{"id":1118,"date":"2013-06-29T13:13:46","date_gmt":"2013-06-29T13:13:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/?p=1118"},"modified":"2016-06-18T15:45:17","modified_gmt":"2016-06-18T15:45:17","slug":"letter-to-richard-oglesby-september-8-1854","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/letter-to-richard-oglesby-september-8-1854\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to Richard Oglesby (September 8, 1854)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Contributing Editors for this page include Chris Jaax<\/em><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Ranking<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 36px;\">#137<\/span> on the list of 150 Most Teachable Lincoln Documents<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Annotated Transcript<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/40438\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Other things being equal, I would much prefer a temperate man, to an intemperate one; still I do not make my vote depend absolutely upon the question of whether a candidate does or does not taste liquor.&#8221;\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>On This Date<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/panel\/this_date\/1854-09-08\" target=\"_blank\">HD Daily Report, September 8, 1854<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelincolnlog.org\/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&amp;day=1854-09-08\" target=\"_blank\">The Lincoln Log, September 8, 1854<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Custom Map<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps\/ms?msid=214923210427089848626.0004def4e79e2ae545ca4&amp;msa=0&amp;ll=39.878654,-88.932438&amp;spn=0.093794,0.165653&amp;iwloc=0004f0e68ad1c6da71885\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-3247\" src=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/files\/2013\/06\/Screen-shot-2014-01-26-at-4.51.20-PM.png\" alt=\"Screen shot 2014-01-26 at 4.51.20 PM\" width=\"484\" height=\"442\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/files\/2013\/06\/Screen-shot-2014-01-26-at-4.51.20-PM.png 692w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/files\/2013\/06\/Screen-shot-2014-01-26-at-4.51.20-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=39.878654,-88.932438&amp;spn=0.093794,0.165653&amp;iwloc=0004f0e68ad1c6da71885\" target=\"_blank\">View in Larger Map<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Close Readings<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iVidLQ1c_8w?rel=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nPosted at YouTube by &#8220;Understanding Lincoln&#8221; course participant Chris Jaax, August 2014<\/p>\n<h3>How Historians Interpret<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cWhen he heard that Democrats were whispering that Yates, though professing to be a temperate man, was a secret drinker, he recognized that the rumor might cost the Whigs the large prohibitionist vote and sought to kill the allegation. \u2018I have never seen him drink liquor, nor act, or speak, as if he had been drinking, nor smelled it on his breath,\u2019 he wrote. But then \u2013 almost as if he realized that the future would show that Yates did indulge in liquor, to the point of being intoxicated when he was inaugurated as governor of Illinois in 1861 \u2013 Lincoln carefully explained his own position to a friend: \u2018Other things being equal I would much prefer a temperate man, to an intemperate one; still I do not make my vote depend absolutely upon the question of whether a candidates does or does not <em>taste<\/em> liquor.\u2019\u201d<br \/>\n&#8211;David Herbert Donald,\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=fuTY3mxs9awC&amp;pg=PA140&amp;dq=lincoln+butterfield&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwixqqampJvNAhWLNT4KHSi3AdQQ6AEINzAE#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\">Lincoln\u00a0<\/a><\/em>(New York: Simon &amp; Schuster, 1995), 171.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLincoln helped Yates plot campaign strategy. To counter rumors that the congressman was a nativist bigot, Lincoln drafted a letter for him to circulate. (Yates ignored the advice and later acknowledged that his failure to heed Lincoln probably cost him the election.) Antiforeign, anti-Catholic sentiment was sweeping the North, in some states becoming the dominant theme in 1854. Supporters of this movement, called Native Americans or Know Nothings, adopted the slogan, \u201cAmericans must rule America.\u201d They believed that Catholicism was incompatible with America\u2019s democratic, individualistic values; that Catholics had disproportionate power; that established political parties and professional politicians were corrupt and unresponsive to the popular will; that slavery and liquor were evil; and that immigrants were the source of crime, corruption, pauperism, wage reductions, voter fraud, and the defeat of antislavery candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Michael Burlingame,\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.knox.edu\/documents\/pdfs\/LincolnStudies\/Burlingame,%20Vol%201,%20Chap%2010.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Abraham Lincoln: A Life<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(2 volumes, originally published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008) Unedited Manuscript by Chapter, Lincoln Studies Center, Volume 1, Chapter 10 (PDF),\u00a01087.<\/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 <a href=\"http:\/\/new.livestream.com\/gilderlehrman\/lincoln\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/new.livestream.com\/gilderlehrman\/lincoln<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">Searchable Text<\/span><\/h3>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\"><em>Confidential<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">Springfield, Sept. 8, 1854<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">R.J. Oglesby, Esq.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">Dear Sir:<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">You perhaps know how anxious I am for Yates\u2019 re-election in this District. \u00a0I understand his enemies are getting up a charge against him, that while he passes for a temperate man, he is in the habit of drinking secretly \u2013and that they calculate on proving an instance of the charge by you. \u00a0If, indeed, you have told them any thing, I can not help thinking they have misunderstood what you did tell them. \u00a0Other things being equal, I would much prefer a temperate man, to an intemperate one; still I do not make my vote depend absolutely upon the question of whether a candidate does or does not taste liquor.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">Thousands and thousands of us, in point of fact, have known Yates for more than twenty years; and as I have never seen him drink liquor, nor act, or speak, as if he had been drinking, nor smelled it on his breath, nor heard any man say he ever had and as he has been twice elected to congress without any such thing being discovered I can not but think such a charge as the above must be incorrect. \u00a0Will you please write me, and tell me what the truth of the matter is? \u00a0I will reciprocate at any time. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">Yours truly,<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">A Lincoln<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Contributing Editors for this page include Chris Jaax Ranking #137 on the list of 150 Most Teachable Lincoln Documents Annotated Transcript &#8220;Other things being equal, I would much prefer a temperate man, to an intemperate one; still I do not make my vote depend absolutely upon the question of whether a candidate does or does [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10856],"tags":[10866,11665,6088,11635,10865,11643,11664],"class_list":["post-1118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-honest-abe","tag-antebellum","tag-election-of-1854","tag-letter","tag-partisanship","tag-private","tag-recent-discoveries","tag-temperance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118","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=1118"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4333,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118\/revisions\/4333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}