On This Day Archives
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AUGUST 4, 1862 -- President Lincoln writes to French author Agenor Gasparin, who wrote a book about America’s Civil War and who had written to Lincoln regarding the North’s troop strength. Lincoln confides that he may have to institute “a draft.” He explains that many men are “pay[ing] and send[ing] substitutes” rather than enlisting themselves. Lincoln adds, “I can only say that I have acted upon my best convictions without selfish-ness or malice, and that by the help of God, I shall continue to do so.”
AUGUST 5, 1863 -- President Lincoln writes to General Nathaniel Banks regarding Louisiana’s possible readmission into the Union. Lincoln writes, “I would be glad for her to make a new Constitution recognizing the emancipation proclamation…And…to adopt some practical system by which the two races could gradually live themselves out of their old relation to each other, and both come out better prepared for the new. Education for young blacks should be included in the plan.” Lincoln adds, “If these views can…giv[e]…impetus, to action there, I shall be glad for you to use them prudently for that object.”
AUGUST 6, 1862 -- In the afternoon, President Lincoln speaks to an “immense crowd” gathered “at the east front of the Capitol [building].” Lincoln attempts to dispel rumors that General George McClellan and the Secretary of War Edwin Stanton are feuding. Lincoln states, “McClellan’s attitude is such that, in the very selfishness of his nature, he cannot but wish to be successful…and [Stanton] is in precisely the same situation.” He adds, “If [McClellan] …cannot be successful, not only [Stanton], but myself for the time being the master of them both, cannot be but failures.”
AUGUST 7, 1863 -- President Lincoln responds to New York Governor Horatio Seymour, who seeks to halt “the draft in this State.” Seymour cited the recent New York City draft riots and he suggested that the draft law was unconstitutional. Lincoln dis-agrees and writes, “time is too important…We are contending with an enemy who…drives every able bodied man he can reach, into his ranks, very much as a butcher drives bullocks into a slaughter-pen…It produces an army with a rapidity not to be matched on our side…My purpose is to be…just and constitutional; and yet practical.”
AUGUST 7, 1863 -- President Lincoln responds to New York Governor Horatio Seymour, who seeks to halt “the draft in this State.” Seymour cited the recent New York City draft riots and he suggested that the draft law was unconstitutional. Lincoln dis-agrees and writes, “time is too important…We are contending with an enemy who…drives every able bodied man he can reach, into his ranks, very much as a butcher drives bullocks into a slaughter-pen…It produces an army with a rapidity not to be matched on our side…My purpose is to be…just and constitutional; and yet practical.”
AUGUST 8, 1863 -- President Lincoln writes to his wife Mary and relays news to her and their son Tad. He writes, “Tell dear Tad, poor ‘Nanny Goat,’ is lost; and [the housekeeper] Mrs. Cuthbert & I are in distress…The day you left Nanny was found resting…and chewing her little cud, on the middle of Tad’s bed. But now she’s gone! The gardener kept complaining that she destroyed the flowers…it was concluded to bring her down to the White House. This was done, and the second day she had disappeared, and has not been heard of since.”
AUGUST 9, 1862 -- President Lincoln writes to the Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles regarding an age requirement affecting the appointment of William F. Hall. Lincoln writes, “It is said to be a mistake of a clerk that Midshipmen, when appointed must be between the ages of fourteen and seventeen, where-as Congress actually voted “between fourteen and eighteen.” Lincoln approves Hall’s appointment “with the understanding that I may require him to resign if Congress, at the next session does not correct this mistake.”
AUGUST 10, 1863 -- President Lincoln meets with Senator Samuel Pomeroy, of Kansas, and with abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass. Lincoln’s personal secretary John Hay recorded, “[Douglass] intends to go south and help the recruiting among his people.” Also on this day, Lincoln adds the endorsement, “I concur,” to a letter that the Secretary of the Interior John Usher and Senator Pomeroy signed. The letter acknow-ledges, “Douglass, is…a loyal, free, man, and is, hence, entitled to travel, unmolested. We trust he will be recognized everywhere, as a free man, and a gentleman.”
AUGUST 11, 1855 -- Lincoln writes to abolitionist and State Representative Owen Lovejoy, of Princeton, Illinois. Lovejoy had written to Lincoln and apparently expressed a desire to form a coalition with other political parties that oppose slavery’s expansion. Lincoln replies, “Not even you are more anxious to prevent the extension of slavery than I; and yet the political atmosphere is such, just now, that I fear to do any thing, lest I do wrong…I have no objection to ‘fuse’ with any body provided I can fuse on ground which I think is right.”
AUGUST 12, 1864 -- At 8:30 a.m., poet Walt Whitman spots President Lincoln, who is traveling between the nearby Soldiers’ Home, where Lincoln frequently stays during the summer months, and the White House. Whitman records, “Mr. Lincoln…generally rides a good-sized, easy-going gray horse, is dress’d in plain black, somewhat rusty and dusty; [and] wears a black stiff hat...I see very plainly [his] dark brown face, with the deep cut lines, the eyes, &c., always to me with a latent sadness in the expression. We have got so that we always exchange bows, and very cordial ones.”
AUGUST 13, 1852 -- In the Sangamon County Circuit Court, Lincoln files a declaration in the case of Grubb v. John Frink & Co. Lincoln and William Herndon represent the plaintiff Samuel Grubb, who is suing Martin Walker and John Frink. Grubb was a passenger on Walker and Frink’s stagecoach when it overturned during a trip from Rushville, Illinois to Frederick, Illinois. Grubb suffered “cut[s], bruise[s], and…bon[e]” fractures. Lincoln attributes the accident to the defendants’ “carelessness [and] negligence.” Grubb “was … prevented from … attending to his … affairs … and lost … great … profits.” Grubb seeks to recover $100 in medical expenses and $1,000 in damages.
AUGUST 14, 1862 -- President Lincoln meets with a “Committee of colored men” and proposes a voluntary program to relocate blacks living in America to a Central American country. Lincoln explains, “You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races…this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffer very greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence.
AUGUST 15, 1860 -- Republican presidential nominee Lincoln writes to John B. Fry, of New York. Lincoln confides that many Southerners have written to him with “assurances…that in no probable event will there be any very formidable effort to break up the Union.” Lincoln reasons, “The people of the South have too much of good sense, and good temper, to attempt the ruin of the government, rather than see it administered as it was administered by the men who made it. At least, so I hope and believe.”
AUGUST 16, 1862 -- President Lincoln writes to Hiram P. Barney, the Collector of the Port of New York City, and makes a request on behalf of First Lady Mary Lincoln. Lincoln writes, “Mrs. L. has $1000.00 for the benefit of the hospitals; and she will be obliged, and send the pay, if you will be so good as to select and send her two hundred dollars worth of good lemmons, and one hundred dollars worth of good oranges.”
AUGUST 17, 1863 -- President Lincoln writes to Shakespearean actor James Hackett and shares his thoughts on the playwright’s works. Lincoln writes, “Some of Shakspeare’s plays I have never read; while others I have gone over perhaps as frequently as any unprofessional reader. Among the latter are Lear, Richard Third, Henry Eighth, Hamlet, and especially Macbeth. I think nothing equals Macbeth. It is wonderful.” Lincoln adds, “I should like to hear you pronounce the opening speech of Richard the Third. Will you not soon visit Washington again?”
AUGUST 18, 1863 -- President Lincoln writes to Major General James Blunt, who is feuding with Kansas Governor Thomas Carney. Carney, whom Blunt called “a theif and a liar,” informed Lincoln that Blunt allowed “Citizens” to “execut[e]” two men who had been accused of “robbery.” Lincoln notes that he has been satisfied with Blunt’s past performance, “[but] to take men charged with no offence against the military, out of the hands of the courts, to be turned over to a mob to be hanged, can find no precedent or principle to justify it.”
AUGUST 19, 1858 -- At 2 p.m., following the adjournment of the Fourth District’s Republican Con-gressional Convention, approximately 3,000 people gather to hear senatorial candidate Lincoln deliver a speech “from a stand on the east side of [Peoria’s] public square.” Although inclement weather interrupts his speech, Lincoln is able to complete it “notwithstanding a continued drizzle of rain.” One newspaper reports, “those who went to scoff, came away … strong Lincoln men … [his] cool, calm arguments … are perfectly irresistible.”
AUGUST 20, 1861 -- President Lincoln writes to the Secretary of State William Seward regarding a job for journalist Zebina Eastman, of Chicago, Illinois. Lincoln writes, “If a position, with even moderate pay, could be found for him in England, he is just the man to reach the sympathies of the English people, to the extent that he can come in contact with them. He is more than a common man, in his sphere.”
