THE volunteers from Sangamon returned to their homes shortly before the
State election, at which, among other officers, assembly-men were to be
chosen. Lincoln's popularity had been greatly enhanced by his service
in the war, and some of his friends urged him with warm solicitations
to become a candidate at the coming election. He prudently resisted, and
declined to consent, alleging in excuse his limited acquaintance in the
county at large, until Mr. James Rutledge, the founder of New Salem,
added the weight of his advice to the nearly unanimous desire of the
neighborhood. It is quite likely that his recent military career was
thought to furnish high promise of usefulness in civil affairs; but Mr.
Rutledge was sure that he saw another proof of his great abilities in a
speech which Abe was induced to make, just about this time, before the
New-Salem Literary Society. The following is an account of this speech
by R. B. Rutledge, the son of James:--
"About the year 1832 or 1833, Mr. Lincoln made his first effort
at public speaking. A debating club, of which James Rutledge was
president, was organized, and held regular meetings. As he arose to
speak, his tall form towered above the little assembly. Both hands were
thrust down deep in the pockets of his pantaloons. A perceptible smile
at once lit up the faces of the audience, for all anticipated the
relation of some humorous story. But he opened up the discussion in
splendid style, to the infinite astonishment of his friends. As he
warmed with his subject, his hands would forsake his pockets and would
enforce his ideas by awkward gestures, but would very soon seek their
easy resting-places. He pursued the question with reason and argument so
pithy and forcible that all were amazed. The president at his fireside,
after the meeting, remarked to his wife, that there was more in Abe's
head than wit and fun; that he was already a fine speaker; that all he
lacked was culture to enable him to reach the high destiny which he knew
was in store for him. From that time Mr. Rutledge took a deeper interest
in him.
"Soon after Mr. Rutledge urged him to announce himself as a candidate
for the Legislature. This he at first declined to do, averring that it
was impossible to be elected. It was suggested that a canvass of the
county would bring him prominently before the people, and in time would
do him good. He reluctantly yielded to the solicitations of his friends,
and made a partial canvass."
In those days political animosities were fierce enough; but, owing to
the absence of nominating conventions, party lines were not, as yet,
very distinctly drawn in Illinois. Candidates announced themselves; but,
usually, it was done after full consultation with influential friends,
or persons of considerable power in the neighborhood of the candidate's
residence. We have already seen the process by which Mr. Lincoln was
induced to come forward. There were often secret combinations among a
number of candidates, securing a mutual support; but in the present case
there is no trace of such an understanding.
This (1832) was the year of Gen. Jackson's election. The Democrats
stigmatized their opponents as "Federalists," while the latter were
steadily struggling to shuffle off the odious name. For the present they
called themselves Democratic Republicans; and it was not until 1833 or
1834, that they formally took to themselves the designation of Whig. The
Democrats were known better as Jackson men than as Democrats, and were
inexpressibly proud of either name. Four or five years afterward their
enemies invented for their benefit the meaningless and hideous word
"Locofoco."
Since 1826 every general election in the State had resulted in a
Democratic victory. The young men were mostly Democrats; and the most
promising talents in the State were devoted to the cause, which seemed
destined to achieve success wherever there was a contest. In a new
country largely peopled by adventurers from older States, there were
necessarily found great numbers who would attach themselves to the
winning side merely because it was the winning side.
It is unnecessary to restate here the prevailing questions in national
politics,--Jackson's stupendous struggle with the bank, "hard money,"
"no monopoly," internal improvements, the tariff, and nullification, or
the personal and political relations of the chieftains,--Jackson, Clay,
and Calhoun. Mr. Lincoln will shortly disclose in one of his speeches
from the stump which of those questions were of special interest to the
people of Illinois, and consequently which of them principally occupied
his own attention.
The Democrats were divided into "whole-hog men" and "nominal Jackson
men;" the former being thoroughly devoted to the fortunes and principles
of their leader, while the latter were willing to trim a little for the
sake of popular support. It is probable that Mr. Lincoln might be fairly
classed as a "nominal Jackson man," although the precise character of
some of the views he then held, or is supposed to have held, on
national questions, is involved in considerable doubt. He had not wholly
forgotten Jones, or Jones's teachings. He still remembered his high
disputes with Offutt in the shanty at Spring Creek, when he effectually
defended Jackson against the "abuse" of his employer. He was not Whig,
but "Whiggish," as Dennis Hanks expresses it. It is not likely that a
man who deferred so habitually to the popular sentiment around him would
have selected the occasion of his settlement in a new place to go over
bodily to a hopeless political minority. At all events, we have at least
three undisputed facts, which make it plain that he then occupied an
intermediate position between the extremes of all parties. First, he
received the votes of all parties at New Salem; second, he was the next
year appointed postmaster by Gen. Jackson; and, third, the Democrats ran
him for the legislature two years afterwards; and he was elected by a
larger majority than any other candidate.
