Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power (60 page)

At one point forty thousand copies a day streamed from Republican presses. Luthin,
The First Lincoln Campaign,
pp. 175–76.

Cincinnati Gazette,
26 March 1858;
New York Tribune,
16 May, 25 June 1860;
Reminiscences of Carl Schurz,
2:101–4.

Chicago Press and Tribune,
19, 23 May, 13 July (for
Ohio State Journa
l
) 1860;
Hartford Press,
quoted in
New York Tribune,
21 May 1860;
Campaign Plain Dealer,
Cleveland, 28 July 1860;
Illinois State Register,
5 June, 14 July 1860.

Baringer,
Lincoln’s Rise to Power,
p. 298;
Rail Splitter,
29 Aug. 1860;
Reminiscences of Carl Schurz,
2:191–93;
Quincy Whig and Republican,
18 Aug. 1860.

Campaign Plain Dealer,
28 July 1860;
Rail Splitter,
29 Aug. 1860;
Daily Chicago Times,
22 July 1860. Republicans were contemptuous of these double standards: “It makes a great difference whether your bull gores my ox, or my bull gores your ox.”
Quincy Whig and Republican,
18 Aug. 1860.

Illinois State Register,
19 May, 28 May (quoting the
Pana Democrat
), 14 June (quoting the
Joliet Signa
l
), 25 June, 14 July, 4, 14 Aug., 13, 16, 24 Oct. 1860;
Campaign Plain Dealer,
11 Aug. 1860.

CW,
4:126–27.

Robert W. Johannsen,
Stephen A. Douglas
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1973), pp. 797–98.

Luthin,
The First Lincoln Campaign,
p. 184.

In Sangamon, Lincoln polled 3,556 votes to Douglas’s 3,598: a switch of just 22 votes would have given him the county. King,
David Davis,
p. 157.

William E. Gienapp, “Who Voted for Lincoln?” in John L. Thomas, ed.,
Abraham Lincoln and the American Political Tradition
(Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1986), pp. 68–72; Cook,
Baptism of Fire,
pp. 126–27.

Though the substance of this conversation would become a matter of notorious dispute between Josiah Holland and William H. Herndon, both men agreed that Lincoln had noted bitterly that all but three of the Springfield clergy opposed his election. Barton,
The
Soul
of
Abraham
Lincoln,
pp. 114–27.
Williams’s
Springfield
Directory:
City
Guide
and
Business
Mirror,
for
1860
–
61,
comp., C. S. Williams (Springfield, 1860), lists twenty-eight ministers in the town in 1860. Harry E. Pratt’s analysis of the polling data indicates that eleven of the twenty-eight did not vote: these included both Catholic priests, the Universalist minister, three Methodists (including Fred Myers, a free black, ineligible to vote), a Baptist, a Christian, and a Lutheran. File, Illinois State Historical Society.

Miner, “Recollections,” p. 6.

In 1860 there were over thirteen thousand members in 206 Congregational churches in Illinois; the 168 New School Presbyterian churches embraced 9,021 members.
Northwestern Christian Advocate,
3 Oct. 1860. The pastor of the First Congregational Church in Chicago, William W. Patton, opened the second day’s proceedings at the Republican national convention in 1860.
Chicago Press and Tribune,
21 May 1860.

Northwestern Christian Advocate,
12 Sept. 1860.

Leonard F. Smith, “Diary,” 8, 29 Aug., 3, 10 Sept., 9, 15, 18 Oct. 1860, Illinois State Historical Society; also James Shaw,
Twelve Years in America: Being the Observations on the Country, the People, Institutions and Religion; with Notices of Slavery and the Late War
(London, 1867), pp. 114–15, 286.

Gienapp, “Who Voted for Lincoln?” pp. 66–67, 74–76; Herbert A. Gibbons,
John Wanamaker,
2 vols. (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1926), 1:30–39.

Reminiscences of Carl Schurz,
2:191–93.

4.
The Limits of Power (1860
–
61)

In the notes for this chapter all newspaper and manuscript citations are for 1861, unless otherwise indicated.

Diary of Gideon Welles: Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson,
3 vols. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1911), 1:82;
Lincoln’s Journalist,
p. 165;
RWAL,
p. 328.

Lincoln’s Journalist,
pp. 17–18; N&H, 3:257. Thurlow Weed, no mean judge, was enormously impressed by Lincoln’s assurance when he visited him in December. Glyndon G. Van Deusen,
Thurlow Weed: Wizard of the Lobby
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1947), p. 261.

S. Haycraft to AL, 13 Nov. 1860, H. Raymond to AL, 14 Nov. 1860, “True Patriot” to AL, 12 Nov. 1860, J. B. McKeehan to AL, 13 Nov. 1860, ALP;
CW,
4:134–35, 138–40 (the scriptural allusion is to Matthew 18:22).

