THE LINCOLN OF THE 
 THIRTIETH CONGRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 ROY D. PACKARD 
 
 Cloth, Price $1.75 
 
 THE CHRISTOPHER PUBLISHING HOUSE, BOSTON 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding fnbm 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
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LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER 
 
THE LINCOLN OF THE 
 THIRTIETH CONGRESS 
 
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THE LINCOLN OF THE 
 THIRTIETH CONGRESS 
 
 By 
 ROY D. PACKARD 
 
 THE CHRISTOPHER PUBLISHING HOUSE 
 BOSTON, U. S. A. 
 
Copyright 1950 
 By the Christopher Publishing House 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 

 "Possibly you consider those acts too 
 small for notice. Would you venture to so 
 consider them had they been committed by 
 any nation on earth against the humblest 
 of our people ? I know you would not. Then 
 I ask, is the precept 'Whatsoever ye would 
 that men should do to you, do ye even so to 
 them' obsolete? of no force? of no applica- 
 tion?" 
 
 Congressman Abraham Lincoln to Rev. 
 J. M. Peck, May 21, 1848. 
 
The Lincoln of the 
 Thirtieth Congress 
 
 CHAPTER ONE 
 
 Few periods in the history of the United States 
 have had more significance than the fifth decade of 
 the Nineteenth Century. It was a time of rapid ex- 
 pansion, of the redrawing of maps upon which new 
 and strange territories were traced in rough outline. 
 This period saw the country's boundaries pushed to 
 the Rio Grande and to the Pacific. It witnessed the 
 California Gold Rush and the far westward trail of 
 the covered wagon. East of the Mississippi the hey- 
 day of the wagon and the stage was on the wane. 
 Both were there being outmoded by the Iron Horse, 
 a transportation advance hastened by the vigor of 
 the novel, fascinating business of railroading. It 
 was also in the East at this time that Samuel Morse's 
 revolutionary method of reducing distance was ex- 
 periencing its birth pangs. 
 
 Five stars were added to the flag during this de- 
 cade. By the end of 1850 there were thirty-one, of 
 which six represented states west of the Mississippi. 
 
 This was also a period of cultural growth and of 
 radical social experiments. Some of the same intel- 
 lectuals who were then producing the finest in litera- 
 ture were toying with the idea that society should be 
 reorganized on an equality basis. Brook Farm, New 
 
8 THE LINCOLN OF 
 
 England's socialistic experiment of the Eighteen 
 Forties, was promoted by such noted scholars as 
 Hawthorne, Emerson, Channing and Parker. The 
 mystical Thoreau chose this time to conduct his per- 
 sonal test with isolationism in Massachusetts' lone- 
 ly Walden Woods. 
 
 The most noteworthy year of the fifth decade 
 was 1846 which Bernard DeVoto has recently called 
 The Year of Decision. This was a year in which poli- 
 tics and war united in the determination of far- 
 reaching issues. There were other happenings in 
 1846 which, though going unnoticed at the time 
 were also to play an influential part in American 
 life. Among these was the first match game of base- 
 ball which was played at Hoboken, New Jersey, 
 while at Cincinnati a frustrated young bookkeeper, 
 Stephen Collins Foster, sold one of his first ballads, 
 a smash hit, for the insignificant sum of $100. 
 
 The Lower House of the 30th Congress, and one- 
 third of the Upper House, both celebrated for their 
 roster of famous names, was elected in 1846. The 
 Democrats retained control of the Senate that year 
 but lost control of the Lower House to the Whigs by 
 a narrow margin, 116 to 108. 
 
 The venerable John Quincy Adams was a mem- 
 ber of this Congress. Among those headed for dis- 
 tinction were Northerners George Ashmun, Joshua 
 R. Giddings, David Wilmot and Caleb Smith. 
 Southerners in this category were Andrew Johnson, 
 Howell Cobb, Robert Toombs and Alexander H. 
 Stephens, the last three being Georgians. The Sen- 
 ate roll included elder statesmen John C. Calhoun, 
 Daniel Webster, Thomas H. Benton, and Texas' 
 picturesque former President, Sam Houston. Among 
 
THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 9 
 
 future notables were Reverdy Johnson, Simon 
 Cameron, John A. Dix, Hannibal Hamlin, Stephen 
 A. Douglas, Jefferson Davis, John C. Breckenridge, 
 John J. Crittenden and Thomas Corwin. 
 
 It was to be decreed, however, that the later re- 
 nown of still another member of this Congress was 
 to vastly exceed that of all others. Destiny, in this 
 year of 1846, was grooming this individual for a 
 dazzling place in world affairs. The subject of this 
 extensive training was an Illinois politician, the only 
 Whig to survive the Congressional elections in that 
 state. The few words which this elected represen- 
 tative of a few thousand prairie citizens submitted 
 for the Congressional Directory furnished no clue to 
 his dramatic future. They gave the date of his birth, 
 made known only that he was a lawyer with a "de- 
 fective" education, that he had been a captain in the 
 Black Hawk War, and that he had served four terms 
 in the legislature of his state. 
 
 The author of this modest personal history was 
 a Springfield lawyer on the short side of forty. His 
 name was Abraham Lincoln. 
 
10 THE LINCOLN OF 
 
 CHAPTER TWO 
 
 Lawyer Lincoln, his four terms in the Illinois Leg- 
 islature concluded, was exceedingly ambitious for 
 honors higher than that body afforded. He had lived 
 for some years in a political atmosphere and had 
 associated with men who sought advancement in 
 public life as a matter of course. He now strongly 
 desired to go to Congress, an office he had been 
 thinking about ever since his first partner, Major 
 John T. Stuart, had gone to Washington in that ca- 
 pacity soon after the establishment of their law firm 
 about five years before. 
 
 There were two other strong Whig Congressional 
 aspirants in the Seventh Illinois District in 1842 
 which, incidentally, was the only one in the state at 
 this time where a Whig could reasonably hope to be 
 elected. The story of how John J. Hardin received 
 the nomination for the 28th Congress from this dis- 
 trict and Edwin D. Baker for the 29th is an interest- 
 ing example of skillfully planned prairie politics. 
 Lincoln's nomination in 1846 is the most fascinating 
 part of the narrative. It shows him to have been 
 scrupulously fair to both Hardin and Baker, with 
 whom he remained on friendly terms through sev- 
 eral stormy periods, but far more shrewd than 
 either in long range planning and in creating and 
 steering political sentiment. His ingenuity in getting 
 reluctant Whig leaders to accept the nominating 
 convention as a political device, (it had been adopted 
 by the Democrats ten years before) and his effective 
 
THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 11 
 
 sponsorship of the principle that Congressional 
 nominations should be rotated, had most to do with 
 getting him the much sought-for honor. 
 
 In spite of his well laid plans over some four years, 
 Lincoln's nomination was not assured until a few 
 weeks before convention time. Baker had bowed out 
 gracefully although he would have liked a second, 
 consecutive term. But Hardin, although apparently 
 committed to the rotation idea, had announced his 
 intention to run again. So adroitly did Lincoln 
 handle this difficult situation, however, that when 
 the District Whigs met on May 1, 1846, they gave 
 him a cut and dried nomination. Of course, the 
 "Turn about is fair play" slogan, which he had him- 
 self originated and pleaded, meant that Lincoln, too, 
 would be obliged to step aside at the end of one term. 
 Thus he entered his campaign knowing that if 
 elected he could not honorably succeed himself. In 
 all probability the Whig nominee for the 31st Con- 
 gress from the Seventh District would be his second 
 law partner, Judge Stephen T. Logan, an able man 
 who had ambitions of his own. 
 
 The Democrats reached into the pulpit for their 
 candidate. They selected sixty-one-year-old circuit- 
 riding Peter Cartwright, who was then presiding 
 elder of the Bloomington, Illinois District of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church. This militant preacher, 
 who had twice been elected to the State Legislature, 
 was a devout follower of Andrew Jackson, and an 
 able, articulate exponent of all things Methodist. He 
 had been a Chaplain in the War of 1812, serving 
 with the General at the Battle of New Orleans, 
 Widely known for his stern evangelism, the wonder 
 is that he allowed himself to drift out of character 
 
12 THE LINCOLN OF 
 
 by seeking public office. A fiery exhorter, he fought 
 unrepentance, the Latter Day Saints, Calvinists 
 and Baptists, with equal resolution. So great was 
 his ill-will for the nearby Nauvoo Mormon Colony 
 that he declared the murder of its leader, Joseph 
 Smith, to be a justifiable homicide. 
 
