitation” AL, “Fragment of a Speech” [ca. May 18, 1858], CW, 2:452—53. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited in the 1950s, dated this “Fragment of a Speech” to May 1858, but a close examination reveals that Lincoln wrote it seven months earlier, in December 1857.

  “working points of that machinery” AL, “A House Divided,” 462—67.

  “softly, that Douglas is” Ibid., 467.

  CHAPTER 13. The Eternal Struggle Between These Two Principles: 1858

  Lincoln had defeated himself Leonard Swett to WHH, January 17, 1866, HI, 163.

  “some of my Kentucky friends” John L. Scripps to AL, June 22, 1858, ALPLC.

  “and yet I am mortified” AL to John L. Scripps, June 23, 1858, CW, 2:471.

  “I shall have my hands full” John W. Forney, Anecdotes of Public Men (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1881), 2:179.

  “that great principle” Johannsen, Douglas, 641—42.

  “provided I can find it” AL, “Speech at Chicago, Illinois,” July 10, 1858, CW, 2:485.

  “I did not say” Ibid., 491, 501.

  “a kind-hearted, amiable” Johannsen, Douglas, 657.

  “having been a party” AL, “Speech at Springfield, Illinois,” July 17, 1858, CW, 2:519-20.

  “I should be at your town” AL to Joseph T. Eccles, August 2, 1858, CW, 2:533.

  “Will it be agreeable” AL to Stephen A. Douglas, July 24, 1858, CW, 2:522.

  “I accede” AL to Stephen A. Douglas, July 31, 1858, CW, 2:531. For the story of the debates, see Allen G. Guelzo’s new book, Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates That Defined America (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008).

  “It is astonishing” New York Post, September 24, 1858.

  “Ottawa was deluged in dust” New York Evening Post, August 27, 1858.

  “to connect the members” The new authoritative version of the debates, The Lincoln-Douglas Debates, ed. Rodney O. Davis and Douglas L. Wilson (Urbana: The University of Illinois, 2008). “First Debate at Ottawa, Illinois,” August 21, 1858, 8-9.

  “I mean nothing personally Ibid., 6, 9.

  “Are you in favor of” Ibid., 14.

  “He had a lean” Henry Villard, Memoirs of Henry Villard: Journalist and Financier, 1835-1900 (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1904), 1:93.