22. Lincoln, “Address Before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois,” Jan. 27, 1838, in CWL, v. 1, pp. 108–15. See McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 9; and Merry, p. 132, for the growth statistics.
23. Beveridge, v. 2, p. 2; Newton, Lincoln and Herndon, pp. 4, 8 (nearby college); Donald, Lincoln’s Herndon, pp. 11–15. David Donald casts some doubt on whether Herndon was actually enrolled at the college during this period, suggesting that Herndon may have exaggerated the incident.
24. HL, p. 125; Donald, Lincoln’s Herndon, pp. 14–15; HI, p. 470; Newton, Lincoln and Herndon, pp. 9–10; Beveridge, v. 2, p. 2 (sit on a keg); Herndon to the Massachusetts Historical Society, Mar. 29, 1842, quoted in Donald, Lincoln’s Herndon, p. 14 (“staring us all in the face”).
25. Baker, pp. 89 (greeting in French), 104; Brown, “Springfield Society before the Civil War,” p. 479 (“spirited horses”); Hay, “Edward D. Baker,” in Burlingame, ed., At Lincoln’s Side, p. 153 (“Old School”); Clinton, Mrs. Lincoln, p. 44 (two-story brick); Sandburg, Prairie Years, v. 1, p. 251 (not making it to Mexico).
26. Beveridge, v. 1, pp. 207–8; Brown, “Springfield Society before the Civil War,” pp. 478–80 (“hops”), 493 (lighting); HL, p. 121 (“priests, dogs, and servants”).
27. Lincoln to Mary S. Owens, May 7, 1837, in CWL, v. 1, p. 78 (“but one woman”); Ninian W. Edwards interview with Herndon, [1865–1866], in HI, p. 446; Elizabeth and Ninian W. Edwards interview with William Henry Herndon, July 27, 1887, in HI, p. 623 (shade trees); Donald, Lincoln, p. 101 (“silk-stocking” Whigs); Lincoln to Mary S. Owens, May 7, 1837, in CWL, v. 1, p. 78 (“flourishing about”).
28. Baker, pp. 32–33, 45–46 (Belgian rugs), 51 (Lexington banker and physical description); Elizabeth L. Norris to Emilie Todd Helm, September 28, 1895, Norris Papers, ALPLM; Townsend, Lincoln and the Bluegrass, pp. 58, 59; Kentucky Statesman, Sept. 14, 1860, clipping in Mentelle Papers, Transylvania University; Townsend, The Boarding School of Mary Todd Lincoln, p. 10 (corpse); HL, p. 134 (“merry dance”).
29. Elizabeth Todd Edwards interview with Herndon, [1865–66,] in HI, pp. 443–44 (“irresistibly so” and “position, fame, and power”); Elizabeth and Ninian W. Edwards interview with Herndon, July 27, 1887, in HI, p. 623 (poor breeding and “most ambitious woman”); Baker, p. 29 (“seven years”); Lamon, Recollections, p. 21 (“not pretty”).
30. CWL, v. 1, p. 303 (wedding date); Herndon to Jesse Weik, Jan. 16, 1886, HW, LOC; Donald, Lincoln, p. 84 (“fine conversationalist” and “haughty”); Jesse Weik interview with Herndon, Weik Papers, box 2, memo book 2, ALPLM (“family power”); John T. Stuart interview with Herndon, [late June 1865,] in HI, p. 64 (“policy match). Michael Burlingame believes that “[i]t is possible that Lincoln thought he could enhance his political career through a marriage alliance with the more aristocratic Whig element, but such a calculating approach to wedlock seems out of character for Lincoln” (ALAL, v. 2, p. 197). See also Guelzo, Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President, p. 57, cited in Howe, What Hath God Wrought, p. 597 (“larger world of trade”). Guelzo’s Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President is an impressive “intellectual biography” that presents Lincoln as a steady Whig. On Lincoln and the Whig party see also Boritt, Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream (Memphis, 1978); Donald, “A Whig in the White House,” in Lincoln Reconsidered, p. 133; Daniel Walker Howe, “Why Abraham Lincoln Was a Whig,” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, v. 16, no. 1, pp. 27–39; Joel H. Silbey, “Always a Whig in Politics: The Partisan Life of Abraham Lincoln,” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, v. 8, no. 1, pp. 21–43. For the Gibbon gift see CWL, v. 8, p. 436. A leather-bound history of Europe and the Roman Empire that also bears Ninian Edwards’s signature and is said to have once resided in the Lincoln-Herndon law office is now housed in the Lincoln Collection at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill. My thanks to curator James Cornelius of the Lincoln Collection for allowing me to examine these books. For the final quote, see Lincoln to Samuel D. Marshall, Nov. 11, 1842, in CWL, v. 1, p. 305 (“profound wonder”).
