The Life and Writings of Abraham Lincoln (39 page)

Any preliminary details coming within the above rules you are at liberty to make at your discretion; but you are in no case to swerve from these rules, or to pass beyond their limits.

The seconds who had been so eager to push their principals forward in the Lincoln-Shields duel promptly fell to fighting among themselves. William Butler was Lincoln’s friend; Merryman appointed Lincoln as his second, and the situation then took on all the aspects of an old-fashioned French farce. This duel also ended without bloodshed. Much more important than the trivia of the duel, however, is Lincoln’s query to Speed: “Are you now in feeling as well as judgment glad that you are married as you are?” Lincoln was impatient to know the answer, as he might well be, for just one month after writing this letter he married Mary Todd
.

Springfield, October [4?], 1842

D
EAR
S
PEED
: You have heard of my duel with Shields, and I have now to inform you that the dueling business still rages in this city. Day before yesterday Shields challenged Butler, who accepted, and proposed fighting next morning at sunrise in Bob Allen’s meadow, one hundred yards’ distance, with rifles. To this Whitesides, Shield’s second, said “No,” because of the law. Thus ended duel No. 2. Yesterday Whitesides chose to consider himself insulted by Dr. Merryman, so sent him a kind of quasi-challenge, inviting him to meet him at the Planter’s House in St. Louis on the next Friday, to settle their difficulty. Merryman made me his friend, and sent Whitesides a note, inquiring to know if he meant his note as a challenge, and if so, that he would, according to the law in such case made and provided, prescribe the terms of the meeting. Whitesides returned for answer that if Merryman would meet him at the Planter’s House as desired, he would challenge him. Merryman replied in a note that he denied Whiteside’s right to dictate time and place, but that he (Merryman) would waive the question of time, and meet him at Louisiana, Missouri.
Upon my presenting this note to Whitesides and stating verbally its contents, he declined receiving it, saying he had business in St. Louis, and it was as near as Louisiana. Merryman then directed me to notify Whitesides that he should publish the correspondence between them, with such comments as he thought fit. This I did. Thus it stood at bedtime last night. This morning Whitesides, by his friend Shields, is praying for a new trial, on the ground that he was mistaken in Merryman’s proposition to meet him at Louisiana, Missouri, thinking it was the State of Louisiana. This Merryman hoots at, and is preparing his publication; while the town is in a ferment, and a street fight somewhat anticipated.

But I began this letter not for what I have been writing, but to say something on that subject which you know to be of such infinite solicitude to me. The immense sufferings you endured from the first days of September till the middle of February you never tried to conceal from me, and I well understood. You have now been the husband of a lovely woman nearly eight months. That you are happier now than the day you married her I well know, for without you could not be living. But I have your word for it, too, and the returning elasticity of spirits which is manifested in your letters. But I want to ask a close question, “Are you now in feeling as well as judgment glad that you are married as you are?” From anybody but me this would be an impudent question, not to be tolerated; but I know you will pardon it in me. Please answer it quickly, as I am impatient to know. I have sent my love to your Fanny so often, I fear she is getting tired of it. However, I venture to tender it again.

This letter is of no importance except for its last sentence which is filled with poignant significance, for Lincoln wrote it when he had been married just one week
.

Springfield, November 11, 1842

D
EAR
S
AM
: Yours of the 10th Oct. enclosing five dollars was taken from the office in my absence by Judge Logan who neglected to hand it to me till about a week ago, and just an hour before I took a wife.…

I have looked into the Dorman & Lane case, till I believe I understand the facts of it; and I also believe we can reverse it. In the last I may be mistaken, but I think the case at least worth the experiment, and if Dorman will risk the cost, I will do my best for the “biggest kind of a fee” as you say, if we succeed, and nothing if we fail. I have not had a chance to consult Logan since I read your letters, but if the case comes up, I can have the use of him if I need him.

