Lincoln

by David Herbert Donald

  159 them fell out: WHH to J. W. Weik, Nov! 19, 1885, HWC.

  159 “get too tired?”: Randall, Lincoln’s Sons, p. 41.

  160 “thought it smart”: WHH to J. W. Weik, Feb. 18, 1887, HWC.

  160 “my mouth shut”: WHH to J. W. Weik, Nov. 19, 1885, HWC.

  160 of their mother: The following paragraphs follow Donald, Lincoln’s Herndon, pp. 188–189.

  160 “insolent witty and bitter”: WHH to J. W. Weik, Jan. 9, 1886, HWC.

  160 “in his line”: Randall, Mary Lincoln, p. 117.

  161 “not tempt him”: W. D. Howells, Life of Abraham Lincoln (Springfield, Ill.: Abraham Lincoln Association, 1938), pp. 69–70.

  CHAPTER SEVEN: THERE ARE NO WHIGS

  For comprehensive overviews of the political events discussed in this chapter, see Allan Nevins, Ordeal of the Union, vol. 2, A House Dividing, 1852–1857 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1947), and David M. Potter and Don E. Fehrenbacher, The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861 (New York: Harper & Row, 1976). Albert J. Beveridge, Abraham Lincoln, 1809–1858 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1928), gives extensive coverage to Lincoln’s life during the 1850s, and, though it is marred by excessive dependence on Herndon’s belated recollections, I have drawn on it frequently.

  My account of the political realignment of the 1850s rests heavily on two important books by Michael F. Holt: The Political Crisis of the 1850s (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1978), and Political Parties and American Political Development from the Age of Jackson to the Age of Lincoln (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992). William E. Gienapp, The Origins of the Republican Party, 1852–1856 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), is definitive.

  Don E. Fehrenbacher, Prelude to Greatness: Lincoln in the 1850’s (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1962), is a brilliant interpretation of Lincoln’s reemergence as a political leader. Robert W. Johannsen, Lincoln, the South, and Slavery (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1991), is an incisive account of Lincoln’s growing concern with the slavery question.

  The literature on Lincoln and colonization is extensive, but the best study, which offers full citation of previous works, is Michael Vorenberg, “Abraham Lincoln and the Politics of Black Colonization,” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 14 (Summer 1993): 23–45.

  For Lincoln’s unsuccessful bid for the Senate in 1855, see Matthew Pinsker’s authoritative “Senator Abraham Lincoln,” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 14 (Summer 1993): 1–21. Pinsker’s unpublished paper, “If You Know Nothing: Abraham Lincoln and Political Nativism,” is by far the best account of Lincoln and the Know Nothings, but Tyler Anbinder, Nativism & Slavery: The Northern Know Nothings & the Politics of the 1850s (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), is also useful.

  162 “lived for it”: WHH to W. H. Lamon, Mar. 6, 1870, Lamon MSS, HEH.

  162 Congress in 1850: CW, 2:79.

  162 “stands number one”: Mark E. Neely, Jr., “Lincoln’s Theory of Representation: A Significant New Lincoln Document,” LL, no. 1683 (May 1978).

  163 for his father: CW, 2:148.

  163 “had ever engaged”: W. D. Howells, Life of Abraham Lincoln (Springfield, Ill: Abraham Lincoln Association, 1938), p. 69.

  163 “construction of language!!!”.: CW, 2:140–141.

  163 the “common mortals”: CW, 2:144.

  163 at the windows: WHH to Jesse W. Weik, July 10, 1886, HWC.

  163 “and miserable man”: WHH, “Lincoln’s domestic Life,” undated monograph, HWC.

  164 “breakfast bell rang”: Henry C. Whitney, Life on the Circuit with Lincoln, ed. Paul M. Angle (Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers, 1940), p. 68.

  164 “been moderately successful”: CW, 10:18

  164 “a sort of lecture”: CW, 3:374.

  164 “Discoveries and Inventions”: In Lincoln’s Collected Works the editors showed two lectures on this subject (2:437–442 and 3:356–363), but through elegant detective work Wayne C. Temple has proved these were parts of a single lecture. For an illuminating account of that lecture and the circumstances in which it was delivered, see Wayne C. Temple, “Lincoln as a Lecturer on ‘Discoveries, Inventions, and Improvements,’” Jacksonville Journal Courier, May 23, 1982.

