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Summer, 2018 FOR THE PEOPLE 1 F o r T h e P e o p l e A NEWSLETTER OF THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN ASSOCIATION www.abrahamlincolnassociation.org VOLUME 20 NUMBER 2 SUMMER 2018 SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS ALA Board Tours Lincoln’s New Salem New Salem. Abraham Lincoln called the place home for six forma- Assembly provides operational and capital funding. In addition, tive years of his life. In June the Board of Directors of The Abra- private entities, both individuals and organizations, can play a vital ham Lincoln Association visited this important place, now called role. For example, the New Salem Lincoln League, a local non- Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site. One of the principal mis- profit group, has supported New Salem for four decades, funding sions of the ALA, as expressed in its corporate charter, is “to pre- educational and cultural events, including Candle Light Tours, Old serve and make more readily accessible the landmarks associated Time Music Festival and outdoor theater. In recent years, the with [Lincoln’s] life.” At its February meeting, the Board was in- League has provided thousands of dollars to repair cabin roofs, formed of the damage that time and weather are taking on New steps and porches. Salem, and resolved, as its contribution to Illinois’s bicentennial, to support the repair and improvement of the log structures of the his- Joining the Board for a tour of New Salem was Tim Butler, a mem- toric village. ber of the Illinois House of Representatives whose district includes the historic site; Sarah Watson, executive director of the Abraham The members of the Board gathered in the conference room of the Lincoln National Heritage Area (known also as Looking for Lin- Visitors Center at New Salem and engaged in a wide-ranging dis- coln); and Jack Alexander, the New Salem site manager. The tour cussion of New Salem’s history and needs. It was acknowledged was led by Terry Jones, the site interpretive coordinator, but instead that the immediate task must be to quantify the deficiencies at New of being told about how the buildings would have been used during Salem and obtain estimates of the repair costs. Preliminary govern- Lincoln’s time, the Board learned about the wear and tear suffered ment estimates indicate that up to $10 million would be necessary. by these buildings. Rotting wood, water seeping through roofs, There is no expectation that ALA would be able to raise an amount collapsing chimneys that prevent any fireplaces from being used in of that size. Rather, the buildings – these ALA could play an are the types of prob- important partner- lems that must be ship role urging addressed if New entities in Illinois Salem is going to be and beyond to in- able to provide the sure a stable future visitor experience it for New Salem. has been known for Primary responsi- for nearly a century. bility belongs to the State of Illinois. ALA has established New Salem is man- a Board committee, aged by the Depart- chaired by Blooming- ment of Natural ton, Illinois attorney Guy Fraker to lead Resources, and the Terry Jones, Site interpreter, describes deterioration of structures in Lincoln’s New Salem. Illinois General the ALA New Salem efforts. “A Sort of Backwoods Plato—Western Aristotle” James Quay Howard’s Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln By Michael Burlingame had published the Lincoln-Douglas debates) when the interviewer was not yet known by commissioned one of its employees – twenty- name even to himself.” To help his shy three-year-old William Dean Howells – to author, Foster assigned Howells’s law-student write a campaign biography of the Republican friend James Quay Howard to act as a standard bearer. In Howells’s autobiography, research assistant and sent him to the he noted that the publisher had “the very just Illinois capital. There, in late May and early and reasonable expectation, that I should go to June, Howard interviewed Lincoln and Springfield, Illinois, and gather the material several of his friends in both Springfield for the work from Lincoln himself, and from and nearly Petersburg. Among them were his friends and neighbors.” But, as he recalled, William Butler; his first and second law In May 1860, shortly after Lincoln won the “this part of the project was distasteful to me,” partners, John T. Stuart and Stephen T. Logan Republican presidential nomination, the in fact it “was impossible; I felt that there was Columbus, Ohio firm Follett & Foster (which nothing of the interviewer in me, at a time (Continued on page 5) 2 FOR THE PEOPLE Summer, 2018 Lincoln Twice Considered Quitting His 1858 Campaign By Reg Ankrom legislators from twenty districts. But he believed favorable story published in the Paris Beacon he would win outright the vote of twenty-seven the following week. He was unable to get it legislators from nineteen districts. He listed as