 There were Democrats in the Seventh District who 
 did not approve of political ambitions for preachers. 
 This group probably offset those Whig Churchmen 
 who scorned their own candidate because of his re- 
 puted agnosticism. It was to be expected that one 
 of the campaign issues would be "Believer versus 
 non-believer/' The Democratic nominee's canvass 
 was an interesting combination of fervid religion 
 and ineffective politics. Lincoln is reported to have 
 attended one of his opponent's protracted revival 
 meetings where the preacher-candidate singled him 
 out for blunt questioning; was he going to heaven 
 or hell? The Whig's reply caused a titter to run 
 through the crowd — he was going to Congress. 
 
 Other personal issues were featured by the Demo- 
 crats. They accused Lincoln of forsaking the 
 common people by marrying into the aristocratic 
 Todd family. They also charged him with having 
 said that drunkards were often as honest, generous 
 and kindly as church members and sometimes more 
 so. This latter indictment he did not deny but he did 
 go to some pains to explain that his marriage had 
 not altered his regard for the plain people. 
 
 The Whigs were better organized than the Demo- 
 crats and Lincoln proved a tougher, more competent 
 campaigner than Cartwright. In carrying 8 of the 
 11 counties in the District, he scored an easy vic- 
 tory, receiving 56% of the vote. 
 
THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 13 
 
 Although the 30th was elected during the summer 
 and fall of 1846 and successful candidates were offi- 
 cial members of that body from March 4th, 1847, 
 this Congress did not assemble until December of 
 that year. Lincoln might have served in the second 
 session of the 29th had he chosen to qualify for the 
 interim period, Baker having resigned to enlist in 
 the Army where Hardin was already distinguishing 
 himself in the struggle with Mexico. The law 
 business of Lincoln and Herdon was keeping the 
 senior partner busy at this time and this may have 
 been the reason he preferred not to do so. But the 
 let-down he experienced after the election might also 
 have figured in his decision to wait for the term for 
 which he had been elected. For after reaching the 
 goal he had prized so highly he found the capture 
 less thrilling than the chase. "Being elected to Con- 
 gress/' he wrote, "has not pleased me as much as I 
 expected/ ' 
 
 During the sixteen-month wait between his elec- 
 tion and taking his seat, Lincoln got his first taste 
 of the distracting patronage pressure which features 
 the life of public servants in a Democracy. One of 
 the first such requests, strangely enough, came from 
 Democratic Congressman John A. McClernand, a 
 fellow Illinoisian, who urged his help for another 
 Democrat who was in imminent danger of removal 
 from his federal job. McClernand assured Lincoln 
 that, "You can count on me under like circumstances 
 for a similar favor." 
 
 Washington bound, the Congressman-elect, with 
 his wife, Mary, and their two boys, Robert and Ed- 
 ward, left Springfield in October, 1847, going first 
 to Lexington, Kentucky, to visit with Mrs. Lin- 
 
14 THE LINCOLN OF 
 
 coin's family. Their departure occasioned a back- 
 handed compliment in the local Whig paper : "Suc- 
 cess to our talented member of Congress. He will 
 find many men in Congress who will possess twice 
 the good looks and not half the sense of our own 
 representative." 
 
 Several accounts point to the pride with which 
 Mary Lincoln introduced her husband to her family 
 and to the prominent citizens of Lexington. Robert 
 Todd, her father, was a lawyer, banker and Whig 
 politician. There was intelligent half-sister Emily, 
 who was to be a White House visitor and a source 
 of political embarrassment to Lincoln when Presi- 
 dent. But she was also to become the mother of his 
 wife's most favorable biographer. 
 
 Kentuckians of this period held a curious mixture 
 of views on slavery. There was much of that benev- 
 olence toward Negroes which Mrs. Stowe was to 
 picture so lucidly a few years later in her Uncle 
 Tom's Cabin. For example, Dr. Robert J. Brecken- 
 ridge, a Presbyterian spellbinder, was an outspoken 
 opponent of slavery but a more famous member of 
 his family, John C, who was then one of Kentucky's 
 United States Senators, was in favor of the institu- 
 tion. Lincoln visited with both, as he did with Sena- 
 tor John J. Crittenden, with whom he was to have 
 later dealings. 
 
 Mrs. Lincoln must have thoroughly enjoyed tak- 
 ing her husband to Ashland, the Lexington home of 
 a close friend of her childhood days, the famous 
 Henry Clay. For Mary had been a boastful girl — 
 she had talked of being a First Lady some day and 
 a Congressman was a fair start in that direction. 
 Clay was now approaching the end of a long and 
 
THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 15 
 
 distinguished public career. Lincoln had taken an 
 active part in the campaign to elect him president 
 in 1844 when that office had eluded the Kentuckian 
 for the third and last time. He now was privileged 
 to visit with the magnetic leader whose principles 
 and fabulous abilities had attracted him into the 
 Whig party. This meeting, long anticipated by Lin- 
 coln, was somewhat disappointing to him. For one 
 thing, Clay, although opposed to the extension of 
 slavery, and giving lip service to gradual emancipa- 
 tion, was still a large slaveholder. The conscientious 
 younger man probably thought his idol was wanting 
 in sincerity. 
 
 The Lincolns were present when Mr. Clay ad- 
 dressed a large crowd of his neighbors during their 
 Lexington stay. He discussed the Mexican War in 
 a lengthy speech, contending that the President, 
 who had defeated him three years before, had pro- 
 voked the war, a charge which Lincoln was soon to 
 make in Congress. 
 
 Politics took a leading place but it did not con- 
 sume all of Lincoln's twenty-one days in the Blue 
 Grass Country. He was bound to discover other in- 
 terests in such a cultural community. It was ob- 
 served that he browsed for many hours in the fine 
 private libraries, a form of enticement which, 
 though he was never a great reader, he would have 
 found it difficult to resist. It was during this visit 
 that he is believed to have memorized William Cullen 
 Bryant's moody Thanatopsis. 
 
 A wearisome two-day journey by bouncing stage 
 and stuffy, jerky steam cars took the Lincoln party 
 to Washington in late November. They checked in 
 at Brown's Indian Queen Hotel, a second class hos- 
 
16 THE LINCOLN OF 
 
 telry on unpaved Pennsylvania Avenue. A day or 
 two later they removed to cheaper lodgings to which 
 Lincoln had been directed. This turned out to be a 
 boarding house heavily patronized by Whigs. The 
 rooms were part of a long, dreary-looking terrace- 
 type structure located a short distance from the 
 Capitol on ground now occupied by the Library of 
 Congress. It was operated by Mrs. Ann G. Spriggs, 
 a widow. Mrs. Spriggs would have been very much 
 surprised had she known that her guests from Illi- 
 nois, the tall congressman and his temperamental 
 wife, would, at no distant day, be installed in the 
 presidential mansion, then tenanted by the James K. 
 Polks. 
 
THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 17 
 
 CHAPTER THREE 
 
 Politician Lincoln was an eager participant in 
 the Whig caucus which preceded the first meeting of 
 the 30th Congress. The first few days following the 
 opening of the session were taken up with the usual 
 organization formalities. Illinois' only Whig member 
 was appointed to the committee on Post Office and 
 Post Roads and on Expenditures in the War De- 
 partment. In the drawing for seats he was assigned 
 one of the least desirable. The contest for the Chap- 
 laincy was unusually competitive, the Rev. R. R. 
 Gurley, a Presbyterian, finally being elected by 
 two votes. Strangly enough, Lincoln voted consis- 
 tently for the loser, Baptist R. W. Cushman, who 
 had been nominated by a Democrat, whereas Dr. 
 Gurley was the candidate of no less a Whig than 
 John Quincy Adams. 
 
 In his first message to this Congress, President 
 Polk declared that Mexico had been guilty of "in- 
 vading the territory of the State of Texas, striking 
 the first blow and shedding the blood of our citizens 
 on our own soil." As the war was practically over 
 these charges appear to have been a defense of a 
 rather vulnerable position. Two weeks after hear- 
 ing the message, 67 of the 116 Whigs in the House 
 turned down an administration resolution which 
 alleged the war to have been just and necessary. 
 
 It was in the very nature of things that Congress- 
 man Lincoln willingly, if not joyfully, went along 
 with the majority in refusing the President an oni- 
 
18 THE LINCOLN OF 
 
 cial approval of his Mexican policy. The Whigs now 
 commenced a general assault against the administra- 
 tion. The Chief Executive was accused of having 
 provoked the war himself, and of usurping power 
 delegated to Congress by the Constitution. The 
 Democrats, on the other hand, were overwhelmingly 
 behind their leader. 
 
