{"id":1128,"date":"2013-06-29T13:17:04","date_gmt":"2013-06-29T13:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/?p=1128"},"modified":"2016-06-18T20:44:20","modified_gmt":"2016-06-18T20:44:20","slug":"endorsement-may-17-1860","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/endorsement-may-17-1860\/","title":{"rendered":"Endorsement (May 17, 1860)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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

Annotated Transcript<\/h3>\n

“I agree with Seward in his ‘Irrepressible Conflict,’ \u00a0but I do not endorse his ‘Higher Law’ doctrine.\u00a0Make no contracts that will bind me<\/em>.”<\/a><\/p>\n

On This Date<\/h3>\n

HD Daily Report, May 17, 1860<\/a><\/p>\n

The Lincoln Log, May 17, 1860<\/a><\/p>\n

Custom Map<\/h3>\n

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

How Historians Interpret<\/h3>\n

\u201cDavis wanted to cut a deal with the Pennsylvanians, but the previous day Lincoln\u00a0had sent a terse message via Edward L. Baker: \u2018Make no contracts that will bind me.\u2019 According to Henry C. Whitney, Baker \u2018related that when he read the note to the delegates and workers gathered at the Lincoln headquarters he was greeted with a burst of laughter.\u2019 Davis, who guffawed louder than anyone else, said: \u2018Lincoln ain\u2019t here, and don\u2019t know what we have to meet, so we will go ahead, as if we hadn\u2019t heard from him, and he must ratify it.\u2019 Davis and Swett negotiated with the leading Cameron operatives, John P. Sanderson and Joseph Casey, \u2018in the wee small hours of Friday morning.\u2019 Before the convention met, Sanderson had predicted that Lincoln, unlike other contenders, might be able to carry the Keystone State. Cameron was allegedly offered a cabinet post in return for the votes of the Pennsylvania delegates on the second ballot. The Cameron representatives, wary because their counterparts had no authorization from Lincoln to act, were reassured that the Rail-splitter would never repudiate a promise they made.\u201d<\/p>\n

–Michael Burlingame,\u00a0Abraham 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 15 (PDF), 1681-1682.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cAll through the feverish night of May 17-18 the Illinois politicos worked to line up scattered second-ballot support for Lincoln. Despite the latter\u2019s injunction from Springfield to \u2018make no contracts that will bind me,\u2019 his lieutenants in Chicago probably promised cabinet posts and other patronage plums to Indianans, to Cameron of Pennsylvania, and perhaps to the Blairs of Maryland and Missouri. How important these pledges were in winning votes is debatable \u2013 after all, Weed could make similar promises on Seward\u2019s behalf. The belief that Lincoln could carry the lower North and Seward could not was the most powerful Lincoln weapon. And delegates from other states were influenced by the action of Indiana and Pennsylvania because they know that the party must capture them to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

— James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era <\/a><\/em>(New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 219.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cLincoln remained in Springfield during the Republican national convention. People passing through town on their way to Chicago stopped to chat with him. He presented himself as a moderate candidate, while Seward represented the extreme antislavery faction. Edward L. Baker, editor of the Illinois State Journal, also stopped on his way to Chicago. He carried a copy of the Missouri Democrat<\/em> containing Seward\u2019s position on slavery. In the margin of the Democrat<\/em> Lincoln wrote, \u201cI agree with Seward in his \u2018Irrepressible Conflict,\u2019 but I do not endorse his \u2018Higher Law\u2019 doctrine.\u201d That message was for Baker to print, but Lincoln added another message, this one for his managers in Chicago. Well aware of Davis and Swett\u2019s penchants for bargaining, Lincoln added with an underlined emphasis, \u2018Make no contracts that will bind me,\u2019 and he instructed Baker to make sure Davis and Swett read the message. The extent to which Lincoln\u2019s handlers adhered to this instruction produced a ripple effect that transcended the outcome of the convention.\u201d<\/p>\n

— Chester G. Hearn, Lincoln, the Cabinet and the Generals<\/em> <\/a>(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2010), 11.<\/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

\u00a0 I agree with Seward in his “Irrepressible Conflict,” but I do not endorse his “Higher Law” doctrine.\u00a0Make no contracts that will bind me<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ranking #142 on the list of 150 Most Teachable Lincoln Documents Annotated Transcript “I agree with Seward in his ‘Irrepressible Conflict,’ \u00a0but I do not endorse his ‘Higher Law’ doctrine.\u00a0Make no contracts that will bind me.” On This Date HD Daily Report, May 17, 1860 The Lincoln Log, May 17, 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":[10856],"tags":[10866,56,11669,10864,11635,10865,70,10876],"class_list":["post-1128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-honest-abe","tag-antebellum","tag-election-of-1860","tag-needs-close-reading","tag-notes","tag-partisanship","tag-private","tag-slavery","tag-younger-readers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128","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=1128"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4347,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128\/revisions\/4347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}