Abraham Lincoln to Thomas Ewing, 13 October 18491
Springfield, Ills. Oct. 13. 1849.Hon: T. Ewing, Secretary &c.[etc.]Dear Sir:I have just received a letter from a friend at Washington, from which the following is an extract. "Again told me that there was a clique in Springfield determined to prevent Butterfield's confirmation; and that Lincoln would give a thousand dollars to have it done– but, says , one of the company who meets with them, keeps Butterfield weekly, posted &c"–2
This annoys me a little– I am unwilling for the Administration to believe or suspect
such a thing– I write this therefore, to assure you that I am neither privy to, nor
cognizant of, any such clique; and that I most potently disbelieve in the existence
of any such– I opposed the appointment of Mr B. because I believed it would be a matter of discouragement to our active, working
friends here; and I opposed it for no other reason–3 I never did, in any true sense, want the office myself–4 Since Mr B's appointment, having no personal ill-will to him, and believing it to be for the
interest of the Administration
Your Obt Servt[Obedient Servant] A. Lincoln<Page 2>
and of our cause generally, I have constantly desired his confirmation5– I have seen in the newspapers but one matter of complaint against him; and in that
(the matter of the Land Warrants) I believe he is right–6 What I am here saying depends on my word alone; but I think Mr B. himself, if appealed to, will not say he disbelieves me–
[ endorsement
]
I heard the report to which you refer once only, in connexion with a complaint against our young clerks which came under examination but I gave
it no credit & never even heard it named or alluded to by Mr Butterfield7
1Abraham Lincoln wrote and signed this letter, except for the text that appears below
his signature at the bottom of the second image, which was written by Secretary of
the Interior Thomas Ewing.
2The letter Lincoln references has not been located. President Zachary Taylor appointed Justin H. Butterfield commissioner of the U.S. General Land Office June 21, 1849. This was a position Lincoln had sought after learning that Butterfield
was favored over James L. D. Morrison and Cyrus Edwards, the other competitors for the position. See the General Land Office Affair.
3As Lincoln explained in a May 16, 1849 letter to William B. Preston, he believed the appointment of Butterfield to such a valuable patronage position
would represent an affront to Whigs of Illinois who had worked so hard to get Taylor nominated and elected president. Many Illinois Whigs were indeed upset by Butterfield’s appointment and criticized
both Taylor and Secretary of the Interior Thomas Ewing. The administration hoped
that by offering Lincoln a political appointment in the Oregon Territory, it would appease any angry Illinois Whigs and prevent additional attacks upon Butterfield’s
appointment. Lincoln was first offered appointment as secretary of the Oregon Territory
in August 1849, then governor of the Oregon Territory in September 1849. Although
he seriously considered accepting the governorship appointment, Lincoln ultimately
declined both offers, at least in part because Mary Lincoln had no desire to live in such a remote location.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:306-7; Appointment of Abraham Lincoln as Secretary of the Territory of Oregon; Abraham Lincoln to John M. Clayton; Abraham Lincoln to Thomas Ewing.
4Early in the competition for the appointment of commissioner of the U.S. General Land
Office, Lincoln expressed a desire that the citizens of Illinois be consulted regarding
who received the position but did not volunteer himself as a candidate. By early April
1849, various Whigs were pressing him to enter the competition for the position. Lincoln
responded to these solicitations by reiterating his support for Edwards, but he also
consented to entering the competition if Edwards and Morrison could not agree among
themselves which of them should withdraw and which should move forward as a candidate.
By late April 1849, Lincoln still refused to enter the competition. In mid-May 1849,
he received several letters informing him that Edwards had removed himself as a candidate
for the position and that President Taylor had delayed a decision on the appointment
so that Lincoln could lobby for the position. Operating under the impression that
Edwards was stepping down, and concerned that Butterfield would receive the appointment,
Lincoln finally entered the competition for the job. In a letter to Joseph Gillespie in which he discussed his regret that Edwards was upset with him over the matter,
Lincoln gave June 2, 1849 as the date he “unconditionally” decided to become a candidate
for the position.
5Even while Lincoln’s friends pressed him to compete against Butterfield for appointment,
and even as he asserted that Butterfield had weak claims to the position, Lincoln
reminded his friends that Butterfield was “qualified to do the duties of the office.”
After Butterfield received the appointment, Lincoln encouraged his “good friends every
where” to approve Butterfield’s appointment, or, at the very least, “be silent when
they can not.” Five months after Butterfield’s appointment, Lincoln wrote that he’d
heard nothing to disappoint him about Butterfield’s performance on the job.
6This is a reference to complaints about Butterfield’s handling of land warrants for
U.S. military veterans, who, according to U.S. policy, were entitled to land in exchange
for their military service. Lincoln may have seen the New York Tribune‘s criticism of Butterfield, whom the paper charged with not upholding the policy
his predecessor, Richard M. Young, who received land warrants in payment for public lands. If a land warrant’s “regularity
and authenticity” was suspect, Butterfield asserted that the U.S. Pension Office should be consulted and make a determination on the matter since the Pension Office
was responsible for issuing the land warrants. If assignments (documents related to
the private transfer of the lands attached to a land warrant) were suspect, Butterfield
insisted that this was not something that either he or the U.S. General Land Office
staff could validate or certify as genuine. According to a letter Ewing wrote on the
topic, which the New York Tribune published, Ewing agreed with Butterfield that determinations regarding the authenticity
of land assignments were a legal matter for the U.S. courts, not something Butterfield,
as commissioner of the U.S. General Land Office, should personally authenticate or
on which he should express his opinion.
New-York Daily Tribune (NY), 10 September 1849, 3:1-2; 15 September 1849, 3:1-2.
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Box 3, Lincoln Collection, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (Springfield, IL).