Part 4 (1/2)

AS THE JUNIOR PARTNER AT THE OFFICE on Hoffman's Row in Springfield, Lincoln prepared the legal pleadings and briefs. From the first he was a fine draftsman, writing in a neat hand. When comparing Lincoln's legal writing to that of his peers, one is struck by his absence of corrections. Whether writing a declaration or plea, by the time Lincoln put pen to paper he knew what to say and how to say it. Despite what must have been his anxiety at his new challenge, a calm confidence was evident in his fine writing. on Hoffman's Row in Springfield, Lincoln prepared the legal pleadings and briefs. From the first he was a fine draftsman, writing in a neat hand. When comparing Lincoln's legal writing to that of his peers, one is struck by his absence of corrections. Whether writing a declaration or plea, by the time Lincoln put pen to paper he knew what to say and how to say it. Despite what must have been his anxiety at his new challenge, a calm confidence was evident in his fine writing.

Lincoln could be flexible with his spelling in an era when the art of orthography was not as exact as it would become in later years. He wrote ”colateral” and ”colatteral” for collateral, and varied his spelling between ”prossecution” and ”prosecutor.” Compared to his contemporaries, however, his spelling was mostly free of peculiarities.

Stuart gave Lincoln the task of keeping the financial records for the firm. One has only to look at the fee book to see that Lincoln was not always adept at this a.s.signment. There are long intervals between entries, and the entries themselves are sometimes quite casual; for example, ”I have received five dollars from Deed of Macon, five from Lewis Keeling, five from Andrew Finley, one-half of which belongs to Stuart and has not been entered on the books.”

John Todd Stuart decided to make a second run for a seat in Congress within a year of inviting Lincoln to become a partner. He had run in 1836 and lost to Democrat William L. May. His Democratic opponent in 1838 would be Stephen Douglas. The contest between Stuart and Douglas epitomized a campaign on the frontier. The candidates often traveled together, ate meals together, and now and again ”slept in the same bed.” Stuart and Douglas ”debated the issues of the election from the same platform” across the expansive Third Congressional District, which made up one-half of the state's territory. The election took place in August, but it was not until September 1, 1838, that Stuart was declared the winner over Douglas by 36 votes out of 36,495 total.

After Stuart left for Was.h.i.+ngton in November 1839, Lincoln wrote in their fee book, ”Commencement of Lincoln's administration 1839 Nov 2.” Lincoln would now miss Stuart's mentoring, yet with his absence, he gained the opportunity to plead a wider variety of cases. In doing so, he was forced to fill in the gaps of his theoretical knowledge. Even more important, he had to stand alone, in small village courtrooms, and before the district court and the Illinois Supreme Court, both of which met in Springfield. During this time, Lincoln seldom sought the advice of other lawyers. He learned early on in law, as in politics, to trust his own counsel.

Lincoln and Stuart's caseload had increased when they decided to expand the territory they would serve. When Lincoln first joined the firm in 1837, both he and Stuart traveled what was then the First Judicial Circuit. In 1839, the legislature divided the state into nine judicial circuits, each circuit presided over by one of nine supreme court judges. Samuel H. Treat served as judge of the new Eighth Judicial Circuit, which included fifteen counties. With Stuart away in Congress, it fell to Lincoln to travel the new circuit, which he did twice a year.

Lincoln journeyed by horseback in the early spring on mud-covered roads and across swollen streams. Bridges were in short supply. The roads usually ran right through the middle of the prairies. There would be stretches where the lawyers could travel nearly all day without meeting anyone. Nearly everyone on the circuit had a latch-string hung on their homes for hospitality for traveling lawyers.

James C. Conkling, Lincoln's Springfield neighbor and a fellow lawyer, described those early days of traveling the circuit. The hotel accommodations were meager. ”The rooms were generally crowded with jurors, witnesses, parties litigant” and lawyers. The fortunate slept in beds, sometimes two or three together, but frequently the occupants slept on the floor. The coming of the circuit court to these small towns became the center of a community celebration. Farmers and people from adjoining villages flocked to town ”not merely to attend court, but to witness a horse-race, or a circus, or some theatrical performance, which were generally the side-shows of a Circuit Court in those primitive places.”