 Soon after reaching Washington, Lincoln had 
 written to his law partner, William H. Herndon, — 
 "As you are also anxious for me to distinguish my- 
 self, I have concluded to do so before long." Although 
 he was not to distinguish himself in a manner his 
 friends might have desired, he did, without loss of 
 time, achieve an incredible amount of publicity. He 
 had listened intently to Clay's fiery words at Lexing- 
 ton on the causes of the war and had pondered a 
 great deal on the matter. The notoriety he so quickly 
 received was accomplished by pressing this very 
 live issue of war guilt. Before a month passed he had 
 dramatically introduced his spectacular "spot" 
 resolutions. These, in substance, demanded that Polk 
 name the exact spot where Mexicans had behaved 
 in such a way as to make war with them inevitable. 
 The resolutions, though tabled, brought the orator- 
 sponsor much notice. A part of this notice was favor- 
 able but the net result was a heavy loss of popularity 
 back home. 
 
 Encouraged by the publicity he was receiving and 
 undaunted by adverse comment, the Illinois Whig 
 took to the floor, denouncing the President's message 
 as "From beginning to end the sheerest deception. 
 The President is being swept on and on 'til," he 
 said, "disappointed in the calculation and ease with 
 which Mexico might be subdued, he now finds him- 
 
THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 19 
 
 self he knows not where. How like the half insane 
 mumbling of a fevered dream is the whole part of 
 his late message ... he is a bewildered, confounded 
 and miserably perplexed man." 'This was a coura- 
 geous, if partisan stand for a first termer. His pre- 
 sentation gave promise of an able public servant. 
 But the context of this speech and his delivery was 
 far short of the orator who was to address the 
 Gettysburg multitude 15 years later. 
 
 Similar emphatic attacks against the principles 
 involved in the war's origin soon gave Lincoln the 
 reputation, an unjust one, of being against every 
 phase of military activity. He was accused of want- 
 ing to withhold pay and supplies for the Army 
 though his voting record did not support such a 
 charge. This type of retaliation was something he 
 had not anticipated. One Congressman called his 
 stand "a strange one for a man who had succeeded 
 such excellent Illinois representatives as Hardin and 
 Baker." All Illinois representatives in both houses, 
 being Democrats, were in total disagreement with 
 his war speeches and so declared themselves. Sen- 
 ator Douglas had, in fact, approved the President's 
 message before its delivery. Lincoln's position — al- 
 though that of nearly all Whigs in both Houses of 
 Congress, became even more unpopular in his home 
 State when Hardin, who had been promoted to 
 Major General, was killed in action at Buena Vista. 
 
 The most withering blow was his partner's atti- 
 tude. Herndon, who was an alert politician in his own 
 right, seriously questioned the wisdom of Lincoln's 
 stand and frankly wrote him to that effect. Gloomy 
 correspondence between them began soon after the 
 
26 THE LINCOLN OF 
 
 publicity occasioned by the "spot" resolutions and 
 continued for several months. "I would stake my 
 life that if you had been in my place you would have 
 voted as I did," was a typical Lincoln explanation. 
 . . . "You are compelled to speak and your only al- 
 ternative is to tell the truth or a lie. Even Whigs 
 who have participated in the war do not hesitate to 
 pronounce as unjust the President's conduct in 
 starting it. Allow the President to invade a neigh- 
 boring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary 
 to repel an invasion and you allow him to . . . make 
 war at pleasure." "Your view," he added, giving 
 utterance to one of his deathless sentences, "places 
 our President where Kings have always stood." 
 
 Congressman Lincoln stubbornly defended his 
 position. One method he adopted was to send copies 
 of his own and other Whig speeches to individuals 
 and newspapers throughout the country, but par- 
 ticularly to his own district. Most of this material 
 was not carried by the papers, public opinion being 
 generally in favor of the war and unconcerned with 
 who started it. At this time he wrote the first of his 
 several letters to Horace Greeley, criticizing an 
 article which had appeared in Mr. Greeley's influen- 
 tial New York Tribune, a Whig mouthpiece. "If the 
 degree of arrogance is not too great," he addressed 
 the famous editor, "may I ask you to examine what 
 I said on this point in the printed speech I send you." 
 
 Later in the year a surprised and disgusted Lin- 
 coln read a clergyman's labored effort to vindicate 
 the President's attempt to shift the responsibility 
 for starting the War to the Mexicans. He was 
 shocked to discover religious backing for a point of 
 view which he thought demonstrated a clear lack of 
 
THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 21 
 
 public morals. Writing the preacher-author, he pro- 
 tested in some detail against the "facts" used, to 
 justify Polk's position. "If you admit they are 
 facts," he argued, "then I shall be obliged for a 
 reference to any law of language, law of states, law 
 of nations, law of morals, law of religions, any law, 
 human or divine, in which an authority can be found 
 for saying those facts constitute "no aggression." 
 
 Of course other duties and subjects occupied 
 Congressman Lincoln's time and attention during 
 this first session. No sooner had he been installed 
 as a representative than he went to work on the de- 
 mands of his constituents. The record of his efforts 
 in this respect is full and revealing. He seems to 
 have given his personal attention to all appeals. An 
 example during the first session was his presenta- 
 tion of a petition "Praying for a further testing of 
 the discovery by one, Uriah Brown, of liquid fire 1 to 
 be used in the national defense." Most such peti- 
 tions were tabled. This one suffered the usual fate. 
 
 The First Session lasted more than eight months, 
 adjourning August 14. The Congressional Globe, 
 forerunner of the present Congressional Record, 
 contains 27 Lincoln references in its account of this 
 meeting. These range from vote listings to the ex- 
 tensive recordings given certain of his speeches. On 
 the whole he may be said to have fared considerably 
 .better than most first-termers in the matter of 
 getting his name spread upon the official proceed- 
 ings. 
 
 Seven complete pages in the large and closely 
 printed Globe Appendix are devoted to his three 
 major addresses of the session. The blistering at- 
 tack he made up on the administration's Mexican 
 
22 THE LINCOLN OF 
 
 War policy was given two pages as was his discus- 
 sion of Internal Improvements. A third speech, given 
 the ponderous title, "The Presidential Question and 
 that of the Territories Ceded to the United States by 
 Mexico," rated three pages. In spite of the witty and 
 sarcastic portions of these addresses they show that 
 he did not take to the floor without having something 
 interesting to say. Highly provocative, they contain, 
 in addition to the orthodox Whig viewpoint, some 
 excellent composition, with not a few snatches of 
 close reasoning. 
 
 A tragic event occurred during this first session. 
 Congressman Adams was stricken in the House 
 during the deliberations on February 21. When he 
 died three days later, Lincoln was appointed to a 
 committee which arranged for the funeral and 
 framed a program of recognition befitting a former 
 president of the United States. He was a marcher in 
 the solemn procession which bore the remains to the 
 Congressional burial grounds. 
 
 During this session Lincoln became well acquain- 
 ted with the Southern members of his party, among 
 them the three Georgians. Foremost of these was 
 Alexander H. Stephens, a very small man with a 
 very large mind. Congressman Stephens stirred the 
 House one day with an eloquent speech concerning 
 the administration's shortcomings. It was the kind 
 of a speech that the Illinoisian would have liked to 
 have delivered himself. His letter to Herndon tells of 
 the deep impression it made upon him, "... My 
 old withered eyes are full of tears yet." 
 
THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 23 
 
 CHAPTER FOUR 
 
 Some weeks after the opening of Congress Lin- 
 coln collaborated with other Whigs in forming a 
 loosely drawn organization which became known as 
 "The Young Indians." One of their leading objec- 
 tives was to promote Louisiana's General Zachary 
 Taylor for the 1848 presidential nomination and 
 election. The Whig from Springfield did not need to 
 be urged to join this enterprise for his interest in 
 getting Taylor nominated was probably as great as 
 that of any other member of the group. "My hope 
 of Taylor's nomination is as high — a littler higher 
 than it was when you left," he wrote to a prominent 
 Illinois Whig. ". . . My prayer is that you will send 
 us a good Taylor delegate from your circuit. Make 
 Baker (he had returned from the Army) help about 
 it. He is a good hand to raise a breeze." Of his law 
 partner he also requested quick action in lining up 
 a Taylor delegate for the national convention. 
 
 Other letters reveal the enthusiasm with which 
 Lincoln labored for Taylor's nomination. A Clay 
 man for years, he now talked down the Kentuck- 
 ian's candidacy which, notwithstanding three de- 
 feats, was not without strength. He had little faith 
 that Clay could carry the Whigs to victory and saw 
 no point in backing a loser, however famous that 
 individual might be. "As a matter of judgment," he 
 declared, "There would not be enough votes to elect 
 him. We can elect nobody but General Taylor and 
 we cannot elect him without a nomination. . . " 
 
24 THE LINCOLN OF 
 
 Irresistibly drawn to the national Whig conven- 
 tion in early June, Congressman Lincoln witnessed 
 Taylor's nomination on the fourth ballot. "In my 
 anxiety for the result I was led to attend the Phila- 
 delphia Convention," he confided to a friend — ". . . 
 I have entered the names you sent me in my book 
 and commenced sending documents to them. ,, In this 
 simple but practical manner, and. without loss of 
 time, did he set in motion his personal campaign to 
 help elect the Whig standard bearer. 
 