31. Beveridge, v. 2, pp. 67–68; Donald, “We Are Lincoln Men,” p. 91; Donald, Lincoln’s Herndon, p. 21 (popularity dropped off, influence of the aristocrats); Lincoln to Martin S. Morris, Mar. 26, 1843, in CWL, v. 1, p. 320 (“family distinction”); Berry, House of Abraham, p. xi; Foner, Fiery Trial, p. 13 (“good enough for God”); White, A. Lincoln, p. 128 (age); HL, p. 168 (“I can trust you”).
32. For a description of the office, see “Lincoln’s Law Offices in the Tinsley Building, 1843–1852,” Lincoln Lore, No. 1579, Sept. 1969, pp. 1–4; Newton, Lincoln and Herndon, p. 42; Donald, Lincoln’s Herndon, pp. 22, 33; Donald, Lincoln, p. 103; Statement of Gibson W. Harris, quoted in Weik, The Real Lincoln, pp. 106–7, cited in Donald, Lincoln’s Herndon, p. 22 (office description quote); HL, p. 207 (read aloud and shirked his work); Herndon to Jesse Weik, Oct. 21, 1885, HW, LOC (fled the office).
33. Albert Beveridge notes that “expansion … became the overshadowing issue of the campaign.” (Beveridge, v. 2, p. 69.) See also McDougall, Throes of Democracy, p. 260 (“foreign policy”); Lincoln to Williamson Durley, Oct. 3, 1845, CWL, v. 1, pp. 347–48 (“never much interested”); McDougall, Throes of Democracy, p. 79 (GTT); Merry, p. 76 (“unquenchable thirst”); Lincoln, “Speech on the Annexation of Texas,” May 22, 1844, CWL, v. 1, p. 337 (“altogether inexpedient”); Boritt, Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream, p. 105 (“nothing but Texas”). My thanks to George C. Herring for reminding me of the important role foreign policy played in the 1796 and 1812 campaigns.
34. Bauer, pp. 8, 24; and Merry, pp. 10, 188, 194 (Polk’s inaugural, orders Taylor to Rio Grande, terms of offer).
35. Howe, What Hath God Wrought, p. 24 (vaqueros); Bauer, p. 19 (“prudence”); Merry, pp. 188, 192, 240 (“actual state of war” and “Star Spangled Banner”).
36. Bauer, pp. 34–35 (brawls and Moor of Venice), 40 (watched the gringos and leaped nude).
37. Pedro de Ampudia to Don Z. Taylor, April 12, 1846, in House Exec. Doc. No. 60, p. 140; Taylor to the Adjutant General, April 26, 1846, in ibid., pp. 140–41; Eisenhower, So Far from God, pp. 63, 65; Merry, pp. 240–45; Howe, What Hath God Wrought, p. 732.
38. Merry, pp. 243–45. I have drawn heavily on Merry’s account of the raid for the preceding section.
39. HL, p. 231 (“little engine”); Lincoln to Benjamin F. James, Nov. 17, 1845, CWL, v. 1, p. 349 (“operate against me”); Lincoln to Henry Dummer, Nov. 18, 1845, CWL, v. 1, p. 350 (“set a few stakes” and “turn about”); Mitgang, Abraham Lincoln: A Press Portrait, pp. 40–41 (avert a duel); Hardin quoted in Riddle, Congressman Lincoln, p. 56 (“aggression and insult”); Lincoln to Hardin, Feb. 7, 1846, CWL, v. 1, p. 360–365 (strained relationship).
40. Beveridge, v. 2, pp. 78–80 (“blazed”). Donald Riddle writes that “[i]mmediately the prairies were afire.” (Riddle, Lincoln Runs for Congress, p. 160.) See also Merk, Manifest Destiny, p. 37 (“most hawkish states”); Beveridge, v. 1, pp. 78–80 (Hardin); HL, p. 173 (“best legal talent”); Foner, Fiery Trial, p. 53 (most volunteers).
