Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Henry C. Whitney to Abraham Lincoln and William H. Herndon, 31 July 18581

(Confidential)
Chicago July 31. 1858.Honl[Honorable] A LincolnSpringfield Ill^sDear Sir
Mr T. E. G. Ransom ^a douglasite^ of Peru informed me this morning that a large body of Republicans & many Democrats acting in concert with them were arrangeing a plan to run Churchill Coffing as an Independant Candidate for Congress:2—they are going to await the result of the Lasalle & Bureau district conventions and then if certain persons are nominated as Candidates for Legislature (being such as are prominently talked of and are Abolitionists sui generis) then they will get up Independant Conventions in Bureau & Lasalle & in as many other counties as they can & nominate Coffing for Congress & republicans of the Dickey Stamp3 for the Legislature & the Democrats will support Coffing and the Republicans of the Dickey Stamp and Dems. to support the Independant Candidates for the Legislature—those candidates to be understood as Douglas men:4—as I understand & have reason to beleive Dickey is doing all that he can to bring about this result:—the same gentleman informed me that he was present at a conversation between Dickey & Richard Thorne (who is a Lincoln man and a prospective candidate for the Legislature from La Salle) in which Dickey avowed himself to be Anti-Lincoln much to Thornes surprise and then gave reasons justifying his course

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with the intention I can’t doubt of operating upon Thorne:5—Now let me say to you that there is danger in Lovejoys district & that it must be attended to to which end I beg to suggest the following that you get Judge Davis to go into Lasalle & see Dickey & Coffing6 & that you write to Cook Lovejoy Glover &c.[etc.] & urge them to drop Hough and the rest of those well known ultra Abolitionists & take up men less obnoxious:7—of course the avowed Abolitionists will vote for our Candidates whoever they are:—their salvation & all their worldly political prospects depend upon their hanging onto skirts of the Republican party; but it is not so clear that such republicans as Coffing & a host of others who hate abolitionism will support avowed Abolitionists:—they have no discretion & they go for the spoils:—the time is not yet ripe for them:—true, Lovejoy may be invincible in that district but the loss of two or three members of the Legislature throught the greediness of those stinking abolitionists may cost you your election:—you may rely upon it that matters in Lovejoys district must be managed with more shrewdness & less recklessness:—the Story which Dickey &c. will undoubtedly raise (as he has already broached it to me) that if Lovejoy &c. get a balance of power of Abolitionists in the Legislature they will demand Lovejoy for the Senate &c. will intimidate many republicans & cause them to vote wrong that undoubtedly feel a great preference for you:8—let me implore you to give this matter your serious consideration:—there is more danger in it to my notion than in every thing that Douglas can accomplish by scouring the Country
Yr[Your] FriendH. C. Whitney 9

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P.S. I send a copy of this letter to Judge Davis:—also I desire that Mr Herndon read this & digest it if Lincoln is away from Home10

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[Envelope]

CHICAGO Ill
AUG[AUGUST] 2 1858Honl A. Lincolnor W^m H. Herndon Esq.[Esquire]SpringfieldIllinois

[ docketing ]
Lincoln, Abraham (President)

H. C. Whitney11

1Henry C. Whitney wrote and signed this letter, including the address on the envelope.

2In September of 1858 Churchill Coffing responded positively to an invitation from his fellow Old Line Whigs to run as an independent candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in the Third Congressional District of Illinois, challenging abolitionist Republican Owen Lovejoy who was running for reelection. Churchill explained his position as opposing the spread of slavery to the territories, but also opposing complete abolition. On September 10, 1858, the Douglas and Buchanan Democrats held conventions in Bloomington to select candidates to run in the Third Congressional District. The factions attempted to compromise on a joint candidate, with Coffing considered as a possibility, but were unable to come to a consensus. The Douglas Democrats ultimately nominated George W. Armstrong and the Buchanan Democrats nominated David Le Roy. Absent an official party designation, and with a Republican candidate and two Democratic candidates also in the running, one newspaper classified Coffing as the anti-Lovejoy candidate. In a statement dated October 9, 1858, Churchill withdrew from the election, stating that he had entered the race in hope of uniting the conservative elements in the Third District across party lines to defeat Lovejoy, but that it had “become apparent that the antagonism of the conflicting elements cannot be overcome.” Lovejoy won reelection, garnering 57.7 percent of the vote, with Armstrong earning 38.8 percent and Le Roy receiving 3.4 percent. Subsequent to withdrawing from the race, Coffing reportedly stumped in La Salle County for Abraham Lincoln, who was at this time campaigning as a candidate for the U.S. Senate in the federal election of 1858.
The Ottawa Free Trader (IL), 11 September 1858, 1:8, 2:1; The Central Transcript (Clinton, IL), 17 September 1858, 2:5; The Daily Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), 13 September 1858, 2:1-2; 9 October 1858, 2:2; The Belvidere Standard (IL), 21 September 1858, 3:1; The Weekly Chicago Times (IL), 21 October 1858, 2:5; Howard W. Allen and Vincent A. Lacey, eds., Illinois Elections, 1818-1990 (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1992), 11, 142; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 2 November 1858, 2:4.

3Although a member of the Republican Party, T. Lyle Dickey was a former Henry Clay Whig who opposed abolition and was in sympathy with Stephen A. Douglas.
Leonard Swett, Remembrances of T. Lyle Dickey ([Chicago]: Barnard & Gunthorp, [1885?]), 19-20; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:424, 454, 456.

