{"id":1037,"date":"2013-06-29T12:41:55","date_gmt":"2013-06-29T12:41:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/?p=1037"},"modified":"2016-06-20T14:04:31","modified_gmt":"2016-06-20T14:04:31","slug":"letter-to-alexander-mcclure-august-30-1860","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/letter-to-alexander-mcclure-august-30-1860\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to Alexander McClure (August 30, 1860)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ranking<\/strong><\/h3>\n

#97<\/span> on the list of 150 Most Teachable Lincoln Documents<\/em><\/p>\n

Annotated Transcript<\/h3>\n

“When you say you are organizing every election district, do you mean to include the idea that you are ‘canvassing’ \u2013 ‘counting noses?'”<\/a><\/p>\n

On This Date<\/h3>\n

HD Daily Report, August 30, 1860<\/a><\/p>\n

The Lincoln Log, August 30, 1860<\/a><\/p>\n

Custom Map<\/h3>\n

\"Screen<\/a>
\nView in Larger Map<\/a><\/p>\n

How Historians Interpret<\/h3>\n

\u201cLincoln also asked Alexander K. McClure, chairman of the Pennsylvania State Republican Committee, to keep him informed of the status of the campaign at the local level. On August 27, Lincoln responded to McClure report on the campaign by asking, \u2018When you say you are organizing <\/em>every election district, do you mean to include the idea that you are \u2018canvassing\u2019\u2014\u2018counting noses?\u2019\u2019 Lincoln\u2019s inquiry reveals the keen interest that he took in local party organization during the 1860 campaign. A New York visitor reported after a meeting with Lincoln: \u2018He sat down beside me on the sofa and commenced talking about political affairs in my own State with a knowledge of details which surprised me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

William C. Harris, “Lincoln’s Role in the 1860 Presidential Campaign” in Exploring Lincoln: Great Historians Reappraise Our Greatest President<\/a>, Ed. Harold Holzer, Craig L. Symonds, and Frank J. Williams, (New York: Fordham University Press, 2015).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

NOTE TO READERS<\/h3>\n

This page is under construction and will be developed further by students in the new \u201cUnderstanding Lincoln\u201d online course sponsored by the House Divided Project at Dickinson College and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. To find out more about the course and to see some of our videotaped class sessions, including virtual field trips to Ford’s Theatre and Gettysburg, please visit our Livestream page at http:\/\/new.livestream.com\/gilderlehrman\/lincoln<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Searchable Text<\/span><\/h3>\n
Private<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
Springfield, Ills. Aug. 30, 1860<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
A.K. McClure, Esq.<\/span><\/div>\n
My dear Sir,<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Yours of the 27th was received last evening; as also was one only a few days before. \u00a0Neither of these bears quite so hopeful a tone as your former letters. \u00a0When you say you are organizing every election district, do you mean to include the idea that you are \u201ccanvassing\u201d \u2013 \u201ccounting noses?\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
I am always glad to see your letters. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Yours very truly,\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
A.Lincoln<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ranking #97 on the list of 150 Most Teachable Lincoln Documents Annotated Transcript “When you say you are organizing every election district, do you mean to include the idea that you are ‘canvassing’ \u2013 ‘counting noses?’” On This Date HD Daily Report, August 30, 1860 The Lincoln Log, August 30, 1860 Custom Map View in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10855],"tags":[10866,56,6088,11642,11669,10865,11643,10876],"class_list":["post-1037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-railsplitter","tag-antebellum","tag-election-of-1860","tag-letter","tag-management-style","tag-needs-close-reading","tag-private","tag-recent-discoveries","tag-younger-readers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1037"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4450,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037\/revisions\/4450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}