41. Illinois State Register, May 8, 1846, quoted in Beveridge, v. 2, p. 78.
42. Sangamo Journal, June 4, 1846, quoted in Riddle, Congressman Lincoln, p. 11 (“warm, thrilling”); HL, p. 173.
43. Johannsen, To the Halls of the Montezumas, p. 16 (penny press); Mott, American Journalism, pp. 248–49 (war correspondents); Howe, What Hath God Wrought, p. 697 (“major facilitator”). Howe’s monumental history of this era emphasizes the critical role played by the nineteenth-century communications revolution.
44. Howe, What Hath God Wrought, p. 3 (millennialism); Merk, Manifest Destiny, p. 122; and McDougall, Promised Land, Crusader State, p. 95 (“regenerate the world”); Johannsen, To the Halls of the Montezumas, p. 296 (“air of decay”); McDougall, Throes of Democracy, p. 299 (“duty of neighbors”).
45. Frederick Merk argues that the Mexican War enthusiasm was largely a pro
duct of the Northeastern penny press and its Midwestern counterparts like the Illinois State Register. (Merk, Manifest Destiny, pp. 35–37 and passim.) Robert W. Johannsen makes a compelling case that the excitement was a national phenomenon. (Johannsen, To the Halls of the Montezumas, passim.)
46. Johannsen, To the Halls of the Montezumas, pp. 26–27 (“all Whigs” and teenage boys), 169 (“little clothing”), 186–91 (“cast as redeemers”). The final quote is on p. 191. I have drawn heavily on Johannsen’s research and interpretations in the preceding paragraph.
47. Beveridge, v. 2, p. 80; Baker, p. 104 (British-born Baker).
48. W. C. P. Breckinridge reminiscences, Morning Herald, July 24, 1903 (“physical manhood”); Sangamo Journal, July 23, 1846 (“ignoble death”); Sangamo Journal, June 25, 1846 (“Foreign nations”). Transcriptions of all three articles in William H. Townsend Papers, University of Kentucky.
49. Riddle, Lincoln Runs for Congress, pp. 167–68 (neutralizing it); The Illinois Gazette (Lacon), July 25, 1846, in CWL, v. 1, p. 381–82 (spoke on Oregon and Mexico); White, A. Lincoln, pp. 134–35 (by a wide margin).
50. White, A. Lincoln, p. 136 (another sixteen months); ALAL, v. 1, p. 241; Lincoln to Joshua Speed, Oct. 22, 1846, in CWL, v. 1, pp. 389–91.
51. Herndon to Jesse Weik, Dec. 29, 1885, HW, LOC.
52. This account of the Battle of Buena Vista is drawn primarily from Bauer, pp. 209–18. See also McDougall, Throes of Democracy, p. 294 (“A little more grape”); ALAL, v. 1, p. 277 (slogan); and Johannsen, To the Halls of the Montezumas, pp. 106–107.
53. Bauer, p. 216 (Hardin had fought heroically).
54. Illinois State Register, Apr. 2, 1847, quoted in Beveridge, v. 2, p. 92n4 (“beloved by all”); Lincoln, “Resolutions Adopted at John J. Hardin Memorial Meeting,” in Sangamo Journal, Apr. 8, 1847, in CWL, v. 1, pp. 392–93.
55. J. G. Buckingham, private letter, quoted in Findley, A. Lincoln: Crucible of Congress, p. 60 (“curvetting and galloping”); Beveridge, v. 2, p. 93.
56. Bauer, pp. 220–21 (“robberies, murders, and rapes”), 225 (“missing daughters”), 268 (wooden leg); Beveridge v. 2, pp. 93–94.
57. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, pp. 3–4 (“bursting into applause”); Bauer, pp. 318 and 322 (“victorious commander”).
58. Findley, A. Lincoln: The Crucible of Congress, p. 32 (know everyone); Illinois Weekly Journal, Oct. 28, 1847, quoted in Townsend, Lincoln and His Wife’s Hometown, p. 140 (“twice the good looks”).
