Lincoln

by David Herbert Donald

  Willard L. King, Lincoln’s Manager, David Davis (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1960), is essential to an understanding of Lincoln’s campaign.

  The best analysis of the 1860 election returns is William E. Gienapp, “Who Voted for Lincoln?” in John L. Thomas, ed., Abraham Lincoln and the American Political Tradition (Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts Press, 1986), pp. 50–97. For valuable essays on how immigrant groups, particularly the Germans, voted, see Frederick C. Leubke, ed., Ethnic Voters and the Election of Lincoln (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1971).

  230 “my private business”: CW, 3:396.

  230 “even household purposes”: CW, 3:337.

  230 “have already had”: CW, 3:387.

  231 the Republican party: CW, 3:337, 341.

  231 to remain neutral: Don E. Fehrenbacher, Chicago Giant: A Biography of “Long John” Wentworth (Madison, Wis.: American History Research Center, 1957), offers a full account of this complicated feud.

  231 “languages from myself”: CW, 3:380.

  232 “for that plank”: CW, 3:384.

  232 “we shall disagree”: CW, 3:391.

  232 “the Slave power”: CW, 3:345. This phrase, which Lincoln had avoided using up through 1858, now began to appear in his speeches and letters.

  232 dangers of “Douglasism”: CW, 3:379.

  232 “he absorbs them”: CW, 3:367.

  232 of Harper’s Magazine: Robert W. Johannsen, “Stephen A. Douglas, ‘Harper’s Magazine,’ and Popular Sovereignty,” in The Frontier, the Union, and Stephen A. Douglas (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989), pp. 120–145. Douglas’s article is most easily available in Jaffa and Johannsen, In the Name of the People, pp. 58–125.

  232 “their internal polity”: Ibid., pp. 84–85.

  233 “of the Union”: Ibid., p. 150.

  233 “most insidious one”: CW, 3:394.

  233 “the little gentleman”: W. T. Bascom to AL, Sept. 1, 1859, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  233 “kick like thunder”: Joseph Medill to AL, Sept. 10, 1859, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  233 “right to object”: CW, 3:434, 428, 405.

  233 “of public opinion’: CW, 3:423.

  233 “against the negro”: CW, 3:431.

  233 “and the reptile”: CW, 3:425.

  233 “country is everything”: CW, 3:424.

  233 “the miners and sappers”: CW, 3:423.

  233 “their own labor”: CW, 3:446.

  234 “in the world”: CW, 3:477–478. For Wayland’s influence on Lincoln, see Gabor S. Boritt, Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream (Memphis: Memphis State University Press, 1978), pp. 122–124. Most Republican leaders shared Lincoln’s belief in the labor theory of value. Heather C. Richardson, “Constructing ‘the Greatest Nation of the Earth’: Economic Policies of the Republican Party During the American Civil War” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1992), esp. chap. 1.

  234 “his early condition”: CW, 10:43.

  234 upward social mobility: David R. Wrone, “Abraham Lincoln’s Idea of Property,” Science and Society 33 (Winter 1969): 54–70.

  234 “or kick understandingly: CW, 3:479.

  235 “free white people”: CW, 2:268. Such use would presumably exclude both slaves and free blacks. Johannsen, Lincoln, the South, and Slavery, p. 33.

  235 “to go there”: CW, 10:45.

  235 “President or vice”: G. W. Rives to O. M. Hatch, Nov. 11, 1858, Hatch MSS, ISHL.

  235 Reading (Pennsylvania) Journal: Baringer, Lincoln’s Rise to Power, pp. 51–62.

  235 “me as President”: Henry Villard, Memoirs of Henry Villard, Journalist and Financier, 1835–1890 (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1904), 1:97. Residents of Illinois were often referred to as “Suckers.”

  235 archrival, Judd: Chicago Democrat, Nov. 11, 1858.

  236 movement in Ohio: CW, 3:377, 395.

  236 “habit of doing”: E.A. Studley to O. M. Hatch, Sept. 7, 1859, Hatch MSS, ISHL.