 General Taylor, a Southerner and slaveholder, 
 was generally acceptable to party members but a 
 substantial number of Whigs thought the nomina- 
 tion a weak one, which it unquestionably was. Lin- 
 coln took it upon himself to reply to this criticism. 
 But to one who complained of the selection he dis- 
 closed his current, easy-going political philosophy, 
 making no attempt to defend the candidate. In this 
 case he prophesied victory, implying that party 
 success was paramount. ". . . By many, and often," 
 he wrote, "it has 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 and glorious tri- 
 umph." 
 
 This zealous Whig also assumed responsibility 
 for upholding the party candidate on the floor of a 
 not too receptive House. Perhaps the most sarcastic 
 speech he ever made was in ridicule of Taylor's op- 
 ponent, Michigan's Senator Cass, whose supporters 
 had made the mistake of playing up his Black Hawk 
 experience, something about which Lincoln had first- 
 hand knowledge. "Mr. Speaker," he said in part, "If 
 I should ever conclude to doff whatever our Demo- 
 
THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 25 
 
 cratic friends may suppose there is of black cockade 
 and federalism about me, and therefore they shall 
 take me up as their candidate for the presidency, I 
 protest that they shall not make fun of me as they 
 have of General Cass by pretending to write me in- 
 to a military hero." This speech, called "Old Horse 
 and Military Coat-tails," contains such inelegant 
 passages as his charge that, in trying to tie Cass to 
 a military tail, his biographers are "Like so many 
 mischievous boys tying a dog to a bladder of beans'." 
 
 His intense activity for General Taylor's candi- 
 dacy continued unabated throughout the summer. 
 Soliciting the names of skeptical Whigs and on-the- 
 fence Democrats from sundry sources, he bom- 
 barded them with persuasive Taylor literature. A 
 note which he sent to Thaddeus Stephens at this 
 time is an interesting example of both his cock- 
 sureness in addressing party bigwigs and the bed- 
 rock methods which were later to make him an ac- 
 curate interpreter of his own political future. 
 Stephens, a Pennsylvanian who would be heard 
 from later, was a smug, self-righteous individual, 
 whose pompous pose repelled familiarity. "You may 
 possibly remember me at the Philadelphia Conven- 
 tion — introduced to you as the Lone Star of Illinois," 
 Lincoln wrote him ... "I desire the undisguised 
 opinion of some experienced and sagacious Pennsyl- 
 vania politician as to how the vote of that state, for 
 governor and president, is likely to go. In casting 
 about for such a man I have settled upon you; I 
 shall be much obliged if you will write me at Spring- 
 field, Illinois." 
 
 Whatever impression Lincoln made upon Whig 
 leaders as a legislator, they must have considered 
 
26 THE LINCOLN OF 
 
 him a prime asset on the stump. Upon adjournment 
 of Congress he was asked to deliver a number of 
 Taylor speeches, the first two at Seneca and Rock- 
 ville, Maryland. At Seneca he appeared with a prom- 
 inent Democratic slaveholder who had come out for 
 the Whig candidate. A few days later he addressed 
 a large rally in Washington. 
 
 The greater part of his speechmaking, however, 
 was done in Massachusetts where he was booked for 
 more than two weeks, starting at Worcester. Other 
 addresses were at New Bedford, Boston, Lowell, Dor- 
 chester, Chelsea, Dedham, Cambridge and Taunton. 
 Favorable notice in the Boston Daily Journal must 
 have been clipped by the Illinois orator for home 
 consumption — "He is a very tall and thin figure with 
 an intellectual face showing a searching mind and 
 a cool judgment. He spoke in a cool and clear and 
 very elegant manner for an hour and a half, carry- 
 ing the audience with him in his able arguments." 
 Much other gratifying publicity was given to his 
 Massachusetts speeches. Recalled to Boston after his 
 Taunton appearance, he spoke at a large meeting 
 there, sharing the Tremont Temple platform with 
 New York's popular William H. Seward, whom he 
 met for the first time. 
 
 Homeward bound after his New England canvass, 
 Lincoln stopped at Albany to call on two national 
 Whig figures, Thurlow Weed and Millard Fillmore. 
 Weed was probably the most able professional 
 politician this country has ever produced. Fillmore 
 was Taylor's running mate. These Albany visits 
 were doubtless Lincoln's own idea. They indicate 
 his desire to meet high-ranking political figures, an 
 
THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 27 
 
 inclination which he possessed throughout his 
 adult life. 
 
 Congressman Lincoln considered himself the 
 Illinois Whig leader in Washington and had done 
 everything possible to have others so regard him. 
 As a consequence he was much distressed by the 
 Whig lethargy he found upon returning to Spring- 
 field. Whig papers had published very little of the 
 Taylor material he had so faithfully mailed them. 
 His attempt of some weeks before to stir up interest 
 in the ticket through letters to Herndon had resulted 
 dismally. His partner had stated, among other com- 
 plaints, that the older Whigs were not giving young 
 men an opportunity to express themselves. Youth 
 was being "ungenerously thrust back" by the "old 
 fossils of the party." 
 
 "I was young once," Lincoln had protested, "and 
 I am sure I was never ungenerously thrust back. The 
 way for a young man to rise is to improve himself 
 every way he can, never suspecting anybody wishes 
 to hinder him." He had urged, with little effect, 
 that young men be organized, and he went to the 
 bother of naming several likely prospects, suggest^ 
 ting "that everybody play the part he can play best." 
 "Some speak, some sing and all holler," he wrote. 
 
 Although the Seventh District Congressman spoke 
 throughout the state right up until election day and 
 Taylor was victorious, Illinois' nine electoral votes 
 went to Senator Cass. This state never did approve 
 a Whig presidential candidate. It did not leave the 
 Democratic ranks in a national election until 1860 
 and the man who was to cause this to pass now had 
 good reasons to believe that his political days were 
 over. His arranged successor in Congress, Judge 
 
28 THE LINCOLN OF 
 
 Logan, had been soundly beaten in the August elec- 
 tion, the incumbent being generally blamed for the 
 defeat. It was openly declared that his war speeches 
 in the House had made it impossible for any Whig 
 to be elected from the 7th District. "If you collect 
 the signatures of all persons who are no less dis- 
 tinguished than I," Lincoln replied to an autograph 
 collector at about this time, "You will have an undis- 
 tinguished mass of names." 
 
THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 29 
 
 CHAPTER FIVE 
 
 When the Lincolns became lodgers at Mrs. 
 Spriggs' adequate but unimpressive establishment 
 the population of Washington was about 40,000. 
 Although intended by its founders to be an example 
 of national and municipal splendor, the city at this 
 time was conspicuous by the trashy, tarnished areas 
 immediately adjacent to its most important public 
 buildings. It was years removed from zoning re- 
 strictions in the modern sense. The White House is 
 the only building which has remained without ap- 
 preciable external changes to the present day. The 
 Capitol was then in an unfinished state, the con- 
 struction of its great dome lagging throughout the 
 Civil War. The wings, which now contain both 
 houses of Congress, were added some years later. 
 
 Few Congressmen brought their families to Wash- 
 ington during these years, suitable private homes 
 being almost non-existent. Only nine members of 
 both Houses of the 30th Congress occupied separate 
 houses. Most of the others were jammed, wifeless, 
 into small hotels and boarding houses of varying 
 degrees of style and comfort. 
 
 We are indebted to a young but observing wit- 
 ness for most of the gossip of Mrs. Spriggs* house 
 during the Lincoln occupancy. A student and fellow 
 boarder, nineteen-year-old Samuel Claggett Busey, 
 was the literate reporter. Later, when a prominent 
 physician and historian, Dr. Busey set down much 
 information about Congressman Lincoln's dinner- 
 
30 THE LINCOLN OF 
 
 time conduct, of his mimicry and story telling. 
 Usually the congenial Illinois Whig would re-enact 
 the Democratic forensic efforts of the day, to the 
 great delight of his small but friendly audience. 
 
 Mrs. Lincoln was somewhat handicapped by 
 having to care for her two boys, the youngest being 
 not yet two. But it was in keeping with her nature 
 that she was not pleased with either Mrs. Spriggs' 
 accommodations or the outlook for the wives of 
 first-term congressmen who then, as now, cut little 
 figure in the Capital's social life. She seldom mingled 
 with other guests. Used to being the center of activ- 
 ities, she made little effort to conceal her feelings. 
 It is highly improbable that she met either Dolly 
 Madison, widow of the fourth president, or Mrs. 
 Alexander Hamilton, who were still leaders in Wash- 
 ington society. Disappointed with her minor place 
 in this scheme of things, Mary left her husband 
 sooner than they had intended, returning to Lexing- 
 ton instead of Springfield, as they had leased their 
 home for a few months. 
 
