Lincoln in the World (54 page)

10
. Robert L. Wilson to Herndon, Feb. 10, 1866, in
HI
, p. 207 (hang himself); Villard,
Memoirs
, v. 1, p. 156; New York
Evening Post
, Mar. 16, 1861, cited in Burlingame, ed.,
Abraham Lincoln: The Observations of John G. Nicolay and John Hay
, p. 40 (bed after lunch); Nicolay,
Lincoln’s Secretary
, p. 101 (“Satan himself”); Lincoln to Joshua Speed, [Jan. 3?] 1842,
CWL
, v. 1, p. 265 (“defective nerves”). See also Holzer,
Lincoln President-Elect
, p. 436; White,
A. Lincoln
, p. 403; and Shenk,
Lincoln’s Melancholy
, p. 21. On the weather, see, for example, Herman Melville to his wife, Mar. 25, 1861, in Davis and Gilman, eds.,
Letters of Herman Melville
, pp. 209–10; and Hay,
New York World
, Mar. 4, 1861, in Burlingame, ed.,
Lincoln’s Journalist
, p. 48. For Lincoln’s migraine, see Sam Ward to S. L. M. Barlow, Mar. 30, 1861, quoted in Nevins,
War for the Union
, v. 1, p. 58. See also Donald,
Lincoln
, p. 289; and
ALAL
, v. 2, pp. 108–9.

11
. Herring, p. 3 (Jefferson quote).

12
. Ibid., pp. 132–33 (War of 1812), 155–57 (“ringing affirmation”). For the description of Americans as an “absurdly self-confident folk,” see Perkins,
History of the Monroe Doctrine
, p. 111.

13
. Kissinger,
Diplomacy
, pp. 94 (Crimean War shatters Concert of Europe), 95, 102–3 (post-Crimean order), 106 (“days of principles”), 127 (Darwin, etc.). See also Herring, p. 267.

14
. Cortada, “A Case of International Rivalry,” pp. 53–69; “Dominican Republic,”
New Encyclopaedia Britannica (Micropaedia
), v. 4, pp. 167–68 (Dominican landscape); William Moss Wilson, “The ‘Foreign War Panacea,’ ”
New York Times
, Mar. 17, 2011. Dexter Perkins observes that “there are few more unqualified faiths than the faith of the American people in the Monroe Doctrine.” See Perkins,
History of the Monroe Doctrine
, “Foreword.”

15
.
New York Times
, Apr. 1, 1861, and
New York Herald
, Apr. 2, 1861, cited in
ALAL
, v. 2, p. 115 (still ill); White,
A. Lincoln
, p. 404, notes that the missive arrived in the morning. For background on the Santo Domingo
maneuver, see Crook,
Diplomacy During the American Civil War
, pp. 21–22. See also Lincoln to Seward, Apr. 1, 1861, ALP, LOC, note 2.

16
. Seward, “Some Thoughts for the President’s Consideration,” Apr. 1, 1861, Seward Papers, University of Rochester; Seward,
Reminiscences
, p. 149; Frederick W. Seward, “After Thirty Years,” Seward Papers, University of Rochester. See also Goodwin pp. 341–43.

17
. Brauer, “Seward’s ‘Foreign War Panacea,’ ” p. 148 (rumors flew);
New York Times
, “Foreign Intervention in American Affairs,” Apr. 1, 1861.

18
. The holograph version of Lincoln’s response is in the ALP, LOC. See Lincoln to Seward, Apr. 1, 1861, ALP, LOC.

19
. Sandburg,
Abraham Lincoln
, p. 433; Burlingame,
Inner World
, p. 190 (tore up letters);
CWL
, v. 4, p. 317, note 1 (orally). The memo was ultimately published by John Nicolay and John Hay in their 10-volume 1890 biography,
Abraham Lincoln: A History
. Much of their material had also been published in the preceding few years in
The Century
magazine. For more on the historiography, see Ferris, “Lincoln and Seward in Civil War Diplomacy” (
Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association
12 [1991], no. 1).

20
. Brauer, “Seward’s ‘Foreign War Panacea,’ ” p. 133; Donald,
Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man
, p. 22. Seward biographer Glyndon Van Deusen acknowledged that it was “possible” that Seward “simply lost his head” in April 1861—but that the evidence argues against it (Van Deusen, p. 301). See also Bancroft, v. 2, pp. 151, 471–72; Welles quoted in Paolino,
Foundations of the American Empire
, p. 13; Nicolay and Hay,
Abraham Lincoln: A History
, v. 3, p. 445. See also Ferris, “Lincoln and Seward in Civil War Diplomacy,” for a discussion of the role Welles and Hay played in shaping the Lincolnian foreign-affairs legacy.

