Abraham Lincoln to Archibald Williams, 30 April 18481
Washington, April 30. 1848.Dear Williams:I have not seen in the papers any evidence of a movement to send a delegate from your
circuit to the June convention–2 I wish to say that I think it all important that a delegate should be sent– Mr Clay's chance for an election, is just no chance at all– He might get New York; and that would have elected in 1844, but it will not now;3 because he must now, at the least, lose Tennessee, which he had then, and, in addition, the fifteen new votes of Florida, Texas, Iowa, and Wisconsin–4 I know our good friend Browning, is a great admirer of Mr Clay, and I therefore fear, he is favoring his nomination– If he is, ask him to discard feeling, and try if he can possibly, as a matter of judgment,
count the votes necessary to elect him–
In my judgment, we can elect nobody but Gen; Taylor; and we can not elect him without a nomination– Therefore, dont fail to send a delegate–5
Your friend as everA. Lincoln<Page 2>
[Envelope]
2Reference to the Whig Party National Convention held in Philadelphia on June 7-9. Archibald Williams lived in Adams County, which was part of the Fifth Judicial Circuit which, as of 1847, included Pike, Fulton, Schuyler, Brown, Hancock, Henderson, Warren, Knox, and McDonough counties. At a Whig meeting held in Pittsfield on May 11, delegates chose Isaac Vandeventer to represent the Fifth Circuit in Philadelphia.
They also passed a resolution instructing Vandeventer to use his influence to get
Zachary Taylor nominated as the Whig candidate in the presidential election of 1848.
Illinois Journal (Springfield), 11 May 1848, 1:7; 8 June 1848, 2:1; 15 June 1848, 2:1, 4; “An Act
Extending the Limits of the Fifth Judicial Circuit, and Fixing the Times for Holding
Courts Therein,” 5 February 1847, Laws of Illinois (1847), 43.
3Clay lost New York by 5,106, and that narrow loss cost him the election. The Liberty Party polled 15,812 in New York; had Clay received only a third of those votes, he would
have won. Some Whigs attributed Clay’s loss to the Liberty Party and the refusal
of abolitionists to vote for Clay, though other Whigs blame Clay’s loss on his waffling
on the annexation of Texas.
Michael F. Holt, The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of
the Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 195-96; Paul H. Bergeron, The Presidency of James K. Polk (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1987), 19-20; John L. Moore, Jon P. Preimesberger,
and David R. Tarr, eds., Congressional Quarterly’s Guide to U.S. Elections, 4th ed. (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2001), 1:649.
4Since the presidential election of 1844, Congress had approved statehood for Florida (1845), Texas (1845), Iowa (1846), and Wisconsin
(1848).
An Act for the Admission of the State of Iowa into the Union," 28 December 1846, Statutes at Large of the United States
9 (1862):117; "An Act for the Admission of the State of Wisconsin into the Union,"
29 May 1848, Statutes at Large of the United States
9 (1862):233-35; "An Act for the Admission of the States of Iowa and Florida into
the Union," 3 March 1845, Statutes at Large of the United States
5 (1856):742-43; “Joint Resolution for the Admission of the State of Texas into the
Union,” 29 December 1845, Statutes at Large of the United States
9 (1862):108.
Copy of Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Association Files, Lincoln Collection, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (Springfield, IL).