Lincoln Lore
June. 1!176 Bulletin of The Lineoln National Life Foundation ... Mark E. Neely, Jr. . Edit.or. Publish~d each month Number 1660 by The Lincoln National Life Insurance Company, Fort Wayne, IndiAna .a6801.
DID LINCOLN CAUSE LOGAN'S DEFEAT?
Until the birth of the Repub which sent Lincoln and his col· lican party, Dlinois was a leagues to the House of Repre Democratic statAl. When A bra· The l'ielct..of W'a.tertoo ~s o1.&11 sentatives were held over a ~ ham Lincoln served in the riod of a year and three month&. United StatA!s House of Repr.. Lincoln's wae one of the earli sentatives (1847·1849), he was est. He was electA!d early in Au· thelone\Vhigfrom Dlinois,and guBt of1846. but he did not take his Seventh Congressional Dis· his seat in the House until met gained the reputation of December of 1847. Louisiana. beinfl' the banner Whig district by contrast, held ita election for in the state. In the next Con· representatives to the same fl'ress, lllinois again sent only Congress in November of 1847, one Whig. but this man, Lin· just a month bsfore Congress coin's friend Edward D. Baker, convened. There were not even won in another district. The standardizations by region. Seventh feU to the Democrats Though Lincoln was elected in in the congressiona1 election August of 1846. neighboring following Lincoln's election. Indiana chose Lincoln's Hooa· Another friend of Abraham ier colleagues a full year lawr, Lincoln, fo rmer law partner in August of 1847. Srephen Trigg Logan, was the Swphen Logan's ill·starred Whig candidate who went election day, then, was Au down to defeat in the Seventh ·. gust 7, 1848. Three months Congressional District, and later Illinois voters returned to many historians have said that the POlls to select a President of the burden of Congressman the United Stares, either Demo Lincoln's unPOpular record of THE GITADEL TAKEN! crat Lewis Cass or Whig Zach· OPPOSition to the Mexican War ary Taylor. Congressman doomed Logan's chance of TI1e '·Dead Dis,.,lct" · Re4eeaed!! • Abraham lincoln remained in victory. Washington aftA!r Congress ad· The dares involved in this joumed on August 14, 1848, to problem are conf11sing to the HARRIS EI~ECTE:r>!!! help the Whig Central Com· modem reader and should bs STA'rt: R.winn Orne£, Aecwr 9. mittA!e with the national Whig explained here before discuss· h all"ord$ ta IJ('IrL·t'olt a.,ruiftoeat.ion to a.ru)Q\Ir:IC::O to our triend• that tile Wdc:~~d di~\riC'C i>t redeemed from tbc.o tltrt~.ldom of wbigery. Nobly campaign. Illinois Whigs chose ing the election. Doubtless h•,•c o-ur p-icnd• pc-rronn a:cl their ditty aod mo,t nobly lli'o th~i r pi~ him as an Assistant Elector on many a modem voter gasped r.,nt ~'~erltOUf betn f\')Jlli4! We ean oy no more oow, btu givo a stete· August 23, 1848. This meant rtknt ~>f' the rnajorii i~A ~~w, "hkh tbioOlci.&.J"t~ms wlU I'H)t &nal.(>ri..) when television announcers r~ ly c:hlng('. lluz.ta. for eab and i!ntltr lhtril aild Victory:! that he had been chosen to POrted. along with the results of 1 make speeches in Taylor's be the recent Presidential pri· I T.uri•. J..osan. half in lllinois. Despite the ''"'P..ulaatt'l, % mn.j. mary in Pennsylvania, that .\l•nhall, /-:- 96 choice as Assistant Elector, there were no less tban twenty Woodrord. 11)0 Congressman Lincoln remain· two primaries to go before the T~(mell, 200 m.\j. ed in Washington tbrougho11t l.oj(U~ 10 November elections. Nine i\14.$<>1'1, • , • 116. Aug11st and travelled to Masoa· teenth-century American ~lt•rl nl, 76 chusetta in Seprember to cam voters experienced a similarly ''"'~·'moft. paign fo r Taylor. Time was 1'-lo~.. "· endless chUJ'ning of the POliti· ~ou ~ growing short to fulfill his cal cauldron every year. There c...,1 duties as Assistant Elector in were no Presidential pri Olinois, so Lincoln went direct, t):J~ <19 maries, of course, but election .. . •., J "fill ly to Albany from Ma.ssachu· dates were not systematized IIari'IS f.- :l,iOfh.Y ;,-.,•• &etta, and then to Buffalo, from and elections were occurring at which he took a steamer across all times somewhere in the the Great Lakes to Ulinois. By United Stares. The elections October 6. be was delivering a 2 LJNCOLN LORE speech in Chica~o . On October 10. 