  237 a best-seller: The best account of the publishing history of this volume is David C. Mearns’s introduction to The Illinois Political Campaign of 1858: A Facsimile of the Printer’s Copy of His Debates with Senator Stephen Arnold Douglas as Edited and Prepared for the Press by Abraham Lincoln (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1958). For discussions of the various editions of the debates, see LL, no. 337 (Sept. 23, 1935); R. Gerald McMurtry, The Different Editions of the “Debates of Lincoln and Douglas” (pamphlet reprinted from Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, 1934); and Jay Monaghan, Lincoln Bibliography, 1839–1939 (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1943), 1:18–20.

  237 “much of me”.CW, 3:511–512.

  237 in February 1860: Andrew A. Freeman, Abraham Lincoln Goes to New York (New York: Coward-McCann, 1960), gives a detailed account of Lincoln’s visit.

  237 Woods & Henckle, $100: Day by Day, 2:271.

  238 stop-Seward movement: Randall, Lincoln the President, 1:135.

  238 called his “shaddow”: CW, 4:39.

  238 “than his father”: Francis Fisher Browne, The Every-Day Life of Abraham Lincoln (Chicago: Browne & Howell Co., 1913), 1:217.

  238 handsome, statesmanlike image: This portrait is admirably reproduced in James Mellon, The Face of Lincoln (New York: Viking Press, 1979), p. 51. See also Charles Hamilton and Lloyd Ostendorf, Lincoln in Photographs: An Album of Every Known Pose (Dayton, Ohio: Morningside, 1985), pp. 36–37.

  238 at the outset: George Haven Putnam, “The Speech that Won the East for Lincoln,” Outlook 130 (Feb. 8, 1922); 220–222.

  239 “in the federal territories”: CW, 3:534.

  239 “that old policy”: CW, 3:537.

  239 abolitionist was “insane”: CW, 3:496, 503.

  239 “refused to participate “: CW, 3:541.

  239 “in all events”: CW, 3:543.

  239 “’be a murderer!’”.: CW, 3:547.

  239 “we understand it”: CW, 3:550. The last sentence is in full capitals in Lincoln’s Collected Works.

  239 “since St. Paul”: Baringer, Lincoln’s Rise to Power, p. 158.

  239 “I ever heard”: Hiram Barney to AL, Feb. 28, 1860 (on the back of the envelope of Edward Wallace to AL, Feb. 25, 1860), Lincoln MSS, LC.

  240 “electrify as well”: Herbert Mitgang, ed., Abraham Lincoln: A Press Portrait (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1971), pp. 157–158.

  240 Albany Evening Journal: Monaghan, Lincoln Bibliography, 1:14–15; LL, no. 589 (July 22, 1940).

  240 “worthy of it”: David C. Mearns, ed., The Lincoln Papers (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1948), 1:231.

  240 the previous September: On this tour, see Elwin L. Page, Abraham Lincoln in New Hampshire (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1929).

  240 “to have one”: John S. Goff, Robert Todd Lincoln: A Man in His Own Right (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1969), p. 32.

  240 know his father: Marshall S. Snow, “Abraham Lincoln: A Personal Reminiscence,” Magazine of History with Notes and Queries 11 (Feb. 1910): 64–65.

  241 “bite the children”: CW, 4:5.

  241 “we understand it”: CW, 4:29–30.

  241 for his nomination: Jackson Grimshaw to WHH, Apr. 28, 1866, HWC.

  241 “the Illinois delegates”: CW, 3:517.

  241 “mouth a little”: CW, 4:45.

  242 “he secretly owned: CW, 3:383.

  242 “secrets from him”: CW, 10:48.

  242 “he was unequal”: “Praise for the ‘Most Available Candidate,’” JISHS 71 (Feb. 1978): 72.

  242 “a guileless man”: David Davis to [John Wentworth], Sept. 25, 1859, Davis MSS, ISHL.

  243 ten, years younger: CW, 4:36.

  243 for his nomination: CW, 4:43.

  243 “chances of success”: CW, 4:33.

  243 attending the convention: CW, 4:32.

  244 “any positive objection”: CW, 4:47.

  244 “their first love”: CW, 4:34.

  244 “a few men”
: N. B. Judd to AL, Dec. 12, 1859, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  244 “be very well”: CW, 3:509.

  244 “our friends here”: CW, 3:509.

