Lincoln in National Politics--His Congressional
Aspirations--Law-Partnership of Lincoln and Herndon--The
Presidential Campaign of 1844--Visit to Henry Clay--Lincoln Elected
to Congress--Congressional Reputation--Acquaintance with
Distinguished Men--First Speech in Congress--"Getting the Hang" of
the House--Lincoln's Course on the Mexican War--Notable Speech in
Congress--Ridicule of General Cass--Bill for the Abolition of
Slavery--Delegate to the Whig National Convention of 1848--Stumping
the Country for Taylor--Advice to Young Politicians--"Old Abe"--A
Political Disappointment--Lincoln's Appearance as an Office Seeker
in Washington--"A Divinity that Shapes our Ends."
In the spring of 1843 Lincoln was among the nominees proposed to
represent the Sangamon district in Congress; but Col. Edward D. Baker
carried the delegation, and was elected. In writing to his friend Speed,
Lincoln treated the circumstance with his usual humor. "We had," he
says, "a meeting of the Whigs of the county here last Monday to appoint
delegates to a district convention. Baker beat me, and got the
delegation instructed to go for him. The meeting, in spite of my attempt
to decline it, appointed me one of the delegates; so that in getting
Baker the nomination I shall be 'fixed' a good deal like a fellow who is
made groomsman to the man who 'cut him out' and is marrying his own
girl."
On the 20th of September, 1843, the partnership between Lincoln and
Judge Logan was dissolved; and the same day a new association was formed
with William H. Herndon, a relative of one of Lincoln's former friends
of Clary Grove. It is said that in spite of their close friendship Mr.
Herndon could not understand it when Lincoln one day plunged up the
office stairs and said, "Herndon, should you like to be my partner?"
"Don't laugh at me, Mr. Lincoln," was the response. Persistent
repetition of the question could hardly gain a hearing; but at last Mr.
Herndon said: "Mr. Lincoln, you know I am too young, and I have no
standing and no money; but if you are in earnest, there is nothing in
this world that would make me so happy." Nothing more was said till the
papers were brought to Herndon to sign. The partnership of "Lincoln &
Herndon" was a happy one, and continued until Lincoln became President,
a period of nearly eighteen years.
The life of Henry Clay, which Lincoln read in his boyhood, had filled
him with enthusiasm for the great Whig leader; and when the latter was
nominated for the Presidency, in 1844, there was no more earnest
adherent of his cause than the "Sangamon Chief," as Lincoln was now
called. Lincoln canvassed Illinois and a part of Indiana during the
campaign, meeting the chief Democratic speakers, and especially Douglas,
in debate. Lincoln had not at this time heard the "silvery-tongued
orator" of Kentucky; but two years later the opportunity was afforded
and eagerly embraced. It is possible, as Dr. Holland remarks, that he
"needed the influence of this visit to restore a healthy tone to his
feelings, and to teach him that the person whom his imagination had
transformed into a demigod was only a man, possessing the full measure
of weaknesses common to men. In 1846 Lincoln learned that Clay was to
deliver a speech at Lexington, Kentucky, in favor of gradual
emancipation. This event seemed to give him an excuse for breaking away
from his business and satisfying his desire to look his demigod in the
face and hear the music of his eloquence. He accordingly went to
Lexington, and arrived there in time to attend the meeting. On returning
to his home from this visit he did not attempt to disguise his
disappointment. Clay's speech was written and read; it lacked entirely
the fire and eloquence which Lincoln had anticipated. At the close of
the meeting Lincoln secured an introduction to the great orator and as
Clay knew what a friend Lincoln had been to him, he invited his admirer
and partisan to Ashland. No invitation could have delighted Lincoln
more. But the result of his private intercourse with Clay was no more
satisfactory than that which followed the speech. Those who have known
both men will not wonder at this; for two men could hardly be more
unlike in their motives and manners than the two thus brought together.
One was a proud man; the other was a humble man. One was princely in his
bearing; the other was lowly. One was distant and dignified; the other
was as simple and approachable as a child. One received the deference of
men as his due; the other received it with an uncomfortable sense of his
unworthiness. A friend of Lincoln, who had a long conversation with him
after his return from Ashland, found that his old enthusiasm was gone.
Lincoln said that though Clay was polished in his manners, and very
hospitable, he betrayed a consciousness of superiority that none could
mistake."
