Abraham Lincoln: A Life, Volume 1

by Michael Burlingame

67. Herndon to Charles Sumner, Springfield, 24 Apr. 1858, Sumner Papers, Harvard University; Herndon to Theodore Parker, Springfield, 27 Apr. 1858, Herndon-Parker Papers, University of Iowa; Herndon to Trumbull, Springfield, 24 Apr. 1858, Lyman Trumbull Papers, DLC.

  68. Lincoln to E. B. Washburne, Urbana, 26 Apr. 1858, CWL, 2:444.

  69. Herndon to Charles Sumner, Springfield, 24 Apr. 1858, Sumner Papers, Harvard University.

  70. Lincoln to Samuel Wilkinson, Springfield, 10 June 1858, CWL, 2:458.

  71. Lincoln to Lyman Trumbull, Springfield, 23 June 1858, ibid., 2:471–472.

  72. Herndon to Trumbull, Springfield, 19 Feb. 1858, Lyman Trumbull Papers, DLC.

  73. Herndon to Trumbull, Springfield, 24 June, 8 July 1858, ibid.

  74. Illinois State Register (Springfield), 29 Oct. 1858.

  75. Josh Whitmore to W. H. L. Wallace, Pontiac, 5 June 1858, Isabel Wallace, Life and Letters of General W. H. L. Wallace (Chicago: R. R. Donnelley, 1909), 82–83.

  76. Lincoln to Lovejoy, Springfield, 8 Mar. 1858, CWL, 2:435.

  77. Lincoln to Lamon, Springfield, 11 June 1858, ibid., 2:458.

  78. “A Republican” to the editor of the Chicago Press and Tribune, Bloomington, 8 June 1858, Basler, ed., Collected Works of Lincoln, First Supplement, 31.

  79. Henry C. Whitney, Life on the Circuit with Lincoln, ed. Paul M. Angle (1892; Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton, 1940), 411.

  80. Clifton H. Moore to Lincoln, Clinton, 10 Aug. 1858, AL MSS DLC.

  81. Dickey to Lincoln, Ottawa, 19 Nov. 1854, ibid.

  82. Lincoln to Washburne, Springfield, 15 May 1858, CWL, 2:447.

  83. Lincoln to Josiah M. Lucas, Springfield, 10 May 1858, ibid., 2:445.

  84. Lincoln to Washburne, Springfield, 27 May 1858, ibid., 2:455.

  85. Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 17 June 1858; Bloomington Pantagraph, n.d., in Ida M. Tarbell, The Life of Abraham Lincoln (2 vols.; New York: McClure, 1902), 1:305.

  86. Bloomington Pantagraph, n.d., quoted ibid., 1:304–305.

  87. Chicago Press and Tribune, 14 June 1858, copied in the Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 16 June 1858.

  88. Herndon to Weik, Springfield, 1 Jan. 1886, H-W MSS DLC.

  89. Charles M. Wiltse, ed., The Papers of Daniel Webster: Speeches and Formal Writings (2 vols.; Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1986), 1:287.

  90. Chicago Times, n.d., copied in the Illinois State Register (Springfield), 26 June 1858; Pittsfield Democrat, n.d., copied in the Quincy Daily Herald, 20 July 1858; Beardstown correspondence, 11 Aug. 1858, Chicago Times, n.d., in Paul M. Angle, ed., Created Equal? The Complete Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958), 92.

  91. Wiltse, ed., Speeches of Webster, 1:347.

  92. CWL, 2:461–469.

  93. Joseph Gillespie to William Herndon, Edwardsville, 31 Jan. 1866, HI, 183.

  94. Cincinnati speech, 17 Sept. 1859, CWL, 3:451.

  95. Richmond Enquirer, 6 May 1856.

  96. Richmond Enquirer, n.d., quoted in J. to the editor, n.d., Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 13 Oct. 1858.

  97. New York Evening Post, 11 Mar. 1864.

  98. Quoted in Arthur C. Cole, “Lincoln’s House Divided Speech: Did It Reflect a Doctrine of Class Struggle?” (pamphlet; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1923), 33.

  99. Jackson Mississippian, 20 Oct. 1854, copied in the Alton Weekly Courier, 30 Nov. 1854, ibid.

  100. Goodell, “What They Would Do If They Could,” December 1835, quoted in Jonathan A. Glickstein, “The Chattelization of Northern Whites: An Evolving Abolitionist Warning,” American Nineteenth Century History 4 (2003):48.