"Our old way of conducting elections," says Gov. Ford, "required each
aspirant to announce himself as a candidate. The most prudent, however,
always consulted a little caucus of select, influential friends. The
candidates then travelled around the county, or State, in proper
person, making speeches, conversing with the people, soliciting votes,
whispering slanders against their opponents, and defending themselves
against the attacks of their adversaries; but it was not always best
to defend against such attacks. A candidate in a fair way to be elected
should never deny any charge made against him; for, if he does, his
adversaries will prove all that they have said, and much more. As a
candidate did not offer himself as the champion of any party, he usually
agreed with all opinions, and promised every thing demanded by the
people, and most usually promised, either directly or indirectly, his
support to all the other candidates at the same election. One of the
arts was to raise a quarrel with unpopular men who were odious to the
people, and then try to be elected upon the unpopularity of others, as
well as upon his own popularity. These modes of electioneering were not
true of all the candidates, nor perhaps of half of them, very many of
them being gentlemen of first-class integrity."
That portion of the people whose influence lay in their fighting
qualities, and who were prone to carry a huge knife in the belt of
the hunting-shirt, were sometimes called the "butcher-knife boys," and
sometimes "the half-horse and half-alligator men." This class, according
to Gov. Ford, "made a kind of balance-of-power party." Their favorite
was sure of success; and nearly all political contests were decided by
"butcher-knife influence." "In all elections and in all enactments of
the Legislature, great pains were taken by all candidates, and all
men in office, to make their course and measures acceptable" to these
knights of steel and muscle.
At a later date they enjoyed a succession of titles, such as "barefoot
boys," "the flat-footed boys," and "the big-pawed boys."
In those times, Gov. Ford avers that he has seen all the rum-shops and
groceries of the principal places of a county chartered by candidates,
and kept open for the gratuitous accommodation of the free and
independent electors for several weeks before the vote. Every Saturday
afternoon the people flocked to the county-seat, to see the candidates,
to hear speeches, to discuss prospects, to get drunk and fight.
"Toward evening they would mount their ponies, go reeling from side
to side, galloping through town, and throwing up their caps and hats,
screeching like so many infernal spirits broke loose from their nether
prison; and thus they separated for their homes." These observations
occur in Ford's account of the campaign of 1830, which resulted in the
choice of Gov. Reynolds,--two years before Mr. Lincoln first became a
candidate,--and lead us to suppose that the body of electors before whom
that gentleman presented himself were none too cultivated or refined.
Mr. Lincoln's first appearance on the stump, in the course of the
canvass, was at Pappsville, about eleven miles west of Springfield, upon
the occasion of a public sale by the firm of Poog & Knap. The sale
over, speech-making was about to begin, when Mr. Lincoln observed strong
symptoms of inattention in his audience, who had taken that particular
moment to engage in what Mr. James A. Herndon pronounces "a general
fight." Lincoln saw that one of his friends was suffering more than he
liked in the _mêlée_; and, stepping into the crowd, he shouldered them
sternly away from his man, until he met a fellow who refused to
fall back: him he seized by the nape of the neck and the seat of
his breeches, and tossed him "ten or twelve feet easily." After this
episode,--as characteristic of him as of the times,--he mounted the
platform, and delivered, with awkward modesty, the following speech:--
"Gentlemen and Fellow-Citizens, I presume you all know who I am. I am
humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been solicited by many friends to become
a candidate for the Legislature. My politics are short and sweet, like
the old woman's dance. I am in favor of a national bank. I am in favor
of the internal-improvement system and a high protective tariff. These
are my sentiments and political principles. If elected, I shall be
thankful; if not, it will be all the same."
