Details
LINCOLN, ABRAHAM, President. Autograph letter signed ("A.Lincoln") to Richard Yates, Springfield, [Illinois], 14 January 1855. 2 pages, 4to, 252 x 199 mm. (9 7/8 x 7 7/8 in.), integral blank, on blue bond paper, blank with recipient's docket and financial notations, discreetly silked.
LINCOLN'S LAST-MINUTE POLITICAL ARITHMETIC, IN HOPES OF WINNING THE
ILLINOIS SENATE SEAT FROM DOUGLAS AND SUPPORTERS OF THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT
A very significant letter to a close political ally, revealing Lincoln's political strategy on the eve of a crucial election, as he lobbies local politicians in hopes of securing an Illinois Senatorial seat. In November 1854 Lincoln had been reelected by the Springfield voters to the Illinois House of Representatives. But when it appeared that the Senate seat, held by James Sheields, a Democrat and supporter of Stephen A. Douglas, might be vulnerable, Lincoln promptly resigned from the legislature and energetically campaigned for the post. As he put it "I have got it in my head to be U.S. Senator" (letter to LeMaster, Basler 2:289).
The hotly contested race which resulted, though, was in many ways a local manifestation of a more momentous national debate. In 1854 Congress, largely at the instigation of Stephen A. Douglas, had overturned the Missouri Compromise -- which barred slavery from the new territories west of the Mississippi -- and substituted the formula of popular sovereignty, by which the voting inhabitants of the territories would determine for themselves whether to allow or prohibit slavery. This, "perhaps the most explosive piece of legislation ever passed by a U.S. Congress" (Neely, The Last Best Hope of Earth, 1993, p.34), galvanized Lincoln, Yates and others opposed to slavery's extension, fatally split the Democratic Party and led to the formation of the ReEublican Party. The issue also helped Lincoln, as he stumped against the Kansas-Nebraska Act, to crystallize and refine his own positions on these complex issues, as evidenced in the important addresses of this period, like that at Peoria. 16 October 1854: "Let us re-adopt the Declaration of Independence...If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union, but we shall have so saved it, as to make it, and keep it, forever worthy of the saving....").
Here, on the eve of the election, Lincoln writes: "Your letter of the 8th is just received. The [William K.] Bissell movement, of which you speak, I have had my eye upon, ever since before the commencement of the session, and it is now perhaps as dangerous a case as we have to play against. There is no danger of the A.N. [anti-Nebraska] men uniting on him; but the danger is that the Nebraska men, failing to do better, will turn to him en masse, and then a few A.N. men, wanting a pretext only, will join on him, pretending to believe him an A.N. man. He cannot get a single sincere Anti-Nebraska vote. At least, so I think.
"At the meeting of the Legislature we had 57 to their 43, nominally. But [William C.] Kinney did not attend, which left us only 56. Then [Albert H.] Trapp, of St. Clair went over, leaving us only 55, and raising them to 44. Next [Uri] Osgood of the Senate went over, reducing us to 54, and raising them to 45. It is now said that Kinney will be here soon, putting us up to 55 again, and so we stand nominally. What mines, and pitfalls they have under us we do not know; but we understand they claim to have 48 votes. If they have that number, it is only that they have already got some men whom we have all along suspected they would get; and we hope they have reached the bottom of the rotten material. In this too, we may be mistaken. This makes a squally case of it.
"As to myself personally, I may start with 20 or 25 votes; but I think I can, in a few ballots, get up to 48 if an election is not sooner made by the other side. But how I am to get the three additional votes I do not yet see. It seems to me the men those three votes are to come from will not go to the other side unless they should be led off on the Bissell track. If the election should be protracted, a general scrabble may ensue, and your chance will be as good as that of any other I suppose. It is said that Gov. [Joel Aldrich] Matteson is trying his hand [for the Senatorial seat]; and as his success would make a Governor of [Gustave] Koerner, he may be expected to favor this movement. I suppose the election will commence on the 31st and when it will end I am sure I have no idea. Very truly yours A. Lincoln."
Richard Yates (1815-1873), a Whig, had known Lincoln since 1835, served three terms in the Ligislature and had recently lost his House seat, partly due to his vocal opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. He, like Lincoln, was spoken of as a possible candidate for the Senate seat, although Lincoln was the Whigs favorite candidate. At this time, Senators were chosen not by popular ballot, but by the state legislatures. During the late fall, Lincoln worked tirelessly behind the scenes, as vividly portrayed in the present letter, to line up his support and to appraise the strengths and weaknesses of his potential rivals and opponents.
The election was held on February 8, at the State Capitol, with Mary Lincoln watching from the gallery. The next day, in a letter to E.B. Washburne, Lincoln gave an account of the contest: "I began with 44 votes, Shields [the incumbent Democrat] 41, and [Lyman] Trumbull [an Anti-Nebraska Democrat] 5 -- yet Trumbull was elected" (Basler 2:304). The problem, as Lincoln explained, was the "secret" candidacy of the Illinois Governor, Joel Matteson, a Democrat allied to Stephen A. Douglas. In the end, Lincoln recounted, "My larger number of friends had to surrender, to Trumbull's smaller number, in order to prevent the election of Matteson, which would have been a Douglas victory." Lincoln released his delegates and on the 10th ballot, Trumbull won. "I could not...let the whole political result go to ruin, on a point merely personal to myself...I have to content myself with the honor of having been the first choice of a large majority of the...members who finally made the election" (Lincoln to Henderson, Basler 2:306). To Washburne, Lincoln confided, "It is a great consolation" to know that the Douglas camp of pro-Nebraska men had been "worse whipped than I am" (Basler 2"306). The present letter is not in Basler, but appears in Richard Yates, Civil War Governor ed. J.H. Krenkel, 1966, pp.113-114.