1848. he arrived in Spring· "small" town), and that Lincoln was "a dispirited man" he field to campaign for Taylor in bis own district.. By the first came even more pronounced in Donald W. Riddle's Congress. week in December, Congre.,.man Lincoln had retumed to man Abraham Lincoln (Urbana: University of lliinois Press, Washington to attend the short (or lame-duck) session of Con· 1957). He called the election " the ultimate repudiation of Lin· gross. This session met before the President (el""ted in coin's stand on the Mexican War-not by Democrats only, as November) took office on March 5. 1849 (normally, the date might have been expected, but by Whigs." Although Riddle was March 4, but in 1849 that day was a Sunday and there noted that Lincoln made many speeches for Taylor after his fore unsuitable for the inaugural ceremonies). return to Dlinoil~ and the Seventh Congressional District The local Democrats were jubilant when Logan lost to (these had somehow escaped Beveridge's notice), he read Thomas L. Harris. Immediately, they crowed that Lincoln's political disaster into their reception. After giving two ~rd was unpopular with the people of central lllinois. Re SP<""hes near Springfield (in Jacksonville and Petersburg, ferring to Lincoln's so-called Spot Resolutions, wbich bad the county seoUl resP""tively of Morgan and Menard Coun· demanded that President Polk point out the specific spot of ties), Lincoln "heat a strategic retreat." concluding "that no allegedly American soil on which American blood had been good purpose was served by his continuing to speak in Ibis shed to initiate the Mexican War, the Illinois State Register part of the district." Riddle added: claimed that the "spot" was at last "wiped out.." " When Lin· \Vhat is most curious of aU he made no speech in Spring· coin was elected," said the Democratic newspaper, "he made field. The conclusion is inescapable. Lincoln was so un· no declaration of principles in regard to the war before the popular in Springfield and its environs that although be people, as he himself teUs us in his first sP<""h in Congress. was an official party spokesman it was inadvisable for him Therefore the people of theseventh Congressional district are to speak there. not responsible for the anti4 war speeches and anti·war votes" Lincoln left for the northern part of the district where third· of their Whi.g congressman. ••But,'' the Register went on, "it part.y Free Soil sentiment was strong. was otherwise in relation to Logan. He had committed him· Why did Lincoln roueat from the Springfield area? This is self in the legislature against the war, and his sentiments Riddle's explanation: were well known to the people. -and they promptly rejected ... he made only two speeches in his home neighborhood. him. This proves that. .. they are patriotic, trueloversoftheir In these he was roughly handled. He spoke at Beardstown countey.'' on October !9. Two days later he spoke in Jacksonville. Abraham Lincoln did not interpret the results that way, of There his platform opponent, Murray McConnel, attacked cou.rse. Writing on August 28, 1848, to William Scbouler. the L-incoln for his war attitude. asserting that Lincoln had mi.s· editor of the Boston D~ily Atlas, Lincoln said: represented his constituents. Lincoln was sufficiently stung I would rather not be put upon explaining how Logan was to reply. He refused to believe that a majority of his consti· defeated in my district In the f'trst place I have no particu· tuents bad favored the war. This was an extremely vuJner Iars from there, my friends. supposing I am on the road abledefense, and McConnel pounced upon it how, then, did home. not having written me. Whether there was a full turn Lincoln explain his party's defeat in the recent Congres out of the voters T have as yet not learned. 'I'he most I can sional election? The State R-egister wcs informed by its now say is thatagoodmany Whigs, withoutgoodcause.asl Jacksonville conespondont that Lincoln was ''used up'' by think, were unwilling to go for Logan, and some of them so McConnel. "Lincoln has made nothing by coming to this wrote me before the election. On the other hand Harris was part of the countzy to make speeches," the Morgan County a Major of the war, and fought at Cerro Gordo, where writer concluded. several Whigs of the district fought with him. These two Lincoln spoke in Petersburg, the county seat of Menard facts and their effects. I presume tell the whole story. That County while attending court thereon Octoher23. Thistime there is any poHtical change against us in the district I can the State Register claimed he was '' used up" by William Fer oot believe; bec-ause I wrote some time ago to every county of guson. It appears that Lincoln concluded that no good pur· the