In these few sentences Mr. Lincoln adopted the leading principles of the
Whig party,--Clay's "American System" in full. In his view, as we
shall see by another paper from him when again a candidate in 1834, the
internal-improvement system required the distribution of the proceeds
of the sales of the public lands amongst the States. He says nothing of
South Carolina, of nullification, of disunion; and on these subjects it
is quite probable his views were like Mr. Webster's, and his sympathies
with Jackson. The opinions announced in this speech, on all the subjects
touched by the speaker, were as emphatically Whig as they could be
made in words; yet as far as they related to internal improvements, and
indirectly favored the increase of bank issues, they were such as most
of the "nominal Jackson men" in Illinois professed to hold, and such as
they united with the Whigs to enforce, then and afterwards, in the State
Legislature. The "whole-hog men" would have none of them, and therein
lay the distinction. Although the Democratic party continued to have a
numerical majority for many years in the Legislature, the nominal men
and the Whigs coalesced to control legislation in accordance with Whig
doctrines. Even with such a record made and making by them, the "nominal
men" persisted in calling themselves Democrats, while Jackson was
vetoing the Maysville Road Bill, grappling with the National Bank, and
exposing the oppressive character of the Tariff Act then in force, which
imposed the highest scale of duties since the first enactment for
"protection" in 1816. It was their practice to run men like themselves
for the State offices where the chances of a plain-spoken Whig were
hopeless; and, by means of the "nominal" character of the candidate,
secure enough Democratic votes, united with the Whigs, to elect him. In
the very next canvass Mr. Lincoln himself was taken up by such a
combination and triumphantly elected. Such things were made feasible by
the prevalent mode of making nominations without the salutary
intervention of regular party conventions and committees. We repeat that
Mr. Lincoln's position was midway between the extremes in local
politics.
His friend, Mr. A. Y. Ellis, who was with him during a part of this
campaign, says, "He wore a mixed jeans coat, claw-hammer style, short in
the sleeves, and bobtail,--in fact, it was so short in the tail he could
not sit on it,--flax and tow linen pantaloons, and a straw hat. I
think he wore a vest, but do not remember how it looked. He then wore
pot-metal boots.
"I accompanied him on one of his electioneering trips to Island Grove;
and he made a speech which pleased his party friends very well indeed,
though some of the Jackson men tried to make sport of it. He told
several anecdotes in his speech, and applied them, as I thought, very
well. He also told the boys several stories which drew them after him. I
remember them; but modesty and my veneration for his memory forbid me to
relate them."
Mr. J. R. Herndon, his friend and landlord, heard him make several
speeches about this time, and gives us the following extract from one,
which seems to have made a special impression upon the minds of his
auditors: "Fellow-citizens, I have been told that some of my opponents
have said that it was a disgrace to the county of Sangamon to have such
a looking man as I am stuck up for the Legislature. Now, I thought this
was a free country: that is the reason I address you today. Had I have
known to the contrary, I should not have consented to run; but I will
say one thing, let the shoe pinch where it may: when I have been a
candidate before you some five or six times, and have been beaten every
time, I will consider it a disgrace, and will be sure never to try it
again; but I am bound to beat that man if I am beat myself."
These were not the only speeches he made in furtherance of his present
claims, but they are all of which we have any intelligible account.
There was one subject upon which he felt himself peculiarly competent to
speak,--the practical application of the "internal-improvement system"
to the river which flowed by the doors of the constituency he addressed.
He firmly believed in the right of the Legislature of the State or the
Congress of the United States to appropriate the public money to local
improvements for the sole advantage of limited districts; and that he
believed it good policy to exercise the right, his subsequent conduct
in the Legislature, and an elaborate speech in Congress, are sufficient
proof. In this doctrine he had the almost unanimous support of the
people of Illinois. Almost every man in the State was a speculator in
town lots or lands. Even the farmers had taken up or held the very lands
they tilled with a view to a speculation in the near future. Long after
the Democratic party in the South and East, leaving Mr. Calhoun in
a state of isolation, had begun to inculcate different views of
constitutional power and duty, it was a dangerous thing for a politician
in Illinois to intimate his agreement with them. Mr. Lincoln knew well
that the policy of local improvement at the general expense was at that
moment decidedly the most popular platform he could mount; but he felt
that this was not enough for his individual purposes, since it was no
invention of his, and belonged to nearly everybody else as much as to
him. He therefore prudently ingrafted upon it a hobby of his own: "The
Improvement of the Sangamon River,"--a plan to straighten it by means of
cuts, to clear out its obstructions, and make it a commercial highway
at the cost of the State. That the idea was nearly, if not quite
impracticable, the trip of "The Talisman" under Mr. Lincoln's piloting,
and the fact that the river remained unimproved during all the years
of the "internal-improvement" mania, would seem to be pretty clear
evidence. But the theme was agreeable to the popular ear, and had been
dear to Lincoln from the moment he laid his eyes on the Sangamon. It was
the great topic of his speech against Posey and Ewing in Macon County,
when, under the auspices of John Hanks, he "beat" those professional
politicians so completely that they applauded him themselves. His
experience in navigating the river was not calculated to make him forget
it, and it had occupied his thoughts more or less from that day forward.