Anna Hyatt Huntington's sculpture Life on the Circuit depicts Lincoln as a young lawyer on horseback, studying as he traveled across the Eighth Judicial Circuit in central Illinois.

Lincoln shone not only by day in court, but also in the evening around the fireplace in a local hotel or tavern. While on the circuit, the lawyers had plenty of time for conversation, cards, music, and playing practical jokes on one another. Lincoln ”seemed to possess an inexhaustible fund” of stories and anecdotes. ”No one could relate a story without reminding him of one of a similar character.” In these sessions, Lincoln also became known for his laughter, taking pleasure in his own humor as well as that of others. There was something about ”the heartiness of his own enjoyment” that drew others to him.

Life on the circuit combined politics and law. In traveling the huge Eighth Judicial Circuit, Lincoln was building a name for himself that would translate into votes. The fall term often took place in the midst of political campaigns. Lawyer politicians moved directly from the courthouse to the town square for political debate. As Lincoln learned to practice law inside numerous small-town courtrooms, he came to know and be known by farmers and merchants by staying in their homes and trading in their stores. He also sowed friends.h.i.+ps and alliances with other lawyer politicians that he would harvest in future years.

IN SPRINGFIELD, his friends.h.i.+p with Joshua Fry Speed, the store clerk, continued to grow. At twenty-two, Speed was five years younger than Lincoln. He was a fellow Kentuckian, but their backgrounds were very different. Named after his mother's father, Speed was born into a wealthy family on a large estate called ”Farmington,” five miles southeast of Louisville. His father, John Speed, was a plantation proprietor who owned more than seventy slaves. Young Joshua had attended private schools to prepare him for a professional career. After working for several years in a store in Louisville, he moved to Springfield in 1835. Both young men sought their own ident.i.ty by leaving their fathers and their fathers' vocations and making fresh starts in a new city.

Speed realized quickly that Lincoln, despite his position in the Illinois legislature, was ”almost without friends” in Springfield. Lincoln considered attending a church in Springfield, but remarked, ”I've never been to church yet, nor probably shall not be soon. I stay away because I am conscious I should not know how to behave myself.” Lincoln, shy in ordinary social relations.h.i.+ps, was grateful to Speed for becoming a conduit to new acquaintances. That first winter, Lincoln began to break through some of his social inhibitions. Eight or ten men-”choice spirits”-would gather ”by a big wood fire” in Speed's general store to talk, laugh, debate, and carry on a running conversation about many topics. They came night after night ”because they were sure to find Lincoln” and his stories and wit. Speed observed the paradox of seeing this reserved man at the center of attention. ”Mr. Lincoln was a social man, though he did not seek company; it sought him.” After talking politics and sharing stories around the fire, when the others left, Lincoln and Speed would talk for hours into the night.

A SOCIETY ORIENTED AROUND the spoken word rewarded those who learned its ways. In his constant drive for self-improvement, Lincoln sought out opportunities to enhance his speaking ability. In January 1838, he accepted an invitation to speak to the Young Men's Lyceum in Springfield. The Lyceum began in 1835, and by Lincoln's arrival in 1837 occupied a leading cultural place in the community. the spoken word rewarded those who learned its ways. In his constant drive for self-improvement, Lincoln sought out opportunities to enhance his speaking ability. In January 1838, he accepted an invitation to speak to the Young Men's Lyceum in Springfield. The Lyceum began in 1835, and by Lincoln's arrival in 1837 occupied a leading cultural place in the community.