  164 “of using them”: CW, 3:362.

  164 “‘died a bornin’ ”: WHH to Jesse W. Weik, Feb. 21, 1891, HWC.

  165 “or to myself”: CW, 2:82.

  165 “are still aloft!”: CW, 2:85.

  165 “the world respectably”: CW, 2.124.

  165 “of his cause”: CW, 2:126.

  165 views on slavery: Mark E. Neely, Jr., “American Nationalism in the Image of Henry Clay: Abraham Lincoln’s Eulogy on Henry Clay in Context,” Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 73 (Jan. 1975): 31–60.

  165 “a greater evil”: CW, 2:130.

  165 knowledge of slavery: On his two flatboat trips down the Mississippi, Lincoln was more concerned with river currents than with social institutions. But he did remember distinctly that on his first trip he was “attacked by seven negroes with intent to kill.” CW, 4:62. William H. Townsend argued that on his visits to his father-in-law in Lexington, Kentucky, Lincoln “had an opportunity to study the institution of slavery at close range,” and he detailed a number of horrors and atrocities that Lincoln might have witnessed. Lincoln and the Bluegrass: Slavery and Civil War in Kentucky (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1955), pp. 126–132. Benjamin Quarles, Lincoln and the Negro (New York: Oxford University Press, 1962), also says Lincoln “could not have missed” the whipping post, the slave pens, and the slave auctions in Lexington. But neither author gives any evidence that Lincoln did witness these scenes, and he never made any reference to them.

  166 crucified his feelings: Compare Lincoln’s letter of Sept. 27, 1841, to Mary Speed with that of Aug. 24, 1855, to Joshua F. Speed. CW, 1:260, 2:320.

  166 “you owned slaves”: Joseph Gillespie to WHH, Jan. 31, 1866, HWC.

  166 it in colonization: The most perceptive account is Michael Vorenberg, “Abraham Lincoln and the Politics of Black Colonization,” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 14 (Summer 1993): 23–45. On the Colonization Society, see P. J. Staudenraus, The African Colonization Movement, 1816–1865 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1961). For a thoughtful analysis, see George M. Fredrickson, The Black Image in the White Mind: The Debate on Afro-American Character and Destiny, 1817–1914 (New York: Harper & Row, 1971), pp. 6–25.

  166 “for the future”: CW, 2:132.

  167 “times ten days’: CW, 2:255.

  167 171 were blacks: The Seventh Census of the United States, 1850 (Washington, D.C.: Robert Armstrong, 1853), p. 715.

  167 small legal problems: Lloyd Ostendorf, “A Monument for One of the Lincoln Maids,” LH 66 (Winter 1964): 184–186; John E. Washington, They Knew Lincoln (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1942), pp. 183–202. See also Quarles, Lincoln and the Negro, pp. 25–28.

  167 “the existing institution”: CW, 2:255.

  167 were “settled forever”: CW, 2:232.

  167 very useful escape: For this interpretation I am indebted to Gabor S. Boritt, “The Voyage to the Colony of Linconia: The Sixteenth President, Black Colonization, and the Defense Mechanism of Avoidance,” Historian 37 (1975): 619–632.

  167 the Nebraska Territory: Potter and Fehrenbacher, The Impending Crisis, chap. 7, offers the most satisfactory account of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. For Douglas’s motives, see Robert W. Johannsen, Stephen A. Douglas (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973), chapters 16 -18 .

  168 “thunderstruck and stunned”: CW, 2:282.

  168 “masters and slaves”: David Herbert Donald, Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1960), p. 252.

  168 about them all: WHH to James H. Wilson, Aug. 18, 1889, copy, HWC; Herndon to Zebina Eastman, Feb. 6, 1866, Eastman MSS, Chicago Historical Society.

  169 “perfect and uniform”: CW, 2:282.

  170 “or our forefathers
”: Matthew Pinsker, “If You Know Nothing: Abraham Lincoln and Political Nativism,” unpublished essay, p. 6.

  170 “God speed it!”: CW, 2:229, 234.

  170 whittling and listening: Townsend, Lincoln and the Bluegrass, p. 213.

  170 “into free territory”: CW, 2:227.

