The Life and Writings of Abraham Lincoln (83 page)

Nathaniel Grigsby was the brother of Aaron, whom Lincoln’s sister had married in 1826. She died in childbirth shortly afterwards. Part of the Grigsby family had moved to Missouri, and Lincoln writes to Nathaniel there.

Springfield, Illinois, September 20, 1860

M
Y
D
EAR
S
IR
: Your letter of July 19th was received only a few days ago having been mailed by your brother at Gentryville, Ind., on the 12th of the month. A few days ago, Gov. Wood of Quincy told me he saw you, and that you said you had written me. I had not then received your letter.

Of our three families who removed from Indiana together, my father, Squire Hall, and John D. Johnston, are dead, and all the rest of us are yet living, of course the younger ones are grown up, marriages contracted and new ones born. I have three boys now, the oldest of which is seventeen years of age.

There is now a Republican electoral ticket in Missouri, so that you can vote for me if your neighbors will let you. I would advise you not to get into any trouble about it. Give my kindest regards to your brother Charlie. Within the present year I have had two letters from John Gorden, who is living somewhere in Missouri, I forget exactly where, and he says his father and mother are still living near him.

Lincoln admits that he had never had much to do with ladies—not even to write to them.

Springfield, Illinois, September 22, 1860

M
Y
D
EAR
M
ADAM
: Your kind congratulatory letter, of August, was received in due course, and should have been answered sooner. The truth is I have never corresponded much with ladies; and hence I postpone writing letters to them, as a business which I do not understand. I can only say now I thank you for the good opinion you express of me, fearing, at the same time, I may not be able to maintain it through life.

(
Private
)

A little girl in Westfield, New York, had written to the President-elect to suggest that he let his whiskers grow so as to appear more dignified for his new position. He writes to tell her about his family, and he queries the whiskers suggestion. When the train bearing him to Washington as President-elect stopped for a moment at Westfield, Lincoln asked for Grace Bedell. She was brought to the train and there was kissed by the newly whiskered man.

Springfield, Illinois, October 19, 1860

M
Y
D
EAR
L
ITTLE
M
ISS
: Your very agreeable letter of the 15th is received. I regret the necessity of saying I have no daughter. I have three sons—one seventeen, one nine, and one seven years of age. They, with their mother, constitute my whole family. As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affectation if I were to begin it now?

(
Private and confidential
)

As election day approached, it became more and more evident that the South was determined to resist forcibly the election of a Republican President. For months Southern sympathizers in important Federal offices had been shipping arms and war material from Northern armories and arsenals to Southern ones. Threats of secession were made openly and, as is indicated in this letter, army officers of Southern birth were announcing their intention to desert. Lincoln here writes to Hunter asking for confirmation of such rumors.

Springfield, Illinois, October 26, 1860

M
Y
D
EAR
S
IR
: Your very kind letter of the 20th was duly received, for which please accept my thanks. I have another letter, from a writer unknown to me, saying the officers of the army at Fort Kearny have determined, in case of Republican success at the approaching Presidential election, to take themselves, and the arms at that point, South, for the purpose of resistance to the government. While I think there are many chances to one that this is a humbug, it occurs to me that any real movement of this sort in the army would leak out and
become known to you. In such case, if it would not be unprofessional or dishonorable (of which you are to be judge), I shall be much obliged if you will apprise me of it.

(
Private and confidential
)

Lincoln writes to George D. Prentice, editor of the Louisville Journal, to assure him that his conservative views had been expressed again and again in the Republican platform and in his debates with Douglas which had been printed in hook form. On the original of this letter an endorsement in Lincoln’s handwriting appears on the back: “(Confidential). The within letter was written on the day of its date, and on reflection withheld till now. It expresses the views I still entertain.”

Springfield, Illinois, October 29, 1860

M
Y
D
EAR
S
IR
: Yours of the 26th is just received. Your suggestion that I in a certain event shall write a letter setting forth my conservative views and intentions is certainly a very worthy one. But would it do any good? If I were to labor a month I could not express my conservative views and intentions more clearly and strongly than they are expressed in our platform and in my many speeches already in print and before the public. And yet even you, who do occasionally speak of me in terms of personal kindness, give no prominence to these oft-repeated expressions of conservative views and intentions, but busy yourself with appeals to all conservative men to vote for Douglas—to vote any way which can possibly defeat me—thus impressing your readers that you think I am the very worst man living. If what I have already said has failed to convince you, no repetition of it would convince you. The writing of your letter, now before me, gives assurance that you
would publish such a letter from me as you suggest; but, till now, what reason had I to suppose the
Louisville Journal
, even, would publish a repetition of that which is already at its command, and which it does not press upon the public attention?

And now, my friend—for such I esteem you personally—do not misunderstand me. I have not decided that I will not do substantially what you suggest. I will not forbear from doing so merely on punctilio and pluck. If I do finally abstain, it will be because of apprehension that it would do harm. For the good men of the South—and I regard the majority of them as such—I have no objection to repeat seventy and seven times. But I have bad men to deal with, both North and South; men who are eager for something new upon which to base new misrepresentations; men who would like to frighten me, or at least to fix upon me the character of timidity and cowardice. They would seize upon almost any letter I could write as being an “awful coming down.” I intend keeping my eye upon these gentlemen, and to not unnecessarily put any weapons in their hands.