 The frequent letters Lincoln wrote to his wife 
 during this separation show him to have been atten- 
 tive and considerate. "In this troublesome world we 
 are never quite satisfied," one letter read. "When 
 you were here I thought you hindered me some in 
 attending to business ; but now, having nothing but 
 business ... It has grown exceedingly tasteless to 
 me ... I hate to stay in this old room by myself." 
 In another note he urged her to "Come on just as 
 soon as you can, I want to see you and our dear, 
 dear boys very much." 
 
 When Mary did not return Lincoln expressed an 
 understanding of her decision to remain in Lexing- 
 
THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 31 
 
 ton but repeated his invitation, "Father expected to 
 see you all sooner but let it pass. Stay as long as you 
 please and come when you please. Kiss and love the 
 dear rascals for me." Another letter diplomatically 
 refers to her quarrels with Mrs. Spriggs' guests; 
 "All the house, or rather, all with whom you are on 
 decided good terms, send their love to you. The 
 others say nothing." Receiving two "duns" from 
 Washington tradesmen some weeks after her leav- 
 ing, he thought it prudent to confirm the indebted- 
 ness as she had apparently told him there were no 
 unpaid bills. This was a preview of his wife's tragic 
 buying habits during their White House years. 
 
 The House Postoffice saw a good deal of him. An 
 alert and able newsman, Ben Perley Poore, reported 
 that the stories he told there were most entertain- 
 ing, especially those about his experiences in that 
 minor military fracas, the Black Hawk War. Chroni- 
 cler Poore also mentioned Lincoln's partiality for 
 the House Library and his peculiar habit of bund- 
 ling up library books in a colored handkerchief, 
 carrying them over his shoulder on a stick which he 
 brought for that purpose. The observer of this in- 
 teresting bit of drama concluded that the actor was 
 simply an unaffected person, wholly without airs, 
 who acted in Washington precisely as he did in his 
 home town. He was fond of tenpins and bowled 
 frequently with fellow Congressmen. Although his 
 scores were low he is said to have played with en- 
 thusiasm. Winning or losing seemed to make no 
 difference to him. 
 
 It is believed that Congressman Lincoln attended 
 several Marine Band Concerts which were frequent- 
 ly given on the White House grounds. There was 
 
32 THE LINCOLN OF 
 
 another welcome diversion which came his way but 
 which he could not have shared with his socially 
 ambitious wife. Senator Webster sometimes asked 
 members of the House for a Saturday breakfast at 
 his fashionable home and Lincoln was invited sev- 
 eral times, quite likely because of his growing repu- 
 tation as a story teller. There seems to be no record 
 of either Lincoln or his wife having attended any of 
 the 37 churches which ministered to the spiritual 
 needs of the Washingtonians of this period. 
 
 Some months after his wife's departure an event 
 of singular importance must have attracted his 
 active interest. This was the laying of the corner- 
 stone of the Washington Monument, with elaborate 
 ceremonies, on July 4, 1848. Seventy-four years 
 later, on Memorial Day, 1922, the inspirational Lin- 
 coln Memorial, companion piece to the Washington 
 Obelisk, was to be dedicated. 
 
 Despite all impressions to the contrary there was 
 nothing grotesque about the attire which this 
 Springfield lawyer affected during his congressional 
 term. If we are to give credence to competent 
 witnesses, his clothes could not be contrasted un- 
 favorably with those of his colleagues. His appear- 
 ance, recorded in some detail by Dr. Busey, was 
 "always neatly but very plainly dressed." 
 
 The wide publicity given his House speeches was 
 responsible for putting Congressman Lincoln in 
 touch with scattered branches of his father's family. 
 A member of the 30th Congress from Virginia was 
 asked by a David Lincoln of that state to question 
 the Illinois Whig about his family. Comparing notes 
 it was discovered that David's uncle had been Abra- 
 ham's grandfather. Solomon Lincoln of Hingham, 
 
THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 33 
 
 Mass., the original home of the American Lincolns, 
 also asked his Congressman about "the Lincoln that 
 made such an able speech in the House of Represen- 
 tatives/ ' Lincoln doubted that there was a connec- 
 tion between Solomon and himself, but admitted he 
 knew almost nothing of the Lincolns that far back. 
 Research has since shown that both Solomon and 
 Levi Lincoln, a former Massachusetts Governor, 
 were descended from the same family which pro- 
 duced the Emancipator. During his campaign tour of 
 the Bay State Lincoln was entertained by Levi in 
 his palatial Worcester home. Had Mary accompanied 
 her husband on this trip she might have altered her 
 opinion of the Lincoln clan, which was not a high 
 one. 
 
 There is a popular but erroneous impression that 
 Lincoln did not pay off his New Salem grocery store 
 "national debt" until 1848 and that until then he 
 was in straitened circumstances. This claim has been 
 proved untrue. There is convincing evidence that he 
 was not lacking in modest funds either prior to or 
 during his Congressional years. Several of his Wash- 
 ington letters to his wife contained substantial sums. 
 His cash purchases of Whig documents for use 
 during the Taylor campaign was considerable, his 
 personal expenditures for this purpose far exceed- 
 ing that of most Whig members. Further and rather 
 conclusive proof of his solvency during this period 
 is two loans he made to Illinois friends a few weeks 
 after the final adjournment of the 30th Congress. 
 
34 THE LINCOLN OF 
 
 CHAPTER SIX 
 
 The second session of the 30th Congress lasted 
 from December 4, 1848 to March 4, 1849. The mem- 
 bership of this meeting, like all second sittings, in- 
 cluded many who had failed of re-election. 
 
 As he had previously conceded both his moral and 
 political obligation to retire after one term, Lincoln 
 was actually a "lame duck" from his start in Con- 
 gress. But he proved very much of an exception to 
 those who had lost interest in their duties. Although 
 he arrived in Washington three days late for the 
 opening of this session, he was soon busily engaged 
 in the wide variety of matters which comprise a 
 Congressman's job. He was again made a member 
 of the committees upon which he had served during 
 the previous session. In late December he was ap- 
 pointed to a group which was to select a monument 
 to commemorate Lord Cornwallis' surrender at 
 Yorktown, Virginia in 1781. A month later he was 
 placed on a committee which was to manage 
 President-elect Taylor's inaugural ball. 
 
 The ninety days of congressional life now left to 
 Lincoln was especially featured by the pressure of 
 Whig office seekers who were spurred by their 
 party's national victory. His mail was heavy with 
 job-demanding letters. His wife's family, in the 
 person of his father-in-law, was one of the many 
 who sought his aid. This appeal from Robert Todd 
 was in behalf of the son-in-law of his brother, a 
 young man who had fallen upon hard times and who 
 
THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 35 
 
 was said to be willing to accept even a modest fed- 
 eral stipend. When Lincoln did not respond prompt- 
 ly the applicant's wife wrote him with some urgency, 
 the postscript to her letter reading — "Should you 
 have forgotten, ask Mary who I am." 
 
 During both sessions Lincoln sponsored several 
 memorials of Illinois citizens so that their desires, 
 the great majority of which would remain forever 
 unfulfilled, be officially recorded. He continued to 
 the last to perform all of the minor, unsung duties 
 of a representative of the people. It is of record that 
 not all his constituents entrusted him with their 
 designs. One citizen who wanted to have his son 
 named to West Point refused to enlist Lincoln's aid 
 to that end, preferring to ask Democratic Senator 
 Douglas for the favor. ". . . Our Congressman," this 
 distrustful voter wrote the Senator, "is a Whig and 
 rather a bad specimen of even that species." 
 
 Of much significance were his votes on the several 
 slavery bills and amendments which found their 
 way into the hoppers of both sessions. Democrats 
 Brinkerhoff of Ohio and Wilmot of Pennsylvania 
 wrote and introduced the famous Wilmot Proviso. 
 This would have barred slavery from any territory 
 acquired from Mexico. It was up many times before 
 receiving a majority in the House, Lincoln voting 
 for it on each occasion. The Bill failed of passage 
 in the Senate. 
 
 Other slavery bills, whether sponsored by Whig 
 or Democrat found Congressman Lincoln on the 
 side of restricting the institution. Two weeks after 
 taking his seat in the initial session his first vote on 
 the question of slavery in the District of Columbia 
 was recorded. He was humiliated and depressed by 
 
36 THE LINCOLN OF 
 
 the sight of chained slaves being driven through the 
 city's streets. When President, he was to recall a 
 stable near the Capitol where, as a Congressman, 
 he had witnessed the herding of Negroes for ship- 
 ment. His interest in having a start made toward 
 freedom for the Negro caused him to sponsor an 
 amendment to one District measure, a provision 
 which would have granted freedom to children 
 born of slave mothers there after January 1, 1850. 
 It would also have legalized voluntary compensated 
 emancipation in the District, a method he was to 
 urge for the entire South when President. He was 
 granted the opportunity to read his amendment to 
 the House but it was never formally introduced. 
 Measures to outlaw slavery in Washington usually 
 failed to get out of committee. 
 