  101. Russell B. Nye, Fettered Freedom: Civil Liberties and the Slavery Controversy, 1830–1860 (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1963), 287.

  102. Concord Independent Democrat, 29 Apr. 1847, quoted in Catherine Newbold, “The Antislavery Background of the Principal State Department Appointees in the Lincoln Administration” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1962), 211.

  103. Speech of 30 Oct. 1854, John W. Blassingame, ed., The Frederick Douglass Papers, Series One: Speeches, Debates, and Interviews (5 vols.; New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1979–1992), 2:544.

  104. Speech of February 18 in New York, New York Tribune, 20 Feb. 1854.

  105. Congressional Globe, 33rd Congress, 1st session, appendix, 764 (speech of 25 May 1854).

  106. Theodore Parker, “A Sermon on the Dangers which Threaten the Rights of Man in America, Preached at the Music Hall, on Sunday, July 2, 1854” (pamphlet; Boston: Benjamin B. Mussey, 1854), 31.

  107. New York Tribune, 1854, quoted in Henry Luther Stoddard, Horace Greeley: Printer, Editor, Crusader (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1946), 165.

  108. Herndon to Wendell Phillips, Springfield, 9 Mar. 1857, Phillips Papers, Harvard University.

  109. Washington correspondence by James Shepherd Pike, 28 May and 18 Dec. 1856, New York Tribune, 2 June and 20 Dec. 1856.

  110. George F. Talbot to Pike, 5 Feb. 1857, in Robert Franklin Durden, James Shepherd Pike: Republicanism and the American Negro, 1850–1882 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1957), 28.

  111. Speech at Rochester, New York, 25 Oct. 1858, in Frederic Bancroft, The Life of William H. Seward (2 vols.; New York: Harper & Brothers, 1900), 1:458-459.

  112. The Works of Daniel Webster (6 vols.; Boston: Little, Brown, 1853), 2:546.

  113. John Parrish, Remarks on the Slavery of the Black People, Addressed to the Citizens of the United States, Particularly to Those Who Are in Legislative or Executive Stations in the General or State Governments, and also to Such Individuals as Hold Them in Bondage (Philadelphia: Kimber, Conrad, 1806), 9.

  114. Letter dated 25 Mar. 1852, Anti-Slavery Standard, n.d., quoted in Allan Nevins, The Ordeal of the Union (2 vols.; New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1947), 2:78.

  115. Parker, “Sermon on the Dangers which Threaten the Rights of Man,” 27.

  116. Edward B. Bryan, The Rightful Remedy: Addressed to Slaveholders of the South (Charleston, SC: Walker & James, 1850), 111.

  117. Wendell Phillips Garrison and Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805–1879: The Story of His Life, Told by His Children (4 vols.; New York: Century, 1889), 3:420.

  118. Stowe, “An Appeal to the Women of the Free States of America on the Present Crisis in Our Country,” New York Tribune, 20 Feb. 1854.

  119. Theodore Parker to Gerrit Smith, Rome, Italy, 16 Feb. 1860, May Anti-Slavery Manuscript Collection, Cornell University.

  120. Lyman Trumbull, speech in Chicago, 7 Aug. 1858, National Era (Washington), 2 Sept. 1858.

  121. Fragment: Notes for Speeches, [ca. 21 Aug. 1858], CWL, 2:548–549.

  122. Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 18 June 1858.

  123. Burlington Free Press, 26 June 1858, in William Francis Hanna, “Abraham Lincoln and the New England Press, 1858–1860” (Ph.D. dissertation, Boston College, 1980), 17.

  124. Herndon to Theodore Parker, Springfield, 8 July 1858, Herndon-Parker Papers, University of Iowa.

  125. New Orleans Delta, n.d., copied in the Chicago Press and Tribune, 5 July 1858.

  126. New York Tribune, 24 June and 12 July 1858.

  127. [Greeley] to [Joseph Medill?], New York, 24 July 1858, copy in Lincoln’s hand, AL MSS DLC.