I would advise you to procure the Record and send it up immediately. Attend to the making out of the Record yourself, or most likely, the clerk will not get it all together right.

Nothing new here, except my marrying, which to me, is matter of profound wonder.

Shortly after his marriage, Lincoln began a long campaign to become a United States Congressman. He had finished his last term in the State Legislature early in 1841—he was compelled to wait until August, 1846, to be elected to Congress. That he wanted very much to go is clearly indicated by this letter
.

Springfield, Illinois, February 14, 1843

F
RIEND
R
ICHARD
:… Now if you should hear any one say that Lincoln don’t want to go to Congress, I wish you as a personal friend of mine, would tell him you have reason to believe he is mistaken. The truth is, I would like to go very much. Still, circumstances may happen which may prevent my being a candidate.

If there are any who be my friends in such an enterprise, what I now want is that they shall not throw me away just yet.

Lincoln was disappointed in his ambition to receive the Whig nomination for Congress; the Sangamon County Whigs chose Edward D. Baker as their candidate. Baker was a good friend of Lincoln’s. He was a brilliant orator, and he later distinguished himself in politics and on the field of battle in the Mexican War and in the Civil War. He was killed at Ball’s Bluff on October 21, 1861. Lincoln named his second son after him. The allusion to a coming child at the end of this letter indicates that Lincoln had promised to name his first born son after Speed. Mrs. Lincoln evidently had something to say in the matter, for the child was named Robert Todd Lincoln after her father
.

Springfield, March 24, 1843

D
EAR
S
PEED
: We had a meeting of the Whigs of the county here on last Monday to appoint delegates to a district convention; and 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 a groomsman to a man who has cut him out and is
marrying his own dear “gal.” About the prospects of your having a namesake at our town, can’t say exactly yet.

Morris was a friend of Lincoln’s living near New Salem which by this time was in Menard County. Lincoln writes a political letter to him on the coming Congressional nomination. According to Morris, Lincoln was still strong in Menard County because of his former residence at New Salem. Lincoln, although appointed a delegate for Baker, is willing to see if he can still pull the nomination out of the fire. His marriage with Mary Todd with its aristocratic connections is telling against him among the plain country people; so is his reputation for agnosticism. James Short, to whom Lincoln refers, was a New Salem farmer, who had once refunded a debt for Lincoln in order to save his personal property from being seized. It is interesting to note that the Whig nomination for the district was given to neither Baker nor Lincoln, but to John J. Hardin, who was elected to Congress in August, 1843
.

Springfield, Illinois, March 26, 1843

F
RIEND
M
ORRIS
: Your letter of the 23d was received on yesterday morning, and for which (instead of an excuse, which you thought proper to ask) I tender you my sincere thanks. It is truly gratifying to me to learn that while the people of Sangamon have cast me off, my old friends of Menard, who have known me longest and best, stick to me. It would astonish, if not amuse, the older citizens to learn that I (a stranger, friendless, uneducated, penniless boy, working on a flatboat at ten dollars per month) have been put down here as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aristocratic family distinction. Yet so, chiefly, it was. There was, too, the strangest combination of church influence against me. Baker is a Campbellite; and therefore, as I suppose, with few exceptions got all that church. My wife has some relations in the Presbyterian
churches, and some with the Episcopal churches; and therefore, wherever it would tell, I was set down as either the one or the other, while it was everywhere contended that no Christian ought to go for me, because I belonged to no church, was suspected of being a deist, and had talked about fighting a duel. With all these things, Baker, of course, had nothing to do. Nor do I complain of them. As to his own church going for him, I think that was right enough, and as to the influences I have spoken of in the other, though they were very strong, it would be grossly untrue and unjust to charge that they acted upon them in a body, or were very near so. I only mean that those influences levied a tax of a considerable percent upon my strength throughout the religious controversy. But enough of this.

