Lincoln (135 page)

113
“something is lost”:
WHH to John J. Hardin, Feb. 12, 1844, Hardin MSS, Chicago Historical Society.

113
“one for Governor”: CW,
1:351.

113
“is fair play”: CW,
1:350, 353.

113
“is fair play”:
P. U. Thompson to John J. Hardin, Jan. 17, 1846, Hardin MSS, Chicago Historical Society.

113
“Abraham’s turn now”:
Riddle,
Lincoln Runs for Congress,
p. 102.

114
“elected to congress”: CW,
1:356.

114
“to keep peace”: CW,
1:366.

114
“abilities and integrity”:
Riddle,
Lincoln Runs for Congress,
p. 157.

114
“grossly misrepresented him”: CW,
1:384.

114
“some honest men”: CW,
1:383.

114
“scoffer at, religion”: CW,
1:382.

115
to
the convention: New York Tribune,
July 14,1847. The
Chicago Daily Journal
announced that this was Lincoln’s “first visit to the Commercial emporium of the state.” Wayne C. Temple,
Lincoln’s Connections with the Illinois & Michigan Canal, His Return from Congress in ’48, and His Invention
(Springfield: Illinois Bell, 1986), pp. 22–23, provides the best account of Lincoln’s participation in the convention.

115
“homely looking man”:
All quotations in the two following paragraphs are from WHH, “Analysis of the Character of Abraham Lincoln,”
ALQ
1 (Sept. 1941): 357–359. As Herndon indicated, Lincoln’s hair was usually disheveled, but on this occasion, while posing for a daguerreotype, it was carefully slicked down.

116
“the whig cause”: CW,
1:341.

116
“over old times”:
WHH Herndon, interview with Nathaniel Grigsby, Sept. 16, 1865, HWC.

116
“sister were buried”: CW,
1:378.

116
loss of his sister:
For sensitive psychoanalytical comments on Lincoln’s verse and the suggestion of “incomplete mourning,” I am indebted to Strozier,
Lincoln’s Quest for Union,
pp. 28–30.

116
“were certainly poetry”: CW,
1:378.

118
“in liquid light”: CW,
1:378–379.

118
“into harmless insanity”: CW,
1:384.

118
“him ling ’ring here?”: CW,
1:385–386.

118
frontier bear hunt: CW,
1:386–389.

118
“having written them”: CW,
1:392.

Two valuable monographs deal with Lincoln’s years in Congress: Donald W. Riddle,
Congressman Abraham Lincoln
(Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1979), which is sharply critical; and Paul Findley, A.
Lincoln: The Crucible of Congress
(New York: Crown Publishers, 1979), which takes a more favorable view. Albert J. Beveridge,
Abraham Lincoln, 1809–1858
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1928), offers many valuable details.

The best general account of the final year of Polk’s administration is
The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861,
by David M. Potter (completed by Don E. Fehrenbacher) (New York: Harper & Row, 1976). There is also an excellent survey in Allan Nevins,
Ordeal of the Union: Fruits of Manifest Destiny, 1847–1852
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1947), chap. 1. Robert W. Johannsen,
To the Halls of the Montezumas: The Mexican War in the American Imagination
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), is a spirited account of public reactions to the conflict. The standard work on dissent and opposition to the war is John H. Schroeder,
Mr. Polk’s War
(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1973).

119
“as I expected”: CW,
1:391.

120
he was playing:
Samuel C. Busey,
Personal Reminiscences and Recollections of Forty-Six Years’
Membership in the Medical Society
of the District of Columbia and Residence in This City
(Washington, D.C., privately printed, 1895), pp. 25–27.

120
“attending to business”: CW,
1:465.

121
“his own way”:
Busey,
Personal Reminiscences,
p. 28.

121
“others say nothing”: CW,
1:465.

121
missed only 13:
Paul Findley, A
Lincoln: The Crucible of Congress
(New York: Crown Publishers, 1979), pp. 167–168.

121
of the Congress:
Pratt,
Personal Finances,
p. 101.