On a wintry Sat.u.r.day evening, the twenty-eight-year-old Lincoln stood to address the Lyceum meeting at the Second Presbyterian Church on ”The Perpetuation of Our Political Inst.i.tutions.” He began by offering praise to the founders of the republic. He evoked the inheritance pa.s.sed down to his generation. The young Lincoln, still learning the art of rhetoric, often used more words than necessary, thus, ”We find ourselves under the government of a system of political inst.i.tutions, conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty, than any of which the history of former times tells us.” If the major melody in his address was honor to the founders, a contrapuntal theme was the role of Lincoln's generation, just now coming into their maturity, in shaping the nation's future. Their task was much more limited, Lincoln concluded; ”'tis ours only, to transmit these” values ”to the latest generation.”

Underneath Lincoln's towering language we hear a lament. A half century after the election of George Was.h.i.+ngton as the nation's first president, Lincoln had become convinced that the epic labor of putting together the country had already been consummated. Instead of builders, Lincoln and his generation were conferred the lesser role of transmitters, or custodians.

He did acknowledge his generation's commission to protect the nation's hard-won freedom. Lincoln, always attentive to his social context, spoke of the threat of a ”mobocratic spirit” seen in an outbreak of mob violence that had ”pervaded the country, from New England to Louisiana.” The immediate occasion of the address may have been the murder two and a half months earlier of Elijah Lovejoy, a Presbyterian minister and editor killed defending his abolitionist newspaper in Alton, Illinois, across the river from St. Louis. Lincoln, in embracing the Whig Party in the 1830s, believed that a departure from tradition and order had taken place on the watch of the Democratic Jacksonian administrations.

Lincoln predicted that the danger to ”The Perpetuation of Our Political Inst.i.tutions” would not come from ”some transatlantic military giant,” but rather from foes and forces that ”must spring up amongst us.” In words that would be remembered, Lincoln declared, ”If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”

ONE MONTH LATER, on February 24, 1838, Lincoln announced his intention to run for a third term in the Illinois legislature. His championing of internal improvements, followed by the disastrous economic recession of 1837, did not seem to dampen his reelection prospects. By now he had won the trust of an ever-widening part of the public. On August 6, Lincoln received the highest vote total of sixteen candidates.

On a cold Friday morning, November 30, 1838, Lincoln boarded the stage to take his seat in the Eleventh General a.s.sembly, the last to be held in Vandalia. As an indication of how far and fast he had traveled, the Whigs nominated Lincoln for Speaker of the lower house of the legislature. As the candidate of the minority party, Lincoln was defeated on the fourth ballot in a close vote: 43 to 38.

At the beginning of the session, legislators talked incessantly about the status of the internal improvements legislation and program. John J. Hardin of Morgan County brought a resolution calling for an investigation of internal improvements, which he and others called disdainfully the ”grand system.” In the course of the ensuing debate, Lincoln reaffirmed that ”his own course was identified with the system.” He was not about to back away now. ”We have gone too far to recede, even if we were disposed to do so.” Reporting for the Finance Committee on January 17, 1839, he acknowledged the problems in a seriously weakened economy, but remained adamant. ”We are now so far advanced in a general system of internal improvements that, if we would, we cannot retreat from it, without disgrace and great loss.” After discussing the purchase of still more public lands as part of the program of internal improvements, Lincoln declared, ”The conclusion then is, that we must advance.” must advance.”

Behind Lincoln's specific proposals for building roads and ca.n.a.ls lay his ardent belief in the promise of Illinois. ”Illinois surpa.s.ses every other spot of equal extent upon the face of the globe, in fertility in fertility of soil, and in the proportionable amount of the same which is sufficiently level for actual cultivation.” At twenty-nine, Lincoln was living proof that in Illinois a young man could begin with nothing and through hard work rise to statewide influence. of soil, and in the proportionable amount of the same which is sufficiently level for actual cultivation.” At twenty-nine, Lincoln was living proof that in Illinois a young man could begin with nothing and through hard work rise to statewide influence.

The session adjourned on March 4, 1839. As Lincoln prepared to leave Vandalia, he could look back on a record of solid accomplishment, especially in championing transportation as the best means to promote growth throughout the state. From December 1834 through March 1839, he had spent nearly an entire year, forty-four weeks total, in Vandalia. He had arrived largely unknown; he left with a growing reputation for political intelligence, judgment, and honesty.