  244 more dynamic image: This account closely follows Wayne C. Temple’s excellent article, “Lincoln’s Fence Rails,” JISHS 47 (Spring 1954): 20–34.

  245 “grown to manhood”: CW, 4:48.

  245 only partially true: Although admitting that “Lincoln was an exceptionally decent and honest politician,” Gabor S. Boritt suggests that had voters known the reality rather than the myth he might have been defeated in 1860. “Was Lincoln a Vulnerable Candidate in 1860?” Civil War History 27 (Mar. 1981): 31–48.

  245 sent to Chicago: Isaac N. Arnold, The Life of Abraham Lincoln (Chicago: Jansen, McClurg, & Co., 1885), p. 163.

  246 “unit for him”: Baringer, Lincoln’s Rise to Power, p. 186.

  246 “stay at home”: Rufus Rockwell Wilson, ed., Intimate Memories of Lincoln (Elmira, N.Y.: The Primavera Press, Inc., 1945), p. 294.

  246 the Republican ticket: Jackson Grimshaw to WHH, Apr. 28, 1866, HWC.

  246 “’Higher Law’ doctrine”: CW, 4:50.

  246 Pennsylvania and New Jersey: Luthin, The First Lincoln Campaign, chap. 9, offers an excellent account of the convention proceedings.

  247 “home and abroad”: Proceedings of the First Three Republican National Conventions, pp. 131–133.

  247 a dark horse: William Safire, Safire’s New Political Dictionary (New York: Random House, 1993), pp. 166–167.

  248 of the operation: King, Lincoln’s Manager, pp. 135–142.

  248 to do so: Stephen T. Logan, statement to WHH, undated, Lamon MSS, HEH.

  248 Seward backers arrived: For a spirited account, see Baringer, Lincoln’s Rise to Power, chap. 5.

  248 Indiana Republican parties: William Butler to AL, May 15, 1860, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  248 “the pinch comes”. C. H. Ray to AL, May 14, 1860, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  249 “devil with fire”: Mark W. Delahay to AL, May 17, 1860, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  249 “will bind me”: CW, 4:50.

  249 his directive was unnecessary: According to legend, Lincoln’s message vastly upset his lieutenants in Chicago, and Davis overruled it, saying, “Lincoln ain’t here and don’t know what we have to meet!” Nevins, The Emergence of Lincoln, vol. 2, p. 256. But the source of the story is Henry C. Whitney’s highly unreliable Lincoln the Citizen (New York: Baker & Taylor Co., 1908), pp. 288–289.

  249 had no foundation: Nevins, The Emergence of Lincoln, p. 256, argues that Davis did make such a pledge to Smith, but King, Lincoln’s Manager, pp. 136–138, shows how weak the evidence for such an agreement is. For an astute analysis of the decision of the Indiana delegation, see Kenneth M. Stampp, Indiana Politics During the Civil War (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau, 1949), pp. 38–40.

  249 “difficult to get”: CW, 4:47.

  249 the initial ballot: The evidence on an alleged bargain between Davis and the Cameron forces is complex and hard to evaluate. I conclude that there was no bargain, partly because Davis, Swett, and Lincoln, as quoted below, flatly denied it, partly because after the nomination Cameron and his friends pushed their claim with a nervous intensity that betrayed their uncertainty about the supposed pledge. The best conclusion may well be that of Willard L. King, who says (Lincoln’s Manager, p. 141) that Davis made a qualified pledge of his personal support to Cameron.

  249 “to our satisfaction”: Erwin S. Bradley, Simon Cameron, Lincoln’s Secretary of War (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1966), pp. 149–151.

  250 “no mortgages executed”: Wilson, Intimate Memories, p. 296.

  250 “has promised nothing”: David Davis to Thomas H. Dudley, Sept. 1, 1860, Dudley MSS, HEH.

  250 “are fairly implied”: CW, 4:51. Cf. Herndon’s Lincoln, 3:473.

  250 “and practice law”: Jesse W. Weik, The Real Lincoln: A Portrait (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1922), pp. 266–267.

  250 the nomination unanimous: Proceedings of the First Three Republican National Conventions, pp. 151, 152, 155.

