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THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
LINCOLN, Abraham (1809-1865), President. Autograph letter signed ("A. Lincoln"), as Member of Congress, to Grant Goodrich, Peoria, Illinois, 18 April 1847. 1 page, 4to, autograph address panel on verso.
细节
LINCOLN, Abraham (1809-1865), President. Autograph letter signed ("A. Lincoln"), as Member of Congress, to Grant Goodrich, Peoria, Illinois, 18 April 1847. 1 page, 4to, autograph address panel on verso.
"PAINFUL AND PLEASANT WAR NEWS" FROM MEXICO DURING LINCOLN'S TERM IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
A fine letter from Lincoln's one term in Congress, mentioning the Mexican War. "Yours of the 24th March was received in due course; but being so busy with my own court, with preparations to go on the circuit, and with the 'pleasant and painful' war-news, I have neglected an answer till now. Not to be tedious, I concur with you entirely in your inclination to take no further testimony in New York. Bring down with you to court, all the home testimony you can, on all the points, and let the cases rest upon that. This, of course, is to depend upon whether you discover any new facts, which may make it proper to take testimony in New York." The "pleasant and painful" Mexican war news to which Lincoln refers is most likely the capitulation of Vera Cruz after Winfield Scott's three week siege that culminated in the surrender of the city on 27 March 1847. On 17 April--one day prior to Lincoln's letter--Scott also won the battle of Cerro Gordo, but news of that had probably not yet reached him. As a solid Whig man, Lincoln opposed the Mexican War, viewing it as an improper war of conquest, waged with flimsy justifications by Democratic President Polk. Lincoln was still doing legal business in Peoria because the 30th Congress--to which he was elected in September 1846--did not meet until December 1847. But even his short time on the national political stage ignited a burning ambition for greater office that would never be extinguished. Ironically, the Mexican War created the political conditions that made his later rise possible. The acquisition of Mexican territory intensified the debate over the expansion of slavery, and Lincoln's own Whig Party would break apart between pro- and anti-slavery factions and open the way for the emergence of the Republicans.
After Lincoln's death Goodrich remembered the case Lincoln writes about here, saying "Lincoln in closing the case made the best jury argument I ever heard him make. Judge Pope said it was one of the best he ever heard" (Goodrich to Herndon, 9 Dec. 1866, LOC). Published in Basler, First Supplement, 10:9-10.
"PAINFUL AND PLEASANT WAR NEWS" FROM MEXICO DURING LINCOLN'S TERM IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
A fine letter from Lincoln's one term in Congress, mentioning the Mexican War. "Yours of the 24th March was received in due course; but being so busy with my own court, with preparations to go on the circuit, and with the 'pleasant and painful' war-news, I have neglected an answer till now. Not to be tedious, I concur with you entirely in your inclination to take no further testimony in New York. Bring down with you to court, all the home testimony you can, on all the points, and let the cases rest upon that. This, of course, is to depend upon whether you discover any new facts, which may make it proper to take testimony in New York." The "pleasant and painful" Mexican war news to which Lincoln refers is most likely the capitulation of Vera Cruz after Winfield Scott's three week siege that culminated in the surrender of the city on 27 March 1847. On 17 April--one day prior to Lincoln's letter--Scott also won the battle of Cerro Gordo, but news of that had probably not yet reached him. As a solid Whig man, Lincoln opposed the Mexican War, viewing it as an improper war of conquest, waged with flimsy justifications by Democratic President Polk. Lincoln was still doing legal business in Peoria because the 30th Congress--to which he was elected in September 1846--did not meet until December 1847. But even his short time on the national political stage ignited a burning ambition for greater office that would never be extinguished. Ironically, the Mexican War created the political conditions that made his later rise possible. The acquisition of Mexican territory intensified the debate over the expansion of slavery, and Lincoln's own Whig Party would break apart between pro- and anti-slavery factions and open the way for the emergence of the Republicans.
After Lincoln's death Goodrich remembered the case Lincoln writes about here, saying "Lincoln in closing the case made the best jury argument I ever heard him make. Judge Pope said it was one of the best he ever heard" (Goodrich to Herndon, 9 Dec. 1866, LOC). Published in Basler, First Supplement, 10:9-10.