CW,
4:130 (Luke 16:31), 141–42, 145–46 (Matthew 12:39, 16:1–4).

CW,
4:146, 160–61.

D. Davis to AL, 16 Nov. 1860, ALP; David M. Potter,
Lincoln
and
His
Party
in
the
Secession
Crisis
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1942), pp. 148, 154;
CW,
4:173.

N&H, 2:374.

CW,
4:152.

CW,
4:170.

J. B. McKeehan to AL, 13 Nov. 1860, ALP.

CW,
4:149–51, 154; Potter,
Lincoln and His Party,
pp. 159–60. Whether or not directly prompted by Lincoln himself, the Springfield
Illinois State Journal
(17 Dec. 1860) wholly endorsed his stance: “Let there be no wavering, no faltering now—no treacherous counsel—no base surrender of principle.”

N&H, 1:301–3;
RWAL,
pp. 253, 436.

CW,
4:172;
Lincoln’s Journalist,
p. 22.

Potter,
Lincoln and His Party,
p. 131; N&H, 3:280.

When a visiting New England manufacturer invoked the commercial harm and unemployment caused by the political uncertainty, Lincoln said bluntly that he was unwilling “to barter away the moral principle involved in this contest, for the commercial gain of a new submission to the South.” N&H, 3:279–82.

CW,
4:149–52, 160;
RWAL,
p. 193.

RWAL,
p. 436.

Seward’s intentions remain opaque, but many believed he was leaning toward conciliation, to the puzzlement and alarm of his erstwhile radical supporters.
Reminiscences of Carl Schurz,
3 vols. (New York: McClure, 1907–8), 2:211–12.

The plan’s chief purpose was to woo the loyal border states. Were the worst to happen and the measure were to pass, few thought slavery would thrive in New Mexico. David M. Potter,
The Impending Crisis, 1848
–1
861
(New York: Harper & Row, 1976), pp. 533–34.

CW,
4:172; Potter,
Lincoln and His Party,
p. 302; James Russell Lowell,
Political Essays
(London: Macmillan, 1888), p. 76; N&H, 3:227–33.

CW,
4:168–69.

RWAL,
p. 254;
Lincoln’s Journalist,
24; N&H, 3:289–93; Nicolay,
Oral History,
pp. 107–20.

RWAL,
p. 254;
Lincoln’s Journalist,
p. 32.

CW,
4:192, 199, 236, 240.

CW,
4:219–20;
Lincoln’s Journalist,
p. 33; Nicolay,
Oral History,
p. 110.

CW,
4:196.

Lincoln’s Journalist,
pp. 27, 40;
CW,
4:195, 236–37, 240–41.

CW,
4:193–94, 236–37.

CW,
4:262–71.

Philadelphia’s
Morning Pennsylvanian,
18 Feb., in Howard Cecil Perkins, ed.,
Northern Editorials on Secession,
2 vols. (1942; rept., Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith, 1964), 2:609.

Between February 4 and 28 secession was successively voted down in Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, and North Carolina. Unionists kept control in Maryland, Delaware, and Kentucky.

N&H, 3:319–23.

Western Christian Advocate
[Cincinnati], 13 March; Robert W. Johannsen,
Stephen A. Douglas
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1973), pp. 844–46.

See, for example,
Albany Atlas and Argus
(Douglasite),
New York Journal of Commerce
(Breckinridge), and the especially shrewd editorial of the
Providence Daily Post
(Douglas), in Perkins, ed.,
Northern Editorials,
2:628–29, 631–33, 645–47.

H. D. Faulkner to AL, 5 March, ALP.

E. D. Morgan to AL, 5 March, ALP; Perkins, ed.,
Northern Editorials,
2:618–24, 629–31, 638–42.

J. W. Forney to AL, 22 Nov. 1860, ALP;
Lincoln’s Journalist,
pp. 45–46, 50.

N&H, 3:368–69.

N&H, 3:370–72.

“One who loves his Country” to AL, 5 March, ALP.

The Diary of Orville H. Browning,
ed. Theodore Calvin Pease and James G. Randall, 2 vols. (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1925), 1:476.

HI,
p. 207; O. H. Browning, 26 March, ALP.

S. A. Hurlbut to AL, 27 March, W. H. Seward, Cabinet Memorandum, 29 March, ALP.

CW,
4:301, 321–24.

CW,
4:159, 164–65; J. A. Gilmer to AL, 9 March, N. Green to AL, 14 March, ALP.

HI,
pp. 400–1;
RWAL,
pp. 20, 207, 335;
DJH,
pp. 28, 285; Daniel W. Crofts,
Reluctant Confederates: Upper South Unionists in the Secession Crisis
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989), pp. 301–7.

