Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Lyman Trumbull to Abraham Lincoln, 12 June 18581
Senate Chamber
June 12– 1858Hon A. Lincoln,My Dear Sir,
I regret not to be able to be at the convention next Wednesday, but we have just re^d[received] a message from the President making it doubtful whether we will be able to adjourn on Friday, & you know the most important business is done just at the close of the session–2

Brooks of Quincy, Sweat of Peoria, & Hunt of Jacksonville are all nominated

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for re-appointment– Dixon is removed and W^m L. Dougherty appointed Marshall in his place. S. S. Brooks P. M.[Postmaster] at Cari has also been removed & L. G. Faxon nominated in his place–3

The administration clearly do not bear much to Douglas, yet they seem to me to be pursuing a sort of half way policy– The action at Springfield, which I learned by telegraph from you shows, I think, that the cry "we are all Democrats" will no longer win–4 I think the less new resolutions our friends adopt probably the best— our platform is a good

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one, & perhaps covers enough.5 It will not do, of course to get mixed up with the free negro question,6 & in my judgment it will be best to say nothing about the admission or non-admission of any more slave states. It will be time enough to decide that question when it arises, which it never will, if Republican principles prevail & slavery is kept out of the territories– However I need not make suggestions to you, who understand all these matters & I doubt not will exert your influence to have them prudently managed–7
Yours trulyLyman Trumbull

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[Envelope]
WASHINGTON CY D.C.
JUN[JUNE] 13
FREEL. TrumbullHon. A. Lincoln,Springfield,Ill–

1Lyman Trumbull wrote and signed this letter. He also wrote Abraham Lincoln’s name and address on the envelope, shown in the fourth image.

2President James Buchanan sent a message to the members of the Thirty-Fifth U.S. Congress on the morning of Saturday, June 12, recommending that they postpone adjourning their ongoing session until appropriation bills then under consideration were passed and the condition of the U.S. Treasury was assessed and secured. In the end, the first session of the Thirty-Fifth Congress adjourned on Monday, June 14. On June 14, however, President Buchanan issued a proclamation declaring that an “extraordinary occasion” required the U.S. Senate to convene for a special session on June 15. The Senate convened for the special session on Tuesday, June 15 and adjourned Wednesday, June 16.
Cong. Globe, 35th Cong., First Sess., 2981, 3048-50 (1858); Cong. Globe, 35th Cong., Special Sess., 3051, 3061 (1858).

3In December 1857, Stephen A. Douglas spoke out against the Lecompton Constitution and criticized President Buchanan for supporting it, causing a rift in the Democratic Party and great political tension between Douglas and Buchanan. As a result, Buchanan purged many Douglas supporters from federal patronage appointments in Illinois. Archimedes C. Dickson's and Samuel S. Brooks’ removals were part of this purge. Buchanan appointed pro-Buchanan Democrat William L. Dougherty marshal for the Southern District of Illinois and, on June 14, appointed Leonard G. Faxon postmaster for Cairo, Illinois. Samuel S. Brooks served as Cairo’s postmaster until July 28, 1859; Faxon took over postmaster duties on July 29, 1859.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:445; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 395-96; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 8 July 1858, 3:1; Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-1971, NARA Microfilm Publication, M841, 145 rolls, Records of the Post Office Department, RG 28, 1855-1865, 20a:4, National Archives Building, Washington, DC; Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1857 (Washington, DC: A. O. P. Nicholson, 1857), 168; Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1859 (Washington, DC: William A. Harris, 1859), 171, *55.

4Lincoln’s telegram to Trumbull has not been located. However, Trumbull is most likely alluding to the National (Pro-Buchanan) Illinois Democratic Conventions that had recently been held in Springfield, Illinois. Pro-Buchanan Democrats in Sangamon County held a convention on June 5, and pro-Buchanan loyalists held a state convention on June 9. During both conventions Democratic speakers denounced Douglas and fellow anti-Lecompton Democrats, endorsed President Buchanan as the true voice of the national Democratic Party, and asserted that only those Democrats who were loyal to the platform drafted during the 1856 Democratic National Convention were true Democrats.
Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 7 June 1858, 2:1; 8 June 1858, 2:1; 10 June 1858, 2:2-5.

5During its 1858 Illinois Republican Convention, the Illinois Republican Party passed a platform similar to the one it passed at the 1856 Illinois Anti-Nebraska Convention. A prime feature of the platform was the party’s opposition to the expansion of slavery.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:457-58.

6The “free negro question” is a reference to debates regarding whether or how to integrate free African Americans into American society as well as whether or to what extent to grant them social, political, and civil rights. Per Illinois’ constitution, slavery was prohibited throughout most of the state. Nevertheless, prior to the Civil War, most white Illinoisians considered free African Americans residing in the state problematic. In 1853 the Illinois General Assembly even passed a law criminalizing the emigration of both free and enslaved black or “mulatto” persons to Illinois, imposing criminal charges as well as heavy fines for any such persons who did not leave the state within ten days of emigrating. This law also authorized county sheriffs to sell the forced labor of the offending party if said party could not pay the fines. Trumbull’s analysis that the Democratic Party would try ensnare the Republican Party in debates about the “free negro question” was eventually proven correct. Douglas exploited Illinoisians’ prejudice and uncertainty toward free African Americans during the 1858 election campaign and the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, accusing Lincoln and the Republican Party of favoring the immigration of free African Americans to Illinois as well as awarding them citizenship and civil rights.
Ill. Const. of 1848, art. XIII, § 16; Steven J. Savery, “The Free Negro in Illinois Prior to the Civil War, 1818-1860,” MA Thesis (Eastern Illinois University, 1986), 1; “An Act to Prevent the Immigration of Free Negroes Into This State,” 12 February 1853, General Laws of Illinois (1853), 57-60; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:488-89.

7Trumbull wrote Lincoln again on June 16, apologizing for his absence at the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention. During the convention, as Trumbull hoped, the Republican Party did not pass any resolutions on the topic of either the “free negro question” or the admission or non-admission of additional slave states. Trumbull and Lincoln exchanged at least seven more letters related to the election of 1858.
President Buchanan reappointed Samuel Hunt postmaster for Jacksonville, Illinois, but removed Austin Brooks as postmaster for Quincy, Illinois for political reasons in the summer of 1858. In the election of 1858, voters elected Austin Brooks—a pro-Douglas Democrat—to the Illinois Senate and Republican Leonard Swett to the Illinois House of Representatives. In the end, Republicans won a majority of the votes cast in the election of 1858, yet pro-Douglas Democrats retained control of the Illinois General Assembly and Douglas won reelection to the U.S. Senate. Through the campaign, however, and in particular through his participation in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Lincoln gained national recognition as well as standing within the Republican Party.
Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1857 (Washington, DC: A. O. P. Nicholson, 1857), *336, *343; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1859 (Washington, DC: William A. Harris, 1859), *62, *70; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield, IL), 17 June 1858), 2:5; 18 June 1858, 2:1; 23 July 1858, 3:1; 17 November 1858, 2:4; Abraham Lincoln to Lyman Trumbull; Lyman Trumbull to Abraham Lincoln; Lyman Trumbull to Abraham Lincoln; Lyman Trumbull to Abraham Lincoln; Lyman Trumbull to Abraham Lincoln; Abraham Lincoln to Lyman Trumbull; Lyman Trumbull to Abraham Lincoln; Louis L. Emmerson, ed., Blue Book of the State of Illinois, 1919-1920 (Springfield: Illinois State Journal, 1919), 541; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” 414-17; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:556-57.