Now that it might be turned to good use, where he was personally
interested, he set about preparing a written address on it, and on
some other questions of local interest, upon which he bestowed infinite
pains. The "grammatical errors" in the first draft were corrected by Mr.
McNamar, the pioneer of New Salem as a business point, and the gentleman
who was destined to be Mr. Lincoln's rival in the most important
love-affair of his life. He may have consulted the schoolmaster
also; but, if he had done so, it is hardly to be surmised that the
schoolmaster would have left so important a fact out of his written
reminiscences. It is more probable that Mr. Lincoln confined his
applications for assistance on this most important matter to the quarter
where he could get light on politics as well as grammar. However that
may have been, the following is the finished paper:--
To the People of Sangamon County.
Fellow-Citizens,--Having become a candidate for the honorable office of
one of your Representatives in the next General Assembly of this State,
in accordance with an established custom and the principles of true
republicanism, it becomes my duty to make known to you, the people, whom
I propose to represent, my sentiments with regard to local affairs.
Time and experience have verified to a demonstration the public utility
of internal improvements. That the poorest and most thinly-populated
countries would be greatly benefited by the opening of good roads, and
in the clearing of navigable streams within their limits, is what no
person will deny. Yet it is folly to undertake works of this or any
other kind, without first knowing that we are able to finish them,--as
half-finished work generally proves to be labor lost. There cannot justly
be any objection to having railroads and canals, any more than to other
good things, provided they cost nothing. The only objection is to paying
for them; and the objection arises from the want of ability to pay.
With respect to the County of Sangamon, some more easy means of
communication than it now possesses, for the purpose of facilitating
the task of exporting the surplus products of its fertile soil, and
importing necessary articles from abroad, are indispensably necessary.
A meeting has been held of the citizens of Jacksonville and the
adjacent country, for the purpose of deliberating and inquiring into the
expediency of constructing a railroad from some eligible point on the
Illinois River, through the town of Jacksonville, in Morgan County, to
the town of Springfield, in Sangamon County. This is, indeed, a very
desirable object. No other improvement that reason will justify us in
hoping for can equal in utility the railroad. It is a never-failing
source of communication between places of business remotely situated
from each other. Upon the railroad the regular progress of commercial
intercourse is not interrupted by either high or low water, or freezing
weather, which are the principal difficulties that render our future
hopes of water communication precarious and uncertain.
Yet however desirable an object the construction of a railroad through
our country may be; however high our imaginations may be heated at
thoughts of it,--there is always a heart-appalling shock accompanying
the account of its cost, which forces us to shrink from our pleasing
anticipations. The probable cost of this contemplated railroad is
estimated at $290,000; the bare statement of which, in my opinion, is
sufficient to justify the belief that the improvement of the Sangamon
River is an object much better suited to our infant resources.
Respecting this view, I think I may say, without the fear of being
contradicted, that its navigation may be rendered completely practicable
as high as the mouth of the South Fork, or probably higher, to vessels
of from twenty-five to thirty tons' burden, for at least one-half of all
common years, and to vessels of much greater burden a part of the time.
From my peculiar circumstances, it is probable, that for the last twelve
months I have given as particular attention to the stage of the water in
this river as any other person in the country. In the month of March,
1831, in company with others, I commenced the building of a flatboat on
the Sangamon, and finished and took her out in the course of the spring.
Since that time I have been concerned in the mill at New Salem. These
circumstances are sufficient evidence that I have not been very
inattentive to the stages of the water. The time at which we crossed the
mill-dam being in the last days of April, the water was lower than it
had been since the breaking of winter in February, or than it was for
several weeks after. The principal difficulties we encountered in
descending the river were from the drifted timber, which obstructions
all know are not difficult to be removed. Knowing almost precisely the
height of water at that time, I believe I am safe in saying that it has
as often been higher as lower since.
From this view of the subject, it appears that my calculations with
regard to the navigation of the Sangamon cannot but be founded in
reason; but, whatever may be its natural advantages, certain it is, that
it never can be practically useful to any great extent, without being
greatly improved by art. The drifted timber, as I have before mentioned,
is the most formidable barrier to this object. Of all parts of this
river, none will require so much labor in proportion to make it
navigable, as the last thirty or thirty-five miles; and going with the
meanderings of the channel, when we are this distance above its mouth
we are only between twelve and eighteen miles above Beardstown, in
something near a straight direction; and this route is upon such low
ground as to retain water in many places during the season, and in all
parts such as to draw two-thirds or three-fourths of the river-water at
all high stages.