121
“speak in court”: CW,
1:430.

121
“pale-faced, consumptive man”: CW,
1:448.

122
Mexicans as “greasers”:
Mark E. Neely, Jr., “War and Partisanship: What Lincoln Learned from James K. Polk”
JISHS
74 (Autumn 1981): 205.

122 as
“altogether inexpedient”: CW,
1:337.

122
“of the people”: CW,
2:4.

123
to encourage volunteering: Day by Day, 1:273;
Beveridge, 1:381.

123
“should be ended”: CW,
1:432.

123
“our own soil”:
James D. Richardson, ed.,
A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the
President
(Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1897), 4:534.

123
“protection of Texas”: CW,
1:421–422.

123
“that is wrong”:
This passage in Lincoln’s manuscript (Lincoln MSS, LC) was deleted from the printed speech.

124
“charms to destroy”: CW,
1:437, 439.

124
“on a hot stove”:
This passage in Lincoln’s manuscript (Lincoln MSS, LC) was deleted from the printed speech.

124
“of a fever-dream”: CW,
1:439–442.

124
“sending me again”: CW,
1:431.

124
an unpatriotic speech:
Riddle,
Congressman Abraham Lincoln,
pp. 50–51.

124
“tall Mr. Lincoln”:
Ibid., p. 35.

124
“most conclusive arguments”:
Herbert Mitgang, ed.,
Abraham Lincoln: A Press Portrait
(Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1971), p. 55.

125
“of one term”:
Riddle,
Congressman Abraham Lincoln,
pp. 35–39, gives an excellent sampling of editorial opinion.

125
“in the House”:
Gabor S. Boritt, “Lincoln’s Opposition to the Mexican War,”
JISHS
67 (Feb. 1974): 91.

125
“be successfully controverted”:
Riddle,
Congressman Abraham Lincoln,
pp. 35–36.

125
“side so long”:
Anson G. Henry to AL, Dec. 29, 1847, Lincoln MSS, LC.

125
“aggression on Mexico”: CW,
1:473.

125
“the Whig ranks”: Herndon’s Lincoln,
2:279.

125
“of another country”:
Herndon’s letters have not been preserved, but it is possible to reconstruct their contents from Lincoln’s replies in
CW,
1:446–447, 451–452.

126
“have always stood”:
Ibid.

126
“pestilence, and famine”:
Riddle,
Congressman Abraham Lincoln,
p. 56.

126
the Young Indians:
In addition to Lincoln and Stephens, the group included Truman Smith, the Connecticut political organizer, Robert Toombs of Georgia, and three first-term Virginia congressmen. Holman Hamilton,
Zachary Taylor: Soldier in the White House
(Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1951), pp. 63–64.

126
“if he is not”: CW,
1: 452, 463.

127
in the fall: CW,
1:475–476.

127
“be hanged themselves”: CW,
1:477.

127
“want of consideration”: CW,
1:506.

127
“and clear cases”: CW,
1:454.

127 “
’as you please’”: CW,
1:503–504.

128
“their own business”: CW,
1:505.

128
“Spotty Lincoln”:
E.g., in his August 27, 1858, speech at Freeport.
CW,
3:56–57.

128
“oppression upon us”: CW,
1:452.

128
“you
can
not”: CW,
1:453.

128
“liberate the world”: CW,
1:438. See Thomas J. Pressly, “Bullets and Ballots: Lincoln and the ‘Right of Revolution,’
“American Historical Review
67 (Apr. 1962): 647–662.

128
“than it is”: CW,
1:488.

129
policy at all:
I have developed this argument more fully in “Abraham Lincoln: Whig in the White House,” in
Lincoln Reconsidered: Essays on the Civil War Era
(New York: Vintage Books, 1961), pp. 196–208.

130
“have helped himself”: CW,
1:501–516. Quotations are from pages 508, 514.

130
“work down again”:
Riddle,
Congressman Abraham Lincoln,
p. 105.

130
“likely to go”: CW,
1:516–2:1.

130
“fellows forget father”: CW,
1:465–466.