Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

David Davis to Abraham Lincoln, 14 June 18581
Bloomington.
–June 14^th 1858––My Dear Friend–
–Swett is going to the Convention tomorrow.2 & I thought that I w^d[would] write you a word or two– There will be such a great crowd of people at the Convention that I thought I would not go there– I dont see how I could do any good & I dislike large crowds–

I was much obliged to you, for your letter to the Editor Chicago Tribune–3

Apart from your views of policy— the letter was a manifestation of your friendship, which gratified me– The result in the different Counties in favor of Lovejoy has not disappointed me– Norton. Wallace. Dickey. & Glover were all confident of carrying the northern part of the district, & although ten days before the mass meeting in this County, I was confident of the result— saw that it was inevitable— yet it was plain to be seen that it had to be run through— otherwise the Northern friends would conclude that we had deserted them

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–This was all the more true— when Swett, Orme. Brown4 & others were insisting that they would be successful–

This contest for the election of delegates has disclosed an arrogance that bodes no good to the success of the party–5 The Republican party is a confederated— not a consolidated party— and Sympathy is one of the main elements of strength in a party— & never before have I known of such a furor, simply because members of a party preferred one man to another— all agreeing to go into a Convention–

– A paper in Bureau County has been very abusive,6 and the Chicago Tribune still inserts articles like this— of in the shape of a letter from Urbana of the 13^th inst[instant]

The Republicans of this county have seen with pleasure the manly way in which the McLean County Republican Convention endorsed Lovejoy and recommended Lincoln. We shall do the same thing in our Convention, to be held a week from next Saturday.7 The conspiracy to defeat Mr. Lovejoy's nomination, got up by a few Douglas men, and a still fewer number of bastard Republicans, was a shameful affair, but the rebuke the parties received in Bloomington has quieted all apprehension as to the result.

But here comes another shower from the infernal South, that prolific mother of rain, niggers and disunion, and I must hurry to the Post Office, saying before I do so, that I am, as ever,
Yours truly,Shem, of Champaign Co.
The Editor of a newspaper, who knowingly permits such things to be done— is to say the least a bad leader— & ought in some way

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to be rebuked–8 I should think his voting that $40.000 to M^r Leavitt. would be as much as he could take care of–9 But to the object of this letter–

I have been busy in season— and out of season to keep things quiet— and to prevent any hostile demonstration— and I think that I have succeeded–

There was a great deal of smothered wrath which it needed but little to explode–

The arrogance of some— & the dispositio proscriptive disposition of others was annoying– I told every one,— that it was worse than folly, to keep up a fight longer— and that it would injure you– Your friends are devoted, and I really think the des fact that your election to the Senate, might be hazarded by a mismove— has controlled the whole thing– I have written to Norton my views— & unless there is some bolting in LaSalle— every thing will go on smoothly– I have not seen Dickey— but I am told he is to be here this week–

– The Abolition element which is in the ascendency in this county, wants Swett to run for the Legis-

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lature, & if he runs, or M^cClun, every thing will go on smoothly–

– I am fully convinced, that if the opposition to Lovejoy, had not sought the primary meetings— that it would have manifested itself in an irregular way– I entertain no doubt of it– They would have never have been convinced, that they were as weak as they are– In this county— the friends of Lovejoy were very active— and of course I took no part— & those who were opposed to Lovejoy did not go out of the town at all– Still I have but little doubt that the feeling was in his favor–10

I think that if you are defeated for the Senate this winter— that the bottom will fall out of the thing–11

I have strong hopes that you will succeed– Command my services in any way— that you think I can aid you– After the Convention is over if you gather any items that you think w^d interest me, advise me of them–
Yours most TrulyDavid Davis

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[Envelope]

BLOOMINGTON Ill.[Illinois]
JUN[JUNE] 14 1858Hon. A. LincolnSpringfieldIllinois

[ docketing ]
Lincoln, Abraham (President)

D. Davis12

1David Davis wrote and signed this letter, including the address on the envelope.

2The 1858 Illinois Republican Convention was held on June 16, 1858, in Springfield, Illinois.
Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 17 June 1858, 2:2-5.

3On June 4, the Chicago Tribune published a letter under the headline “Opposition to Lovejoy” and dated June 1 from Bloomington. The author, “Fair Play,” accused Davis of leading a movement to defeat the renomination of Owen Lovejoy to represent the Third Illinois Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. The author wrote, “Judge D. is a very fair man in his way, but has no more sympathy with the vitalizing principle of the Republican party than an Egyptian mummy.” “Fair Play” also accused Davis of aspiring toward the seat occupied by Lovejoy. Lincoln responded with an anonymous letter to the newspaper refuting the accusation and expressing his friendship to and knowledge of Davis.
Neither Davis nor Lincoln had initially been supportive of abolitionist Lovejoy in the 1856 Federal Election, when Lovejoy was first elected to the House. Lincoln wrote to Davis on July 7, 1856, “When I heard that Swett was beaten, and Lovejoy nominated, it turned me blind;” but due to the people’s support of Lovejoy, Lincoln concluded, “I really think it best to let the matter stand.” Likewise, Davis did not support Lovejoy for his reelection. Conservative Republicans, disgruntled with Lovejoy’s abolitionism and fearful of its impact on Republican candidates in state elections, planned to block Lovejoy's renomination at the district congressional convention. Some of Lincoln’s friends—including Davis, T. Lyle Dickey, Ward H. Lamon, and Leonard Swett—supported this scheme, believing that Lincoln, who was the leading Republican candidate to unseat Stephen A. Douglas as U.S. senator in the upcoming 1858 Federal Election, could only succeed if Lovejoy was not re-nominated. Once hope of preventing Lovejoy's renomination vanished, Lamon and others pondered finding a independent candidate to challenge Lovejoy. Lamon sought Lincoln's opinion, but the latter urged against it, arguing the fissure of the Republican Party into Lovejoy and anti-Lovejoy factions would likely result in a Democratic victory and hurt his chance of being elected to the U.S. Senate.
Chicago Daily Tribune (IL), 4 June 1858, 2:3; Howard W. Allen and Vincent A. Lacey, eds., Illinois Elections, 1818-1990 (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1992), 10; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:456; Willard L. King, Lincoln's Manager: David Davis (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960), 117-20; Ward H. Lamon to Abraham Lincoln; Abraham Lincoln to Ward H. Lamon.