For two years after the Presidential contest between Clay and Polk,
Lincoln devoted himself assiduously to his law practice. But in 1846 he
was again active in politics, this time striving for a seat in the
National Congress. His chief opponent among the Whig candidates was his
old friend John J. Hardin, who soon withdrew from the contest, leaving
Mr. Lincoln alone in the field. The candidate on the Democratic ticket
was Peter Cartwright, the famous Methodist preacher. It was supposed
from his great popularity as a pulpit orator that Mr. Cartwright would
run far ahead of his ticket. Instead of this, Lincoln received a
majority of 1,511 in his district, which in 1844 had given Clay a
majority of only 914 and in 1848 had allowed the Whig candidate for
Congress to be defeated by 106 votes.
Lincoln took his seat in the Thirtieth Congress in December, 1847, the
only Whig member from Illinois. Among the notable members of this
Congress were ex-president John Quincy Adams; Andrew Johnson, elected
Vice-President with Lincoln on his second election; A.H. Stephens,
afterwards Vice-President of the Confederacy; Toombs, Rhett, Cobb, and
others who afterwards became leaders of the Rebellion. In the Senate
were Daniel Webster, Simon Cameron, Lewis Cass, Mason, Hunter, John C.
Calhoun, and Jefferson Davis.
Lincoln entered Congress as the Illinois leader of the Whig party. He
was reputed to be an able and effective speaker. In speaking of the
impression he made upon his associates, the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop
says: "I recall vividly the impressions I then formed both of his
ability and amiability. We were old Whigs together, and agreed entirely
upon all questions of public interest. I could not always concur in the
policy of the party which made him President, but I never lost my
personal regard for him. For shrewdness, sagacity, and keen practical
sense, he has had no superior in our day or generation."
Alexander H. Stephens, writing seventeen years after Lincoln's death,
recalled their service together in Congress. "I knew Mr. Lincoln well
and intimately," said Mr. Stephens. "We both were ardent supporters of
General Taylor for President in 1848. Lincoln, Toombs, Preston, myself,
and others, formed the first Congressional Taylor Club, known as 'The
Young Indians,' and organized the Taylor movement which resulted in his
nomination. Mr. Lincoln was careless as to his manners and awkward in
his speech, but possessed a strong, clear, vigorous mind. He always
attracted and riveted the attention of the House when he spoke. His
manner of speech as well as of thought was original. He had no model. He
was a man of strong convictions, and what Carlyle would have called an
_earnest_ man. He abounded in anecdote. He illustrated everything he
was talking about by an anecdote, always exceedingly apt and pointed;
and socially he always kept his company in a roar of laughter."
Alluding to his first speech in Congress--on some post-office question
of no special interest--Lincoln wrote to his friend Herndon that his
principal object was to "get the hang of the House"; adding that he
"found speaking here and elsewhere about the same thing. I was about as
badly scared as when I spoke in court, but no more so."
Lincoln's mental power, as well as his self-confidence, developed
rapidly under the responsibilities of his new position. During his term
of service in the House he was zealous in the performance of his duties,
alert to seize every opportunity to strike a blow for his party and
acquit himself to the satisfaction of his constituents. In January,
1848, he made a telling speech in support of the "Spot Resolutions," in
which his antagonism to the course of the Administration in regard to
the war on Mexico was uncompromisingly announced. These resolutions were
offered for the purpose of getting from President Polk a statement of
facts regarding the beginning of the war. In this speech Lincoln warned
the President not to try to "escape scrutiny by fixing the public gaze
upon the exceeding brightness of military glory--that attractive rainbow
that rises in showers of blood, that serpent's eye that charms but to
destroy." In writing, a few days after the delivery of this speech, to
Mr. Herndon, Lincoln said: "I will stake my life that if you had been in
my place you would have voted just as I did. Would you have voted what
you felt and knew to be a lie? I know you would not. Would you have gone
out of the House--skulked the vote? I expect not. If you had skulked one
vote you would have had to skulk many more before the end of the
session. Richardson's resolutions, introduced before I made any move or
gave any vote upon the subject, make a direct question of the justice
of the war; so no man can be silent if he would. You are compelled to
speak; and your only alternative is to tell the _truth_ or tell a _lie_.
I cannot doubt which you would do."
Lincoln's position on the Mexican War has been generally approved by the
moral sense of the country; but it gave his political enemies an
opportunity, which they were not slow to improve, for trying to make
political capital out of it and using it to create a prejudice against
him. Douglas in particular never missed an opportunity of referring to
it. In the great joint debate in 1858 he spoke of Lincoln's having
"distinguished himself in Congress by his opposition to the Mexican War,
taking the side of the common enemy against his own country." No better
refutation of these oft-repeated charges could be made than that given
by Lincoln himself on this occasion. "The Judge charges me," he said,
"with having, while in Congress, opposed our soldiers who were fighting
in the Mexican War. I will tell you what he can prove by referring to
the record. You remember I was an old Whig; and whenever the Democratic
party tried to get me to vote that _the war had been righteously begun_
by the President, I would not do it. But whenever they asked for any
money or land-warrants, or anything to pay the soldiers, I gave _the
same vote that Judge Douglas did_. Such is the truth, and the Judge has
a right to make all he can out of it."