LINCOLN'S LAST-MINUTE POLITICAL ARITHMETIC, IN HOPES OF WINNING THE
ILLINOIS SENATE SEAT FROM DOUGLAS AND SUPPORTERS OF THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT
A very significant letter to a close political ally, revealing Lincoln's political strategy on the eve of a crucial election, as he lobbies local politicians in hopes of securing an Illinois Senatorial seat. In November 1854 Lincoln had been reelected by the Springfield voters to the Illinois House of Representatives. But when it appeared that the Senate seat, held by James Sheields, a Democrat and supporter of Stephen A. Douglas, might be vulnerable, Lincoln promptly resigned from the legislature and energetically campaigned for the post. As he put it "I have got it in my head to be U.S. Senator" (letter to LeMaster, Basler 2:289).
The hotly contested race which resulted, though, was in many ways a local manifestation of a more momentous national debate. In 1854 Congress, largely at the instigation of Stephen A. Douglas, had overturned the Missouri Compromise -- which barred slavery from the new territories west of the Mississippi -- and substituted the formula of popular sovereignty, by which the voting inhabitants of the territories would determine for themselves whether to allow or prohibit slavery. This, "perhaps the most explosive piece of legislation ever passed by a U.S. Congress" (Neely, The Last Best Hope of Earth, 1993, p.34), galvanized Lincoln, Yates and others opposed to slavery's extension, fatally split the Democratic Party and led to the formation of the ReEublican Party. The issue also helped Lincoln, as he stumped against the Kansas-Nebraska Act, to crystallize and refine his own positions on these complex issues, as evidenced in the important addresses of this period, like that at Peoria. 16 October 1854: "Let us re-adopt the Declaration of Independence...If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union, but we shall have so saved it, as to make it, and keep it, forever worthy of the saving....").
Here, on the eve of the election, Lincoln writes: "Your letter of the 8th is just received. The [William K.] Bissell movement, of which you speak, I have had my eye upon, ever since before the commencement of the session, and it is now perhaps as dangerous a case as we have to play against. There is no danger of the A.N. [anti-Nebraska] men uniting on him; but the danger is that the Nebraska men, failing to do better, will turn to him en masse, and then a few A.N. men, wanting a pretext only, will join on him, pretending to believe him an A.N. man. He cannot get a single sincere Anti-Nebraska vote. At least, so I think.
"At the meeting of the Legislature we had 57 to their 43, nominally. But [William C.] Kinney did not attend, which left us only 56. Then [Albert H.] Trapp, of St. Clair went over, leaving us only 55, and raising them to 44. Next [Uri] Osgood of the Senate went over, reducing us to 54, and raising them to 45. It is now said that Kinney will be here soon, putting us up to 55 again, and so we stand nominally. What mines, and pitfalls they have under us we do not know; but we understand they claim to have 48 votes. If they have that number, it is only that they have already got some men whom we have all along suspected they would get; and we hope they have reached the bottom of the rotten material. In this too, we may be mistaken. This makes a squally case of it.
"As to myself personally, I may start with 20 or 25 votes; but I think I can, in a few ballots, get up to 48 if an election is not sooner made by the other side. But how I am to get the three additional votes I do not yet see. It seems to me the men those three votes are to come from will not go to the other side unless they should be led off on the Bissell track. If the election should be protracted, a general scrabble may ensue, and your chance will be as good as that of any other I suppose. It is said that Gov. [Joel Aldrich] Matteson is trying his hand [for the Senatorial seat]; and as his success would make a Governor of [Gustave] Koerner, he may be expected to favor this movement. I suppose the election will commence on the 31st and when it will end I am sure I have no idea. Very truly yours A. Lincoln."
Richard Yates (1815-1873), a Whig, had known Lincoln since 1835, served three terms in the Ligislature and had recently lost his House seat, partly due to his vocal opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. He, like Lincoln, was spoken of as a possible candidate for the Senate seat, although Lincoln was the Whigs favorite candidate. At this time, Senators were chosen not by popular ballot, but by the state legislatures. During the late fall, Lincoln worked tirelessly behind the scenes, as vividly portrayed in the present letter, to line up his support and to appraise the strengths and weaknesses of his potential rivals and opponents.
The election was held on February 8, at the State Capitol, with Mary Lincoln watching from the gallery. The next day, in a letter to E.B. Washburne, Lincoln gave an account of the contest: "I began with 44 votes, Shields [the incumbent Democrat] 41, and [Lyman] Trumbull [an Anti-Nebraska Democrat] 5 -- yet Trumbull was elected" (Basler 2:304). The problem, as Lincoln explained, was the "secret" candidacy of the Illinois Governor, Joel Matteson, a Democrat allied to Stephen A. Douglas. In the end, Lincoln recounted, "My larger number of friends had to surrender, to Trumbull's smaller number, in order to prevent the election of Matteson, which would have been a Douglas victory." Lincoln released his delegates and on the 10th ballot, Trumbull won. "I could not...let the whole political result go to ruin, on a point merely personal to myself...I have to content myself with the honor of having been the first choice of a large majority of the...members who finally made the election" (Lincoln to Henderson, Basler 2:306). To Washburne, Lincoln confided, "It is a great consolation" to know that the Douglas camp of pro-Nebraska men had been "worse whipped than I am" (Basler 2"306). The present letter is not in Basler, but appears in Richard Yates, Civil War Governor ed. J.H. Krenkel, 1966, pp.113-114.
Further details
The Property of
A Descendant of Governor RICHARD YATES (1815-1873)
A Descendant of Governor RICHARD YATES (1815-1873)