 That Lincoln was not a reformer in other matters 
 deliberated by the 30th Congress is indicated by his 
 voting record. Congressional mileage charges were 
 under attack during both sessions. Members of the 
 House were then allowed 40c a mile from their 
 homes to Washington and return, "by the most 
 usual road." This rate, with a salary of $8.00 a day, 
 had been set thirty years before by the Fifteenth 
 Congress. New York's crusading Horace Greeley, 
 a three-month member of the 30th Congress, kept 
 the mileage issue in the forefront. Mr. Greeley was 
 later to urge young men to go West and grow up 
 with the country. But at this time he apparently was 
 convinced that the cost of transporting the public's 
 representatives from far western states would 
 bankrupt the government. He predicted that Cali- 
 fornia congressmen, should that territory be grant- 
 ed statehood, would seek remuneration for the 
 
THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 37 
 
 journey from San Francisco to Washington via 
 Cape Horn. 
 
 Various measures designed to cut the allowance 
 came up for a vote. One would have granted $2000 
 per annum, but only 10 cents a mile. This was badly 
 defeated, Lincoln going with the majority. He was, 
 in fact, against every attempt to lower the rate. His 
 own mileage charges were based on the Chicago, 
 Buffalo, New York route from Springfield, which 
 might have been the most usual road but was not 
 the shortest one. 
 
 Few, if any, members of the 30th Congress made 
 greater use of the franking privilege than did the 
 Illinois Whig. When a bill which would have abol- 
 ished franking was submitted to a vote on February 
 1, 1849 he joined heartily in the successful effort to 
 defeat it. 'The several hundred pieces of Taylor lit- 
 erature which he distributed went through the mails 
 free. As a natural but amusing sequel, the Demo- 
 crats made political capital out of his excessive use 
 of free mailing. Upon his return to Springfield after 
 his New England speaking tour he was greeted with 
 embarrassing publicity in a local paper, — "Hon. 
 Abraham Lincoln . . . arrived at home on Tuesday 
 last. We are pleased to observe that his arduous 
 duties since the adjournment of Congress in frank- 
 ing and loading down the mails with Whig election- 
 eering documents, have not impaired his health. He 
 looks remarkably well." 
 
 Considering the much shorter period of the sec- 
 ond meeting, the Congressional Globe contains as 
 many Lincoln references as the first session. But 
 there is a marked falling off in their importance. 
 As he made no extended speeches the Globe Appen- 
 
38 THE LINCOLN OF 
 
 dix for this session does not include any of his re- 
 marks from the floor. 
 
 Lincoln's closing days as a Congressman and the 
 first few weeks following his relinquishment of the 
 office were largely occupied with patronage matters. 
 Four days after the change in national administra- 
 tion he wrote the new Secretary of the Treasury, 
 calling the attention of that official to his right to be 
 consulted before the appointment of any Illinois 
 Whig to any job "either in or out of the State." The 
 next day he directed a letter concerning an office 
 seeker to the Secretary of State. A month later he 
 was still engaged in this effort for we discover that 
 on April 9th he addressed three letters to the Secre- 
 tary of the Interior and one to the Postmaster Gen- 
 eral, all having to do with the procurement of jobs 
 for "worthy" Whigs. 
 
 This persistent effort to replace Democrats with 
 Whigs was not limited to the lesser positions which 
 were now at the disposal of the winning party. 
 About a month before Taylor's inauguration, he 
 attempted, unsuccessfully, to obtain a cabinet posi- 
 tion for Baker, his predecessor. "The West," he 
 wrote, "is not only entitled to, but is in need of one 
 member of the cabinet." It has recently been dis- 
 covered that one of the persons to whom he had 
 written on this matter did not share his enthusiasm. 
 This friend thought Baker "erratic" and hinted that 
 Lincoln himself was better suited for a place among 
 the President's official family. 
 
 There is reason to believe that Congressman Lin- 
 coln was regretful when his term came to an end. 
 Like Baker he would have been intently receptive 
 to another, consecutive term. He had expressed him- 
 
THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 39 
 
 self on the forbidden subject to his partner before 
 he experienced the sickening loss of popularity 
 occasioned by his outspoken war views. Herndon, his 
 ear to the ground, had earlier suggested that there 
 might be some sentiment for a second nomination. 
 Lincoln's reply at that time betrayed his true feel- 
 ing; — "It is very pleasant to learn . . . that there 
 are some who desire that I should be re-elected . . . 
 I made the declaration that I would not be a candi- 
 date again, more from a wish to deal fairly with 
 others . . . and to keep the district from going to the 
 enemy ... so that ... if nobody else wishes to be 
 elected I could not refuse the people the right of 
 sending me again." But there had not been the 
 slightest sign of a draft movement. 
 
 March 4th, 1849, fell on a Sunday. On the morn- 
 ing of the next day General Taylor was inaugurated 
 the twelfth president of the United States. Lincoln 
 attended both the induction ceremonies and the in- 
 augural ball in the evening. Twelve years later he 
 was to attend another inauguration, his own. 
 
 A few days after the conclusion of the second 
 session, Ex-Congressman Lincoln argued his first 
 and only case before the Supreme Court. He lost 
 the appeal, the court upholding a decision of the 
 Illinois Federal Court. Shortly thereafter he applied, 
 through a Washington attorney, Z. C. Robbins, for 
 a patent on a device for lifting boats over sandbars. 
 Mr. Robbins wrote him at Springfield a few weeks 
 later, "It affords me much pleasure to inform you 
 that I have obtained a favorable decision on your 
 application for a patent for your improved manner 
 of combining expansible buoys with a vessel, and 
 operating the same . . . " The model which Lincoln 
 
40 THE LINCOLN OF 
 
 made with his own hands is now prominently dis- 
 played in the Smithsonian Institution. 
 
 With these matters out of the way there was no 
 further reason why Lincoln should not quit Wash- 
 ington. Reluctantly he packed his shabby bag and 
 started the long, tiresome trek back to Springfield 
 and his neglected law practice. But he was not quite 
 through with the Nation's Capital for the time be- 
 ing. As events proved he was soon to return. 
 
THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 41 
 
 CHAPTER SEVEN 
 
 A little known but important episode of Lincoln's 
 career took place immediately following his Con- 
 gressional term and is inseparably connected with 
 it. This was the determined effort he made to have 
 himself appointed Commissioner of the General 
 Land Office. The commissionership was a federal 
 position in the Home Department, and office at- 
 tached to the Treasury. One of the last acts of the 
 30th Congress was to create the Interior Depart- 
 ment, into which the Home Department and Land 
 Office were placed. 
 
 He first mentioned his interest in this position 
 apologetically in a letter to a Kentucky friend, — 
 ". . . There is nothing about me to think of a first 
 class office and a second class one would not com- 
 pensate my being sneered at by others who want it 
 for themselves." Although for several weeks after 
 this he was to make a half-hearted effort to secure 
 the job for one of three other aspiring Illinois Whigs, 
 there is a strong possibility that he wanted it right 
 from the time the Taylor victory made it available 
 to the Whigs. At least, the friend was sufficiently 
 impressed with his faintly expressed wishes to inter- 
 cede with a Senator in his behalf. 
 
 The Land Office job was one of the more attrac- 
 tive posts at the disposal of the winning party, pay- 
 ing $3000 a year. Lincoln knew that some faithful 
 Illinois Whig should have a good claim to the post 
 as an Illinois Democrat had resigned from it several 
 months before to enter the army. As the state's 
 
42 THE LINCOLN OF 
 
 only Whig in Congress he thought his influence 
 should be the decisive factor in settling the matter. 
 Shortly after Taylor's inauguration he was still 
 answering inquiries about the job by saying that 
 Baker and himself were each backing a candidate, 
 indicating that they would probably unite in the 
 support of either if the other withdrew. 
 
 When no progress was made in agreeing on 
 a choice, it was feared the place might go to another 
 state by default. No doubt Lincoln wished that pro- 
 minent candidates, active or passive, would declare 
 themselves out of the race. For several weeks he had 
 been advised to go after the office himself. This sug- 
 gestion fell on willing ears but he would not act as 
 long as his own publicized choice was still a nominal 
 candidate. But his true feelings were quite clearly 
 set forth in his own words, "If the office could be 
 secured to Illinois by my consent to accept it and 
 not otherwise, I give that consent." 
 