You say that in choosing a candidate for Congress you have an equal right with Sangamon, and in this you are undoubtedly correct. In agreeing to withdraw if the Whigs of Sangamon should go against me, I did not mean that they alone were worth consulting, but that if she, with her heavy delegation, should be against me, it would be impossible for me to succeed, and therefore I had as well decline. And in relation to Menard having rights, permit me fully to recognize them, and to express the opinion, that if she and Mason act circumspectly, they will in the convention be able so far to enforce their rights as to decide absolutely which one of the candidates shall be successful. Let me show the reason of this. Hardin, or some other Morgan candidate, will get Putnam, Marshall, Woodford, Tazewell, and Logan—making sixteen. Then you and Mason, having three, can give the victory to either side.

You say you shall instruct your delegates for me, unless I object. I certainly shall not object. That would be too pleasant a compliment for me to tread in the dust. And besides, if anything should happen (which, however, is not probable) by which Baker should be thrown out of the fight, I would be at liberty to accept the nomination if I could get it. I do, however, feel myself bound not to hinder him in any way from
getting the nomination. I should despise myself were I to attempt it. I think, then, it would be proper for your meeting to appoint three delegates, and to instruct them to go for some one as a first choice, some one else as a second, and perhaps some one as a third; and if in those instructions I were named as the first choice, it would gratify me very much. If you wish to hold the balance of power, it is important for you to attend to and secure the vote of Mason also. You should be sure to have men appointed delegates that you know you can safely confide in. If yourself and James Short were appointed from your county, all would be safe; but whether Jim’s woman affair a year ago might not be in the way of his appointment is a question. I don’t know whether you know it, but I know him to be as honorable a man as there is in the world. You have my permission, and even request, to show this letter to Short; but to no one else, unless it be a very particular friend, who you know will not speak of it.

The “coming event” to which Lincoln jestingly refers was the approaching birth of his first child, Robert Todd Lincoln, which was to take place on August 1. Dr. Wallace had married Mary Todd’s sister Frances. Ann Todd was Mary’s aunt. The Lincolns left their four-dollar-a-week room at the Globe Tavern shortly after their son Robert was born. They moved to a small house on South Fourth Street, where they stayed until May, 1844, when they moved into the house at Eighth and Jackson Streets that was to be their last home in Springfield
.

Springfield, May 18, 1843

D
EAR
S
PEED
: Yours of the 9th instant is duly received, which I do not meet as a “bore,” but as a most welcome visitor. I will answer the business part of it first.…

In relation to our Congress matter here, you were right in supposing I would support the nominee. Neither Baker nor I, however, is the man, but Hardin, so far as I can judge from present appearances. We shall have no split or trouble about the matter; all will be harmony. In relation to the “coming events” about which Butler wrote you, I had not heard one word before I got your letter; but I have so much confidence in the judgment of a Butler on such a subject that I incline to think there may be some reality in it. What day does Butler appoint?

By the way, how do “events” of the same sort come on in your family? Are you possessing houses and lands, and oxen and asses, and men-servants and maid-servants, and begetting sons and daughters? We are not keeping house, but boarding at the Globe Tavern, which is very well kept now by a widow lady of the name of Beck. Our room (the same that Dr. Wallace occupied there) and boarding only costs us four dollars a week. Ann Todd was married something more than a year since to a fellow by the name of Campbell, and who, Mary says, is pretty much of a “dunce,” though he has a little money and property. They live in Booneville, Missouri, and have not been heard from lately enough for me to say anything about her health. I reckon it will scarcely be in our power to visit Kentucky this year. Besides poverty and the necessity of attending to business, those “coming events,” I suspect, would be somewhat in the way. I most heartily wish you and your Fanny would not fail to come. Just let us know the time, and we will have a room provided for you at our house, and all be merry together for a while. Be sure to give my respects to your mother and family; assure her that if ever I come near her, I will not fail to call and see her. Mary joins in sending love to your Fanny and you.