59. Helm, True Story of Mary, Wife of Lincoln, pp. 99–100.
60. Townsend, Lincoln and His Wife’s Hometown, p. 146 (“away fighting in Mexico”); Papers of Henry Clay, v. 10, p. 320, quoted in Heidler and Heidler, Henry Clay, pp. 414–15 (“outrages committed”).
61. Townsend, Lincoln in His Wife’s Hometown, pp. 144, 156 (Cromwell and Napoleon); Wilson, ed., Intimate Memories of Lincoln, p. 243 (“almost worshipped”); Davis and Wilson, eds., The Lincoln-Douglas Debates, p. 34 (“beau ideal”); ALAL, v. 1, pp. 92, 224; Heidler and Heidler, Henry Clay, p. 71 (denim suit); Townsend, Lincoln in His Wife’s Hometown, p. 152 (Lexington courthouse).
62. New Orleans Daily Picayune, Dec. 23, 1846, quoted in Heidler and Heidler, Henry Clay, p. 412 (“slay a Mexican”); Remini, Henry Clay, pp. 680–81 (pistols); Papers of Henry Clay, v. 10, p. 274, cited in Heidler and Heidler, Henry Clay, p. 410 (“dictates of conscience”); Papers of Henry Clay, v. 10, p. 316, cited in Heidler and Heidler, Henry Clay, p. 416 (“calamitous”).
63. Merry, p. 394 (Clay’s age); Clay, “Speech in Lexington, Ky., Nov. 13, 1847, in Papers of Henry Clay, v. 10, p. 362 (“frost of age”); Greenberg, A Wicked War, p. 228 (“trumpet”); Townsend, Lincoln in His Wife’s Hometown, pp. 152–53. The scene of Clay’s speech draws heavily on Townsend’s account of the event.
64. Clay, “Speech in Lexington, Ky.,” Nov. 13, 1847, in Papers of Henry Clay, v. 10, pp. 361–77 (“direful and fatal”).
65. Townsend, Lincoln in His Wife’s Hometown, p. 155 (length of speech); Howe, What Hath God Wrought, p. 828 (beamed it); Palmerston quoted in Greenberg, A Wicked War, p. 236; Anson G. Henry to Lincoln, Dec. 29, 1847, ALP, LOC (“Old Zac”).
66. Usher F. Linder statement for J. G. Holland, in HI, p. 569 (shared a meal and “Mr. Lincoln’s expectations”); Heidler and Heidler, Henry Clay, p. xx, n. 24 (no corroborating evidence).
67. Gouverneur, As I Remember, p. 170; Beveridge, v. 2, p. 102 (“scrambling village”); Busey, Personal Reminiscences, p. 65 (pigs and geese); Green, Washington, v. 1, pp. 164 (muddy streets), 156 (“English woolens”), 173 (“city of Washington”).
68. Findley, A. Lincoln: Crucible of Congress, p. 85; Randall, Mary Lincoln, pp. 107–8 (Lincolns arrived); Beveridge, v. 2, p. 101 (unpleasant welcome); Riddle, Congressman Lincoln, pp. 8, 13 (laconic record).
69. Watterston, New Guide to Washington, pp. 24–25; Riddle, Congressman Lincoln, p. 31; Beveridge, v. 2, pp. 108–109; Browne, Every-Day Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 191 (“roar of laughter”).
70. LaFeber, The American Age, p. 88; Bemis, John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy, pp. 8, 182, 253.
71. Adams’s “monsters” speech, it is worth noting, was intended as a challenge to those Americans who wished to aid foreign revolutionaries in the early 1820s; it was written long before the Mexican War. My thanks to George C. Herring for stressing this point. See also Howe, What Hath God Wrought, p. 742 (“irreconcilables”); Carpenter, Inner Life, p. 212; Schroeder, Mr. Polk’s War (Madison, 1973).
72. Polk, “Third Annual Message,” Dec. 7, 1847, in Richardson, ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789–1897, v. 4 (Washington, 1897), pp. 532–64.
73. Fuller, Movement for the Acquisition of All Mexico, p. 61 (All-Mexico); New York Herald, Oct. 8, 1847, quoted in ibid., p. 82. See also Merk, Manifest Destiny, p. 123 (“Sabine virgins”); Illinois State Register, Nov. 12, 1847, quoted in Merk, p. 148 (“philanthropy and benevolence”).