AUGUST 21, 1858 -- U.S. senatorial candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas are in Ottawa, Illinois, where they meet in their first joint debate. Douglas asserts, “Mr. Lincoln and his party…are trying to array all the Northern States…against the South, to excite a sectional war between the free States and the slave States.” Lincoln responds, “I leave it to you to say whether, in the history of our government, this institution of slavery has not always failed to be a bond of union, and, on the contrary, been an apple of discord and an element of division.”
AUGUST 22, 1864 -- The members of the 166th Ohio Regiment assemble in front of the White House, where President Lincoln remarks, “We should perpetuate…this great and free Government…I am a living witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my father’s child has. It is in order that each of you may have, through this free Government which we have enjoyed, an open field and a fair chance for your industry, enterprise and intelligence…It is for this the struggle should be maintained, that we may not lose our birthright.”
AUGUST 23, 1864 -- At a cabinet meeting, President Lincoln asks each member to sign “the back of a” memo. Lincoln does not reveal the contents of the document, which reads, “This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Admin-istration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he can not possibly save it afterwards.”
AUGUST 24, 1855 -- Lincoln writes to his longtime friend Joshua Speed, of Kentucky, regarding slavery and Kansas. Lincoln writes, “You say if Kansas fairly votes herself a free state, as a christian you will rather rejoice at it. All decent slave-holders talk that way…But they never vote that way. Although in a private letter, or conversation, you will express your preference that Kansas shall be free, you would vote for no man for Congress who would say the same thing publicly. No such man could be elected from any district in any slave-state.”
AUGUST 25, 1860 -- For a “fifth” and final time, Republican presidential candi-date Lincoln poses for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania artist John H. Brown, who is in Springfield, Illinois to paint, “on ivory,” Lincoln’s “min-iature likeness.” Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice and Lincoln ally John M. Read commissioned the painting because he was “disgusted with the horrible caricatures of Mr. Lincoln which he had seen.” Brown recalled, “[Lincoln’s] true character only shines out when in an animated conversation, or when telling an amusing tale, of which he is very fond.”
AUGUST 26, 1863 -- President Lincoln writes to James Conkling, of Springfield, Illinois, and declines an invitation to speak on September 3 at a “mass-meeting of unconditional Union-men.” Lincoln acknowledges that he has detractors who “blame” him for prolonging the war. He presents three scenarios for ending the hostilities: “First, to suppress the rebellion by force…second…is, to give up the Union… [and third, to negotiate] some imaginable compromise. I do not believe any compromise, embracing the maintenance of the Union, is now possible. All I learn, leads to a directly opposite belief.”
AUGUST 27, 1858 -- U.S. senatorial candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas are in Freeport, Illinois, where they meet in their second joint debate. Douglas charges, “[Lincoln] will not tell you distinctly whether he will vote for or against the admission of any more slave States.” Lincoln rebuts, “I do not ask for the vote of any one who supposes that I have secret purposes or pledges that I dare not speak out.” Lincoln encourages voters to “Go for” the candidate whose “views” are “in accordance with your feelings.”
AUGUST 28, 1839 -- In the Sangamon County Circuit Court, Lincoln writes an endorsement on a notice to the plaintiff Margaret Bevans, widow of John Bevans. Lincoln, Stephen Logan, and John Stuart represent the estate administrator James Brown and John Bevan’s other heirs. In his will, John Bevans directed that his wife should receive “one Bed of the Second choice, and one third of my Bedding together with one fifth part of my corn and meat.” John Bevans left the bulk of his land and personal property to his son and daughters.
AUGUST 29, 1863 -- President Lincoln writes to his wife, Mary, who is in Manchester, New Hampshire. Lincoln relays war news, particularly regarding the Charleston, South Carolina area. He writes, “All quite well. Fort-Sumpter is certainly battered down, and utterly useless to the enemy, and it is believed here, but not entirely certain, that both Sumpter and Fort-Wagner, are occupied by our forces. It is also certain that Gen. [Quincy Adams] Gilmore has thrown some shot into the City of Charleston.”
AUGUST 30, 1860 -- Republican presidential nominee Lincoln writes to Pennsylvania politician and newspaper publisher Alexander McClure, who frequently updated Lincoln about how Republicans were faring in Pennsylvania and other eastern states. Lincoln expresses concerns and seeks clarification regarding some recent McClure communications, and writes, “Neither [of the two recent letters]…bears quite so hopeful a tone as your former letters. When you say you are organizing every election district, do you mean…that you are ‘canvassing’—‘counting noses?.’”
AUGUST 31, 1862 -- In the morning, from his cottage at the Soldier’s Home, near Washington, D.C., President Lincoln confers with his secretary John Hay about the ongoing Second Battle of Bull Run. Hay recalled that Lincoln remarked, “Well, John we are whipped again, I am afraid. The enemy reinforced on [General John] Pope and drove back his left wing and he has retired to Centerville [Virginia] where he says he will be able to hold his men. I don’t like that expression. I don’t like to hear him admit that his men need holding.’”
SEPTEMBER 1, 1860 -- Republican presidential nominee Lincoln replies to Republican U.S. Senator Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, regarding the upcoming election. Lincoln writes, “The importance of thorough [party] organization—is felt, and appreciated by our friends everywhere. And yet it involves so much more of dry, and irksome labor, that most of them shrink from it—preferring parades, and shows, and monster meetings. I know not how this can be helped. I do what I can in my position, for organization; but it does not amount to so much as it should.”
SEPTEMBER 2, 1863 -- President Lincoln writes to the Secretary of War Edwin Stanton regarding Dorcas Klaprath, of Newark, New Jersey. Lincoln explains, “[She] says her husband and two sons are in the war; that the youngest…W. J. Klaproth, is a private…[with the] 143rd Pennsylvania, volunteers, was wounded, made a prisoner & paroled at Gettysburg, and is now [in a]…hospital…he was under eighteen when he entered the service without [parental] consent…She says she is destitute, and she asks that he may be discharged If she makes satisfactory proof of the above let it be done.”
SEPTEMBER 3, 1858 -- From Bloomington, Illinois, U.S. Senate candidate Abraham Lincoln writes to Dr. William Fithian regarding Lincoln’s up-coming speaking engage-ment in Danville—Fithian’s hometown. Lincoln will speak there on September 22, one day after his opponent, Stephen A. Douglas’s scheduled visit. Lincoln notes, “My recent experience shows that speaking at the same place the next day after D. is the very thing—it is, in fact, a concluding speech on him.”
SEPTEMBER 4, 1864 -- President Lincoln writes to Quaker minister Eliza Gurney, of New Jersey, and thanks her for her support. Lincoln acknowledges that the current crisis tests the group’s moral “oppos[ition] to both war and oppression.” He confides, “We hoped for a happy termination of this terrible war long before this; but God knows best, and has ruled otherwise…Meanwhile we must work earnestly in the best light He gives us…Surely He intends some great good to follow this mighty convulsion, which no mortal could make, and no mortal could stay.”
SEPTEMBER 5, 1860 -- Republican presidential nomi-nee Lincoln writes to Anson Chester, of Buffalo, New York. Chester had informed Lincoln about a newspaper that accused Lincoln of making disparaging remarks about Thomas Jefferson. Lincoln responds, “The extract…which you sent…is a base forgery…I never said anything like it, at any time or place. I do not recognize it as anything I have ever seen before, emanating from any source. I wish my name not to be used; but my friends will be entirely safe in denouncing the thing as a forgery, so far as it is ascribed to me.”
SEPTEMBER 6, 1859 -- Lincoln writes to Hawkins Taylor, of Iowa, and declines an invitation to speak in support of the state’s Re-publican candidates. Lincoln explains, “I shall go to the wall for bread and meat, if I neglect my business this year as well as last. It would please me much to see the…good people, of Keokuck, but for this year it is little less than an impossibility. I am constantly receiving invitations which I am compelled to decline. I was pressingly urged to go to Minnesota; and I now have two invitations to go to Ohio.”
SEPTEMBER 7, 1864 -- In the afternoon, a group of “the loyal colored men of Baltimore [Maryland]” meet in President Lincoln’s office, where they “present him with a…bible…as a token of respect and gratitude.” A newspaper reports, “The book is…bound in royal purple velvet, inclosed in a black walnut case, 16 by 14 inches.” “On one side,” an etching portrays “the President in the act of striking the shackles from the slaves.” Lincoln responds, “I can only say now…it has always been a sentiment with me that all mankind should be free.”
SEPTEMBER 8, 1854 -- Lincoln writes to fellow attorney Richard Oglesby, of Decatur, IL, about rumors surrounding their political ally Richard Yates, who is seeking another term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Lincoln explains, “I understand his enemies are getting up a charge against him, that while he passes for a temperate man, he is in the habit of drinking secretly—and that they calculate on proving an instance of the charge by you.” Lincoln asks, “Will you please write me, and tell me what the truth of this matter is?”