4Lincoln had recently been nominated at the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention to run against incumbent Douglas to represent Illinois in the U.S. Senate. 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. Lincoln and Douglas both focused their campaign efforts on the former Whig stronghold of central Illinois, where the state legislative races were the closest. The Chicago Tribune argued that Coffing’s candidacy in the Third Congressional District was a cynical ploy by Douglas, who manipulated hopeless candidate Coffing into running in order to “make a sufficient diversion in the Republican ranks to elect one or two Representatives to the Legislature in that district who will vote for his return to the Senate”.
Despite Whitney’s concerns about the Illinois General Assembly races in La Salle and Bureau counties, Republican candidates won the three seats up for election. La Salle and Bureau counties were both in the Seventh Illinois Senate District, where Republican Burton C. Cook held over in the election of 1858. La Salle County was in the Forty-Third Illinois House District, the Republicans of which held a convention on August 26, 1858 and selected Alexander Campbell of La Salle and Richardson S. Hick of Livingston County as their candidates. Neither man was apparently an abolitionist. Campbell had a political background as a Whig and became a supporter of Lincoln, and Hick was rumored to have previously been a member of the American Party. Campbell and Hick received 4,139 and 4,089 votes respectively, defeating Democratic candidates Samuel C. Collins and William Cogswell, who earned 3,383 and 3,412 votes respectively. Two other unidentified candidates named McBurney and Hoffman appeared in the election returns for the Forty-Third House District in this race. Their party affiliations are not indicated, and they received only 29 and 22 votes respectively.

The Republicans of the Forty-Seventh Illinois House District, which was comprised of Bureau County, selected abolitionist John H. Bryant as the district’s candidate by mid-October 1858. Bryant won election with 2,570 votes, while his opponents, Buchanan Democrat Thomas Tustin (Tusten) and Douglas Democrat Benjamin L. Smith received 786 and 611 votes respectively. No evidence has been found of an independent candidate running in the Forty-Seventh House District.

Allen C. Guelzo, “House Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392-99, 400-401; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:457-58, 476-77; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 219-20, 222; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 8 September 1858, 2:1-2; 13 October 1858, 1:2; 5 November 1858, 1:3;The Weekly Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), 8 September 1858, 1:1; 3 November 1858, 2:4; The Ottawa Free Trader (IL), 23 October 1858, 2:4; 30 October 1858, 2:1; 6 November 1858, 3:2; The Weekly Chicago Times (IL), 11 November 1858, 2:5; The Chicago Daily Tribune (IL), 10 August 1898, 12:3-4; History of La Salle County, Illinois (Chicago: Inter-State, 1886), 1:281; H. C. Bradsby, ed., History of Bureau County, Illinois (Chicago: World, 1885), 163.

5In part due to Lovejoy’s candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives, Dickey broke with the Republican Party and announced in August of 1858 that he was joining the Democratic Party. During the election of 1858, Dickey denounced Lincoln for his abandonment of Whig principles of Clay and campaigned on behalf of Douglas.
Richard Thorne was not selected as a Republican candidate for the Illinois House of Representatives from La Salle County in 1858. Thorne wrote to Lincoln early in 1859 regarding rumor of an opening for a new canal trustee. In his letter he argued that the Whig wing of the Republican Party in La Salle County was owed such an appointment for the sake of party unity and asked Lincoln to support him for the office, emphasizing his status as an old Whig.
Leonard Swett, Remembrances of T. Lyle Dickey, 19-20; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:457, 542-44, 548; The Weekly Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), 8 September 1858, 1:1.

6After himself receiving a copy of this letter from Whitney, David Davis wrote Lincoln on August 2, 1858, expressing his opinion that it would do no good for him to speak to Dickey and Coffing about the election of 1858.

7Lincoln followed Whitney’s advice and warned Cook and Lovejoy of the scheme to nominate a pro-Douglas Republican for the U.S. House of Representatives in the Third Congressional District of Illinois. The correspondence on this topic that has been located includes Lincoln’s letter to Cook of August 2, 1858, a response of August 4, 1858 on Cook’s behalf by Joseph O. Glover, and a response from Lovejoy dated August 4, 1858. Neither Glover nor Lovejoy was concerned about the issue.
In a newspaper article from later in the campaign season, David L. Hough was referenced as one of the abolitionists whose ambitions had been sacrificed by Republican leaders in La Salle County, who were accused of having regularly “cheated the old Liberty out of every nomination”. The article further claimed that Republican leaders in La Salle County threatened that if abolitionists were selected as candidates on the county ticket, they would ensure that Lovejoy failed to secure a majority in the county.
The Ottawa Free Trader (IL), 23 October 1858, 2:5.

8When the Illinois General Assembly met in a joint session on January 5, 1859 to vote for Illinois’ next U.S. Senator, Douglas and Lincoln were the only candidates nominated. Douglas won reelection, receiving 51 votes while Lincoln garnered 46.
Illinois Senate Journal. 1859. 21st G. A., 30.

9Lincoln responded to this letter on August 2, 1858. Lincoln and Whitney exchanged numerous letters regarding the election of 1858.
Henry C. Whitney to Abraham Lincoln; Abraham Lincoln to Henry C. Whitney; Henry C. Whitney to Abraham Lincoln; Henry C. Whitney to Abraham Lincoln; Henry C. Whitney to Abraham Lincoln; Henry C. Whitney to Abraham Lincoln; Henry C. Whitney to Abraham Lincoln; Henry C. Whitney to Abraham Lincoln.

10Lincoln was at home in Springfield on August 2, 1858 when this letter arrived.
Abraham Lincoln to Henry C. Whitney; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 2 August 1858, https://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-08-02.

11Lincoln wrote this docketing.