4Davis could be referring to George T. Brown, James N. Brown, or William Brown.

5Republican conventions were held in 100 counties of Illinois to choose delegates to the state convention , and ninety-five of them passed resolutions supporting Lincoln for U.S. Senate.
Chicago Daily Tribune (IL), 14 June 1858, 2:1.

6Davis is likely referencing the Bureau County Republican. Lovejoy had moved to Bureau County in 1838 and assumed the ministry of the Hampshire Colony Congregational Church, a position he held for 17 years.
Edward Magdol, Owen Lovejoy: Abolitionist in Congress (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1967), 34-35; Franklin William Scott, Newspapers and Periodicals of Illinois, 1814-1879, vol. 6 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1910), 289.

7Republicans in Champaign County met on Saturday, May 22 to select delegates to the state convention. Among the resolutions passed was one approving the course of Lovejoy in the U.S. House.
Republicans of McLean County at a mass convention on May 5 unanimously adopted resolutions endorsing Lovejoy’s renomination and Lincoln’s nomination for U.S. Senate. Attendees also selected delegates to attend the state convention and the Third Congressional District Convention scheduled for June 30 in Joliet.

Republicans in Champaign County convened again on June 19. In addition to affirming the actions taken at the state convention, attendees called for Lovejoy’s renomination and selected pro-Lovejoy delegates to the Third Congressional District Convention.
Urbana Union (IL), 27 May 1858, 2:3; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 31 May 1858, 2:1; The Weekly Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), 9 June 1858, 2:2; Edward Magdol, Owen Lovejoy: Abolitionist in Congress, 194-96; Central Illinois Gazette (West Urbana), 23 June 1858, 2:3.

8 Lincoln wrote Charles H. Ray, editor of the Chicago Tribune, on June 6, 1858, regarding the published letter from “Fair Play.”

9Davis is referencing Ray’s role related to the funding and completion of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. In 1845, the Illinois General Assembly enacted legislation related to the funding and completion of the canal. Section five of the act stipulates that “The preliminary expenses of the negotiation of said contract with the expenses of the examinations of the canal property by the agents appointed by the authority of the bond-holders shall be first paid by the said trustees unless some other provision for their payment be made by the General Assembly.”
New York banker David Leavitt maintained that he was owed a commission of $40,000 for work he claimed to have done to help secure a loan of $1,600,000 for the canal. In his capacity as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, Ray had introduced a resolution in October of 1857 authorizing payment of this sum, which Leavitt, also a trustee, had signed. Leavitt and Ray argued that their signatures on the resolution constituted the approval of a majority of the three-person Board of Trustees, and Leavitt, the board treasurer, charged the $40,000 to his treasurer’s report for 1857. The remaining member of the Board of Trustees, William H. Swift, protested, and the canal’s bondholders in England, directed their agent in the United States to file suit in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to recover the money from Leavitt. Leavitt was ultimately allowed $10,000 of the sum he had claimed, and was ordered in 1863 to repay $32,063.90 plus court costs.
“An Act Supplemental to ‘An Act to Provide for the Completion of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and for the Payment of the Canal Debt,’ Approved, February 21st, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Forty-Three,” 1 March 1845, Laws of Illinois (1845), 31-32; The New-York Times (New York), 31 December 1879, 5:6; Illinois House Journal. 1863. 23rd G. A., 655-58.

10At the Republican convention of the Third Illinois Congressional District in Joliet on June 30, Lovejoy was unanimously nominated for reelection. He won reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives with 57.7 percent of the vote, defeating anti-Lecompton Democrat George W. Armstrong who garnered 38.8 percent and Buchanan Democrat David Le Roy who received 3.4 percent.
The Daily Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), 2 July 1858, 2:1-3; 9 October 1858, 2:2; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 13 September 1858, 2:3; Howard W. Allen and Vincent A. Lacey, eds., Illinois Elections, 1818-1990, 11, 142.

11 Delegates at the Illinois Republican Convention nominated Lincoln was the Republican candidate from Illinois for the U.S. Senate. In the summer and fall of 1858, he crisscrossed Illinois delivering speeches and campaigning on behalf of Republican candidates for the Illinois General Assembly. At this time the Illinois General Assembly elected the state’s representatives in the U.S. Senate, thus the outcome of races for the Illinois House of Representatives and Illinois Senate were of importance to Lincoln’s campaign. He ran against, and lost to, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, the incumbent. See 1858 Federal Election.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:457-85, 547; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392.

12Abraham Lincoln wrote this docketing.