21
. This is the implication of Ferris,
Desperate Diplomacy
, passim. See also Herring, p. 227; and Jones,
Blue and Gray Diplomacy
, p. 24.

22
. Herring, p. 255. “If ever an American political leader had a record of consistently working for territorial and commercial expansion entirely by peaceful means,” notes Norman Ferris, “that man was Seward.” (Ferris, “Lincoln and Seward in Civil War Diplomacy,” p. 21.)

23
. Doris Kearns Goodwin notes the similar contexts in which the men grew up. Both men were Whigs and beneficiaries of the market revolution. See Goodwin, pp. 28–29.

24
. Mead,
Special Providence
, pp. 99–131. The quote is on p. 105. The classic study of the intersection of finance and commerce with international relations is Kennedy,
Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
(London, 1988). Allen Guelzo, in his study
Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President
, emphasizes Lincoln’s Hamiltonian roots.

25
. Guelzo,
Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President
, pp. 63, 71; Botts,
The Great Rebellion
(New York, 1866), p. 196 (“Henry-Clay Whig”). See also Donald, “A Whig in the White House,” in
Lincoln Reconsidered
, p. 133.

26
. This point is the central thrust of Gabor Boritt’s groundbreaking study,
Lincoln and the Economics
of the American Dream
(Memphis, 1978).

27
.
RW
, p. 150. See also Boritt,
Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream
, p. 93 (“old woman’s dance”); Guelzo,
Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President
, p. 131 (“eventual triumph”).

28
. Baker, ed.,
Works of Seward
, v. 3, p. 188 (“force the fruit”); Bancroft, v. 1, p. 469 (“empire of the world”); Crook,
Diplomacy During the American Civil
War, p. 18 (trade entrepots); Bancroft, v. 1, p. 469 (“power of the earth”); Paolino,
Foundations of the American Empire
, p. 40; and McDougall,
Promised Land, Crusader State
, p. 106 (“god of boundaries”). Paolino’s study, in particular, emphasizes Seward’s central focus on economic expansion. Jay Sexton, in his recent work
Debtor Diplomacy
(Oxford, 2005), makes the case for examining the financial factors in addition to the commercial.

29
. Baker, ed.,
Works of Seward
, v. 4, pp. 454–55, 461.

30
. Herndon to Seward, Mar. 21, 1854, Seward Papers, University of Rochester. See also Bancroft, v. 1, p. 362.

31
. Bancroft, v. 1, pp. 2, 6–8; Van Deusen, p. 3 (Seward’s father); Seward,
Autobiography
, p. 104 (voyage).

32
. Seward,
Autobiography
, pp. 116 (“What a romance”), 123 (
Childe Harold
), 105 (swimming etc.).

33
. Ibid., pp. 105 (“slips and quays”), 115 (“coal-smoke”), 113 (“listless”), 109.

34
. Ibid., pp. 111 (“continually disturbed”), 116 (“still less”), 105–6 (“destitute of principle”).

35
. Ibid., pp. 125–26 (countryside), 127 (unpaved streets etc.), 127 (“political changes”), 131 (guillotine). See also Bancroft, v. 1, p. 49.

36
. Seward,
Autobiography
, p. 135 (bust of himself etc.).

37
. Van Deusen, pp. 23 (returns to law), and 29 (“galley slave”); Bancroft, v. 1, pp. 171 (treadmill), and 56 (“fondness”); Seward to Albert H. Tracy, June 23, 1831, quoted in Goodwin, p. 77 (“banish care”).

38
. Seward,
Autobiography
, pp. 205–6 (“with affection”); Bancroft, v. 1, p. 546 (“every sentiment”); Herring, p. 255 (“logical successor”).

39
. Van Deusen, p. 549; Adams quoted in Bemis,
John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy
, pp. 60 (“connections in Europe”), and 64 (“much perseverance”). The brackets on the word “System” are Bemis’s.

40
. LaFeber,
American Age
, p. 134 (reciprocity); Sexton,
Debtor Diplomacy
, p. 7; Sexton,
Monroe Doctrine
, pp. 113–14.

41
. Monaghan, p. 73 (“double game”); Bancroft, v. 2, pp. 68 (“influence and predjudice”), 151 (“half a century”), 60 (“increases them”).

42
. This account of the McLeod Affair is drawn primarily from Bancroft, v. 1, pp. 111–16; and Van Deusen, pp. 76–79. See also Howard Jones,
To the Webster-Ashburton Treaty
(Chapel Hill, 1977); and Jones and Donald A. Rakestraw,
Prologue to Manifest Destinty: Anglo-American Relations in the 1840s
(Lanham, Md., 1997).