 The matter was in this stalemate when a Chicago 
 lawyer, Justin Butterfield, who had just lost out on 
 another federal appointment, threw his hat into the 
 ring. Seldom was Lincoln more wrought up than by 
 this unexpected announcement. A memorandum he 
 promptly sent to a friend gives us the basis for his 
 objection — "He is my personal friend and is quali- 
 fied to do the duties of the office, but of the quite one 
 hundred Illinoisians equally well qualified, I do not 
 know one with less claim to it." Thus we know that 
 his opposition to Butterfield was based, not on his 
 qualifications, but on the validity of his right to such 
 a substantial party favor. 
 
 Lincoln had no illusions regarding Butterfield's 
 strength. Dropping all pretense of supporting an- 
 
THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 43 
 
 other man, he soon went all out to secure the post 
 for himself. Receiving confidential information that 
 the Chicagoan had the inside track he wrote the 
 Home Department Secretary, calling his attention 
 to a promise which had been made him that no one 
 from Illinois would be named to high office without 
 his being heard. "When you and I were almost 
 sweating blood to have General Taylor nominated," 
 this impulsive letter reads, . . . "Butterfield was 
 ridiculing the idea and going for Mr. Clay and when 
 General Taylor was nominated if he went out of the 
 City of Chicago to aid in his election, it is more than 
 I ever heard or believed." To another in Washington 
 he vigorously protested — "In the great contest of 
 1840 he was not seen or heard of but when the vic- 
 tory came, three of four old drones, including him, 
 got all the valuable offices . . . try to defeat Butter- 
 field and in doing so use ... or myself, whichever 
 you can to best advantage." 
 
 Thoroughly aroused, Lincoln did not confine his 
 efforts against Butterfield to Illinois or Washington 
 friends. Urgent notes were addressed to Whigs in 
 several states. To one he predicted the proposed 
 selection would prove "an egregious political blun- 
 der, one which will give offense to the whole Whig 
 party here." He urged another correspondent to 
 write to President Taylor, demanding "that either 
 I, or the man I recommend, should be appointed to 
 that office if any one from Illinois shall be," 
 
 Led to believe that if he presented his case in 
 Washington he might get the job, and strongly 
 urged to do so, Lincoln decided to make the trip. 
 With this in mind, he again appealed to several 
 party wheel-horses. "It is now certain that either 
 
44 THE LINCOLN OF 
 
 Mr. Butterfield or I will be Commissioner," one such 
 letter read. "If you are willing to give me the pref- 
 erence, please write me to that effect at Washington 
 whither I am going. There is not a moment to be 
 lost." When Butterfield learned that his rival intend- 
 ed to carry the battle to the Capital in person he 
 suggested that neither go there. But Lincoln, sus- 
 pecting his motives, ignored the proposal. 
 
 When he arrived in Washington a few days later 
 Lincoln received the bitter news that Butterfield had 
 already been given the post. One of the reasons given 
 him was the superficial one that Butterfield was a 
 close friend of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. It 
 is reported that the loser went to his hotel in a most 
 depressed state, his gloom being the greater because 
 he believed that those he had counted on to rally to 
 his support had not done so. The next day he at- 
 tempted to nullify the appointment by asking that all 
 papers recommending him be shown to President 
 Taylor. The request was not acted upon. The re- 
 cently opened papers in the Library of Congress 
 show that the retiring Commissioner thought Lin- 
 coln was the logical Whig to succeed him, a fact 
 which might have held some comfort for him had 
 he known it. 
 
 The sorely disappointed applicant was inclined to 
 blame Taylor and now called the man he had recent- 
 ly spoken of so highly on the stump, "a mere man 
 of straw." "The President," he said, "must occasion- 
 ally say or seem to say, 'By the eternal, I take the re- 
 sponsibility*." There is little doubt that he was more 
 hurt by this defeat than by any other in his life, 
 although the incident seldom appears on those silly 
 lists which presume to catalogue the "sorrowful" 
 
THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 45 
 
 incidents of his life. It is the story of an unfamiliar 
 Lincoln, a man who over-estimated the prestige of 
 public office. Certainly the salary could not have been 
 the real attraction. 
 
 But this grievous frustration did not destroy his 
 sense of fair play or his loyality to the Whig party. 
 Some weeks later, when his emotions were no longer 
 strong, he acknowledged the bad taste of an intem- 
 perate speech made by one of his friends who had 
 publicly denounced the Butterfield appointment. 
 Writing to the Editor of the Chicago Journal he 
 said, "... Had the intention of any Whig to deliver 
 such a speech been known to me, I should have en- 
 deavored to prevent it." 
 
 Probably seeking to conciliate him, Whig officials 
 in Washington offered Lincoln the governorship of 
 the recently created Oregon territory. After some 
 deliberation he rejected the post. There is good 
 authority for the belief that Mrs. Lincoln was the 
 dominating influence in this fateful decision. She 
 flatly refused to leave Illinois, calling the great 
 northwest "uncivilized." 
 
 It remained for the able and ambitious Edward D. 
 Baker to make his way to the great Oregon country- 
 There this former Illinois representative rose in 
 politics and when Oregon was admitted to the Union 
 in 1859 he was elected to the United States Senate. 
 He was one of the first to respond when President 
 Lincoln issued his call for volunteers and was listed 
 among the early fatalities of the war, falling in the 
 skirmish at Ball's Bluff in October, 1861. 
 
46 THE LINCOLN OF 
 
 CHAPTER EIGHT 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Cartwright's autobiography was 
 published in 1856. Its more than 500 pages do not 
 contain a single reference to the man who had de- 
 feated him ten years before. This volume, which 
 overflows with anxiety for those living outside the 
 pale of his own religious dogmas, does not mention 
 the author's excursion into Congressional politics. 
 Neither does President Polk's diary, released many 
 years later, allude to Lincoln although the names 
 of several Whigs in both Houses of the 30th Con- 
 gress are to be found in that document. Perhaps he 
 was ignored because of his unsparing censure of 
 Polk. An interesting sidelight to the diary omission 
 is a statement made by Congressman Lincoln in 
 1848, — "You know I can have no intimacy with the 
 President." 
 
 It was inevitable that Lincoln's outspoken criti- 
 cism of the administration's Mexican War Policy 
 would continue to harass him politically. His con- 
 tention that hostilities had been started in the in- 
 terest of territorial gain gave him a reputation 
 which required the passing of time to efface. Be- 
 cause of these convictions, which he never retracted, 
 he was even obliged to defend himself from a 
 charge of disloyalty. Sometimes he reminded his 
 accusers that greater men than he had taken a like 
 position. Once he compared Henry Clay's war views 
 with his own, asking, — "What, then, is the differ- 
 ence except that he is a great man and I am a small 
 
THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 47 
 
 one?" History has largely vindicated the soundness 
 of his position. 
 
 Although his membership in the 30th Congress 
 has created a great deal of interest in that body, 
 Lincoln's part in its several accomplishments was 
 not a significant one. The association was important 
 but not because of his own contribution to it. For 
 this was not the aroused, dedicated statesman of a 
 decade hence. No great cause had yet challanged his 
 latent moral force. Despite his stand on the 
 question of war guilt the conclusion can hardly be 
 escaped that the politically minded Lincoln of the 
 Land Office chase was also the Lincoln of the 30th 
 Congress. 
 
 This Congress was a notable one, if only because 
 of the part it had in Lincoln's development. There 
 can be no doubt that it helped immeasurably to fit 
 him for the responsibilities which were thrust upon 
 him with his nomination and election to the presi- 
 dency in 1860. This service, short as it was, thor- 
 oughly schooled him in federal legislative methods, a 
 knowledge which was to stand him well in the days 
 ahead. It supplemented his four terms in the Illinois 
 House, providing him with a post-graduate course 
 in legislative procedure. 
 
 Equally important, if not more so, his Congres- 
 sional experience greatly widened his acquaintance 
 with famous men and increased his confidence in his 
 ability to deal with them. He learned that political 
 figures in the national arena were not much unlike 
 those he knew in Illinois. Addressing Congress, he 
 also discovered, was not much different from speak- 
 ing to his Springfield neighbors. 
 
48 THE LINCOLN OF 
 
 A surprisingly large number of men who figured 
 prominently in the historic days of 1860-65 had been 
 members of the 30th Congress. Lincoln was respon- 
 sible for drafting a number of them into the federal 
 service. It is true that in 1847-49 he became only 
 slightly acquainted, if at all, with some of these 
 men, especially those who were then members of 
 the Senate. But his intimate knowledge of them 
 and of others he called upon during the War dated 
 from his two Washington years. 
 
 Ohio's Joshua R. Giddings took a prominent part 
 in the Chicago convention which made Lincoln the 
 presidential nominee. Massachusetts' George Ash- 
 mun was Chairman of the Convention and leader 
 of the delegation which visited him at Springfield 
 to officially notify him of his selection. Maine's Han- 
 nibal Hamlin, who had been promoted from the 
 Lower to the Upper House at the opening of the 30th 
 Congress, received the vice-presidential nomination, 
 "I am not certain whether we have ever had a 
 formal introduction or not," he wrote Lincoln, "My 
 recollection of yourself is more distinct undoubtedly, 
 than yours of me ... I remember well of hearing 
 you speak one day ..." 
 