done. uncertain twenty-six legislators from the twenty other districts. Lincoln would become increasingly alarmed as several of his friends and former Whigs Then, using the Miller-Moore contest as a affiliated themselves with Douglas’s party. John conservative measure, Lincoln calculated the Todd Stuart, Lincoln’s mentor, first law partner, districts in which voters tended more often to and his wife’s cousin, joined the Democrats. select Democratic candidates. In the “doubtful Others to stray included James W. Singleton of Although his friends might agree with Billy districts,” Democrats had elected fourteen Quincy and Usher F. Linder of Charleston, Herndon that his Springfield law partner, representatives. Added to the twenty-two influential Whigs on either side of the all- Abraham Lincoln, “was a little engine that knew Lincoln figured he could not win, that would be important Central Illinois electorate. no rest,” by September 1858 the Republican a total of thirty-six votes against his Senate bid. Party’s senatorial candidate was seriously tiring. Adding the votes of the twelve Republicans Former Whig Theophilus L. Dickey, a lawyer Arriving in Jacksonville the morning of elected in the doubtful districts to the twenty- who once edited a Whig newspaper and with Monday, September 27, 1858, Lincoln admitted seven Lincoln was certain he had, the tabulation Lincoln in 1856 campaigned for James C. to Republican friend, Illinois College President showed he would win thirty-nine votes. He then Fremont, thought Republicans by 1858 had Julian Sturtevant, who walked with him from listed county-by-county the votes in each become tools of the abolitionists. Dickey the Great Western train station to his hotel, that legislative district. The results projected his announced that he would support Douglas and he had considered quitting the race. strength in Eastern and Central Illinois where he run against Republican Congressman Owen would focus his campaign. He expected Lovejoy, an avowed abolitionist, in Central Although he had local committees, Lincoln was Douglas’s strength to be in Western Illinois Illinois. running his campaign, and the intellectual and areas, where his political career had been A significant blow was Dickey’s arrangement to physical demands were exhausting. His launched and sustained. For all his research, speeches usually ran at least two hours. He felt obtain an endorsement for Douglas from Lincoln knew Douglas and his campaign team Kentucky Senator John J. Crittenden, successor compelled to satisfy requests for appearances would know, too, what Lincoln had learned. that often had him amending his calendar. He to the mantle of Henry Clay. By 1858, was stung by criticism of his tactic to speak The Douglas campaign got a two-month head Crittenden had served Kentucky, where Lincoln where Douglas had spoken the day before—the start on Lincoln’s. From mid-June to mid- was born, as U.S. senator for four terms. Lincoln opposition press charged he could not attract his August, Lincoln continued to work on several became acquainted with Crittenden during own audiences. Accommodations often were legal cases he had undertaken. He believed he Lincoln’s single Congressional term between inhospitable. His opponent’s supporters tended owed his clients his best legal representation and 1847 and 1848. to be hostile. would not let his campaign violate that standard. Lincoln launched his run for Douglas’s U.S. The number and complexity of cases declined as If he was exhausted, Lincoln brought it upon senate seat on June 16, 1858, with a speech that the summer progressed. But a good number of even his family and closest friends condemned. himself. He had burdened himself with the court appearances required his attention. In - In his “House Divided” speech, he cast the strategy for campaigning in the nearly 57,000 June, Lincoln had to decline an invitation to be - morality of slavery as the singular issue of the square mile state of Illinois. In July he analyzed at the Clinton County Republican Convention, 1856 Republican presidential, statewide, and 1858 Illinois senatorial contest and warned that which started the day after the beginning of the the nation would become “all one thing, or all congressional election results to determine the U.S. District Court’s summer session. He areas of strengths and weaknesses in his the other,” all slave or all free, if Douglas was appeared ten times for clients before Judge re-elected. candidacy. It was painstaking research. Samuel Treat in the United States District Court - - Lincoln’s district by district tally of votes in the in Springfield. He appeared in the United States Democrats and many of Lincoln’s own 1856 presidential race and the contest for state Supreme Court twice. In July, Lincoln handled Republican Party believed Douglas’s treasurer, an office elected statewide, filled eight two cases in Circuit Court, an appeal before the proposition was right, that the nation could exist pages of notes.