SEPTEMBER 9, 1857 -- Lincoln is in Chicago, where he represents the defendants in a U.S. Circuit Court case. On this day, the plaintiffs’ attorneys present “voluminous depositions” regarding the steamboat Effie Afton, which was traveling on the Mississippi River to St. Paul, Minnesota, when it tried to pass under a newly built railroad bridge at Rock Island, Illinois. The steamboat hit two piers, caught fire, and sank into the river. The plaintiffs are suing the Rock Island Bridge Company for damages to recover the value of the lost ship and cargo.
SEPTEMBER 10, 1856 -- Lincoln writes the affidavit of Eli K. Crothers, whom Lincoln is defending in a McLean County Circuit Court case. The plaintiff Samuel Fleming is suing Crothers and Thomas P. Rogers for malpractice. Fleming suffered two broken legs during a fire in Bloomington. Doctors Crothers and Rogers saved the legs, but the right leg healed crooked and shorter than the left. Fleming charged that the doctors failed “to use due and proper care, skill and diligence … to cure … [Fleming’s] malady and illness.”
SEPTEMBER 11, 1858 -- Lincoln delivers a speech in Edwardsville, Illinois, where he is campaigning for a U.S. Senate seat. Lincoln asks, “What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our…battlements, our…sea coasts…or the strength of our gallant…army. These are not our reliance against a resumption of tyranny in our fair land…Our reliance is in the love of liberty…Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands…Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.”
SEPTEMBER 12, 1848 -- Congressman Lincoln is in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he is campaigning for the Whig Party presidential candidate General Zachary Taylor. A newspaper reports, “Hon Abraham Lincoln … spoke … for more than an hour in the very effective, off-hand, talking style, so peculiar to Western orators.” Lincoln promotes Taylor as someone who “had been constantly, perseveringly, quietly standing up, doing his duty, and asking no praise or reward for it. He was and must be just the man to whom the interests, principles and prosperity of the country might be safely intrusted.”
SEPTEMBER 13, 1860 -- Republican presidential candidate Lincoln writes to newspaper publisher James Babcock, of New Haven, Connecticut. Lincoln com-ments on a photograph that Alexander Hesler had taken of the candidate. Lincoln explains, “The original of the picture you inclose, and which I return, was taken from life, and is, I think, a very true one; though my wife, and many others, do not. My impression is that their objection arises from the disordered condition of the hair. My judgment is worth nothing in these matters.”
SEPTEMBER 14, 1861 -- President Lincoln writes to the Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase on behalf of an old friend. Lincoln explains, “Mr. Thomas Alsop is my personal acquaintance of near twenty years standing, and one of the truest men I ever knew. He is needy now; and if you can at once, or in a reasonable time, find a clerkship for him, I shall be greatly obliged to you.”
SEPTEMBER 15, 1858 -- U.S. senatorial candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas are in Jonesboro, Illinois, where they participate in a third joint debate. Douglas argues that Lincoln’s stance on the issues shifts “in order to catch the popular breeze.” Lincoln responds, “[Douglas] has set about seriously trying to make the impression that when we meet at different places I am literally in his clutches—that I am a poor, helpless, decrepit mouse…I don’t want…to call him a liar—but when I come square up to him I don’t know what else to call him.”
SEPTEMBER 16, 1861 -- President Lincoln writes a letter of introduction to the Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase on behalf of Mrs. Ryder. Lincoln explains, “Mrs. Ryder … has learned that there is some ‘lady’s work’ in your Department in connection with the Treasury notes, and wishes a chance for a share of it, if such be the fact. Please give her a fair hearing.”
SEPTEMBER 17, 1859 -- In the evening, Lincoln is in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he delivers a speech concerning slavery. He remarks, “This government is expressly charged with the duty of providing for the general welfare. We believe that the spreading out and perpetuity of the institution of slavery impairs the general welfare. We believe—nay, we know, that that is the only thing that has ever threatened the perpetuity of the Union itself. The only thing which has ever menaced the destruction of the government under which we live, is this very thing.”
SEPTEMBER 18, 1858 -- U.S. senatorial candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas are in Charleston, Illinois, where they participate in a fourth joint debate. Douglas argues that the country can “continue to prosper” even though the states differ on the slavery issue. Lincoln counters, “Have we ever had any peace on this slavery question?” He advocates “putting an end to the slavery agitation amongst us [by]…keep[ing] it out of our new Territories…[and] restrict[ing] it forever to the old States where it now exists.”
SEPTEMBER 19, 1864 -- On behalf of Indiana’s Republican Governor Oliver Morton, Lincoln writes to General William T. Sherman seeking the temporary release of some soldiers. Lincoln refers to Indiana’s upcoming election and explains, “Indiana is the only important State…whose soldiers cannot vote in the field. Any thing you can safely do to let her soldiers, or any part of them, go home and vote…will be greatly in point…This is, in no sense, an order, but is merely intended to impress you with the importance, to the army itself, of your doing all you safely can.”
SEPTEMBER 20, 1861 -- In the afternoon, President Lincoln, Secretary of War Simon Cameron, Secretary of State William Seward, Prince de Joinville, of France, and others observe as Col. Hiram Berdan’s “regiment of Sharp-shooters” demonstrates its “efficiency.” A newspaper reports, “The Prince De Joinville and son and nephews are receiving unofficial but hospitable attentions from the President and Secretary of State.” During the shooting exhibition, “Two hundred and sixty shots were fired, the target being completely riddled. The President made an excellent shot.”
SEPTEMBER 21, 1863 -- From Washington, Presi-dent Lincoln writes to his wife, Mary, who is visiting New York City. Lincoln reports, “The air is so clear and cool, and apparantly healthy, that I would be glad for you to come. Nothing very particular, but I would be glad [to] see you and Tad.”
SEPTEMBER 22, 1842 -- Lincoln is in Alton, Illinois, where he has come to duel State Auditor James Shields. Shields challenged Lincoln in reaction to a series of newspaper articles penned by “Rebecca.” The com-mentaries, which Shields alleges Lincoln wrote, cast aspersions on Shields’s character. Lincoln’s and Shields’s friends negotiate a resolution to the dispute, thus allowing the partici-pants to avoid a confrontation.
SEPTEMBER 23, 1854 -- From Bloomington, Illinois, Lincoln writes to Illinois Central Railroad attorney Mason Brayman, of Chicago, regarding “$100” Lincoln has “drawn” on the railroad’s “account” in Brayman’s name. Lincoln explains, “The reason I have taken this liberty is, that since last fall, by your request I have declined all new business against the road, and out of which I suppose I could have realized several hundred dollars; [I] have attended…to a great variety of…business for the Co…and have received nothing. I wish now to be charged with this sum, to be taken into account on settlement.”
SEPTEMBER 24, 1862 -- Two days after he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, President Lincoln addresses a “large” audience that has come to the White House to “serenade” him. The proclamation designates January 1, 1863 as the day when “all persons held as slaves within any state, or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” Lincoln states, “What I did, I did after very full deliberation, and under a very heavy and solemn sense of responsibility.”
SEPTEMBER 25, 1859 -- Lincoln writes to fellow Republican Richard Yates, of Jacksonville, Illinois, and informs him that “There is a strong desire with some—and I rather think all—republicans here that you will allow them to run you for congress in this [6th] District this fall.” Lincoln reports that he and U.S. Senator Lyman Trumbull “anxiously desire” Yates’s candidacy. Lincoln instructs Yates to respond with a decision to either James C. Conkling or Milton Hay, both of Springfield. Lincoln closes, “Do not say no.”
SEPTEMBER 26, 1844 -- In the De Witt County Circuit Court, located in Clinton, Illinois, the court continues the case of Lincoln v. Turner & Turner. Abraham Lincoln is suing Spencer Turner and William Turner to collect a $200 promissory note. Later in the course of the lawsuit, the defendants will plea that they should not have to pay because they were minors when they signed the note. Lincoln will claim that they were not minors.
SEPTEMBER 27, 1841-- From Bloomington, Illinois, Lincoln writes to his friend Mary Speed, of Louisville, Kentucky. He recalls his recent visit to Kentucky as a guest of Joshua Speed, Mary’s half brother. Lincoln describes a scene he witnessed while on board a steamboat leg of the journey back to Springfield, Illinois. He writes, “A gentleman had purchased twelve negroes … and was taking them to a farm in the South. They were chained six and six together … so that [they] … were strung together precisely like so many fish upon a trot-line.
SEPTEMBER 28, 1858 -- Republican U.S. Senate candidate Lincoln is in Winchester, Illinois, where he writes a few lines of poetry in Rosaline Haggard’s album. Rosaline’s father, Robert E. Haggard, operates a Winchester hotel. Lincoln writes, “To Rosa—You are young, and I am older; You are hopeful, I am not—Enjoy life, ere it grow colder—Pluck the roses ere they rot. Teach your beau to heed the lay—That sunshine soon is lost in shade—That now’s as good as any day—To take thee, Rosa, ere she fade.”