 John C. Breckenridge headed one of the three 
 national tickets which opposed the Republicans in 
 the election. Defeated, he became a Major General 
 in the Southern Army. Kentucky's other senator in 
 the 30th Congress, John J. Crittenden, proved a 
 staunch Unionist and helped keep his state from 
 joining the Confederacy. Lincoln's long time politi- 
 cal rival, Stephen A. Douglas, who was an Illinois 
 Senator in the 30th Congress and until his death in 
 June, 1861, was his Democratic opponent and the 
 
THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 49 
 
 most formidable of the three. Douglas spent the 
 last weeks of his life campaigning for Lincoln's 
 war policies. 
 
 General Sam Houston continued as Senator from 
 Texas until 1859 when he was elected Governor of 
 that state. He was deposed from office in March, 1861 
 when he refused to swear allegiance to the Confed- 
 eracy. A strong and fearless anti-secessionist, he 
 died in 1863, a few weeks after the Northern vic- 
 tories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. His resolute 
 Union stand was a source of encouragement to 
 President Lincoln at a time when he badly needed 
 such support. 
 
 New York's Thurlow Weed was a Springfield 
 visitor a few weeks after the presidential election 
 of 1860. He returned to Albany without commit- 
 ments from the President-elect, having found more 
 than a match in the former congressman who had 
 interviewed him in the New York capital in 1848. 
 The other man Lincoln visited in Albany at that 
 time, Millard Fillmore, had succeeded Taylor as 
 president. Fillmore headed the Buffalo delegation 
 which received him in that city when Lincoln, in- 
 auguration-bound, stopped there in February, 1861. 
 
 Lincoln made William H. Seward, his chief rival 
 for the nomination and the man with whom he had 
 campaigned for Taylor at Boston, his Secretary of 
 State. Indiana's Caleb Smith became his first Secre- 
 tary of the Interior and Simon Cameron his first 
 Secretary of War. He appointed Ohio's Tom Corwin 
 a special minister to Mexico. Corwin's war position 
 in the 30th Congress had been similar to Lincoln's 
 and this was one of the reasons why his effort to 
 keep Mexico on the side of the North during the 
 
50 THE LINCOLN OF 
 
 Civil War was a successful one. President Lincoln's 
 war letters to Editor Greeley, a short term congres- 
 sional associate and a correspondent of that period, 
 is an important part of Lincolniana. 
 
 Jefferson Davis became President of the Con- 
 federacy. 
 
 New York's John Dix was appointed a Major Gen- 
 eral of Volunteers by President Lincoln soon after 
 the surrender of Fort Sumter as was John A. 
 McClernand of Illinois. David Wilmot was made a 
 member of the Court of Claims. To Maryland's Rev- 
 erdy Johnson, Lincoln assigned an involved legal 
 job for the Military, a task which was expertly 
 accomplished by that distinguished lawyer. 
 
 Pennsylvania's crusty Thaddeus Stevens, to whom 
 Congressman Lincoln had addressed that presump- 
 tuous letter during the Taylor campaign, became 
 one of the gadflies of his administration. An ex- 
 treme abolitionist and a hater of all things Southern, 
 Stevens was one of the radicals responsible for 
 the carpetbag government in the South after the 
 President's assassination. 
 
 But Stevens, who was an influential member of 
 Congress during the war, was used by the patient 
 Lincoln, who possessed the capacity to extract max- 
 imum civic value from uncooperative public men. 
 Stevens proved very difficult and his explosive barbs 
 must have rankled the sensitive War President many 
 times. But Lincoln was helped by this association 
 a great deal in spite of their detached relations and 
 the inherent differences between the two men. Con- 
 gressman Stevens became one of his supporters 
 following the issuance of the Emancipation Procla- 
 mation, and it was he who sponsored the legislation 
 
THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS 51 
 
 to idemnify him when Chief Justice Taney attempt- 
 ed to invalidate the President's suspension of the 
 Writ of Habeas Corpus. 
 
 Lincoln chose another member of the 30th Con- 
 gress, Tennessee's Andrew Johnson, for second place 
 on the ticket when he sought a second term in 1864. 
 
 What of the three Georgia Congressmen who 
 had been co- joiners with him in the "Young In- 
 dians?" Howell Cobb, although opposed to secession 
 and not unfriendly to Lincoln personally, became an 
 important political leader in the Confederacy. Rob- 
 ert Toombs accepted the post of Jefferson Davis' 
 first Secretary of State although he, too, was a 
 Unionist at heart. But this Dixiean turned savagely 
 against the President-elect, declaring as he with- 
 drew from the Senate, — "Lincoln is an enemy of 
 the human race and deserves the execration of all 
 mankind." 
 
 Alexander Stephens, faithful Southerner though 
 he was, remained Lincoln's sincere friend through- 
 out all the turmoil and animosities created by both 
 secession and war. Soon after his election Lincoln 
 chose this former Congressional associate as the con- 
 fidant to whom he made known his innermost 
 thoughts regarding the South. Letters to him from 
 Springfield were marked "For your eye only." There 
 was an exchange of correspondence regarding the 
 approaching crisis. But although the brilliant Geor- 
 gian urged his state not to secede, it finally did so 
 and he accepted the Vice-Presidency of the Confed- 
 eracy. 
 
 Some years after the war, Stephens recalled his 
 Congressional impressions of the martyred Presi- 
 dent — "He always attracted the attention of the 
 
52 THE LINCOLN OF 
 
 House, his manner of speech was always original. 
 He was a man of strong convictions — what Carlyle 
 would call an earnest man — socially he always kept 
 the company in a roar of laughter." 
 
 These unlike but congenial political leaders met 
 for the last time at Hampton Roads, Virginia, early 
 in 1865, in a conference to discuss possible ways to 
 an early peace. Stephens discovered a much changed 
 Lincoln, sterling evidence of his infinite capacity for 
 growth. The President was cordial but adamant, a 
 Commander-in-Chief whose only peace terms were 
 simply stated — "By the Confederate States disband- 
 ing their armies and permitting the national author- 
 ities to resume their functions." 
 
 But the Lincoln who had grown so tremendously 
 in mental and moral stature, had not lost the sense 
 of humor which had embellished his days in the 30th 
 Congress. When it was suggested by a Southern con- 
 feree that the President ought to follow the example 
 of England's Charles the First and deal officially 
 with those engaged in armed warfare against the 
 government, his reply must have reminded Stephens 
 of the lanky Whig with whom he had often dined at 
 the Widow Spriggs' well-victualed table. "I do not 
 profess to be posted in history," was Lincoln's an- 
 swer, "all I distinctly recall about the case of 
 Charles the First is that he lost his head." 
 

 jr 
 
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AN INTERESTING ACCOUNT OF 
 LINCOLN IN CONGRESS 
 
 Twentieth Century United States owes an enormous 
 debt to its Sixteenth President, Nineteenth Century 
 Abraham Lincoln. There is evidence that the people have 
 become conscious of this obligation for there has developed 
 an insatiable hankering to know more and more about 
 this mysterious figure who flashed so dramatically and 
 effectively across the American scene nearly a hundred 
 years ago. 
 
 Contrary to popular belief, Lincoln was not suddenly 
 raised from the status of an obscure citizen to the pres- 
 idency. His was a slow but steady climb to the top. One 
 of the most important milestones on that journey was his 
 term in Congress, 1847-49. 
 
 The Lincoln of the Thirtieth Congress gives the busy 
 reader a brief but adequate glimpse of a Lincoln who is 
 practically unknown to the vast majority of Americans. 
 It is an absorbing story, attractively told, and without the 
 mawkish sentiment which usually characterizes sketches 
 of this fabulous man. 
 
 "I have read The Lincoln of the Thirtieth Congress 
 several times, and each time with greater enjoyment. The 
 author gets to the heart of the subject and tells a factual 
 story in language understood by everybody." 
 
 — Byron Wade, Writer and Narrator — "Personalities 
 in the News," N. B. C. 
 
 "Lincoln is usually painted atop a pinnacle of great- 
 ness. The Lincoln of the Thirtieth Congress is quite a 
 different fellow — a hard-working, ambitious lawyer- 
 politician, following party lines where expedient, making 
 mistakes at times, seeking publicity, laying the groundwork 
 for a career in politics. You wouldn't hesitate to take him 
 to lunch or ask him to get a Post Office job for your 
 cousin Bill." 
 
 — Don Knowlton, Hill & Knowlton, Public Relations 
 
 THE CHRISTOPHER PUBLISHING HOUSE, BOSTON