djstrict for an account of changes~ and, in answer I got pose was served by his continuing to speak in this part of the names of four against us, eighty·three for us. I dislike to the districl predict. butitseemstometbedistrictmustandwill he found Riddle judged that Lincoln had very little clout in.the north as right side up again in November. well: In a debunker's rush to judgment, historians have called this It was no encomium of his success as an Assistant Elector letter evasive and concluded that Lincoln was the cause of (that ntinois went for Cass instesd of'l'aylorj. The vote in Logan's defeat. Putnam County [in the northern part ofLincoln's district] "In the Seventh District." Alben Beveridge declared flatly, was despite his major atgument-t.hat slavery restriction ul.ogan ran on Lincoln's record and was badly beaten." lt would be furthered by el""ting Taylor. ln view of what had " would have hurt Logan had he taken the stump for biro at occurred in J acksonvillo and Petersburg Lincoln could not that time; for, ... Lincoln's popularity at home had been seri· easily have concluded that he had won many votes for his ously impaired. if indeed it were not for t.he moment de candidate. stroyed." His reception when be did come to work for Taylor It should roeke us suspicious to find the same conclusions was, according to Beveridge, dismal: buttressed by the opposite evidence. Beveridge's claim that Finally he reached home, but no mention of his arrival Lincoln was unpopular was based on Lincoln's delivering so was made in any paper. What further part be took in the few speeches for Taylor in his district. Riddle found that Lin· campaign in Illinois does not appear, except that at one coin did deliver many SP<""hes in his district butconcluded, if meeting in a smaJJ town in Sangamon County,ju.st before anything more tenaciously, that Lincoln was unpopular with the Presidential election. the crowd was unfriendly and a his own constituents. Democratic speaker handled him roughly. As webaveseen, To cling to Beveridge's conclusion, then, Riddle had to do Logan had been overwhelmed in the August elections. The two things. First, he had to say that thesP<""heswhich news· resultof Lincoln's first ..,ssion in Congress had been a poli· papers reported were reported unfAvorably. Second, he had to
tical revolution among his constituents3 and, ... he return· say that the unreported SP<""hes had no political effector the ed to Washington a dispirited man. opposite political eff""t from that intended by Lincoln. Thus The atmosphere of rejection and isolation whi.eh Beveridge the reader learns that Lincoln was "used up" at Beardstown conjured up by saying thatLincoln's arrival went unnoticed, and Jacksonville and that he failed to stem the Free Soil tide that only one recorded speech was made (and that in a in the north, especially in Putnam County. LINCOLN LORE 3
The first contention is based on a hostile witn088; Riddle man and misunderstood by the American people, and they referr«< to reports of speeches in Democratic newsp&p;!l'$. TO)R) problems in Morgan. lt was the only possible challenger to Sangamon's leadership in the Seventh Congresaional Dis· COUNTY Hi\RJIIS WGAN Ci\SS TAYLOR VANBUREN trict. tuming out only about350 · 500 fewer votes than Sanga· (Dem.) (\\'big) (Oem.) (Whig) (Free SoU) mon's wboppin.g 3.000 or so votes. When Harris beat Logan in Cass 656 650 724 761 II August, Morgan County. which had gone for Clay over Polk Logan 399 417 369 465 4 in 1844, went for the Democrat by 58 votes. Lincoln visited Marshall 341 244 322 304 41 Morgan, and it went for Taylor by 63 votes in November. It Mason 452 336 403 391 7 would be a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy to say Lincoln Menard 648 570 488 605 1 caused the change, but it at least deserves mention and the Morgan 1,322 1.264 1,309 1,372 139 same weight assigned to the vote in Putnam after Lincoln's Putnam 238 219 185 266 299 appearance in that. county. Sangamon 1,388 1,649 1,336 1,943 47 Ignoring all partisan evidence from Democratic news· Scott 662 616 649 798 15 papers and disregarding the charges of Beveridge and Riddle, Tazewell 678 899 593 1,097 96 one could draw a very different picture of Lincoln's relation· Woodford 419 231 309 166 52 7,201 7,095 6,687 8,168 712 Lincoln did not stem the Free Soil tide in Putnam County. which went for Va.n Buren. However. it should be noted that all the northern counties, Putnam, Woodford, and Marshall, had the FreeSoil virus, that