  128. Albany Evening Journal, 6 June 1860.

  129. W. P. Boyd to John J. Crittenden, Bloomington, 17 July 1858, Crittenden Papers, DLC.

  130. “Samuel C. Parks’s Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln,” ed. Le Roy H. Fischer, Lincoln Herald 68 (1966):11–12.

  131. Leonard Swett to Herndon, Chicago, 17 Jan. 1866, HI, 163.

  132. Page proofs of an undated interview with White, White Papers, IHi.

  133. John Locke Scripps to Lincoln, Chicago, 22 June 1858, AL MSS DLC.

  134. Lincoln to John L. Scripps, Springfield, 23 June 1858, CWL, 2:471.

  135. Chicago Times, 23 June 1858.

  136. Fr
eeport Weekly Bulletin, 26 Aug. 1858; Illinois State Register (Springfield), 26, 28 and 29 June 1858, 30 July 1860.

  137. Medill to Lincoln, Chicago, 23 June 1858; Whitney to Lincoln, Chicago, 23 June 1858; O. R. Winters to Lincoln, Marion, 3 Sept. 1858, AL MSS DLC.

  138. Lincoln to Medill, Springfield, 25 June 1858, CWL, 2:473–474.

  139. Chicago Press and Tribune, 14 July 1858.

  140. Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 25 June 1858; Alton Courier, 3 July 1858.

  141. Springfield correspondence, 21 June, Utica, New York, Herald, 27 June 1860, copied in the New York Tribune, 9 July 1860.

  142. Lincoln to Trumbull, Springfield, 23 June 1858, CWL, 2:472.

  143. Herndon to Trumbull, Springfield, 8 July 1858, Lyman Trumbull Papers, DLC.

  144. Ezra Prince, “A Day and a Night with Abraham Lincoln,” p. 10, H-W MSS DLC.

  145. John W. Forney, Anecdotes of Public Men (2 vols.; New York: Harper & Brothers, 1881), 2:179.

  146. William Dickson, “A Leaf from the Unwritten History of the Rebellion,” draft, William Dickson Papers, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan.

  147. Chicago Press and Tribune, 17 July 1858.

  148. John R. Ridge to Douglas, Marysville, California, 19 Sept. 1858, Douglas Papers, University of Chicago.

  149. Douglas’s speech in Angle, ed., Created Equal?, 12–25.

  150. Chicago Press and Tribune, 21, 12 and 15 July 1858.

  151. Lincoln to Gustave Koerner, Springfield, 15 July 1858, CWL, 2:502.

  152. Chicago Press and Tribune, 12 July 1858.

  153. Reminiscences of a Dr. [William K. ?] McElfresh, Western Christian Advocate (Cincinnati), n.d., copied in the Weekly Journal (Jacksonville), 3 July 1901.

  154. Reminiscences of Francis A. Eastman, Chicago Journal, 12 Feb. 1909.

  155. Letter by “A Republican,” Chicago, 14 July 1858, Chicago Press and Tribune, 16 July 1858.

  156. Percy Coe Eggleston, Lincoln in New England (New London, CT: Tudor Press, 1943), 21.

  157. CWL, 2:484–502.

  158. New York Tribune, 15 and 16 July 1858; New York Times, 16 July 1858; New York Herald, 14 and 16 July 1858; Bangor Courier, 27 July 1858, in Hanna, “Lincoln and the New England Press,” 19.

  159. Elgin Gazette, n.d., copied in the Illinois State Register (Springfield), 8 Oct. 1858.

  160. Abraham Smith to Lincoln, Ridge Farm, Illinois, 20 July 1858, AL MSS DLC.

  161. Chicago Journal, 12 July 1858.

  162. Chicago Press and Tribune, 12 July 1858.

  163. Joseph Medill to Lincoln, Chicago, 10 Sept. 1859, AL MSS DLC.

  164. Illinois State Register (Springfield), 14 July 1858.

  165. Chicago Weekly Times, 15, 22 July, 12 Aug. 1858.

  166. Boston Courier, n.d., copied ibid., 22 July 1858.

  167. Madison, Wisconsin, Argus, n.d., copied ibid., 22 July 1858.

  168. Timothy D. Lincoln to Lincoln, Cincinnati, 17 July 1858, AL MSS DLC.

  169. Ray to Lincoln, Norwich, New York, 27 July 1858, ibid.

  170. John Mathers to Lincoln, Jacksonville, 19 July 1858, ibid.

  171. Judd to Trumbull, Chicago, 16 July 1858, Lyman Trumbull Papers, DLC.

  172. The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (3 vols.; New York: McClure, 1907–1908), 2:90–91.

  173. Chicago Press and Tribune, 11 Oct. 1858.

  174. Ward Hill Lamon, Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, 1847–1865, ed. Dorothy Lamon Teillard (2nd ed.; Washington, DC: privately published, 1911), 22.