SEPTEMBER 29, 1863 -- At the White House, President Lincoln meets with a group representing the Sons of Temperance on the occasion of the group’s “twenty-first anniversary.” The members present Lincoln with a list of suggestions to help eradicate intemperance within the military. The group argues, “[intemperance] has been a powerful ally to our country’s foes.” While he admits that “intemperance is one of the greatest…evils amongst man-kind,” Lincoln counters, “there is some intemperance on the other side, too, and…they have no right to beat us in physical combat on that ground.”
SEPTEMBER 30, 1864 -- President Lincoln writes an endorsement on a letter from David Lindsay to Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas. Lindsay is attempting to correct an assignment error. He explains, “I inlisted in the 17th Regt. Pa. Cavalry and…I was sent to the 90th Pa Infantry.” Lindsay seeks a transfer to the 17th in order to “be along with…the only Brother I have.” Lincoln writes, “I have seen this man, who seems to be an intelligent & manly man, and whose story I believe to be true. If it does not involve much inconvenience, let the transfer…be made.”
OCTOBER 1, 1859 -- Lincoln is in Janesville, Wisconsin, where he delivers a speech. A newspaper reports, “Mr. Lincoln said…The first step down the hill is the denial of the negro’s rights as a human being. The rest comes easy. Classing the colored race with brutes frees from all embarrassment the idea that slavery is right if it only has the endorsement of the popular will.” Lincoln refutes the “infamous idea” that “the freedom of the white man [is] insecure unless the negro [is] reduced to a state of abject slavery.”
OCTOBER 2, 1856 -- Lincoln is in Alton, Illinois, where he speaks at a rally for presidential candidate John C. Fremont. The Republican Fremont is running against the Democratic Party’s candidate James Buchanan. A newspaper reports, “Hon. A. Lincoln, finding it necessary to return by the evening train, spoke in the afternoon to a large audience in front of the Presbyterian Church. He made, as he always does, an earnest, argumentative, patriotic, and exceedingly able speech.”
OCTOBER 3, 1843 -- In the Champaign County Circuit Court, located in Urbana, Illinois, Lincoln requests a new trial for the defendants Joseph Spurgeon and Nathan Spurgeon. During an argument over dinner at the Spurgeon home, a person named Kingston struck Nathan Spurgeon. Joseph Spurgeon allegedly picked up a six or seven foot hickory stick and struck Kingston repeatedly. The state’s attorney indicted five members of the Spurgeon family for assault with a deadly weapon. The jury acquitted three Spurgeon family members and it found Joseph Spurgeon and Nathan Spurgeon guilty.
OCTOBER 4, 1862 -- President Lincoln is in Maryland, where he inspects the Antietam battlefield. He continues on to Frederick, Maryland and to Mrs. Ramsey’s home, where he visits with General George Hartsuff, who is recovering from wounds he received at Antietam. As he prepares to depart Frederick, Lincoln remarks, “I return thanks to our soldiers for the good service they have rendered, for the energies they have shown, the hardships they have endured, and the blood they have so nobly shed for this dear Union of ours.”
OCTOBER 5, 1818 -- Abraham Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, dies of milk sickness in Spencer County, Indiana. OCTOBER 5, 1842 Lincoln writes to his friend Joshua Speed, of Jefferson County, Kentucky. Lincoln observes that the newly-wed Speed is “happier now than you were the day you married her.” Lincoln asks, “‘Are you now, in feeling as well as judgement, glad you are married as you are?’ From any body but me, this would be an impudent question not to be tolerated; but I know you will pardon it in me.”
OCTOBER 6, 1863 -- In the evening, President Lincoln attends a per-formance of Shakespeare’s “Othello” on stage at Grover’s Theater, located on Pennsylvania Avenue, “near Willards’ Hotel.” The following day, the Grover’s newspaper ad boasts, “The Grand Reopening A Great Success. Tremendous Rush. Over Two Thousand People Unable To Gain Admission. The President, The Secretary Of State [William Seward], And Their Families Present.”
OCTOBER 7, 1858 -- U.S. Senate candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas are in Galesburg, Illinois, where they participate in a fifth debate. Lincoln, who disagrees with the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision, remarks, “[Thomas] Jefferson said, that ‘Judges are as honest as other men, and not more so.’ And he said, substantially, that ‘whenever a free people should give up in absolute submission to any department of government, retaining for themselves no appeal from it, their liberties were gone.’”
OCTOBER 8, 1863 -- President Lincoln writes to the Commander of the Army of the Potomac, Major General George G. Meade, and requests more information re-garding a soldier who faces execution. Lincoln writes, “I am appealed to in behalf of John Murphy, to be shot to-morrow. His Mother says he is but seventeen. Please answer.”
OCTOBER 9, 1859 -- Lincoln writes to Republican congressman Thomas Corwin, of Ohio, regarding slavery, specifically in regard to the Republican Party’s platform. Lincoln writes, “Do you understand me as saying Illinois must have an extreme antislavery candidate? I do not so mean. We must have, though, a man who recognizes the Slavery issue as being the living issue of the day; who does not hesitate to declare slavery a wrong, nor to deal with it as such; who believes in the power, and duty of Congress to prevent the spread of it.”
OCTOBER 10, 1862 -- President Lincoln telegraphs Major General Samuel Curtis, who is the commander of the Department of the Missouri. Lincoln seeks information about “some Cherokee Indian Regiments…now at or near Fort-Scott [Kansas].” Princi-pal Chief John Ross had written to Lincoln on behalf of the “Cherokee People” who “desire…ample military protection, for life and property.” Lincoln explains, “[Ross] wishes to know, and so do I, whether the force above mentioned, could not occupy the Cherokee country, consistently with the public service.”
OCTOBER 11, 1836 -- Lincoln writes and signs his deposition and also writes the deposition of Matthew Lounsbury in the Morgan County Circuit Court case of Davidson v. Reavis. The plaintiff Robert Davidson hired Lincoln to survey the land that Davidson had purchased from the defendant Isham Reavis. Davidson seeks to prove that the parcel of land in question is not as desirable as Reavis’s description of it. Lounsbury served as Lincoln’s chainbearer for the survey.
OCTOBER 12, 1863 -- President Lincoln writes to Mrs. Alice C. Smith, of Boston, Massachusetts. He notes, “I shall have to acknowledge very briefly your letter informing me of the prosperity of your little boy whom you so kindly named after me. You may rest assured that my little namesake has my best wishes that he may grow to be a good man and a good citizen.”
OCTOBER 13, 1858 -- U.S. Senate candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas are in Quincy, Illinois, where they participate in a sixth debate. Lincoln argues, “When [Douglas] says that slave property and horse and hog property are alike to be allowed to go into the Territories, upon the principles of equality, he is reasoning truly, if there is no difference between them as property.” Douglas counters, “If each State will only agree to mind its own business, and let its neighbors alone, there will be peace forever between us.”
OCTOBER 14, 1860 -- Republican presidential nominee Lincoln and his wife Mary host a dinner party at their home. Afterwards, Judge David Davis calls on the Lincolns. In a letter to his wife, Davis noted, “Mrs. Lincoln seemed in high feather. Mr. Lincoln looked as if he had a heavy responsibility resting on him. The cares & responsibility of office will wear on him.” Davis added, “I don’t think [Mary Lincoln] would ever mesmerize any one. I am in hopes that she will not give her husband any trouble.”
OCTOBER 15, 1858 -- U.S. Senate candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas are in Alton, Illinois, where they participate in a seventh and final debate. Douglas states, “When [the signers of the Declaration of Independence] declared all men to be created equal[,] they did not mean negro…They were speaking of white men.” Lincoln replies, “The exact truth is, that [the framers of the Constitution] found [slavery] existing among us, and they left it as they found it. But in making the government they left this institution with many clear marks of disapprobation upon it.”
OCTOBER 16, 1863 -- On behalf of Mrs. Elizabeth E. Hutter, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, President Lincoln writes a letter of introduction to the Quarter-master General Montgomery C. Meigs. Lincoln explains, “Please see Mrs. Hutter, who has given most of her time to the soldiers, during the war, and who wishes to present an invention of hers for the soldier’s comfort, which she would like to have introduced into the service…I certainly would prefer having it over my ears in cold weather, to their being naked.”
OCTOBER 17, 1862 -- President Lincoln instructs Attorney General Edward Bates to “make out and send me a commission for David Davis of Illinois, as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.” Lincoln’s friend, Judge Davis, presides over Illinois’s Eighth Judicial Circuit. A few days earlier, Lincoln had asked Bates to determine whether or not Lincoln could legally appoint Davis to the position while the Senate is in “recess.” Bates affirmed Lincoln’s “lawful power” to appoint Davis.
OCTOBER 18, 1862 -- President Lincoln writes to Surgeon General William A. Hammond seeking answers regarding soldiers’ medical care. Lincoln explains, “A Baltimore Committee call on me this morning saying that City is full of straggling soldiers half sick, half well, who profess to have been turned from the hospitals with no definite directions where to go. Is this true? Are men turned from the hospitals without knowing where to go.”