  170 “Yates to congress”: CW, 4:67.

  171 “as english—vote”: CW, 2:284.

  171 “not taste liquor”: CW, 10:24.

  171 Yates as well: Franklin T. King to WHH, Sept. 12, 1890, HWC.

  171 “might the Democrats”: Pinsker, “If You Know Nothing,” p. 65.

  172 “and that’s enough”: WHH, interview with William Jayne, Aug. 15, 1866, HWC.

  172 “injurious to yourself”: CW, 2:228.

  173 “don’t drink anything”: Paul M. Angle, ed., Abraham Lincoln by Some Men Who Knew Him (Chicago: Americana House, 1950), p. 43.

  173 “points and arguments”: George Fort Milton, The Eve of Conflict: Stephen A. Douglas and the Needless War (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1934), p. 180.

  174 “intelligent, and attentive”: Journal, Oct. 5, 1854.

  174 “the palms up”: WHH, “Lincoln’s Ways—Methods—Positions—Pose etc when Rising to Address ... the People,” undated monograph, HWC.

  174 “class of men”: CW, 2:248. Because Lincoln’s speech in Springfield was not fully reported, it is easier to follow his argument in the version of the same address that he delivered on Oct. 16 at Peoria. Quotations in the following paragraphs, unless otherwise identified, are from the Peoria speech.

  175 “slavery, than we”: CW, 2:255.

  175 “be safely disregarded”: CW, 2:256.

  175 “ace of passing”: Ibid.

  175 “a palliation—a lullaby”: CW, 2:262.

  175 “is a man”: CW, 2:265.

  176 “legislating about him”.: CW, 2:281.

  176 “of American republicanism”: CW, 2:266.

  176 “arguments at all”: CW, 2:283.

  176 “spread of slavery”: CW, 2:255, 266.

  176 “a given time”: CW, 2:274.

  176 “near stifling utterance”: Journal, Oct. 10, 1854.

  177 “of these States”: CW, 2:126.

  177 “throughout the world”: CW, 2:276.

  177 “of Human Freedom”: This quotation is from a newspaper report of Lincoln’s speech in Springfield. CW, 2:242.

  177 “felt himself overthrown”: Journal, Oct. 10, 1854.

  177 “all over the country”: Register, Oct. 7, 1854.

  178 “his lifeless remains”: Ibid., Oct. 9, 1854.

  178 “him holler Enough”: B. F. Irwin to WHH, Feb. 8, 1866, HWC.

  178 “have ever met”: Frank E. Stevens, “Life of Stephen Arnold Douglas,” JISHS 16 (Oct. 1923-Jan. 1924):487.

  178 “him skin me”: CW, 2:248.

  178 throughout the state: Herndon’s claim that, after the encounter at Peoria, Douglas asked Lincoln for a truce in debating and then promptly violated that agreement (Herndon’s Lincoln, 2:373–374) has been rejected by nearly all Lincoln scholars.

  178 before or since: Henry C. Whitney, undated reminiscence, David Davis MSS, Chicago Historical Society.

  178 “a powerful speaker”: Day by Day, 2:130.

  178 two in Indiana: Nevins, Ordeal of the Union, 2:341–344.

  179 for that office: For an admirable account of Lincoln’s unsuccessful effort to be elected senator in 1854–1855, on which I have relied heavily in the following pages, see Pinsker, “Senator Abraham Lincoln,” 1–21.

  179 senators and representatives: CW, 2:286.

  179 “go for me”: CW, 2:288.

  179 “one eye open”: Herndon’s Lincoln, 2:375.

  179 “for a chance”: CW, 2303.

  179 “a terrible struggle”: CW, 2:293.

  179 election of senator: Beveridge, 2:275–276.

  180 “wouldhelp Yates”: CW, 2:289.

  180 “with the Abolitionists”: C. H. Ray to E. B. Washburne, Dec. 29, 1854, Washburne MSS, LC.

  180 “Lincoln—hated him”: WHH, interview with William Jayne, Aug. 15,1866, HWC.

  180 “of the season”: Shields to Charles Lanphier, Dec. 30, 1854, in Charles C. Patton, comp., “Glory to God and the Sucker Democracy” (Springfield, Ill, 1973, photocopy), vol. 3.

