Abraham Lincoln to Lyman Trumbull, 30 November 18571
Chicago, Nov. 30. 1857Hon: Lyman Trumbull.Dear Sir:Herewith you find duplicates of a notice which I wish to be served upon the Miss French, or now Mrs Gray, who married the late Franklin C. Gray– You understand what person I mean–
Please hand her one copy, and note on the other that you have done so, the date of
se service, and your signature & return it to me at Springfield–2
What think you of the probable "rumpus" among the democracy over the
Kansas constitution? I think the Republicans should stand clear of it– In their view both the President
and Douglas are wrong; and they should not espouse the cause of either, because they may consider
the
other a little the farther wrong of the two–
From what I am told here, Douglas tried, before leaving, to draw off some Republicans
on this dodge, and
even succeeded in making some impression on one or two–3
Yours very trulyA. Lincoln–<Page 2>
2The duplicates of the notice Lincoln references were not enclosed with this letter,
and their whereabouts are unknown.
Franklin C. Gray married Mary Anna (Ann) Pitts in 1834, but the couple eventually separated. Mary Anna sued Franklin for divorce
in 1851 on the grounds of adultery and was awarded $5,000 in alimony when he failed
to appear in court. In March 1853, Franklin married Matilda C. French. In July 1853, Franklin stepped in front of a train in New York and was killed. In December 1856, Gray's first wife Mary Anna retained Lincoln and
William H. Herndon and filed a writ of error in the Illinois Supreme Court to reverse the divorce decree and acquire more alimony. The court later dismissed
the suit after Mary Anna failed to join the issue on the plea.
Texas, U.S., Marriage Index, 1824-2019, 12 November 1834, Brazoria County (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2005); Washington, D.C., U.S., Marriage Records, 1810-1953, 23 March 1853 (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2016); Alton Daily Morning Courier (IL), 25 July 1853, 2:5; Gray v. Gray, Martha L. Benner and Cullum Davis, et. al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2nd ed. (Springfield, Ill.: Illinois Historical Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=139084; Gray v. Gray et al., Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=139085.
3Lincoln is referencing the conflict within the Democratic Party over the Lecompton Constitution. During the agitation over whether to admit Kansas as a free or slave state, pro-slavery Kansans held a constitutional convention in
Lecompton from September 7 to November 8, 1857, drafting a constitution guaranteeing slaveholders
already in the territory their property rights and leaving the decision whether to
allow new slaves into the territory to voters in a referendum. Voters could vote
for the “constitution with slavery” or the “constitution without slavery,” but were
not offered the opportunity to accept or reject the constitution as a whole. On December
21, 1857, Kansans voting in the referendum on the Lecompton Constitution--free state
Kansans abstained from participating--cast 6,226 votes for Lecompton with slavery
and 569 for it without slavery amid charges of voter fraud. On January 4, 1858,
however, Kansans voting in elections called by the anti-slavery legislature--pro-slavery
Kansans abstained from participating-- overwhelmingly rejected the Lecompton Constitution.
Despite opposition in Kansas and considerable backlash from Republicans and the anti-slavery
faction in the Democratic Party, President James Buchanan supported the Lecompton Constitution, urging that Kansas be admitted into the Union
under the its terms. Stephen A. Douglas opposed it, however, bringing him into conflict with Buchanan. Buchanan warned Douglas
that he faced political reprisals if he opposed the administration, but Douglas defied
the president, arguing in a speech before the U.S. Senate that the Lecompton Constitution did not reflect the will of the actual inhabitants
of Kansas, citing the December 21, 1857 vote that allowed voters to vote for the constitution
but not against it. The Senate approved the Lecompton Constitution, but Republicans,
Democratic allies of Douglas, and others, with Douglas as floor leader of the opposition,
defeated it in the U.S. House of Representatives. See Bleeding Kansas.
David M. Potter, The Impending Crisis: America Before the Civil War 1848-1861 (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 307, 315-16, 318, 320, 325; Wendell H. Stephenson,
“Lecompton Constitution,” Dictionary of American History, rev. ed. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1976), 4:130-31; Cong. Globe, 35th Cong., 1st Sess., Appendix, 195 (1858).
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Huntington Library (San Marino, CA).