OCTOBER 19, 1860 -- Republican presidential nom-inee Lincoln writes to eleven-year-old Grace Bedell, of New York. Bedell had written to ask Lincoln about his children and she suggested, “let your whiskers grow…you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin.” Lincoln writes, “My dear little Miss. I regret the necessity of saying I have no daughters. I have three sons—one seventeen, one nine, and one seven…As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affection if I were to begin it now?”
OCTOBER 20, 1858 -- U.S. Senate candidate Lincoln writes to state senator Norman Judd, of Chicago. Lincoln seeks Judd’s advice regarding the upcoming election. Lincoln fears that the opposition “will introduce into the doubtful districts numbers of men who are legal voters in all respects except residence.” Lincoln suggests, “[Perhaps someone] in disguise” could infiltrate the ranks of the suspect voters, and “at the nick of time, control their votes.” Lincoln concludes, “If we can head off the fraudulent votes we shall carry the day.”
OCTOBER 21, 1850 -- Lincoln is in Danville, Illinois, where he writes the affidavit of his client Edwin Littler, whom William Young is suing in the Vermillion County Circuit Court. In the affidavit, Littler explains the “absence of David Hughes who is a material witness for” Littler. Young and Littler fought, in part, over the ownership of a hog. Littler pleaded self-defense and claimed that Young had tried to assault him with a gun and a club.
OCTOBER 22, 1846 -- Lincoln writes to his friend Joshua Speed, of Kentucky. Lincoln expresses concern about the friendship and writes, “You, no doubt, assign the suspension of our correspondence to the true philosophical cause, though it must be confessed…that this is rather a cold reason for allowing a friendship such as ours, to die by degrees.” Lincoln propose[s]…that, on the receipt of this, you shall be considered in my debt, and under obligation to pay soon, and that neither shall remain long in arrears hereafter. Are you agreed?”
OCTOBER 23, 1847 -- Prior to departing for Washington, D. C., where he will take a seat in Congress, Lincoln writes and signs an agreement between himself and Cornelius Ludlum, of Springfield. Ludlum will occupy Lincoln’s home while the family is away. Lincoln stipulates, “for the term of one year, to commence on the first day of November…the said Ludlum agrees to pay said Lincoln the sum of ninety dollars…[He also agrees] to be especially careful to prevent any destruction by fire, [and] to allow said Lincoln, the use of the North-up-stairs room…in which to store his furniture.”
OCTOBER 24, 1861 -- President Lincoln attends the funeral of Colonel Edward D. Baker, who died on October 21 during the Battle of Ball’s Bluff, located near Leesburg, Virginia. At the time of his death, Baker served as a U.S. Senator from Oregon. Previously, he practiced law in Springfield, Illinois, where he became acquainted with Lincoln. Lincoln named his second son Edward Baker Lincoln in Baker’s honor. A newspaper reports, “Mrs. Lincoln also united with her husband in paying this last tribute of respect to an old and valued friend.”
OCTOBER 25, 1858 -- Around noon, U.S. Senate candidate Lincoln arrives in Macomb, Illinois, where a cheering crowd accompanies him to the Randolph House, a hotel owned by local business-man William Harrison Randolph, who is a former state legislator. At two o’clock, on the courthouse square, Lincoln speaks before an audience of more than four thousand people “who stood there in the mud, and fog, and drizzle through his whole speech.”
OCTOBER 26, 1863 -- President Lincoln writes to Congressman Elihu Washburne, of Galena, Illinois in response to Washburne’s letter urging Lincoln “to let some of your confidential friends know your wishes and feelings” about running for re-election. Washburne informed Lincoln that their mutual friend Thompson Campbell, a California state legislator, supports Lincoln’s candidacy. Lincoln responds, “Thanks to both you and…Campbell, for your kind words and intentions. A second term would be a great honor and a great labor, which together, perhaps I would not decline, if tendered.”
OCTOBER 27, 1852 -- Lincoln writes to his client Lewis Hays, who is the administrator of Thomas Taylor’s estate. Hays is suing to collect on the defendant George Turley’s promissory note. Lincoln explains, “I could have got a judgment against Turley, if I had pressed to the utmost; but I am really sorry for him—poor and a cripple as he is. He begged time to try…to prove that [Taylor]…on his death bed,” promised to destroy the note. Lincoln doubts that Turley “will get any such evidence, but I allowed him till next court to try.”
OCTOBER 28, 1863 -- President Lincoln writes to the commander of the Department of Missouri General John Schofield and asks him to investigate claims “that the Federal and State authorities are arming the disloyal, and disarming the loyal.” Lincoln reviewed “three communications … and … a large number of affidavits … [that] show by name, forty two persons, as disloyal, who have been armed.” Lincoln finds no evidence to substantiate the claims. He asks Schofield “to give special attention to this region, particularly on election day. Prevent violence from whatever quarter; and see that the soldiers themselves, do no wrong.”
OCTOBER 29, 1860 -- Republican presidential candi-date Lincoln writes to Louisville, Kentucky newspaper editor George Prentice, who had suggested that Lincoln, “in the event of your election,” issue a statement expressing “your conservative views and intentions…to assure all the good citizens of the South.” Lincoln responds, “I have bad men also to deal with, both North and South…who are eager for something new upon which to base new misrepresentations…I intend keeping my eye upon these gentlemen, and to not unnecessarily put any weapons in their hands.”
OCTOBER 30, 1858 -- Upon his return to Springfield, supporters host a “grand reception” for U.S. Senate candidate Lincoln, who has spent much of the month of October away from his hometown. A newspaper reports, “Never since Sangamon has been a county or Illinois a State, has the centre seen such an outpouring of the people to do a citizen honor.” Lincoln attempts to deliver a speech but the “righteously enthusiastic…audience of five thousand or more” prevents him from doing so.
OCTOBER 31, 1840 -- Lincoln is in Lawrenceville, Illinois, where he writes to local resident William G. Anderson. Anderson seeks Lincoln’s clarification re-garding an apparent dis-agreement between the two men. Anderson explained, “I think you were the aggressor. Your words imported insult.” Lincoln denies that he was “the aggressor.” He writes, “I entertain no unkind feeling to you, and none of any sort upon the subject, except a sincere regret that I permitted myself to get into such an altercation.”
NOVEMBER 1, 1854 -- Lincoln spends a second night in Quincy, Illinois. Local attorney Orville Browning recalled, “Lincoln…dined & took tea with me, and at night addressed the People at Kendall’s Hall.” Lincoln discusses the controversial Kansas-Nebraska Act and how it affects the previous policy regarding slavery and the territories. A newspaper re-ports, “[Lincoln] traced [the Missouri Compromise of 1820]…up to the present time, showing that it had ever remained in the hearts of the people a sacred thing which no ruthless hand should have dared to destroy.”
NOVEMBER 2, 1842 -- Lincoln writes to Mount Sterling, Illinois attorney James Irwin, who has a client he wishes Lincoln to represent in a case on appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court. Lincoln writes that he and his law partner, Stephen T. Logan, “are willing to attend to any business…you may send us.” The partners prefer that Irwin pay them in advance. Lincoln explains, “whatever fees we earn at a distance, if not paid before, we have noticed we never hear of after the work is done. We…are growing a little sensitive on that point.”
NOVEMBER 3, 1863 -- President Lincoln writes to the commander of the Army of the Potomac General George Meade and requests more information concerning Private Samuel Wellers with the Pennsylvania Volunteers. Lincoln explains, “Wellers … writes that he is to be shot for desertion … His own story is rather a bad one, and yet he tells it so frankly, that I am some what interested in him. Has he been a good soldier, except the desertion? About how old is he?”
NOVEMBER 4, 1842 -- In Springfield, Illinois, Lincoln marries Mary Todd, the daughter of Robert S. Todd, of Lexington, Kentucky. Episcopal minister Rev-erend Charles Dresser presides over the ceremony, which takes place in the home of Ninian W. Edwards and Elizabeth Edwards, Mary Todd’s sister.
NOVEMBER 5, 1855 -- Lincoln writes to Isham Reavis, who seeks to study law under Lincoln’s tutelage. Lincoln advises, “I am from home too much of my time, for a young man to read law with me advantageously…Get the books, and read and study them...It is of no consequence to be in a large town…I read at New-Salem, which never had three hundred people living in it. The books, and your capacity for under-standing them, are just the same in all places…Your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing.”
NOVEMBER 6, 1860 -- On Election Day, Republican presidential nominee Lincoln is in Springfield, Illinois. Around 3 p.m., Lincoln proceeds to the courthouse, where he votes. A newspaper reports, “Many persons pushed forward to take his hand and exchange a cordial word with him; but the crush was too great for comfortable conversation…He at once returned to his room in the State House…and resumed his quiet intercourse with his visitors, as composedly as if he had not just been the object of as overwhelming a testimonial of public affection as ever any man was visited with.”
