{"id":964,"date":"2013-06-29T12:16:29","date_gmt":"2013-06-29T12:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/?p=964"},"modified":"2016-08-18T16:38:22","modified_gmt":"2016-08-18T16:38:22","slug":"letter-to-william-herndon-june-12-1848","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/letter-to-william-herndon-june-12-1848\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to William Herndon (June 12, 1848)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Contributing editors for this page include James Duncan<\/em><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Ranking<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 36px;\">#61<\/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\/40444\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;On my return from Philadelphia, where I had been attending the nomination of &#8220;Old Rough&#8221;&#8212;I found your letter in a mass of others, which had accumulated in my absence.&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>On This Date<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/today_in_history?q=panel\/this_date\/1848-06-12\">HD Daily Report, June 12, 1848<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelincolnlog.org\/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&amp;day=1848-06-12\" target=\"_blank\">The Lincoln Log, June 12, 1848<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Close Readings<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QExBjolVuVI\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nPosted at YouTube by &#8220;Understanding Lincoln&#8221; participant James Duncan, 2016<\/p>\n<h3>Custom Map<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps\/ms?msid=214923210427089848626.0004def4e79e2ae545ca4&amp;msa=0&amp;ll=39.820403,-89.638481&amp;spn=0.046937,0.090723&amp;iwloc=0004e062c7d865e41943c\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-3549\" src=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/files\/2013\/06\/Screen-shot-2014-02-22-at-11.03.32-PM.png\" alt=\"Screen shot 2014-02-22 at 11.03.32 PM\" width=\"484\" height=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/files\/2013\/06\/Screen-shot-2014-02-22-at-11.03.32-PM.png 692w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/files\/2013\/06\/Screen-shot-2014-02-22-at-11.03.32-PM-300x272.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=39.820403,-89.638481&amp;spn=0.046937,0.090723&amp;iwloc=0004e062c7d865e41943c\" target=\"_blank\">View in Larger Map<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>How Historians Interpret<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cThough many northern Whigs were outraged by the nomination of a slaveholder who had never been a true supporter of the party or its principles, Lincoln wrote on June 12 that such disaffected elements \u2018are fast falling in\u201d and predicted that \u2018we shall have a most overwhelming, glorious, triumph.\u2019 He took heart from the fact that \u2018all the odds and ends are with us \u2013 Barnburners [Free Soil Democrats in New York], Native Americans, [John] Tyler men, disappointed office seeking locofocos, and the Lord knows what.\u2019 He gloated that \u2018Taylor\u2019s nomination takes the locos on the blind side. It turns the war thunder against them. The war is now to them, the gallows of Haman, which they built for us, and on which they are doomed to be hanged themselves.\u2019264 Even Horace Greeley ultimately supported Taylor in order to defeat \u2018that pot-bellied, mutton-headed, cucumber Cass!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Michael Burlingame,\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.knox.edu\/documents\/pdfs\/LincolnStudies\/Burlingame,%20Vol%201,%20Chap%208.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 8 (PDF),\u00a0809.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn March 5, 1849, Abraham Lincoln stood among a throng of observers as Zachary Taylor was sworn into office, becoming the nation&#8217;s twelfth president. Lincoln had worked long and hard on the campaign trail stumping for the hero of the Mexican War, \u2018Old Rough and Ready\u2019 Taylor. The efforts of the outgoing Illinois congressman on Taylor&#8217;s behalf included mass mailings of pro-Taylor speeches and documents, active campaigning in four states \u2014 Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts and Illinois \u2014 and enthusiastic pronouncements of Taylor as congressman.\u00a0Lincoln had every right to feel proud of his efforts which \u2014 in his mind \u2014 helped to win the presidency for the Whig party. Moreover, with the Whigs in control of the executive branch of the federal government, political patronage posts were available in greater abundance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Thomas F. Schwartz, <a href=\"http:\/\/quod.lib.umich.edu\/j\/jala\/2629860.0008.104\/--egregious-political-blunder-justin-butterfield-lincoln?rgn=main;view=fulltext;q1=old+rough\" target=\"_blank\">\u201c\u2019An Egregious Political Blunder\u2019 Justin Butterfield, Lincoln, and Illinois Whiggery,\u201d <\/a><em>Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association <\/em>8 no. 1 (1986): 9-19.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn 1848, Congressman Lincoln abandoned his hero, Henry Clay, and worked for the presidential nomination of General Zachary Taylor, whose war record made him a more formidable candidate. Lincoln attended\u00a0the Whig National Convention as Philadelphia in June, saw \u2018Old Rough and Ready\u2019 nominated and returned to Washington exulting over the discomfiture of the \u2018locofocos\u2019 \u2013 that is, the Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Don E. Fehrenbacher, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=-NNJ_9ljg2YC&amp;pg=PA62&amp;dq=abraham+lincoln+zachary+taylor+letter+to+herndon+june+12+1848&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwi-26vaoJvNAhVLND4KHWafBcEQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\">Abraham Lincoln: A Documentary Portrait Through His Speeches and Writings<\/a> <\/em>(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1964), 62.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #333333;\">NOTE TO READERS<\/span><\/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;\">Washington, June 12. 1848<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">Dear William<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">On my return from Philadelphia, where I had been attending the nomination of &#8220;Old Rough&#8221;&#8212;I found your letter in a mass of others, which had accumulated in my absence. By many, and often, it had been said they would not abide the nomination of Taylor; but since the deed has been done, they are fast falling in, and in my opinion we shall have a most overwhelming, glorious, triumph. One unmistakable sign is, that all the odds and ends are with us&#8212;Barnburners, Native Americans, Tyler men, disappointed office seeking locofocos, and the Lord knows what. This is important, if in nothing else, in showing which way the wind blows. Some of the sanguine men here, set down all the states as certain for Taylor, but Illinois, and it as doubtful. Can not something be done, even in Illinois? Taylor&#8217;s nomination takes the locos on the blind side. It turns the war thunder against them. The war is now to them, the gallows of Haman, which they built for us, and on which they are doomed to be hanged themselves.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">Excuse this short letter. I have so many to write, that I can not devote much time to any one.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">Yours as ever<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">A LINCOLN<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Contributing editors for this page include James Duncan Ranking #61 on the list of 150 Most Teachable Lincoln Documents Annotated Transcript &#8220;On my return from Philadelphia, where I had been attending the nomination of &#8220;Old Rough&#8221;&#8212;I found your letter in a mass of others, which had accumulated in my absence.&#8221; On This Date HD Daily [&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":[10866,11645,6088,64,11669,11635,10865],"class_list":["post-964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-honest-abe","tag-antebellum","tag-election-of-1848","tag-letter","tag-mexican-war","tag-needs-close-reading","tag-partisanship","tag-private"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964","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=964"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4573,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964\/revisions\/4573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}