  180 pressure of business: For a skeptical view of Herndon’s claim that he was responsible for Lincoln’s leaving town in order to avoid connection with the odious abolitionist group, see Donald, Lincoln’s Herndon, pp. 77–78.

  180 “to that party”: CW, 2:288.

  181 “the Union dissolved”: CW, 2:270.

  181 “an innocent one”: CW, 2:256.

  181 all “mere politicians”: Zebina Eastman to WHH, Jan. 2, 1866, HWC.

  181 “all his kin”: C. H. Ray to E. B. Washburne, Dec. 24, 1855, Washburne MSS, LC.

  181 “is all right”: Zebina Eastman, History of the Anti-Slavery Agitation, and the Growth of the Liberty and Republican Parties in the State of Illinois (pamphlet in Eastman MSS, Chicago Historical Society), p. 671.

  181 “in the State”: E. B. Washburne to Zebina Eastman, Dec. 19, 1854, Eastman MSS, Chicago Historical Society.

  181 help elect Lincoln: Pinsker, “Senator Abraham Lincoln,” p. 12.

  181 new General Assembly: Leonard Swett to AL, Dec. 22, 1854, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  182 lost him support: Pinsker, “If You Know Nothing,” p. 12.

  182 “to the Sennet”: Charles Hoyt to AL, Nov. 20, 1854, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  182 “at your disposal”: Robert Boal to AL, Dec. 7, 1854, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  182 “again) the Man”: Hugh Lamaster to AL, Dec. 11, 1854, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  182 “make no pledges”: Abraham Jonas to AL, Dec. 2, 1854, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  182 “to commit himself”: Thomas A. Marshall to AL, Dec. 8, 1854, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  182 “era of Slavery”: Thomas J. Turner to AL, Dec. 10, 1854, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  182 “in the future”: Robert W. Johannsen, ed., The Letters of Stephen A. Douglas (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1961), p. 331.

  183 “person for it”: Pinsker, “Senator Abraham Lincoln,” p. 11.

  183 “Anti-Slavery men”: CW, 11:9..

  183 “for US senator”: Joseph Gillespie to WHH, Sept. 19, 1866, HWC.

  183 “make an election”.: CW, 11:9.

  184 Trumbull had 5: For a summary of the votes on the ten ballots, see Fehrenbacher, Prelude to Greatness, p. 175.

  184 La Salle County: Pinsker, “Senator Abraham Lincoln,” pp. 18–19.

  184 as he directed: WHH, interview with Stephen T. Logan, undated, Lamon MSS, HEH. See also WHH, interview with S. C. Parks, undated, Lamon MSS, HEH.

  184 “disappointed and mortified”: Joseph Gillespie to WHH, Sept. 19, 1866, HWC.

  184 “consented to it”: CW, 2:307.

  184 “of his friends”: Joseph Gillespie, memorandum, Apr. 22, 1880, MS, Chicago Historical Society.

  184 “he could be”: Willard L. King, Lincoln’s Manager: David Davis (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1960), p. 108.

  184 “gives me pain”: CW, 2:306.

  185 “my friend Trumbull”: Horace White, The Life of Lyman Trumbull (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1913), p. 45.

  185 “promoting my own”: Pinsker, “Senator Abraham Lincoln,” p. 20.

  185 “to work again”: CW, 2:308.

  185 “of last year”: CW, 2:317.

  185 closely similar machines: For a succinct account, see Albert A. Woldman, Lauyer Lincoln (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1936), pp. 172–176.

  186 “such a case”: Robert H. Parkinson, “The Patent Case that Lifted Lincoln into a Presidential Candidate,” ALQ 4 (Summer 1946): 105–122. For further details, see Pratt, Personal Finances, pp. 54–56.

  186 “you no good”. WHH to Jesse W. Weik, Jan. 6, 1887, HWC.

  187 “that man Stanton”: Herndon’s Lincoln, 2:356.

  187 greater real freedom: Harvey Wish, George Fitzhugh
: Propagandist of the Old South (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1943), pp. 154–156.

  187 “he is wronged”: CW, 2:222. The editors of Lincoln’s Collected Works tentatively attributed these reflections on slavery to July 1, 1854, but I believe it is more likely that they were written the following year.