Lincoln visiteda/lofthem as well as Thzewell, that Marshall and Woodford went for Cass by smaUer majorities than they had gone for Harris, and that Tazewall went for Taylor by a much greater majority than it had tumed nut for Lof!lan. rn other words, it seems only fair to say that, whereas Lincoln may not have helped much in Put· nam, he certainly did not burt anything in Ta.zeweJl. Mar· shall, or Woodford. It alao seems fair to apply the same test of election results to Lincoln's speeches which were reported as disasters by the Democratic prees. The fullest report stemmed from the Jack· sonville speech. which was reported in this way by the flli nois State Register: Mr. McConnel then took up a copy of the journal of the House of Representatives of Congress, of January last, and showed that Mr. Lincoln had refused ro uote fora resolution of thanks ro General Taylor and his brave comrades for his and their conduct at the battle of Beumt Vista, until he had first uoted art amendment thereto. that this battle was fought in a war uncon.stitutlonally and unnecessarily begun by the President. He then turned to Mr. Lincoln and compared his conduct in that vote with his conduct and speeches in favor of the war, and for carrying it on with spirit and vigor before he left home and while canvassing for the office of representative in Congress. He ask«! ifMr. Lincqln did not know when he gave that vote that he was misrepresenting the wishes of the patriotic people of this district.. and did he do so by theinfluence ofMr. Polk or some whig leader. In the midst of the shower of fire that fell around him, I..incoln cried out, "No, 1 did not know it. and don't believe it yet." As quick as thought McConnel pointed From thr tmroln Natu;mal l.l.ft: Pflundat"()n Stephen T. Logan was, according to William Herndon, to the August election as an evidence that be had so mis· "small- short-thin- and squarely put up and angu tepresented his people, and to that most foul slander upon larJy built. running in figure and features to sharp keen our district was mainly owing Logan's defeat for Congress. points~ lance like . ... He is fraily built-a froth net. The people were tired of having their patriotism and love of work-nervous- quick- uneasy-restless his country so shamefully misrepresented by whig Congress· voice is sharp and shrill-'squeaky & squealy.'" 4 LINCOLN LORE ship with his constituents. Stephen T. Logan lost the congres· Seventh l)istricl's Whig majority. He knew and stated flatly siooal election in August to war hero Thomas L. Harris. that the district would b., found in Taylor's column in Novem· Thinking him on his way after Congress recessed on the 14th. ber. What role his own speaking efforts played in this is local Whigs chose incumbent Congressman Abraham Lin· impossible to determine, but they could hardly have been a coin on August 27 as Assistant Elector to make speeches in detriment. November for Zachary Taylor. Lincoln chose to work for the Jt. is even harder to say what role Lincoln's T(lputation national campaign first and then ca.me home in October lo played in Logan's defeat than to say what role his presence help out the Tnylor cause in hjs own district. He made about and political activity played in Taylor's victory in the Seventh eight sp..,.,hes in Taylor's behalf in the district. Every county Congressional District. All that can be said. within the eon except Woodford that Lincoln visited turned out more Whig fines of Lincoln Lore~s limited pages, is that. there is no indi· voters for Taylor than it had for Logan three months earlier. cation that Lincoln's physical presence in the district had any This is not necessarily proof of Lincoln's prowess as a cam· dampening effect o.n Whig political fortunes in October or paigner, but it is proof of his political acumen. He had pre Novemb.,r, 1848. One must w<>nder, then. how Lincoln could dicted in August that tho upset of Logan by Harris did not have been more dangerous to Whig success just three months indicate any permanent nwers.al of political fortunes for the earlier while he was hundreds of miles away in Washington.
• 7 ' IARSIIALL
• 6 liOODI'ORO s .
TAZEI'ffi LL
fiENARO
CASS
• 1 HOHGAN
scarr I. Jacksonville ('IORr.AN) 2. Beardsto•~ (CASS) 3. Petersburg (>lENARD) 4, Tremont (TAZcl'ffi LL) 5. liashington (TAZEWELl.) 6. lletamora (liOOOFOHO) TilE SEVENTII CO~GilESSIONAL DISTRICT 7 . Lacon ('IARSIIALL) Lincoln Campaign Speeches for Taylor, October, 1848 8 , !-tagnolin (PUTNA't) 9. Hennepin (PUUlA'I)