{"id":932,"date":"2013-06-28T20:28:05","date_gmt":"2013-06-28T20:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/?p=932"},"modified":"2016-06-20T13:49:00","modified_gmt":"2016-06-20T13:49:00","slug":"letter-to-lyman-trumbull-december-10-1860","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/letter-to-lyman-trumbull-december-10-1860\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to Lyman Trumbull (December 10, 1860)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Contributing Editors for this page include Annemarie Gray and Susan Williams Phelps<\/em><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Ranking<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 36px;\">#45<\/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\/40402\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Stand firm. The tug has to come, &amp; better now, than any time hereafter.&#8221;\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Audio Version<\/h3>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F120712715&visual=true\"><\/iframe>\n<h3>On This Date<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/panel\/this_date\/1860-12-10\" target=\"_blank\">HD Daily Report, December 10, 1860<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelincolnlog.org\/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&amp;day=1860-12-10\" target=\"_blank\">The Lincoln Log, December 10, 1860<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Close Readings<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CQspK9gjmSg\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Posted at YouTube by \u201cUnderstanding Lincoln\u201d participant Annemarie Gray, November 15, 2013<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/abrahamlincoln.quora.com\/Close-Reading-3\" target=\"_blank\">Susan Williams Phelps, &#8220;Understanding Lincoln&#8221; blog post (via Quora), September 9, 2013<\/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=38.944457,-77.023945&amp;spn=0.09506,0.181446&amp;iwloc=0004f30a1a7ef57a0127e\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-3519\" src=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/files\/2013\/06\/Screen-shot-2014-02-22-at-10.07.29-PM.png\" alt=\"Screen shot 2014-02-22 at 10.07.29 PM\" width=\"485\" height=\"444\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/files\/2013\/06\/Screen-shot-2014-02-22-at-10.07.29-PM.png 693w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/files\/2013\/06\/Screen-shot-2014-02-22-at-10.07.29-PM-300x274.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 485px) 100vw, 485px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps\/ms?msid=214923210427089848626.0004def4e79e2ae545ca4&amp;msa=0&amp;ll=38.944457,-77.023945&amp;spn=0.09506,0.181446&amp;iwloc=0004f30a1a7ef57a0127e\" target=\"_blank\">View in Larger Map<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>How Historians Interpret<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cDiscarding his longtime Whiggish belief in congressional supremacy, Lincoln forcefully interjected himself into the congressional debate. No previous president-elect ever made such a show of power and influence before his swearing in. He delivered no public speeches and issued no state papers on the compromise issue \u2013 to do so, he still believed, would only exacerbate matters by angering both anti-slavery men and border state conservatives. Instead, he made his views clear in a series of remarkably tough letters to key allies on Capitol Hill, which he knew would be widely shared with other Republicans. Hoping still to embolden Southern Unionists, or at best steel the rest of the country for the possible use of force to protect federal property and collect revenues, he now made it clear he would reject fundamental concessions that might guarantee both, but at the expense of slavery expansion. Lincoln\u2019s reply to Trumbull left little doubt where he stood. \u2018Let there be no compromise on the question of <em>extending <\/em>slavery,\u2019 came the pointed instructions. \u2018If there be, all our labor is lost, and ere long, must be done again. The dangerous ground \u2013 that into which some of our friends have a hankering to run \u2013 is Pop[ular]. Sov[reignty]. Have none of it. Stand firm. The tug has to come, &amp; better now, than any time hereafter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Harold Holzer, <em>Lincoln President-Elect: Abraham Lincoln and the Great Secession Winter 1860-1861<\/em> (New York: Simon &amp; Schuster, 2008), 158.)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe symbolic significance of the issue of slavery in the territories, as well as its practical implications, dominated his thinking in the winter of 1860-61\u2026 On December 10, he wrote Trumbull in the same vein: \u2018Let there be no compromise on the question of extending slavery. If there be, all our labor is lost, and, ere long, must be done again. The dangerous ground \u2013 that into which some of our friends have a hankering to run \u2013 is Pop. Sov. Have none of it. Stand firm. The tug has to come, &amp; better now, than any time hereafter.\u2019 A week later, he reiterated to Trumbull his firm stance: \u2018If any of our friends do prove false, and fix up a compromise on the territorial question, I am for fighting again.\u2019\u201d 1938-1940<\/p>\n<p>\u2013Michael Burlingame,\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.knox.edu\/documents\/pdfs\/LincolnStudies\/Burlingame,%20Vol%201,%20Chap%2017.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 17 \u00a0(PDF),\u00a01938-1940.<\/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;\">Private &amp; confidential.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">Dec. 10, 1860<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">Hon. L.Trumbull. Springfield, Ills.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">My dear Sir:<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">Let there be no compromise on the question of extending slavery. If there be, all our labor is lost, and, ere long, must be done again. The dangerous ground&#8212;that into which some of our friends have a hankering to run&#8212;is Pop. Sov. Have none of it. Stand firm. The tug has to come, &amp; better now, than any time hereafter.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">Yours as ever\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">A. LINCOLN.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Contributing Editors for this page include Annemarie Gray and Susan Williams Phelps Ranking #45 on the list of 150 Most Teachable Lincoln Documents Annotated Transcript &#8220;Stand firm. The tug has to come, &amp; better now, than any time hereafter.&#8221;\u00a0 Audio Version On This Date HD Daily Report, December 10, 1860 The Lincoln Log, December 10, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10859],"tags":[10877,10866,11632,6088,11642,10865,70,10890],"class_list":["post-932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-savior-of-the-union","tag-advice","tag-antebellum","tag-determination","tag-letter","tag-management-style","tag-private","tag-slavery","tag-stephen-a-douglas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932","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=932"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4436,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932\/revisions\/4436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}