Tag: Election of 1848

Letter to William Herndon (June 12, 1848)

On June 29, 2013

Contributing editors for this page include James Duncan

Ranking

#61 on the list of 150 Most Teachable Lincoln Documents

Annotated Transcript

“On my return from Philadelphia, where I had been attending the nomination of “Old Rough”—I found your letter in a mass of others, which had accumulated in my absence.”

On This Date

HD Daily Report, June 12, 1848

The Lincoln Log, June 12, 1848

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Posted at YouTube by “Understanding Lincoln” participant James Duncan, 2016

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How Historians Interpret

“Though many northern Whigs were outraged by the nomination of a slaveholder who had never been a true supporter of the party or its principles, Lincoln wrote on June 12 that such disaffected elements ‘are fast falling in” and predicted that ‘we shall have a most overwhelming, glorious, triumph.’ He took heart from the fact that ‘all the odds and ends are with us – Barnburners [Free Soil Democrats in New York], Native Americans, [John] Tyler men, disappointed office seeking locofocos, and the Lord knows what.’ He gloated that ‘Taylor’s nomination takes the locos on the blind side. It turns the war thunder against them. The war is now to them, the gallows of Haman, which they built for us, and on which they are doomed to be hanged themselves.’264 Even Horace Greeley ultimately supported Taylor in order to defeat ‘that pot-bellied, mutton-headed, cucumber Cass!’”

–Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (2 volumes, originally published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008) Unedited Manuscript by Chapter, Lincoln Studies Center, Volume 1, Chapter 8 (PDF), 809.

“On March 5, 1849, Abraham Lincoln stood among a throng of observers as Zachary Taylor was sworn into office, becoming the nation’s twelfth president. Lincoln had worked long and hard on the campaign trail stumping for the hero of the Mexican War, ‘Old Rough and Ready’ Taylor. The efforts of the outgoing Illinois congressman on Taylor’s behalf included mass mailings of pro-Taylor speeches and documents, active campaigning in four states — Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts and Illinois — and enthusiastic pronouncements of Taylor as congressman. Lincoln had every right to feel proud of his efforts which — in his mind — helped to win the presidency for the Whig party. Moreover, with the Whigs in control of the executive branch of the federal government, political patronage posts were available in greater abundance.”

–Thomas F. Schwartz, “’An Egregious Political Blunder’ Justin Butterfield, Lincoln, and Illinois Whiggery,” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 8 no. 1 (1986): 9-19.

“In 1848, Congressman Lincoln abandoned his hero, Henry Clay, and worked for the presidential nomination of General Zachary Taylor, whose war record made him a more formidable candidate. Lincoln attended the Whig National Convention as Philadelphia in June, saw ‘Old Rough and Ready’ nominated and returned to Washington exulting over the discomfiture of the ‘locofocos’ – that is, the Democrats.”

–Don E. Fehrenbacher, Abraham Lincoln: A Documentary Portrait Through His Speeches and Writings (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1964), 62.

NOTE TO READERS

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Washington, June 12. 1848

Dear William

On my return from Philadelphia, where I had been attending the nomination of “Old Rough”—I found your letter in a mass of others, which had accumulated in my absence. By many, and often, it had been said they would not abide the nomination of Taylor; but since the deed has been done, they are fast falling in, and in my opinion we shall have a most overwhelming, glorious, triumph. One unmistakable sign is, that all the odds and ends are with us—Barnburners, Native Americans, Tyler men, disappointed office seeking locofocos, and the Lord knows what. This is important, if in nothing else, in showing which way the wind blows. Some of the sanguine men here, set down all the states as certain for Taylor, but Illinois, and it as doubtful. Can not something be done, even in Illinois? Taylor’s nomination takes the locos on the blind side. It turns the war thunder against them. The war is now to them, the gallows of Haman, which they built for us, and on which they are doomed to be hanged themselves.

Excuse this short letter. I have so many to write, that I can not devote much time to any one.

Yours as ever

A LINCOLN

Letter to Thaddeus Stevens (September 3, 1848)

By Matthew Pinsker

On June 29, 2013

In The Railsplitter

Contributing Editors for this page include Annemarie Gray

Ranking

#139 on the list of 150 Most Teachable Lincoln Documents

Annotated Transcript

“You may possibly remember seeing me at the Philadelphia Convention—introduced to you as the lone whig star of Illinois. Since the adjournment, I have remained here, so long, in the Whig document room. I am now about to start for home; and I desire the undisguised opinion of some experienced and sagacious Pennsylvania politician, as to how the vote of that state, for governor, and president, is likely to go.”

On This Date

HD Daily Report, September 3, 1848

The Lincoln Log, September 3, 1848

Close Readings

Posted at YouTube by “Understanding Lincoln” participant Annemarie Gray, November 15, 2013

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How Historians Interpret

“On his return to Washington, Lincoln stopped in Wilmington, Delaware, to attend a local Whig meeting held to ratify the convention’s choice, where he was introduced as the ‘Lone Star of Illinois,’ and given three cheers. Undoubtedly, he invented the nickname himself, adapting it from Clay, known as the ‘Star of the West’ early in his career. (In a letter sent in September to an influential lawyer among the Whigs of Pennsylvania that year for the house, Thaddeus Stevens, later to become the Radical Republican leader, Lincoln wrote, ‘You probably remember seeing me at the Philadelphia Convention—introduced to you as the lone Whig star of Illinois.’) Lincoln’s speech, as reported by the Wilmington newspaper, roundly assailed Polk for his ‘abuse of power,’ the ‘high-handed and despotic exercise of the veto power’ against internal improvements, and for waging ‘a war of conquest brought into existence to catch votes.’”

—Sidney Blumenthal, A Self Made Man: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln Vol. 1, 1809-1849 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2016), 384.

“After he entered Congress himself in the late 1840s, Lincoln quickly cast his eyes beyond the doubtful districts of Western Illinois. He took it upon himself, for example, to contact former Whig legislator Thaddeus Stevens during the 1848 presidential campaign in an effort to obtain soundings from the state of Pennsylvania. ‘You may possibly remember seeing me at the Philadelphia convention,’ Lincoln began, reminding him that he was ‘the lone whig star of Illinois.’ Reporting that he was about to leave the nation’s capital, Lincoln stated that he desired ‘the undisguised opinion of some experienced and sagacious Pennsylvania politician, as to how the vote of that state, for governor, and president, is likely to go,’ asking that Stevens send such opinions by mail to him in Springfield.”

—Matthew Pinsker, “Lincoln and the Lessons of Party Leadership” in Lincoln and Liberty: Wisdom for the Ages, Ed. Lucas E. Morel (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2014), 194.

NOTE TO READERS

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Hon: Thaddeus Stevens Washington,
Dear Sir: Sept. 3. 1848

You may possibly remember seeing me at the Philadelphia Convention—introduced to you as the lone whig star of Illinois. Since the adjournment, I have remained here, so long, in the Whig document room. I am now about to start for home; and I desire the undisguised opinion of some experienced and sagacious Pennsylvania politician, as to how the vote of that state, for governor, and president, is likely to go. In casting about for such a man, I have settled upon you; and I shall be much obliged if you will write me at Springfield, Illinois.

The news we are receiving here now, by letters from all quarters is steadily on the rise; we have none lately of a discouraging character. This is the sum, without giving particulars. Yours truly
A Lincoln