{"id":1060,"date":"2013-06-29T13:02:47","date_gmt":"2013-06-29T13:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/?p=1060"},"modified":"2016-08-18T12:46:06","modified_gmt":"2016-08-18T12:46:06","slug":"letter-to-thomas-corwin-october-9-1859","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/letter-to-thomas-corwin-october-9-1859\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to Thomas Corwin (October 9, 1859)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Contributing Editors for this page include Jim Coe<\/em><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Ranking<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 36px;\">#108<\/span> on the list of 150 Most Teachable Lincoln Documents<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Annotated Transcript<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/41444\" target=\"_blank\">We must have though a man who recognizes the slavery issue as being the living issue of the day; who does not hesitate to declare slavery a wrong, nor to deal with it as such; who believes in the power and duty of Congress to prevent the spread of it.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>On This Date<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/panel\/this_date\/1859-10-09\" target=\"_blank\">HD Daily Report, October 9, 1859<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelincolnlog.org\/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&amp;day=1859-10-09\" target=\"_blank\">The Lincoln Log, October 9, 1859<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Close Readings<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8VZRTVQJlmk\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Custom Map<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps\/ms?msid=214923210427089848626.0004def4e79e2ae545ca4&amp;msa=0&amp;ll=39.46668,-84.187717&amp;spn=0.094355,0.165653&amp;iwloc=0004f0d0b53ab297f75ea\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-3411\" src=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/files\/2013\/06\/Screen-shot-2014-02-02-at-4.32.51-PM.png\" alt=\"Screen shot 2014-02-02 at 4.32.51 PM\" width=\"484\" height=\"441\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/files\/2013\/06\/Screen-shot-2014-02-02-at-4.32.51-PM.png 692w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/files\/2013\/06\/Screen-shot-2014-02-02-at-4.32.51-PM-300x273.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 484px) 100vw, 484px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps\/ms?msid=214923210427089848626.0004def4e79e2ae545ca4&amp;msa=0&amp;ll=39.46668,-84.187717&amp;spn=0.094355,0.165653&amp;iwloc=0004f0d0b53ab297f75ea\" target=\"_blank\">View in Larger Map<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>How Historians Interpret<\/h3>\n<p>&#8220;Despite his modesty, Lincoln between August 1859 and March 1860 positioned himself for a presidential run by giving speeches and corresponding with party leaders in several states, among them Iowa, Ohio, Wisconsin, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Kansas. \u00a0At the same time, he labored to keep Republicans true to their principles by having them steer a middle course between the Scylla of Douglas\u2019s popular sovereignty and the Charybdis of radical abolitionism. \u00a0Only thus could he and his party capture the White House. \u00a0And only thus could a lesser-known Moderate like himself lead the ticket. \u00a0Lincoln took encouragement from the ever-widening rift in the Democratic party over such issues as a federal slave code for the territories and the reopening of the African slave trade. \u00a0To Herndon and others he said, in substance: &#8216;an explosion must come in the near future. Douglas is a great man in his way and has quite unlimited power over the great mass of his party, especially in the North. \u00a0If he goes to the Charleston Convention [of the national Democratic party in 1860], which he will do, he, in a kind of spirit of revenge, will split the Convention wide open and give it the devil; &amp; right here is our future success or rather the glad hope of it.&#8217; Herndon recalled that Lincoln &#8216;prayed for this state of affairs,&#8217; for &#8216;he saw in it his opportunity and wisely played his line.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u2013<a href=\"http:\/\/www.knox.edu\/academics\/distinctive-programs\/lincoln-studies-center\/burlingame-abraham-lincoln-a-life.html\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Burlingame,\u00a0<em>Abraham Lincoln: A Life<\/em>\u00a0(2 volumes, originally published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008)\u00a0Unedited Manuscript By Chapters, Lincoln Studies Center, Volume 1, Chapter 14 (PDF), pp. 1525<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>NOTE TO READERS<\/h3>\n<p>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&#8217;s Theatre and Gettysburg, please visit our Livestream page at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/new.livestream.com\/gilderlehrman\/lincoln\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/new.livestream.com\/gilderlehrman\/lincoln<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Searchable Text<\/h3>\n<div><span style=\"color: #999999;\">Confidential<\/span><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #999999;\">Springfield, Oct. 9, 1859<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #999999;\">Hon. Thomas Corwin<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #999999;\">My dear Sir:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #999999;\">Reaching home yesterday I for the first received yours of Sept. 24.\u00a0 I reply in a hurry, because of the sentence in your letter, in these words, \u201cI was sorry to hear from you, that a moderate man on our side would lose Illinois by 50,000.\u201d\u00a0 Whether you understood me as having said this in the speech at Cincinnati, or somehow else, I am not certain; but I am certain I have not meant to say it anywhere.\u00a0 I did say at Cincinnati, that a candidate who shall turn up his nose at the Republican cause, could not carry Illinois by 50,000, but I am not considering such a man as \u201ca moderate man on our side.\u201d\u00a0 I understand such a man as not being on our side at all; and as seeking to drive us to abandon our side ourselves.\u00a0 They know we would organize to prevent the spread and nationalizing of Slavery; and yet they tell us they are tired of this view, and they invite us to abandon this view, and to join them against the Administration on the tariff, extravagances, live oak contracts, and the like \u2013the very old issues upon which the whig party was beat out of existence.\u00a0 Now I have expressed, and today repeat, that such an arrangement would lose Illinois by 50,000.\u00a0 The thing is pretense.\u00a0 The whigs here were in a minority of 15,000.\u00a0 A full fifth of them have openly gone over to the enemy; still last year the Republicans had a large plurality, and very nearly a clear majority.\u00a0 How was this?\u00a0 Simply that more\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">democrats<\/span>have gone with us, than whigs have gone against us.\u00a0 What brought these democrats with us?\u00a0 The Slavery issue.\u00a0 Drop that issue and they have no motive to remain, and will not remain with us.\u00a0 It is idiotic to think otherwise.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #999999;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #999999;\">Do you understand me as saying Illinois must have an extreme anti-slavery candidate?\u00a0 I do not so mean.\u00a0 We must have though a man who recognizes the slavery issue as being the living issue of the day; who does not hesitate to declare slavery a wrong, nor to deal with it as such; who believes in the power and duty of Congress to prevent the spread of it.\u00a0 It would be unfavorable to us, I think, to have one who is bent on having a \u201c<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">rumpus<\/span>\u201d over the Fugitive Slave Law.\u00a0 The present law I do not think is a very seemly one, but I do think an efficient fugitive slave law is demanded [by] the Constitution.\u00a0 I said this is in the canvass last year; and I said nearly the same in the Cincinnati speech.\u00a0 But I think you understand me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #999999;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #999999;\">Yours very truly,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #999999;\">A. Lincoln<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Contributing Editors for this page include Jim Coe Ranking #108 on the list of 150 Most Teachable Lincoln Documents &nbsp; Annotated Transcript We must have though a man who recognizes the slavery issue as being the living issue of the day; who does not hesitate to declare slavery a wrong, nor to deal with it [&hellip;]<\/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":[10896,10866,6088,11669,11635,10865,11643],"class_list":["post-1060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-railsplitter","tag-anger","tag-antebellum","tag-letter","tag-needs-close-reading","tag-partisanship","tag-private","tag-recent-discoveries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1060","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=1060"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4557,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1060\/revisions\/4557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}