74. Howe, What Hath God Wrought, p. 807 (“sensationalism”); Merk, Manifest Destiny, p. 120n29; Johannsen, To the Halls of the Montezumas, p. 243; CG, 30th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 79, quoted in Fuller, Movement for the Acquisition of All Mexico, p. 103.
75. Weinberg, Manifest Destiny, p. 161 (“American democracy”); Fuller, Movement for the Acquisition of All Mexico, p. 81; and Weinberg, Manifest Destiny, p. 161 (evangelical revival); New York Herald, Jan. 30, 1848, quoted in Fuller, Movement for the Acquisition of All Mexico, pp. 107–8 (“evidence of civilization”). See also Weinberg, Manifest Destiny, p. 175.
76. Polk, Diary of James K. Polk, v. 2, Dec. 22, 1846, p. 288, quoted in Merry, p. 331 (Polk’s diary); Appendix to CG, 29th Cong., 2nd Sess., p. 217; Beveridge, v. 1, pp. 107n4, 120–21; and Merk, Manifest Destiny, p. 96 (Giddings). See also Monaghan, p. 64, and Boritt, “Lincoln’s Opposition to the Mexican War,” p. 89.
77. Lincoln, “Autobiography Written for John L. Scripps,” c. June 1860, in CWL, v. 4, pp. 61–66 (“in the president”); and “Speech at Wilmington, Del.,” June 10, 1848, in ibid., v. 1, p. 476.
78. Lincoln, “ ‘Spot’ Resolutions in the United States House of Representatives,” in ibid., v. 1, pp. 421–22.
79. Lincoln to Herndon, Jan. 8, 1848, in ibid., v. 1, p. 430.
80. Lincoln to Herndon, Feb. 1, 1848, in ibid., v. 1, p. 448.
81. Lincoln to Herndon, Feb. 15, 1848, in ibid., v. 1, pp. 451–52.
82. Ibid. (“constitutional argument”). Mark E. Neely Jr. emphasizes this point. See Neely, “Lincoln and the Mexican War,” pp. 6–7. See also Lincoln to Herndon, July 11, 1848, in CWL, v. 1, p. 499 (“while you’re young!”).
83. Herndon to Parker, Nov. 27, 1858, quoted in Newton, Lincoln and Herndon, pp. 245–46 (“young, undisciplined”); Herndon, “Big Me,” reel 11, HW, LOC (“somewhat of a radical”); HL, p. 228 (lead to abolition); Herndon, “Analysis of the Character of Abraham Lincoln,” pp. 349, 351 (“Godward”). Herndon made these observations after the Civil War. He presumab
ly was referring to the latter conflict, but it seems safe to assume that Lincoln’s law partner felt the same way about the Mexican War.
84. Herndon to Weik, Jan. 9, 1886, HW, LOC (“glittering generalities”); Donald, Lincoln’s Herndon, p. 41 (“tears on the jury”); Herndon to Weik, Dec. 12, 1889, July 25, 1890, HW, LOC (“bones philosophy”). See also Donald, “We Are Lincoln Men,” pp. 73–75.
85. HL, pp. 175–176, 179 (“sealed Lincoln’s doom,” “made a mistake,” and “political suicide”). See also Boritt, “Lincoln’s Opposition to the Mexican War,” pp. 81–82 (little evidence); Neely, “Lincoln and the Mexican War,” pp. 23–24; and Findley, A. Lincoln: Crucible of Congress, p. x.
86. Neely, “Lincoln and the Mexican War,” pp. 16–17, 23. See also Boritt, “Lincoln’s Opposition to the Mexican War,” p. 89.
87. Lincoln, “What General Taylor Ought to Say,” [March?] 1848, in CWL, v. 1, p. 454; Lincoln to Greeley, June 27, 1848, in CWL, v. 1, p. 493–94 (“revolution extended”). See also Neely, “Lincoln and the Mexican War,” p. 15 (“distracting question”).
88. Merk, Manifest Destiny, p. 184 (ending the war); Fuller, The Movement for the Acquisition of All Mexico, pp. 115–16 (senators voted against treaty); Merk, Manifest Destiny, pp. 189–90 (supported Polk); Bauer, p. 388 (“Girl I Left Behind”).
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