In Lincoln’s Shadow: The Civil War in Springfield, Illinois By ©2014 Jeremy Prichard Submitted to the graduate degree program in History and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ________________________________ Chairperson Sheyda Jahanbani ________________________________ Co-Chairperson Jonathan Earle ________________________________ Kim Warren ________________________________ Theodore Wilson ________________________________ Paul Schumaker Date Defended: November 11, 2014 The Dissertation Committee for Jeremy Prichard certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: In Lincoln’s Shadow: The Civil War in Springfield, Illinois ________________________________ Chairperson Sheyda Jahanbani ________________________________ Co-Chairperson Jonathan Earle Date approved: November 11, 2014 ii Abstract This dissertation examines the political, social, and economic development of Springfield, Illinois – Abraham Lincoln’s home – during the American Civil War. It argues that Lincoln’s martyrdom following the war and his assassination preserved the city’s position as Illinois’s state capital, despite the local populace’s mixed attitudes toward him during his presidency. He won the 1860 and 1864 presidential popular vote in Springfield by a combined seventy-nine ballots. He failed to carry his own Sangamon County in either election. When he and his family departed for the White House in February 1861, they left a deeply partisan community that only strengthened over four years of war. Before he became Springfield’s chosen son in death, he was a polarizing figure in the heart of Illinois. Simultaneously, Abraham Lincoln said farewell to a town struggling to keep pace with the population growth and economic development occurring elsewhere in the Prairie State due to the rise of industrialism. Lincoln’s death, including the controversial burial that followed, reversed both trends, bringing momentary unity to a community facing uncertainty during the country’s most trying period. iii Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iii Introduction "Here I Have Lived" ....................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One The Voice of Springfield?: Debating Secession and War in Lincoln’s Home ......................................................................... 35 Chapter Two "The Appearance of a Military Camp": War Comes to Springfield ............................................................................................................ 72 Chapter Three "The Home of Lincoln Condemns the Proclamation": Emancipation Fractures Springfield Unity ................................................................................. 104 Chapter Four Loyalty Tested, Loyalty Debated: Lincoln’s Home on the Precipice, January-June 1863 ................................................................ 157 Chapter Five "Three Cheers for Old Abe": Emancipation, War, and the 1864 Presidential Election ............................................................. 217 Chapter Six "Home is the Martyr" .................................................................................................................. 269 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 309 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 313 iv INTRODUCTION: “HERE I HAVE LIVED” February 11, 1861 is a date etched in the history of Springfield, Illinois. On that cold and unpleasant winter morning, 150 of Abraham Lincoln’s friends and neighbors gathered at the Great Western Railway to watch the next President of the United States depart for the White House. It was an emotional day for all present. Lincoln, having already said goodbye to most familiar faces in the weeks and days leading up to his parting, did not prepare a speech for the moment, but soon changed his mind. After boarding the presidential train, Lincoln walked to the rear of the car, removed his hat, and, according to James C. Conkling, with a “breast heaved with emotion,” uttered the following words: My friends—No one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe every thing. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine Being, who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him, who can go with me, and remain with you and be every where for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.1 Not considered one of Lincoln’s finest speeches, it was still a special tribute to the hometown he was leaving for, as it turned out, the last time. A lengthier version was reprinted the following day in the Daily Illinois State Journal, Springfield’s Republican newspaper. Local Republicans recited it in the final weeks of the 1864 election. The Journal, along with the Democratic Daily Illinois State Register, reprinted the extended version following news of the president’s assassination. It is inscribed, word for word, on the Illinois State Capitol building in Springfield. Renowned Lincoln scholars and biographers have quoted it regularly. This 1 Douglas A. Wilson, Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words (New York: Vintage Books, 2007), 11. 1 emotional parting connected the man with his hometown, and to this day visitors cannot avoid Springfield’s association with Abraham Lincoln. Nothing serves that connection better than his “Farewell Speech.” But this relationship is rather significantly complicated, beginning with the “Farewell Speech” itself. Part of the problem, as historian Douglas L. Wilson has demonstrated, was the fact that Lincoln said something slightly different that drizzly February morning. One observer recalled Lincoln saying, “I now leave, not knowing when or whether ever I may return.”2 Others present that morning remembered something slightly different, even though the message was the same. We cannot know with any certainty what Lincoln said because the above-mentioned speech was written after the train left the depot. A reporter traveling with the presidential caravan asked the president-elect, after they had set off, to write down what he had said to the crowd, and Lincoln complied. Wilson suggests that Lincoln, both a skilled orator and writer, revised his comments on the train, aware that the enunciated word would not have the same effect in print. Wilson compared Lincoln’s revised speech with other contemporary accounts of the event and found a distinction in the way the president-elect described his recollections of Springfield. The account on top seems closest to what Lincoln said, contrasted with the version on the bottom that Lincoln wrote on the train, with brackets surrounding the same words found in both: “Here I have lived for more than a quarter of a century [and have passed from a young to an old man]; here my children were born, and here one of them lies buried.” “Here I have been a quarter of a century, [and have passed from a young to an old man]. Here my children have been born, and one is buried.”3 2 Preston Bailhache, “Abraham Lincoln As I Remember Him,” John E. Boos Collection, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library (Hereafter cited as ALPLM). 3 Wilson, Lincoln's Sword, 15-16. 2 These two phrases get the same point across, but they express slightly different sentiments and emotions when read aloud. Only recently have scholars deciphered Lincoln’s train-shaken handwriting and determined that he actually wrote the phrase “Here I have been,” instead of “Here I have lived,” thus giving the phrase an alliterative flair better detected through sound over sight. But even Lincoln initially failed to see the benefits of this stylistic difference; he uttered the word “lived” as virtually everyone in attendance that morning recalled. Only later on the train did he change it to “been.”4 This might seem trivial, and the same scrutiny could be applied to other parts of that speech, but the main takeaway is thus: the passage written down that day by contemporary accounts – not Lincoln’s written version – stuck with the community. They were reminded of it again over the next four years. Lincoln’s 1861 “Farewell Speech” to his friends and neighbors held literal sway, even if it was not a literal chronicling of the account. Apart from the veracity of Lincoln’s “Farewell Speech,” popular memory also obscures another facet of the sixteenth president’s relationship with Springfield community. Contrary to his image in the city today, Lincoln was anything but a beloved figure when he ran and served as president. He won Springfield with a slight majority in the 1860 election and an even smaller margin of victory for reelection in 1864. He had less support outside the city limits, losing the popular vote