DURING THE BREAK between legislative sessions, Lincoln joined his fellow Whigs in a series of debates with Democrats in a prelude to the 1840 political campaigns. Stephen Douglas, still regarded as a leader of the Democratic Party despite his congressional defeat, began the debates by defending President Van Buren's plan for a subtreasury system, a new way to solve the old problem of a national bank. between legislative sessions, Lincoln joined his fellow Whigs in a series of debates with Democrats in a prelude to the 1840 political campaigns. Stephen Douglas, still regarded as a leader of the Democratic Party despite his congressional defeat, began the debates by defending President Van Buren's plan for a subtreasury system, a new way to solve the old problem of a national bank.

The national bank had been a contentious issue throughout President Jackson's two terms. First proposed by Alexander Hamilton, the Bank of the United States had been chartered in 1791 during the presidency of George Was.h.i.+ngton as a vehicle to bring order and accountability to banking and currency in the new nation. Charged by its foes with being unconst.i.tutional, the bank was dissolved just twenty years later, in 1811. Faced with financial hards.h.i.+p from the War of 1812, the United States chartered a Second Bank of the United States in 1816. The second bank acted to control notes issued by state banks and private speculative banks.

In 1832, Henry Clay and Daniel Webster pa.s.sed a bill in Congress to recharter the second bank, even though the charter was not due until 1836. The Whigs wanted to force Jackson's hand in the upcoming presidential election. Sure enough, Jackson vetoed the bill, criticizing the bank for being an enclave of the rich and powerful and in violation of the Const.i.tution, against states' rights, and subversive of the rights of the people. Jackson's successor, Martin Van Buren, pressed ahead to set up an independent treasury, which was called a ”subtreasury.”

The Whigs were robust proponents of a national bank. Lincoln closed the debate with an intelligent attack on the subtreasury, the centerpiece of a Democratic plan for an independent treasury system. He supported the Whig political belief in the role of government to promote economic growth and development, and the national bank fit well within this philosophy.

The next evening, Lincoln spoke again, but this time his remarks did not hit the target. ”Mr. L. of Wednesday night was not the L. of Tuesday.” Reporting on the debates, the Illinois State Register, Illinois State Register, a Democratic newspaper in Springfield, accused Lincoln of ”clownishness” in his manner and speaking style, which the newspaper advised him to correct. Lincoln, upset with himself, knew he had not done his best. His fellow legislator Joseph Gillespie commented, ”He was conscious of his failure and I never saw any man so much distressed.” After this, Lincoln was looking for an opportunity to redeem himself. a Democratic newspaper in Springfield, accused Lincoln of ”clownishness” in his manner and speaking style, which the newspaper advised him to correct. Lincoln, upset with himself, knew he had not done his best. His fellow legislator Joseph Gillespie commented, ”He was conscious of his failure and I never saw any man so much distressed.” After this, Lincoln was looking for an opportunity to redeem himself.

The Illinois legislature convened in Springfield for the first time on December 9, 1839. With the construction of the new capitol only in the beginning stages, the House met at the Second Presbyterian Church. Springfield, now swelling to nearly three thousand residents, proudly offered hospitality to the arriving legislators.

On the evening of December 26, 1839, after careful preparation, Lincoln offered a speech on the subtreasury. Though he usually spoke with few or no notes, he came prepared with full doc.u.mentation for an extended address. Clearly disappointed by the small post-Christmas audience, he began by telling the few in attendance that he found it ”peculiarly embarra.s.sing” to be put in this situation. He let his pique show as he complained that the reason for the low turnout must be ”the greater interest interest the community feel in the the community feel in the Speakers Speakers who addressed them who addressed them then then [referring to Stephen Douglas] than they do in [referring to Stephen Douglas] than they do in him him who is to do so who is to do so now.” now.” Lincoln declared, ”This circ.u.mstance casts a damp upon my spirits, which I am sure I shall be unable to overcome during the evening.” Lincoln declared, ”This circ.u.mstance casts a damp upon my spirits, which I am sure I shall be unable to overcome during the evening.”