(
Confidential
)

On November 6, Abraham Lincoln had been elected President of the United States, and on the same ticket with him, Hannibal Hamlin had been elected Vice President. The two men had never met. Lincoln writes to arrange an interview with Hamlin in Chicago.

Springfield, Illinois, November 8, 1860

M
Y
D
EAR
S
IR
: I am anxious for a personal interview with you at as early a day as possible. Can you, without much inconvenience,
meet me at Chicago? If you can, please name as early a day as you conveniently can, and telegraph me, unless there be sufficient time before the day named to communicate by mail.

Lincoln was determined to make no statements of policy during the dangerous period between his election and his inauguration. He explains here his reasons for maintaining this attitude. The financial depression to which he refers was caused by the fact that trade between the North and the South had come to a standstill.

(
Private and confidential
)

Springfield, Illinois, November 10, 1860

M
Y
D
EAR
S
IR
: This is intended as a strictly private letter to you.… It is with the most profound appreciation of your motive, and highest respect for your judgment, too, that I feel constrained, for the present at least, to make no declaration for the public.

First. I could say nothing which I have not already said, and which is in print, and open for the inspection of all. To press a repetition of this upon those who have listened, is useless; to press it upon those who have refused to listen, and still refuse, would be wanting in self-respect, and would have an appearance of sycophancy and timidity which would excite the contempt of good men and encourage bad ones to clamor the more loudly.

I am not insensible to any commercial or financial depression that may exist, but nothing is to be gained by fawning around the “respectable scoundrels” who got it up. Let them go to work and repair the mischief of their own making, and then perhaps they will be less greedy to do the like again.

After a long silence, Lincoln renews his correspondence with his old friend Joshua Speed, and writes to suggest that Speed meet him in Chicago where he was going to confer with Hannibal Hamlin.

Springfield, Illinois, November 19, 1860

D
EAR
S
PEED
: Yours of the 14th is received. I shall be at Chicago Thursday the 22nd. Inst, and one or two succeeding days. Could you not meet me there?

Mary thinks of going with me; and therefore I suggest that Mrs. S. accompany you.

Please let this be private, as I prefer a very great crowd should not gather at Chicago.

Respects to Mrs. S.

Your friend, as ever,  

A. L
INCOLN

These two letters, one of which is a formal message informing Seward that he is to be appointed Secretary of State, and the other an informal letter graciously assuring Seward of the sincerity of Lincoln’s intentions, were not sent directly to Seward. Lincoln cautiously forwarded them to Hannibal Hamlin with a covering note which said: “Consult with Judge Trumbull; and if you and he see no reason to the contrary, deliver the letter to Governor Seward at once. If you see reason to the contrary, write me at once”

Springfield, Illinois, December 8, 1860

M
Y
D
EAR
S
IR
: With your permission I shall at the proper time nominate you to the Senate for confirmation as Secretary
of State for the United States. Please let me hear from you at your own earliest convenience.

(
Private and confidential
)

Springfield, Illinois, December 8, 1860

M
Y
D
EAR
S
IR
: In addition to the accompanying and more formal note inviting you to take charge of the State Department, I deem it proper to address you this. Rumors have got into the newspapers to the effect that the department named above would be tendered you as a compliment, and with the expectation that you would decline it. I beg you to be assured that I have said nothing to justify these rumors. On the contrary, it has been my purpose, from the day of the nomination at Chicago, to assign you, by your leave, this place in the administration. I have delayed so long to communicate that purpose in deference to what appeared to me a proper caution in the case. Nothing has been developed to change my view in the premises; and I now offer you the place in the hope that you will accept it, and with the belief that your position in the public eye, your integrity, ability, learning, and great experience, all combine to render it an appointment preëminently fit to be made.

One word more. In regard to the patronage sought with so much eagerness and jealousy, I have prescribed for myself the maxim, “Justice to all”; and I earnestly beseech your coöperation in keeping the maxim good.

(
Private and confidential
)

Talk of arriving at a last-minute compromise with the South reached its height during December, 1860. The President-elect, however
,
was firmly determined to allow no compromise on the matter of extending slavery from the states in which it already existed to new territories. He writes here to Trumbull to state his position and points out the still-present danger of popular sovereignty being used as an opening wedge to extend slavery.

Springfield, Illinois, December 10, 1860

M
Y
D
EAR
S
IR
: Let there be no compromise on the question of extending slavery. If there be, all our labor is lost, and, ere long, must be done again. The dangerous ground—that into which some of our friends have a hankering to run—is Pop. Sov. Have none of it. Stand firm. The tug has to come, and better now than any time hereafter.

In a brief letter which comes directly to the point, Lincoln writes to E. B. Washburne, Illinois Congressman, to tell him to stand firm on the matter of compromise. Eli Thayer was a Massachusetts abolitionist who had organized the Emigrant Aid Society to send anti-slavery settlers into Kansas. In 1860 he was working with Horace Greeley to establish what he called “real popular sovereignty.”

(
Private and confidential
)

Springfield, Illinois, December 13, 1860

M
Y
D
EAR
S
IR
: Yours of the 10th is received. Prevent, as far as possible, any of our friends from demoralizing themselves and our cause by entertaining propositions for compromise of any sort on “slavery extension.” There is no possible compromise upon it but which puts us under again, and leaves all our work to do over again. Whether it be a Missouri line
or Eli Thayer’s popular sovereignty, it is all the same. Let either be done, and immediately filibustering and extending slavery recommences. On that point hold firm, as with a chain of steel.