Nicolay,
Oral History,
pp. 17–18; S. A. Hurlbut to AL, 27 March, ALP;
Diary of Browning,
1:453. Cf. O. H. Browning to AL, 26 March, ALP.

C. Schurz to AL, 5 April; J. H. Jordan to AL, 4, 5 April; “A Republican” to AL, 3 April, ALP;
CW,
4:317;
New York Times,
3 April, in Perkins, ed.,
Northern Editorials,
2:660–61.

CW,
4:317–18. Lincoln’s remarks, in a letter to Seward, were probably never sent.

Newburyport Herald,
25 March,
New York Times,
3 April,
Milwaukee Daily Wisconsin,
3 April, in Perkins, ed.,
Northern Editorials,
2:654–58, 661, 666–68; J. L. Hill to AL, 14 March, O. H. Browning to AL, 26 March, C. Schurz to AL, 5 April, J. H. Jordan to AL, 4 April, 5 April, Anonymous to AL, 10 April, ALP.

Columbus Daily Capital City,
22 March;
Troy Daily Whig,
4 April;
Cincinnati Daily Times,
3 April, in Perkins, ed.,
Northern Editorials,
2:652–53, 664–66, 668–71.

Columbus Daily Capital City,
22 March, in Perkins, ed.,
Northern Editorials,
2:653.

Dubuque Herald,
16 March, in Perkins, ed.,
Northern Editorials,
2:701.

O. H. Browning to AL, 18 April, E. B. Holmes to AL, 20 April, H. P. Tappan to AL, 19 April, J. Medill to AL, 15 April, J. M. Read to AL, 20 April, J. Allison to AL, April [n.d.], O. Ellsworth to AL, 19 April, ALP.

New York City Welsh Congregational Church to AL, 16 April, Philadelphia Presbyterian Church to AL, 16 April, L. A. Miller to AL, 16 April, A. J. Sessions to AL, 16 April, G. W. Woodruff to AL, 18 April, T. B. Gary to AL, 18 April, R. Dickerson to AL, 15 April, ALP;
Lincoln’s Journalist,
pp. 56–57.

I. N. Arnold to AL, 13 April, J. Medill to AL, 15 April, J. R. Doolittle to AL, 18 April, Philadelphia Citizens to AL, 15 April, T. B. Rodgers to AL, 18 April, E. B. Holmes to AL, 20 April, J. Hesser to AL, 15 April, R. M. Blatchford and M. H. Grinnell to AL, 15 April, L. Trumbull to AL, 21 April, ALP;
Lincoln’s Journalist,
p. 355; Douglas Fermer,
James Gordon Bennett and the New York Herald: A Study of Editorial Opinion in the Civil War Era
(New York: St. Martin’s, 1986), pp. 187–91.

O. Ellsworth to AL, 18 April, ALP;
New York Times,
15 April,
Buffalo Daily Courier,
16 April,
New York Evening Day-Book
[Breckinridge], 17 April, in Perkins, ed.,
Northern Editorials,
2:715–18.

Johannsen,
Douglas,
pp. 859–60.

Johannsen,
Douglas,
pp. 868–69.

Christopher Dell,
Lincoln and the War Democrats: The Grand Erosion of Conservative Tradition
(Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1975), pp. 59, 68–70; James A. Rawley,
The Politics of Union: Northern Politics During the Civil War
(1974; rept., Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1980), p. 34.

Robert W. Johannsen, ed.,
Letters of Stephen A. Douglas
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1961), p. 511; L. Trumbull to AL, 21 April, ALP; Frank L. Klement,
The Limits of Dissent: Clement L. Vallandigham and the Civil War
(Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1970), pp. 62–63.

Joel H. Silbey,
A Respectable Minority: The Democratic Party in the Civil War Era, 1860
–
1869
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1977), pp. 46, 49. The phrases are those of the New York Democrat Horatio Seymour.

Johannsen,
Douglas,
p. 859; T. Fitnam to AL, 28 Aug., ALP.

G. Koerner to AL, 17 May, C. H. Ray to AL, 20 May, ALP.

DJH,
p. 20;
CW,
4:426.

CW,
4:438–39.

CW,
4:433–39.

CW,
4:428–31.

J. W. Forney to AL, 4 Oct., R. W. Thompson to AL, 6 Oct., ALP;
Lincoln’s Journalist,
pp. 74–75.

AL to O. Browning, 22 Sept.;
CW,
4:532.

DJH,
pp. 4, 11; J. Henderson to AL, 13, 16 April, ALP.

Allan Nevins,
The War for the Union,
vol. 1:
The Improvised War
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1959), p. 86 [
New York Tribune
];
DJH,
p. 16; J. A. Dix to S. Cameron, 13 Sept., J. A. Dix to AL, 9 Oct., R. Johnson to AL, 7 Nov., ALP.