This route is on prairie land the whole distance; so that it appears
to me, by removing the turf a sufficient width, and damming up the old
channel, the whole river in a short time would wash its way through,
thereby curtailing the distance, and increasing the velocity of the
current, very considerably: while there would be no timber on the banks
to obstruct its navigation in future; and, being nearly straight,
the timber which might float in at the head would be apt to go clear
through. There are also many places above this where the river, in its
zigzag course, forms such complete peninsulas, as to be easier to cut
at the necks than to remove the obstructions from the bends, which, if
done, would also lessen the distance.
What the cost of this work would be, I am unable to say. It is probable,
however, that it would not be greater than is common to streams of the
same length. Finally, I believe the improvement of the Sangamon River
to be vastly important and highly desirable to the people of the county;
and, if elected, any measure in the Legislature having this for its
object, which may appear judicious, will meet my approbation and shall
receive my support.
It appears that the practice of drawing money at exorbitant rates of
interest has already been opened as a field for discussion; so I suppose
I may enter upon it without claiming the honor, or risking the danger,
which may await its first explorer. It seems as though we are never
to have an end to this baneful and corroding system, acting almost as
prejudicial to the general interests of the community as a direct tax of
several thousand dollars annually laid on each county, for the benefit
of a few individuals only, unless there be a law made fixing the limits
of usury. A law for this purpose, I am of opinion, may be made, without
materially injuring any class of people. In cases of extreme necessity,
there could always be means found to cheat the law; while in all other
cases it would have its intended effect. I would favor the passage of
a law on this subject which might not be very easily evaded. Let it be
such that the labor and difficulty of evading it could only be justified
in cases of greatest necessity.1
1 Until the year 1833 there had been no legal limit to the
rate of interest to be fixed by contract. But usury had been
carried to such an unprecedented degree of extortion and
oppression as to cause the Legislature to enact severe usury
laws, by which all interest above twelve per cent was
condemned. It had been no uncommon thing before this to
charge one hundred and one hundred and fifty per cent, and
sometimes two and three hundred per cent. But the common
rate of interest, by contract, had been about fifty per
cent.--Ford's History, page 233.
Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan
or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most
important subject which we as a people can be engaged in. That every
man may receive at least a moderate education, and thereby be enabled to
read the histories of his own and other countries, by which he may duly
appreciate the value of our free institutions, appears to be an object
of vital importance, even on this account alone, to say nothing of the
advantages and satisfaction to be derived from all being able to read
the Scriptures and other works, both of a religious and moral nature,
for themselves.
For my part, I desire to see the time when education--and, by its means,
morality, sobriety, enterprise, and industry--shall become much more
general than at present, and should be gratified to have it in my power
to contribute something to the advancement of any measure which might
have a tendency to accelerate the happy period.
With regard to existing laws, some alterations are thought to be
necessary. Many respectable men have suggested that our estray laws--the
law respecting the issuing of executions, the road-law, and some
others--are deficient in their present form, and require alterations.
But, considering the great probability that the framers of those laws
were wiser than myself, I should prefer not meddling with them, unless
they were first attacked by others; in which case I should feel it both
a privilege and a duty to take that stand, which, in my view, might tend
most to the advancement of justice.
But, fellow-citizens, I shall conclude. Considering the great degree of
modesty which should always attend youth, it is probable I have already
been more presuming than becomes me. However, upon the subjects of
which I have treated, I have spoken as I have thought. I may be wrong in
regard to any or all of them; but, holding it a sound maxim, that it is
better only sometimes to be right than at all times wrong, so soon as I
discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.
Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or
not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as that of being
truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of their
esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be
developed. I am young, and unknown to many of you. I was born, and have
ever remained, in the most humble walks of life. I have no wealthy or
popular relations or friends to recommend. My case is thrown exclusively
upon the independent voters of the county; and, if elected, they will
have conferred a favor upon me, for which I shall be unremitting in my
labors to compensate. But, if the good people in their wisdom shall
see fit to keep me in the background, I have been too familiar with
disappointments to be very much chagrined.
Your Friend and Fellow-Citizen,
A. LINCOLN.
New Salem, March 9, 1832.
Mr. Lincoln was defeated at the election, having four hundred and
seventy votes less than the candidate who had the highest number.
But his disappointment was softened by the action of his immediate
neighbors, who gave him an almost unanimous support. With three solitary
exceptions, he received the whole vote of his precinct,--two hundred and
seventy-seven,--being one more than the whole number cast for both the
candidates for Congress.