The most ambitious utterance of Lincoln during this term in Congress was
that of July 27, 1848, when he took for his subject the very
comprehensive one of "The Presidency and General Politics." It was a
piece of sound and forcible argumentation, relieved by strong and
effective imagery and quiet humor. A considerable portion of it was
occupied with an exposure of the weaknesses of General Cass, the
Presidential candidate opposed to General Taylor. Lincoln ridiculed Cass
with all the wit at his command. An extract from this speech has
already been quoted in this work, in the account of Lincoln in the Black
Hawk War. Another passage, equally telling, relates to the vacillating
action of General Cass on the Wilmot Proviso. After citing a number of
facts in reference to the case, Lincoln says: "These extracts show that
in 1846 General Cass was for the Proviso _at once_; that in March, 1847,
he was still for it, _but not just then_; and that in December, 1847, he
was _against it_ altogether. This is a true index to the whole man. When
the question was raised, in 1846, he was in a blustering hurry to take
ground for it. He sought to be in advance, and to avoid the
uninteresting position of a mere follower. But soon he began to see
glimpses of the great Democratic ox-gad waving in his face, and to hear
indistinctly a voice saying, 'Back! Back, sir! Back a little!' He shakes
his head and bats his eyes and blunders back to his position of March,
1847. But still the gad waves, and the voice grows more distinct and
sharper still, 'Back, sir! Back, I say! Further back!' And back he goes
to the position of December, 1847, at which the gad is still and the
voice soothingly says, 'So! Stand still at that!'"
Again, after extended comment on the extra charges of General Cass upon
the Treasury for military services, he continued in a still more
sarcastic vein: "But I have introduced General Cass's accounts here
chiefly to show the wonderful physical capacities of the man. They show
that he not only did the labor of several men _at the same time_, but
that he often did it _at several places_ many hundred miles apart _at
the same time_. And at eating, too, his capacities are shown to be quite
as wonderful. From October, 1821, to May, 1822, he ate ten rations a day
in Michigan, ten rations a day here in Washington, and near five
dollars' worth a day besides, partly on the road between the two places.
And then there is an important discovery in his example--the art of
being paid for what one eats, instead of having to pay for it.
Hereafter if any nice young man shall owe a bill which he cannot pay in
any other way he can just board it out. Mr. Speaker, we have all heard
of the animal standing in doubt between two stacks of hay and starving
to death. The like of that would never happen to General Cass. Place the
stacks a thousand miles apart, he would stand stock-still midway between
them and eat them _both at once;_ and the green grass along the line
would be apt to suffer some, too, at the same time. By all means make
him President, gentlemen. He will feed you bounteously--if--if--there is
any left after he shall have helped himself."
Lincoln's most important act in the Congress of 1848-9 was the
introduction of a bill for the gradual abolition of slavery in the
District of Columbia. But the state of feeling on the subject of
emancipation was so feverish at the time that the bill could not even be
got before the House.
The Whig National Convention met at Philadelphia the first of June, to
nominate a candidate for the Presidency. Lincoln attended the Convention
as a delegate from Illinois. During the campaign of 1848 he labored
earnestly for the election of General Taylor. This campaign made him
known more generally throughout the country, as he spoke in New York and
New England as well as in Illinois and the West.
While in Washington, Lincoln kept up a free correspondence with his
friend and law-partner Herndon, which affords many interesting glimpses
of his thoughts and views. In one of these letters, endeavoring to
incite Herndon to political ambition, he wrote: "Nothing could afford me
more satisfaction than to learn that you and others of my young friends
at home were doing battle in the contest, endearing themselves to the
people and taking a stand far above any I have ever been able to reach
in their admiration. I cannot conceive that other old men feel
differently. Of course, I cannot demonstrate what I say; but I was young
once, and I am sure I was never ungenerously thrust back. The way for a
young man to rise is to improve himself in every way he can, never
suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him. Allow me to assure you
that suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in any situation.