NOVEMBER 7, 1860 -- The day after the presidential election, Republican nom-inee Lincoln remains at Springfield’s “telegraph office” until 4:45 a.m. By early afternoon, it appears that Lincoln has secured enough votes “to put the general result beyond all doubt.” In the evening, Lincoln proceeds to the capitol’s House chambers where he announces “the news of a Republican victory.” Lincoln remarks, “We expected it would be so, and so it is as it is pretty generally these times.”
NOVEMBER 8, 1855 -- In the Sangamon County Circuit Court, Lincoln files a declaration in the case of Pea v. Williams. Lincoln’s client, Nancy J. Pea, is suing Greenberry Williams for a breach of marriage contract. Pea asserts that in August, Williams “faithfully promised … to marry” Pea on September 1. Instead, on October 1, Williams “wrongfully and injuriously married” another woman. Pea claims that Williams “fraudulently in-tend[ed] craftily and subtly to deceive and injure her.” Pea seeks $2,000 in damages.
NOVEMBER 9, 1863 -- President Lincoln writes to treasury department agent Benjamin F. Flanders, of New Orleans, regarding Louisiana’s re-entry into the Union. Lincoln asks Flanders to ponder General Benjamin Butler’s propo-sition that “a vote be taken…whether there shall be a State convention to repeal the Ordinance of secession, and remodel the State constitution. In Lincoln’s opinion “the act of secession is legally nothing, and needs no repealing.”
NOVEMBER 10, 1860 -- President-elect Lincoln writes to Truman Smith, of Connecticut. Smith urged Lincoln to “speak out” against a group that called Lincoln “the undisguised enemy of the peace and safety of the Union.” While he understands Smith’s concern, Lincoln explains, “I could say nothing which I have not already said, and which is…open for the inspection of all. To press a repetition of this upon those who have listened, is useless; to press it upon those who have refused to listen…would be wanting in self-respect.”
NOVEMBER 11, 1863 -- President Lincoln writes to Postmaster General Montgomery Blair, who had forwarded a letter from John Crisfield, of Maryland. Crisfield complained about the actions of federal troops during the recent election. Crisfield wrote, “The interference of the military has frustrated the popular will, and placed men in power, who could not have been chosen at any fair election.” Lincoln seeks proof of the alleged abuse and assures Blair that he “will call…to account” any military personnel who “violated, or transcended his orders.”
NOVEMBER 12, 1861 -- President Lincoln writes to Joseph Holt, who is traveling to Missouri as part of a government commission to report on the controversy surrounding military policies in Missouri. Lincoln acknowledges Holt’s sug-gestions regarding various military assignments. Lincoln notes that Holt serves on the commission with Lincoln’s good friend David Davis, and adds, “[I] assure you, you were never associated with a better man.”
NOVEMBER 13, 1861 -- President Lincoln writes to Secretary of War Simon Cameron introducing Charles S. Todd, of Kentucky. Todd, who is “distantly related” to First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, had served in diplomatic positions under Presidents James Monroe and John Tyler. Lincoln describes Todd as “a gentleman of high standing…He will present strong recommendations from Kentuckians; and I hope you will, if possible, find some employment for him, in which he can help in our present troubles.”
NOVEMBER 14, 1851 -- Lincoln is in Decatur, Illinois, where a Macon County Circuit Court jury grants a divorce to his client Sarah Ogden. Among other charges, Sarah claimed that the defendant Jonathan Ogden “repeatedly” hit her and then left her “in a destitute and suffering situation.” “In lieu of alimony,” the court orders Jonathan to give Sarah “bedding… [and] four hun-dred dollars.” The court awards Jonathan “custody…of the children,” but it allows Sarah to “visit said children occasionally” and “without hinderance.”
NOVEMBER 15, 1860 -- President-elect Lincoln is in Springfield, Illinois, where his secretary John Nicolay recalls a conversation between Lincoln and “two gentlemen” regarding the South’s possible break from the Union. Nicolay notes that Lincoln’s “impression is…that this government possesses both the authority and the power to maintain its own integrity.” According to Nicolay, Lincoln adds, “That however is not the ugly point of this matter. The ugly point is the necessity of keeping the government together by force, as ours should be a government of fraternity.”
NOVEMBER 16, 1858 -- Lincoln, who recently lost the election for U.S. Senate to Democrat Stephen Douglas, writes to the Republican Party’s state central committee chair Norman Judd, of Chicago. Judd worries that the Democrats will re-district the state and thus gain future electoral advantage. Judd also laments the committee’s unpaid debt. Lincoln writes that he will contribute, but “I have been on expences so long without earning any thing that I am absolutely without money now for even household purposes.” As to the party’s future, Lincoln counsels, “‘And this too shall pass away.’ Never fear.”
NOVEMBER 17, 1846 -- In the Sangamon County Circuit Court, Lincoln writes and files an affidavit requesting a change of venue for the defendants in the case of People v. Lane et al. A grand jury indicted Abraham Lane, John Lane, and Sarah Lane for stealing thirty “fruit trees.” Lincoln requests the change of venue because his clients “fear they will not receive a fair and impartial trial…on account that the minds of the inhabitants of said county are prejudiced against them and each of them.” The court allows the change to Menard County.
NOVEMBER 18, 1856 -- Although his official role in the Sangamon County Circuit Court case is unclear, Lincoln writes a bond for the defendant John C. W. F. Meacham, who Martha A. Morris asserts is the father of her child. Meacham pleaded guilty, and the court ordered him to pay $12.50 per quarter for seven years “for the support main-tenance and education of the…child.”
NOVEMBER 19, 1863 -- President Lincoln is in Pennsylvania, where he delivers a speech at the Gettysburg Cemetery dedication. Lincoln observes, “But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.” Lincoln encourages the country to “take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.”
NOVEMBER 20, 1858 -- Lincoln writes to editor of the Chicago Daily Tribune Charles Ray and requests two copies “of the late debates…between Douglas and myself.” Incumbent Stephen A. Douglas defeated Lincoln in the recent U.S. Senate election. Lincoln counsels Ray not to feel too bad about the election loss, and he predicts, “We shall have fun again.” Lincoln concludes, “Douglas managed to be supported both as the best instrument to put down and to uphold the slave power; but no ingenuity can long keep these antagonisms in harmony.”
NOVEMBER 21, 1864 -- President Lincoln writes to 104-year-old John Phillips, of Sturbridge, Massachusetts. In his lifetime, Phillips voted in many presidential elections, and he recently cast a vote for Lincoln’s re-election. Lincoln thanks Phillips “for the compliment paid me by the suffrage of a citizen so venerable.” Lincoln notes Phillips’s “devotion to civic duties,” and adds, “It is not for myself only, but for the country which you have in your sphere served so long and so well, that I thank you.”
NOVEMBER 22, 1860 -- President-elect Lincoln and his wife Mary are in Chicago, where Lincoln meets with Vice President-elect Hannibal Hamlin. The Lincolns, Hamlin, and others tour the “Wigwam,” a structure built to house the 1860 Republican national convention. A newspaper reports, “Lincoln and…Hamlin…avoided all stiffness or formality, and entered into a social conversation…An unusual number of political vultures are in the city…They seemed determined to rush upon Mr. Lincoln, and occupy his time from more important duties…Men are here with pockets full of cabinets and any quantity of highly important advice.”
NOVEMBER 23, 1861 -- In the evening, Hermann the Magician performs at the White House for President Lincoln “and family, several members of the Cabinet, and some invited friends.” Lincoln’s secretary John Hay marvels at Hermann’s ability “to pull Canary birds from a spectator’s ear, or Guinea pigs from a lady’s” purse. Hay is most impressed by Hermann’s “masterly feats of mathematical combinations in cards and clairvoyant vision.” Hay concludes, “One goes away from [Hermann’s] soirees with faith confirmed and strength-ened in the father of lies.”
NOVEMBER 24, 1862 -- President Lincoln writes to General Carl Schurz, who questions the wisdom of appointing Democratic gen-erals to high-command posi-tions. Lincoln responds, “I certainly know that if the war fails, the administration fails, and that I will be blamed for it… I wish to disparage no one—certainly not those who sympathize with me; but…I need success more than I need sympathy, and that I have not seen the so much greater evidence of getting success from my sympathizers, than from those who are denounced as the contrary.”
NOVEMBER 25, 1851 -- Lincoln writes to his step-brother John Johnston, of Charleston, Illinois, regarding some property that Lincoln’s stepmother Sarah Lincoln owns. Lincoln writes, “If it be sold…she is intitled to the interest on all the money it brings, as long as she lives; but you propose to sell it for three hundred dollars, take one hundred away with you, and leave her two hundred, at 8 per cent, making her the enormous sum of 16 dollars a year. Now, if you are satisfied with treating her in that way, I am not.”