  251 “than I am”: Charles S. Zane, “Lincoln as I Knew Him,” Sunset Magazine 29 (Oct. 1912): 430–438. Accounts of how Lincoln received the news of his nomination vary in detail. See Randall, Lincoln the President, 1:173–174.

  251 “you see me”: David Davis to AL, May 18, 1860, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  251 “in this respect”: CW, 4:75.

  251 “look up to”: C. C. Coffin, in Allen Thorndike Rice, ed., Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln by Distinguished Men of His Time (New York: North American Review, 1888), pp. 168–171.

  251 “the White House”: George Ashmun, “Abraham Lincoln at Home,” in Springfield (Mass.) Daily Republican, May 23, 1860.

  252 wealthy Springfield friends: John G. Nicolay to Therena Bates, June 7, 1860, Nicolay MSS, LC; John W. Bunn to Jesse W. Weik, July 26, 1916, HWC.

  252 “truly A Lincoln”: CW, 4:68.

  252 “deport yourself accordingly”: O. H. Browning to AL, July 4, 1860, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  252 rather than “Abram”: CW, 4:68.

  252 held his head: Hamilton and Ostendorf, Lincoln in Photographs, p. 48; Mellon, The Face of Lincoln, pp. 10–11, 76–77.

  252 “not an objection”: Rufus Rockwell Wilson, Lincoln in Portraiture (New York: Press of the Pioneers, 1935), pp. 111, 93–97.

  252 “attend to them”: CW, 4:60.

  253 biographies were distributed: Ernest J. Wessen, “Campaign Lives of Abraham Lincoln, 1860: An Annotated Bibliography,” Papers in Illinois History, 1937, pp. 188–220, is authoritative. Howells’s biography is important not merely because its author was to become a distinguished novelist but because Lincoln, at the request of S. C. Parks, went over a copy of the biography and corrected it. That copy has been published as W. D. Howells, Life of Abraham Lincoln (Springfield, Ill: Abraham Lincoln Association, 1938). The autobiography Lincoln prepared for Scripps is in CW, 4:60–67. See also Grace Locke Scripps Dyche, “John Locke Scripps, Lincoln’s Campaign Biographer: A Sketch Compiled from His Letters,” JISHS 17 (Oct. 1924): 333–351.

  253 children into slavery: CW, 4:112.

  253 “to the charge”: CW, 4:86.

  253 “fairly with all”: CW, 10:54.

  253 “fairness to all”: CW, 4:94.

  254 “among its’ members”: CW, 4:78.

  254 “propose to forget”: CW, 4:54.

  254 “as he is”: WHH to Lyman Trumbull, June 14, 1860, Trumbull MSS, LC.

  254 “make no speeches”: CW, 4:91.

  254 “horse to town”: WHH, interview with George M. Brinkerhoff, undated, Lamon MSS, HEH.

  254 senator’s triumphant procession: George G. Fogg to N. B. Judd, Sept. 11, 1860, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  254 dropped the idea: CW, 4:94; George G. Fogg to AL, Aug. 18, 1860, Lincoln MSS, LC.

  254 “Wide-Awakes”: Nicolay and Hay, 2:284–286.

  254 “dry, and irksome labor”: CW, 4:109.

  255 party campaign strategy: See the admirable analysis in Gienapp, “Who Voted for Lincoln?” pp. 50–97. For conflicting views on the role played by foreign-born voters in this election, see Leubke, Ethnic Voters and the Election of Lincoln.

  255 “surpassed all expectation”: CW, 4:126–127.

  255 “upon the public”: CW, 4:135.

  255 raised their hats: WHH to Jesse W. Weik, Nov. 14, 1885, HWC.

  256 “was upon me”: Paul M. Angle, “Here I Have Lived”: A History of Lincoln’s Springfield, 1821—1865 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1935), pp. 251–253; Welles, Diary, 1:82.

  256 the Southern states: For election returns, see Edward Stanwood, A History of the Presidency from 1788 to 1897 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1926), 1:297, and Charles O. Paullin, Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution, 1932), p. 99.

  256 “of the presidency” : John G. Nicolay, memorandum, Oct. 25, 1860, Nicolay MSS, LC.