Abraham Lincoln to Andrew McCormick, [January 1839]1
Dear Captain:I have just learned, with utter astonishment, that you have some notion of voting
for Walters.2 This certainly can not be true— It can not be, that one so true, firm, and unwavering as you have ever been, can for a moment
think of such a thing— What! support that pet of all those who continually slander and abuse, you, and labour, day and night, for
your destruction— All our friends are ready to cut our throats about it— An angel
from Heaven could not make them believe, that we do not connive at it— For Heaven’s sake, for your friends sake,
for the sake of the recollection of all the hard battles we have heretofore fought
shoulder, to shoulder, do not forsake us this time— We have been told for two or three
days that you were in danger; but we gave it the lie whenever we heard it— We were
willing to bet our lives upon you— Stand by us this time, and nothing in our power
to confer, shall ever be denied you— Surely! Surely! you do not doubt my friendship for you— If you do, what under Heaven can I do, to convince you— Surely you will
not think those who have ever been your revilers, better friends than I— Read this
& write me what you will do—3
Your friendLincoln<Page 2>
1Abraham Lincoln wrote the body of the letter and his signature.
William E. Taylor in 1957 estimated the date of Lincoln’s letter as January 1841,
and Roy P. Basler followed suit in 1974. Taylor surmised that Lincoln’s letter was
in response to word that McCormick planned to vote for Walters in a bid for re-election
against Simeon Francis, a friend of Lincoln and editor of the Whig Sangamo Journal. That election occurred on January 23, 1841, and Walters defeated Francis, 70 votes
to 50 votes, with Lincoln voting for Francis. However, McCormick was not a member
of the General Assembly in January 1841, having chosen not to run for re-election
the prior August. Lincoln’s letter could be in reference either to the election in
January 1837, when Walters defeated sixteen challengers--Lincoln voted for William Hodge, and McCormick for George Forquer--or Walters’s bid for re-election in January 1839, when he defeated Hodge by 65 votes
to 63 votes, with Lincoln and McCormick both voting for Hodge. The closeness of the
vote and Lincoln’s imploring tone suggest that the 1839 election was mostly likely
the catalyst for Lincoln’s letter.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 275-76;
Illinois House Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess.,
211; Illinois House Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 273; William E. Taylor, “Significant Lincoln Letter Found,” Lincoln Herald 59 (Fall 1957), 3-7; Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1974), 10:5-6.
2William Walters, editor of the Democratic Illinois State Register and the state’s public printer, was running for re-election.
Autograph Letter Signed, 2 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (Springfield, IL).