43
. Van Deusen, p. 77 (pounding drums); Sexton,
Debtor Diplomacy
, p. 30 (“immediate and frightful”); Palmerston to Lord John Russell, Jan. 19, 1841, Russell Papers, BNA (“perseveringly pressed”).

44
. Sexton,
Debtor Diplomacy
, pp. 31–33 (Webster and Britain); Van
Deusen, p. 78 (envoys to New York); Bancroft, v. 1, p. 115 (“smother”).

45
. Seward quoted in Bancroft, v. 2, p. 473 (“ ‘masterly inactivity’ ”); Van Deusen, p. 105 (“bastard war”); Seward,
Autobiography
, p. 809; Goodwin, p. 123 (“national adversaries”).

46
. Edward L. Pierce statement for Herndon, [1887?,] in HI, p. 690 (“echo”); Francis B. Carpenter, “A Day with Governor Seward at Auburn,” July 1870, Seward Papers, University of Rochester (“slavery question”); Seward,
Seward at Washington
,
1846–1861
, p. 80 (“have been doing”). See also Goodwin, p. 127.

47
. William H. Seward Jr., “Kossuth’s Visit to Auburn, May 29, 1852,” Seward Papers, University of Rochester; Bancroft, v. 1, pp. 312–14 (Kossuth); Van Deusen, pp. 139–40.

48
. Lincoln, “Resolutions on Behalf of Hungarian Freedom,” Jan. 9, 1852, in
CWL
, v. 2, p. 115.

49
. Adams quoted in Lippmann,
U.S. Foreign Policy
, p. 17 (“cockboat”); Lincoln, “Resolutions on Behalf of Hungarian Freedom,” Jan. 9, 1852, in
CWL
, v. 2, p. 116 (“yoke of despotism”).

50
. For a discussion of their similar backgrounds, see Goodwin, p. 28.

51
. Frances Seward to William H. Seward, July 20, 1856, Seward Papers, University of Rochester; Van Deusen, p. 178.

52
. Van Deusen, p. 212; Goodwin, p. 213; Foreman,
World on Fire
, p. 40 (meeting next president); Seward,
Seward at Washington
,
1846–1861
, p. 369 (smaller than ever).

53
. Seward,
Seward at Washington
,
1846–1861
, pp. 370–71.

54
. Ibid., p. 382.

55
. Ibid., pp. 385–90.

56
. Ibid., pp. 391 (“egotism”), 431 (Waterloo); “Interview with Napoleon III,” Seward Papers, University of Rochester.

57
. Herring, p. 225 (intersection of nationalism and globalization); Seward,
Seward at Washington
,
1846–1861
, pp. 363–64 (“I ween”).

58
. Bancroft, v. 2, pp. 46–49.

59
. Lincoln, “Campaign Circular from the Whig Committee,” Mar. 4, 1843, in
CWL
, v. 1 pp. 311–13.

60
. Lincoln to Lyman Trumbull, Apr. 29, 1860, in
CWL
, v. 4, pp. 45–46. On the nineteenth-century norms regarding the president’s interaction with the public, see Donald,
Lincoln
, p. 440; and Carwardine,
Lincoln
, p. 261.

61
.
ALAL
, v. 1, pp. 443–44; Stephen Douglas quoted in Davis and Wilson, eds.,
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
, p. 241; Winger,
Lincoln, Religion, and Romantic Cultural Politics
, pp. 22–26.

62
. Herndon to Jesse Weik, Feb. 21, 1891, HW, LOC (“cold flat thing”); Corneau, “A Girl in the Sixties,” p. 407 (Hay in audience). See also
ALAL
, v. 1, pp. 444–45; and Donald,
Lincoln’s Herndon
, p. 63.

63
. Lincoln, “Second Lecture on Discoveries and Inventions,”
CWL
, v. 3, pp. 356–57. For two thoughtful analyses of the speech, see Winger,
Lincoln, Religion, and Romantic Cultural Politics
, pp. 15–48; and Foner,
Fiery Trial
, p. 115. Winger contrasts Lincoln’s “ironic Protestant perspective” with Stephen Douglas’s unabashed, self-righteous expansionism.

64
. Weinberg,
Manifest Destiny
, p. 202 (Senate report); Seward quoted in ibid., p. 66 (“Gulf of Mexico”); LaFeber,
American Age
, p. 144
(opposed annexation);
Illinois State Journal
, Sept. 1860, cited in
ALAL
, v. 1, pp. 665–66. Scholar Michael Burlingame has identified a number of anonymous newspaper articles likely penned by Lincoln.