In a highly partisan speech, Lincoln criticized the Democratic plan to establish a subtreasury that would collect, hold, and disburse revenues. He complained that the new banking system would decrease the quant.i.ty of money in circulation. He spent much of the speech arguing that the subtreasury would be a less secure depository of public money.

But it was his conclusion that attracted widespread attention. s.h.i.+fting away from the careful, technical descriptions of monetary matters, Lincoln articulated the underlying issues at stake. ”Many free countries have lost their liberty; and ours may ours may lose hers.” Lincoln then launched into an attack against his opponents. lose hers.” Lincoln then launched into an attack against his opponents.

I know that the great volcano at Was.h.i.+ngton, aroused and directed by the evil spirit that reigns there, is belching forth the lava of political corruption, in a current broad and deep, which is sweeping with frightful velocity over the whole length and breadth of the land, bidding fair to leave unscathed no green spot or living thing, while on its bosom are riding like demons on waves of h.e.l.l, the imps of that evil spirit, and fiendishly taunting all those who dare resist its destroying course.

After portraying his opponents' evil intentions in romantic-even apocalyptic-language, Lincoln responded to their challenge in a growing crescendo of strongly evocative words. He started out simply and directly. ”Broken to it, I, too may be; bow to it I never will.” If his opponents rode the ”waves of h.e.l.l,” Lincoln staked out his own position under the ”Almighty Architect” and ”before High Heaven.” Lincoln, who was always careful of both his words and actions as a politician, declared he was determined to act ”without contemplating consequences.”

Having made his political stand with a use of the personal p.r.o.noun ”I” twelve times in the last sentence, he suddenly switched to ”we,” as if to rally those in his hearing to the cause: ”We still shall have the proud consolation of saying to our consciences, and to the departed shade of our country's freedom, that the cause approved of our judgment, and adored of our hearts, in disaster, in chains, torture, in death, WE NEVER faultered in defending.”

In his conclusion, the thirty-year-old Lincoln exposed the moral core of his national economic vision. Rejecting the charge that Whigs were the party of privilege, he laid at the feet of his Democratic opponents his indictment of their economic and political corruption. Lincoln's continual use of ”I,” his long complex sentences, and his use of dramatic contrasts between h.e.l.l and heaven reflected the spirit of a self-confident if sometimes verbose young legislator. His speech, reprinted widely in the 1840 political campaigns, became a rallying cry. Lincoln portrayed in dramatic moral imagery how the Whigs, contenders but never victors, viewed the stakes in the upcoming presidential election.

The House adjourned on February 3, 1840. On February 10, two days before his thirty-first birthday, Lincoln was praised at an all-day Whig ”Festival” in Peoria for ”fearlessly and eloquently exposing the iniquities of the subtreasury scheme” in his address six weeks earlier. Lincoln was riding a crest of political popularity.

WITH THE LEGISLATURE ADJOURNED, Lincoln entered into a presidential campaign for the first time. Andrew Jackson, elected in 1828, had served two terms and then handpicked his successor, Vice President Van Buren. The combination of the economic panic of 1837 and Van Buren's effete manner compared to his predecessor eroded the electorate's confidence in Van Buren after his first term. At their first national convention in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in December 1839, the Whigs turned away from party stalwarts Henry Clay and Daniel Webster and nominated William Henry Harrison, a graying hero of the battle of Tippecanoe in the War of 1812.

Lincoln did not attend the convention but threw himself into the presidential campaign, taking a lead in organizing the Whigs in Illinois. Setting aside his earlier fears that an enlarged party machinery could be ripe for manipulation by party elders, in January 1840, he became a coauthor of a circular that would ”appoint one person in each county as county captain,” with the precinct captain and section captain ”to perform promptly all the duties a.s.signed him.” The Whigs, put on the defensive by the organizational structures of their Democratic opponents, were determined to tighten their own organization. ”Our intention is to organize the whole State, so that every Whig can be brought to the polls in the coming presidential election.”