NOVEMBER 26, 1864 -- In the morning, Seth Kinman, of California, gives President Lincoln “a handsome elk horn chair” that Kinman made. A newspaper reports, “[Lincoln] seated himself in the chair, and examined it very minutely … Kinman related some of his experiences on the plains of California, which appeared to greatly amuse the President.” Kinman wears a “full suit of buckskin … heavy fur coat and large fur hat.” A newspaper notes, “His costume and flowing beard gives him an unique appearance, attracting much attention on the avenue yesterday.”
NOVEMBER 27, 1839 -- In a Sangamon County Circuit Court case, Lincoln represents the plaintiffs Jacob Carman and Townsend Carman. The Carmans were navigating a flatboat on the Sangamon River when the boat “sprang a leak” after it ran into a fish dam built by John Glasscock and others. The Carmans lost “a large quantity” of corn that they were transporting. They are suing Glasscock and the other parties for $1,000 in damages. On this day, Lincoln writes Jacob Carman’s affidavit regarding the status of a “material witness.”
NOVEMBER 28, 1839 -- In the Sangamon County Circuit Court, the court dismisses the case of Lincoln’s client George W. Stockton. When he fails to appear after “being thrice times Solemnly called,” the court finds Stockton in “default.” Stockton is suing James Tolly, whom Stockton hired to transport a “cooking stove” worth $100 from Beardstown to Springfield. Stockton claims that due to Tolly’s “carelessness [and] negligence…the…stove…was broken, destroyed, and rendered wholly valueless.”
NOVEMBER 29, 1862 -- President Lincoln writes to Attorney General Edward Bates regarding a communication from Missouri’s provisional Governor Hamilton Gamble. Gamble asked Lincoln whether the state or the federal government controls the troops that Gamble “raised.” Lincoln writes, “Instead of settling one dispute by deciding the question, I should merely furnish a nest full of eggs for hatching new disputes.” Lincoln concludes, “The offer of the Secretary of War to let Gov. Gamble make vacancies, and he, the Secretary, to ratify the making of them, ought to be satisfactory.”
NOVEMBER 30, 1843 -- In the Sangamon County Circuit Court, Lincoln represents his father-in-law Robert Todd, who is suing Nathaniel Ware. The parties agree on a hearing date and they agree to terms regarding the taking of depositions. Todd gave Ware three promissory notes and secured them with a mortgage. Todd and Ware agreed that Todd could pay the notes with State Bank of Illinois bank notes. Todd paid the money, but Ware refused to accept it because the bank notes had devalued considerably. Todd is suing Ware to accept the notes and to cancel the mortgage.
DECEMBER 1, 1854 -- Lincoln writes to Illinois state senator Joseph Gillespie, of Edwardsville, regarding the upcoming congressional election. At the time, state legislatures elected U.S. senators. Lincoln explains, “I have really got it into my head to try to be United States Senator...I do not ask you to yield to me, if you are thinking of becoming a candidate yourself. If, however, you are not, then I should like to be remembered affectionately by you; and also, to have you make a mark for me.”
DECEMBER 2, 1863 -- President Lincoln writes to New York City Mayor George Opdyke and declines an invitation to speak at the Cooper Institute on December 3. Opdyke and others invited Lincoln to attend a “public meeting of citizens…in response to [Lincoln’s] call…for additional volunteers.” Lincoln explains, “The now early meeting of congress, together with a temporary illness, render my attendance impossible.” He offers, “Honor to the Soldier, and Sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country’s cause…who braves, for the common good, the storms of heaven and the storms of battle.”
DECEMBER 3, 1847 -- From Washington, D. C., Congressman Lincoln writes to David Smith, who represents the St. Louis Perpetual Insurance Company. Smith seeks Lincoln’s help in collecting money that U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas owes to the company. Lincoln explains, “This is my first day at this place, & on reaching here I found your letter in relation to your business with Douglass. I met him after-wards, but disliking to dunn him at the first meeting with him, I let it pass…I will attend to it shortly however & write you.”
DECEMBER 4, 1861 -- President Lincoln writes to Susannah Weathers, of Rossville, Indiana, and thanks her for sending him “A pair of socks so fine, and soft, and warm.” Lincoln notes, “Your letter informs me that your maiden name was Crume, and that you were raised in Washington county, Kentucky, by which I infer that an uncle of mine by marriage was a relative of yours. Nearly, or quite sixty years ago, Ralph Crume married Mary Lincoln, a sister of my father, in Washington county, Kentucky.”
DECEMBER 5, 1860 -- In Springfield, the Illinois Electoral College delegates meet in the capitol and “cast their vote for Lincoln and [Hannibal] Hamlin.” A newspaper reports, “A large number of spectators were present to witness the proceedings, which were conducted without any special formality.” In the afternoon, President-elect Lincoln and the members of the Electoral College attend a “grand dinner” that Lincoln’s friend James C. Conkling hosts.
DECEMBER 6, 1862 -- President Lincoln writes to General Henry Sibley, who heads a military commission that sentenced 303 Dakota Indians to death for killing military personnel and civilians in Minnesota. After evaluating the testimony, Lincoln recom-mended that only thirty-nine of the accused merited execution. On this day, Lincoln issues an order listing the names of the thirty-nine “Indians and Half-breeds…be executed on…the nineteenth day of December.”
DECEMBER 7, 1853 -- In the Sangamon County Circuit Court, the parties agree to dismiss a case upon an appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court. Abraham Lincoln and William Herndon’s clients are suing the city of Springfield for creating a nuisance and obstructing Sixth Street. Robert Cofflin and others complain that the area around a “shabby” “market house” that the city built years earlier had become the “nucleus around which filth and stench gather in dark clouds, and in company with which are the wild howls of the idiot, lunatic and inebriate nightly making noise and confusion worse confounded.”
DECEMBER 8, 1860 -- President-elect Lincoln writes to U.S. Senator William Seward, of New York, and asks him to serve as the Secretary of State. Lincoln seeks to dispel “rumors” that the offer is a political gesture “with the expectation that you would decline.” Lincoln assures Seward, “I have said nothing to justify these rumors.” Lincoln adds, “I…hope that you will accept…Your position in the public eye, your integrity, ability, learning and great experience all combine to render it an appointment pre-eminently fit to be made.”
DECEMBER 9, 1859 -- Lincoln writes to central committee chairman Norman Judd, who complained that fellow Illinois Republicans blame Judd for Lincoln’s defeat by Lyman Trumbull in the 1855 U.S. Senate race. Rumors circulate that Judd seeks to “advance Trumbull on the Presidential ticket at [Lincoln’s] expense.” Lincoln responds, “A great difficulty is that they make no distinct charge against you, which I can contradict. You did vote for Trumbull against me.” Lincoln will not challenge Trumbull “for the [Senate] seat…and yet I would rather have a full term in the Senate than in the Presidency.”
DECEMBER 10, 1856 -- Lincoln is in Chicago, where he speaks at a Republican banquet. He urges Republi-cans to keep a “steady eye on the real issue, let us reinaugurate the good old ‘central ideas’ of the Republic. We can do it. The human heart is with us—God is with us. We shall again be able not to declare, that ‘all States as States, are equal,’ nor yet that ‘all citizens as citizens are equal,’ but to renew the broader, better declaration, including both these and much more, that ‘all men are created equal.’”
DECEMBER 11, 1854 -- Lincoln writes to Illinois congressman Elihu Washburne, of Galena. Washburne had written to Lincoln from Washington, D. C., intimating, “Much interest is felt for your election to the [U.S.] Senate.” Lincoln considers running for the seat, and he seeks supporters. He writes, “Things continue to look reasonably well…I have not ventured to write all the members in your district, lest some of them should be offended by the indelicacy of the thing—that is, coming from a total stranger. Could you not drop some of them a line?”
DECEMBER 12, 1858 -- Lincoln writes to Alexander Sympson, of Carthage, Illinois, about the recent U.S. Senate election that Lincoln lost to incumbent Stephen Douglas. Lincoln writes, “I expect the result of the election went hard with you. So it did with me…perhaps not quite so hard as you may have supposed. I have an abiding faith that we shall beat them in the long run…the objects of the leaders will become too plain for the people to stand them. I write merely to let you know that I am neither dead nor dying.”
DECEMBER 13, 1836 -- From Vandalia, Illinois, where he is serving in the legislature, Lincoln writes to Mary Owens, with whom he is, perhaps reluctantly, romantically linked. Lincoln discusses politics and his state of mind. He writes, “The new State House is not yet finished, and consequently the legislature is doing little…The Governor delivered an inflamitory political Message, and it is expected there will be some sparring between the parties…I have been sick ever since my arrival here…I would rather be any place in the world than here. I…can not endure the thought of staying here ten weeks.”