There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and
they will succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its
true channel, to brood over the attempted injury. Cast about and see if
this feeling has not injured every person you have ever known to fall
into it. Now, in what I have said I am sure you will suspect nothing but
sincere friendship. I would save you from a fatal error. You have been a
laborious, studious young man. You are far better informed on almost all
subjects than I have ever been. You cannot fail in any laudable object
unless you allow your mind to be improperly directed. I have some the
advantage of you in the world's experience, merely by being older; and
it is this that induces me to offer you this advice."
It will be observed that, in this letter Lincoln speaks of himself as an
"old man." This had been a habit with him for years; and yet at this
date he was under thirty-nine. He was already beginning to be known as
"Old Abe." Hon. E.B. Washburne states that he remembers hearing him thus
called, in Chicago, in July, 1847. "One afternoon," says Mr. Washburne,
"several of us sat on the sidewalk under the balcony in front of the
Sherman House, and among the number was the accomplished scholar and
unrivalled orator, Lisle Smith, who suddenly interrupted the
conversation by exclaiming, 'There is Lincoln on the other side of the
street! _Just look at old Abe!_' And from that time we all called him
'Old Abe.' No one who saw him can forget his personal appearance at that
time. Tall, angular, and awkward, he had on a short-waisted, thin,
swallow-tail coat, a short vest of the same material, thin pantaloons
scarcely coming down to his ankles, a straw hat, and a pair of brogans,
with woollen socks."
During the summer following the expiration of Lincoln's term in Congress
(March 4, 1849) he made a strong effort to secure the position of
Commissioner of the General Land Office, but without success. The place
was given to Justin Butterfield of Chicago. It was a severe
disappointment to Lincoln. Major Wilcox, who at the period referred to
lived in McDonough County, Illinois, and in early days was a Whig
politician, visited Washington to aid Lincoln in seeking this
appointment, and has furnished a graphic account of the circumstances
and of Lincoln's appearance at the national capital in the novel
capacity of an office-seeker. Major Wilcox says that in June, 1849, he
went to Washington and had an interview with the newly-inaugurated
President, General Taylor, regarding Lincoln's appointment to the
desired office. The interview was but partially satisfactory, the
President remarking that he was favorable to Lincoln, but that Mr.
Butterfield was very strongly urged for the place and the chances of
appointment were in his favor. Lincoln had arranged to be in Washington
at a time specified, after Major Wilcox should have had opportunity to
look the ground over. Major Wilcox says that he went to the railroad
depot to meet Lincoln at the train. It was in the afternoon, towards
night. The day had been quite warm, and the road was dry and dusty. He
found Lincoln just emerging from the depot. He had on a thin suit of
summer clothes, his coat being a linen duster, much soiled. His whole
appearance was decidedly shabby. He carried in his hand an old-fashioned
carpet-sack, which added to the oddity of his appearance. Major Wilcox
says if it had been anybody else he would have been rather shy of being
seen in his company, because of the awkward and unseemly appearance he
presented. Lincoln immediately began to talk about his chances for the
appointment; whereupon Major Wilcox related to him everything that had
transpired, and what President Taylor had said to him. They proceeded at
once to Major Wilcox's room, where they sat down to look over the
situation. Lincoln took from his pocket a paper he had prepared in the
case, which comprised eleven reasons why he should be appointed
Commissioner of the General Land Office. Amongst other things Lincoln
presented the fact that he had been a member of Congress from Illinois
two years; that his location was in the West, where the government lands
were; that he was a native of the West, and had been reared under
Western influences. He gave reasons why the appointment should be given
to Illinois, and particularly to the southern part of the State. Major
Wilcox says that he was forcibly struck by the clear, convincing, and
methodical statement of Lincoln as contained in these eleven reasons why
he should have the appointment. But it was given to Mr. Butterfield.
After Lincoln became President, a Member of Congress asked him for an
appointment in the army in behalf of a son of the same Justin
Butterfield. When the application was presented, the President paused,
and after a moment's silence, said: "Mr. Justin Butterfield once
obtained an appointment I very much wanted, in which my friends believed
I could have been useful, and to which they thought I was fairly
entitled. I hardly ever felt so bad at any failure in my life. But I am
glad of an opportunity of doing a service to his son." And he made an
order for his commission. In lieu of the desired office, General Taylor
offered Lincoln the post of Governor, and afterwards of Secretary, of
Oregon Territory; but these offers he declined. In after years a friend
remarked to him, alluding to the event: "How fortunate that you
declined! If you had gone to Oregon you might have come back as
Senator, but you would never have been President." "Yes, you are
probably right," said Lincoln; and then, with a musing, dreamy look, he
added: "I have all my life been a fatalist. What is to be, will be; or,
rather, I have found all my life, as Hamlet says,--
'There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.'"