  175. Political Debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas (Cleveland: Burrows Brothers, 1894), 39, 37.

  176. Bloomington Pantagraph, 17 July 1858.

  177. Douglas’s speech at Springfield, 17 July 1858, in Angle, ed., Created Equal?, 62–65, and in the Indiana State Sentinel (Indianapolis), 22 July 1858.

  178. Chicago Journal, 22 July 1858.

  179. CWL, 2:504–521.

  180. Unsigned, undated article “for the Register,” Illinois State Register (Springfield), 28 July 1858.

  181. Letter by “Sangamon,” Springfield, 19 July 1858, Chicago Press and Tribune, 20 July 1858.

  182. Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 19 and 20 July 1858.

  183. Springfield correspondence, 21 July, Alton Weekly Courier, 29 July 1858.

  184. Lincoln to Gustave Koerner, Springfield, 6 August 1858, Roy P. Basler and Christian O. Basler, eds., Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Second Supplement (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1990), 16; Lincoln to Daniel A. Cheever, Springfield, 11 Aug. 1858, CWL, 8:415.

  185. Louisville Journal, 24 Aug. 1858, copied in the Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 30 Aug. 1858.

  186. Louisville Democrat, n.d., copied in the Indiana State Sentinel (Indianapolis), 8 Sept. 1858.

  187. J. H. Jordan to Lincoln, Cincinnati, 25 July 1858, AL MSS DLC.

  188. Greeley to Joseph Medill, New York, 24 July 1858, John G. Nicolay and John Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History (10 vols.; New York: Century, 1890), 2:140–141n.

  189. Illinois State Register (Springfield), 22, 23 July 1858.

  190. Fragment on pro-slavery theology, [11 Oct. 1858?], CWL, 3:204–205.

  191. Lincoln to Charles H. Fisher, Springfield, 27 Aug. 1860, CWL, 4:101.

  192. [Henry Binmore], Beardstown correspondence, 11 Aug., Missouri Republican (St. Louis), 16 Aug. 1858; Beardstown correspondence, 10 Aug., Chicago Weekly Times, 19 Aug. 1858; Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 17 Aug. 1858; Chicago Press and Tribune, 18 Aug. 1858; Beardstown correspondence by T., 11 Aug. 1858, Chicago Press and Tribune, 16 Aug. 1858.

  193. Havana correspondence, 13 Aug., Chicago Press and Tribune, 20 Aug. 1858; Havana correspondence, 14 Aug., and Bath correspondence, 12 Aug., Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 20 and 21 Aug. 1858.

  194. Lewistown correspondence, 16 Aug., Chicago Press and Tribune, 19 Aug. 1858.

  195. Peoria Democratic Union, n.d., quoted in the Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 23 Aug. 1858; Peoria correspondence, 18 Aug., Chicago Press and Tribune, weekly edition, 26 Aug. 1858; Peoria correspondence, 18 Aug., Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 23 Aug. 1858.

  196. New York Times, 19 Aug. 1858.

  197. Speech at Joliet, 31 Aug. 1858, Missouri Republican (St. Louis), 10 Sept. 1858.

  198. Galena Weekly Northwestern Gazette, 14 Sept. 1858.

  199. Letter by an unidentified correspondent, Gillespie, Illinois, 16 Oct. 1858, Alton Courier, n.d., copied in the Missouri Democrat (St. Louis), 20 Oct. 1858.

  200. C. D. Hay to Lyman Trumbull, Burnt Prairie, Illinois, 10 July 1857, Lyman Trumbull Papers, DLC.

  201. White to Jesse W. Weik, New York, 14 Dec. 1913, in Jesse W. Weik, The Real Lincoln: A Portrait, ed. Michael Burlingame (1922; Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002), 382.