DECEMBER 14, 1861 -- President Lincoln writes to Arnold Fischel, with whom he had met a few days earlier. A newspaper reported, “Rev. Dr. Fischel, of New York…urge[d] the appointment of Jewish chaplains for every military department, they being excluded by an act of Congress from the volunteer regiments.” Lincoln writes, “There are several particulars in which the present law…is supposed to be deficient, all of which I now design presenting to the appropriate Committee of Congress. I shall try to have a new law broad enough to cover what is desired by…the Israelites.”
DECEMBER 15, 1860 -- President-elect Lincoln writes to North Carolina Congressman John Gilmer, who cited the “alarming” national situation, and expressed concerns about Lincoln’s policies regarding the South and slavery. Lincoln advises Gilmer to read the “Republican platform, or my speeches.” Lincoln resists issuing “additional” policy statements because doing so “would make me appear as if I repented for the crime of having been elected…To so represent me, would be the principal use made of any letter I might now thrust upon the public. My old record cannot be so used.”
DECEMBER 16, 1863 -- President Lincoln writes to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and requests safe passage for the widow and relatives of a former secretary of state. Former judge advocate John Lee seeks Lincoln’s help in returning Elizabeth Upshur, her sister, and grandson to Washington, D.C. Lee explains, “Before the war,” the trio had been summering in the Virginia mountains, “and did not come back.” Lee vouches, “They are…excellent and innocent people.” Lincoln writes, “I am so repeatedly applied to for leave to Mrs. Upshur…that I shall be obliged if you will permit it.”
DECEMBER 17, 1860 -- President-elect Lincoln writes to newspaper editor Thurlow Weed, of New York. The influential Republican Weed advised Lincoln of an upcoming governors’ meeting to discuss problems that the country faces. Weed seeks Lincoln’s views regarding the southern states’ possible secession from the Union. Lincoln responds, “My opinion is that no state can, in any way lawfully, get out of the Union, without the consent of the others; and that it is the duty of the President, and other government functionaries to run the machine as it is.”
DECEMBER 18, 1854 -- Lincoln writes an opinion concerning the welfare of eighteen-year-old Irish immigrant John Fitzgerald. Shortly after arriving in Springfield, Fitzgerald “fell sick, and became a public charge.” Someone asked Lincoln to determine which governmental entity—the City of Springfield or Sangamon County—should “bear the charge.” After studying the “new city charter,” Lincoln concludes, “I think the Legislature intended that all public charges, arising from the indigence of persons, resident within the City, were to be borne by the City—and not by the County.”
DECEMBER 19, 1864 -- President Lincoln writes to Joseph Choate, who is the chairman of the New England Society. Choate, of New York City, invited Lincoln to attend the Society’s “Annual Festival in commemoration of the Landing of the Pilgrims.” Lincoln’s “duties” prevent him from accepting the invitation. Lincoln offers, “The work of the Plymouth emigrants was the glory of their age. While we reverence their memory, let us not forget how vastly greater is our opportunity.”
DECEMBER 20, 1859 -- Lincoln writes to his friend Jesse Fell, of Normal, Illinois. Fell prompted Lincoln to provide an autobiography that could be used to promote Lincoln’s political career. Of his early years in Indiana Lincoln recalls, “It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods…There were some schools, so called; but no qualification was ever required of a teacher, beyond ‘readin, writin, and cipherin…’If a straggler supposed to understand latin, happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizzard.”
DECEMBER 21, 1850 -- Abraham and Mary Lincoln’s third child William Wallace Lincoln is born in Springfield, Illinois.
DECEMBER 21, 1861 -- In the afternoon, near Washington, D.C.’s navy yard, President Lincoln and others observe as the New York Fifteenth Regiment’s Engineer Corps “tests” the stability of a newly constructed “pontoon bridge.” A newspaper reports, “The President was invited to ride over, and immediately ordered his carriage to be driven across, remarking that if he should get overboard he could wade ashore.”
DECEMBER 22, 1860 -- From Springfield, Illinois, President-elect Lincoln writes to Major David Hunter, of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Hunter wrote to Lincoln and expressed concern about some individuals who conspire to prevent Lincoln’s inauguration and who seek to install a military regime. Lincoln responds, “The most we can do now is to watch events, and be as well prepared as possible for any turn things may take. If the forts fall, my judgment is that they are to be retaken.”
DECEMBER 23, 1862 -- President Lincoln writes to Fanny McCullough, of Bloomington, Illinois, regarding Fanny’s father Lieutenant Colonel William McCullough, who died in battle near Coffeeville, Mississippi. McCullough had been clerk of the McLean County Circuit Court, where Lincoln frequently practiced law. Lincoln writes, “You can not now realize that you will ever feel better…You are sure to be happy again…I have had experience enough to know...The memory of your dear Father, instead of an agony, will yet be a sad sweet feeling in your heart, of a purer, and holier sort than you have known before.”
DECEMBER 24, 1848 --From Washington, D.C., Congressman Lincoln responds to family members who seek loans. Lincoln’s father, Thomas Lincoln, of Charleston, Illinois, requests $20, to “satisfy a judgment.” Lincoln complies, but cautions, “Be sure you have not paid it.” Lincoln denies a request for $80 from his step-brother, John Johnston, and instead offers, “You are not lazy, and still you are an idler…Go to work…for some body who will give you money…If you will do this, you will soon be out of debt, and…you will have a habit that will keep you from getting in debt again.”
DECEMBER 25, 1862 -- President and Mary Lincoln visit Washington D.C.’s Judiciary Square Hospital, where wounded soldiers enjoy a Christmas dinner. A newspaper reports, “The bill of fare consisted of turkeys, chickens, roast beef, mutton, hams, oysters…apples, raisins, grapes, [and] pies.” The paper continues, “President Lincoln and Mrs. Lincoln...expressed themselves well pleased with the manner in which everything was arranged.” An older man notes that the busy president “‘managed to hold his own,’” to which Lincoln replies, ‘“I have not got much to hold.”’
DECEMBER 26, 1864 -- President Lincoln writes to thank General William T. Sherman and “your whole army” for “your Christmas gift—the capture of Savannah [Georgia].” Lincoln con-fesses, “I was anxious, if not fearful” when he learned of Sherman’s plan to take Savannah, “but feeling that you were the better judge, and remembering that ‘nothing risked, nothing gained’ I did not interfere.” Lincoln concludes, “What next? I suppose it will be safer if I leave Gen. [Ulysses S.] Grant and yourself to decide.”
DECEMBER 27, 1864 -- President Lincoln writes a note of thanks to College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) President John Maclean, whose college trustees “conferred upon [Lincoln] the Degree of Doctor of Laws.” Lincoln responds, “I am most thankful if my labors have seemed to conduce to the preservation of those institutions under which alone we can expect good government and in its train sound learning and the progress of the liberal arts.”
DECEMBER 28, 1857 -- Lincoln writes to Illinois’s Republican U.S. Senator Lyman Trumbull, and decries the republican-leaning New York Tribune’s “constant eulogizing … admiring, and magnifying [of Illinois’s Democratic U.S. Senator Stephen] Douglas.” Douglas unpredictably sided with many republicans in opposition to the Lecompton Constitution, which if ratified by Congress, would allow Kansas to enter into the union as a slave state. Lincoln warns that the Tribune’s incessant “prais[e]” of Douglas may entice some of the newspaper’s “five or ten thousand republican readers in Illinois” to switch “over to Douglas” and the democrats.
DECEMBER 29, 1860 -- From Springfield, Illinois, President-elect Lincoln writes to his pick for Secretary of State, U.S. Senator William Seward, of New York, regarding North Carolina Congressman John Gilmer. The politically moderate Gilmer owns slaves and opposed Lincoln’s election. Lincoln writes, “I wrote [Gilmer], requesting him to visit me here; and my object was that if, on full understanding of my position, he would accept a place in the cabinet, to give it to him. He has neither come, nor answered me. If you will ascertain his feelings…I shall be obliged.”
DECEMBER 30, 1864 -- President Lincoln writes to Cincinnati, Ohio, lithographer Elijah Middleton, who recently produced the president’s image. Lincoln offers, “Your picture…is, in the main, very good. From a line across immediately above the eye-brows, downward it appears to me perfect. Above such line I think it is not so good,—that is, while it gives perhaps a better fore-head, it is not quite true to the original. If you were present I could tell you wherein, but I can not well do so on paper. The next best thing…would be to carefully study a photograph.”
DECEMBER 31, 1863 -- President Lincoln meets with foreign minister Count Edward Piper, who represents Sweden and Norway. As the agent of King Charles XV, Count Piper presents Lincoln with a “volume containing engravings of the Royal collection of arms.” Previously, Lincoln “pre-sented to His Majesty, a pair of pistols, of American workmanship.” Lincoln and Piper express “mutual good wishes…for the continuance of the cordial relations now existing between the two Governments.”