Lincoln set out on a whirlwind speaking campaign on behalf of Harrison and other Whig candidates in the spring. He spoke at Whig rallies in Carlinville, Alton, and Belleville. He debated Stephen Douglas and other Democrats in Tremont. Many Whig campaigners, sensing that the campaign of 1840 could bring them their first presidential victory, spoke about war-hero Harrison and avoided speaking about the issues. Lincoln, on the other hand, spoke astutely about economic problems. He extolled the Second Bank of the United States, both its ”const.i.tutionality” and ”utility,” and attacked ”the hideous deformity and injurious effects” of the subtreasury. The Quincy Whig Quincy Whig wrote of his speech at Decatur that the opposition forces ”have not been able to start a man that can hold a candle to him in political debate.” wrote of his speech at Decatur that the opposition forces ”have not been able to start a man that can hold a candle to him in political debate.”

On August 3, 1840, the day of the state elections, Sangamon County elected five Whigs to the lower house of the Illinois General a.s.sembly. Lincoln voted for four Whigs but, not willing to vote for himself, cast his final vote for a Democrat. He won election to a fourth term, receiving the lowest number of Whig votes, although 578 more than the leading Democrat.

Abraham Lincoln threw himself into the 1840 presidential campaign to elect Whig candidate William Henry Harrison, hero of the battle of Tippecanoe in the War of 1812, as depicted on this campaign ribbon.

On August 18, 1840, Lincoln started from Springfield on a campaign trip to the southern part of the state. Traveling through steamy weather punctuated by thunderstorms, Lincoln met with Whig leaders in county-seat towns. Along the route he spoke in Waterloo, debated John A. McClernand about the state bank, and continued on to Carmi, Mount Carmel, Shawneetown, Marshall, and Casey. At Equality, Lincoln was ”listened to with so much patience that the Whigs were in extacies.”

Lincoln did not simply speak for Harrison, but against Van Buren. The Sangamo Journal Sangamo Journal reported that Lincoln, speaking at Tremont, ”re viewed the political course of Mr. Van Buren, and especially his votes in the New York Convention in allowing Free Negroes the right of suffrage.” reported that Lincoln, speaking at Tremont, ”re viewed the political course of Mr. Van Buren, and especially his votes in the New York Convention in allowing Free Negroes the right of suffrage.”

Lincoln, new to national politics, more than once became antagonistic-if not angry-with adversaries in the campaign. On a summer afternoon, Jesse Thomas, a young Democratic lawyer and politician, criticized Lincoln while speaking in a political debate in the Sangamon County Court. Not present when Thomas began his speech but alerted by friends, Lincoln came quickly. He came angry. He asked for the platform to reply, and then proceeded to a.s.sail Thomas. His attack quickly moved beyond the content of Thomas's remarks. ”He imitated Thomas in gesture and voice, at times caricaturing his walk and the very motion of his body.” The crowd began to yell and cheer. Lincoln, emboldened by the crowd's response, continued his ridicule until Thomas, humiliated and reduced to tears, fled the platform.

The story quickly became known in Springfield as ”the skinning of Thomas.” The incident would stay in the public memory for years. Lincoln was mortified. Sometime later he found Thomas and offered an apology. The young Lincoln, the man who prized reasonableness, struggled to control his emotions when he felt he was wronged.

In November, the 1840 presidential election drew an astounding 80.2 percent of eligible voters to the polls, up from 57.8 percent in 1836. American political democracy was surging.

For Lincoln, who had worked so hard in the election campaign, the results were bittersweet. Harrison became the first Whig to win the presidency, but he failed to carry Illinois, losing to Van Buren 47,433 to 45,576. The 1840 presidential election represented a coming-of-age in national politics for the thirty-one-year-old Lincoln. His leaders.h.i.+p as a party organizer as well as his thoughtful campaign speeches brought him to the forefront of the Whig Party in Illinois.