  202. Havana correspondence, 13 Aug. 1858, Chicago Press and Tribune, 20 Aug. 1858.

  203. Bath correspondence, 16 Aug., Chicago Press and Tribune, 21 Aug. 1858.

  204. Thomas G. Lowry, Personal Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln (London: privately printed, 1910), 12.

  205. Carlinville correspondence, 8 Sept., Chicago Press and Tribune, 11 Sept. 1858.

  206. Centralia correspondence, 17 Sept., Chicago Press and Tribune, 20 Sept. 1858.

  207. “Douglas at Centralia,” by “one who was there,” Chicago Press and Tribune, 21 Sept. 1858.

  208. D. B. Spencer to an unidentified correspondent, Ruskin, Florida, 2 Aug. 1929, Leonard Crunelle, Freeport’s Lincoln (Freeport, IL: Lincoln-Douglas Society, 1929), 152.

  209. Schurz, Reminiscences, 2:94.

  210. McClellan, draft of his autobiography, McClellan’s Own Story, p. 16, McClellan Papers, DLC. The published version of this story is sanitized. McClellan’s Own Story (New York: Webster, 1887), 36.

  211. Herndon to Weik, Springfield, 24 Sept. 1890, H-W MSS DLC.

  212. Theodore Parker to John P. Hale, Galesburg, 21 Oct. 1856, in John Weiss, Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker (
2 vols.; New York: Appleton, 1864): 2:187, and John White Chadwick, Theodore Parker, Preacher and Reformer (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1901), 331.

  213. Louisville Journal, n.d., copied in the Chicago Daily Times, 2 Oct. 1858.

  214. Quincy Whig, n.d., quoted in the Quincy Herald, n.d., copied in the Illinois State Register (Springfield), 4 June 1860.

  215. Herndon to Theodore Parker, Springfield, 4 Oct. 1858, Herndon-Parker Papers, University of Iowa.

  216. Benjamin F. Smith, “Memories of Lincoln and Douglas,” undated typescript, William E. Barton Papers, University of Chicago; Walter B. Stevens, A Reporter’s Lincoln, ed. Michael Burlingame (1916; Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998), 31.

  217. Charles Francis Adams, undated diary entry, quoted in Adams, Charles Francis Adams, 1835–1915: An Autobiography (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1916), 66.

  218. Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams, Jr., Washington. 13 Feb. 1861, J. C. Levenson et al., eds., The Letters of Henry Adams (6 vols.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982–1988), 1:231.

  219. W. O. Bartlett to N. P. Banks, Washington, 4 May 1860, Banks Papers, DLC.

  220. Washington correspondence, 20 Mar., Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican, 22 Mar. 1861.

  221. Cincinnati Commercial, 31 May and 2 June 1860.

  222. Charles S. Zane, “Lincoln as I Knew Him,” Sunset 29 (Oct. 1912), reprinted in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 14 (1921–1922):79.

  223. CWL, 2:541–542.

  224. Dillard C. Donnohue, interview with Jesse Weik, 13 Feb. 1887, HI, 602.

  225. Wilson and Davis, eds., Herndon’s Lincoln, 396.

  226. Henry Villard, Memoirs of Henry Villard, Journalist and Financier: 1838–1900 (2 vols.; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1904), 1:92.

  227. Hiram W. Beckwith, “Lincoln: Personal Recollections of Him, His Contemporaries and Law Practice in Eastern Illinois,” Chicago Tribune, 29 Dec. 1895.

  228. Clinton correspondence, 27 July, Chicago Weekly Times, 5 Aug. 1858; Clinton correspondence, 27 July, Illinois State Register (Springfield), 30 July 1858; Our Constitution (Urbana), 7 Aug. 1858; Carthage Republican, 5 Aug. 1858.

  229. Springfield correspondence, 2 Aug., Chicago Press and Tribune, 4 Aug. 1858.

  230. Henry S. Green, interviewed by John G. Nicolay, Springfield, July 1875, Michael Burlingame, ed., An Oral History of Abraham Lincoln: John G. Nicolay’s Interviews and Essays (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1996) 32–33; speech at Clinton, 27 July 1858, CWL, 2:525–527; Chicago Times, 30 July 1858, in Angle, ed., Created Equal?, 85; Springfield correspondence, 2 Aug., Chicago Press and Tribune, 4 Aug. 1858.