David Brier to Abraham Lincoln, 7 November, 18581
Bloomington Nov 7th 1858Hon A LincolnDear SirI have felt a strong impulse for some days (to which I now yield) to drop you a line.
Although we are sadly in want of Consolation ourselves & with you are, overwhelmed
by defeat2 to me more trying than any since that of Mr Clay in 18443
I felt then as I do now personal regard for the leader mingled with desire for the
ascendency of political truth, but with us (at least with many of our party) the present rises as much above the past as moral right above dollars & cents
The extent and arduous labor performed by you as our Captain & one whom we expected
to Crown as Victor makes it at least our duty to say that from all quarters & from all classes of our friends comes the verdict, that you have done all that
zeal & talents could do, to open the eyes of the blind. And the gist of this letter
is to say that in your canvass you have (except in success) more than realized the
most sanguine expectation of the party. You stand at this moment amongst men of sense as much higher than Douglass mentally as physacally. I find this by conversing with quiet men who, listened calmly
I say this not to flatter you= but because no other reward for the present offers
(but a good conscience) it may be some consolation to know that our defeated forces
are proud of their Commander as if success had Crowned us.4 I do not expect any answer to this as you are likely overwhelmed with such epistles
and
Your FriendDavid. Brier<Page 2>
we can talk it over when we meet. Our County vote will gratify you as well as us, and we must think that we Cultivated our part
of the Vineyard better than some of our neighbours did.
<Page 3>
[Envelope]
BLOO[MING]TON Ill.
NOV 8 1858Hon. A. LincolnSpringfieldIllinois
NOV 8 1858Hon. A. LincolnSpringfieldIllinois
2Brier references the state elections in Illinois, which occurred on November 2, 1858. Abraham Lincoln, the candidate of the Republican Party, was challenging Stephen A. Douglas, the Democratic incumbent, for seat in the U.S. Senate. Both men canvassed the state throughout the summer and fall of 1858, delivering
speeches in support of candidates for the Illinois General Assembly in their respective parties. Members of the General Assembly voted for and elected
the state’s representatives in the U.S. Senate at the time; therefore the outcome
of the races for the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate were critical to the race for the Senate seat.
In the state’s local elections as a whole, Republicans won a majority of all votes
cast in the state, tallying 190,468 votes to 166,374 for Democrats, a margin of
24,094. Pro-Douglas Democrats retained control of the Illinois General Assembly, however,
and Douglas ultimately won reelection to the U.S. Senate. See 1858 Federal Election; 1858 Illinois Republican Convention.
Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 3 November 1858, 2:1; Allen C. Guelzo, Lincoln and Douglass: The Debates that Defined America, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008), 282-85; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:458-60, 492-540; Allen C.
Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392-94.
3The presidential election of 1844 saw James K. Polk, the Democratic candidate defeat Henry Clay, the Whig candidate. Lincoln also supported Clay in the presidential election of 1844.
Michael F. Holt, The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of
the Civil War, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 195; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:224-28.
4After the 1858 election, many prominent Republicans offered different reasons for Lincoln’s defeat. Joseph Medill blamed unfair apportionment that gave Democrats outsized power in the Illinois General
Assembly. “If the State had been apportioned according to population,” Medill complained,
“the districts carried by the Republicans would have returned forty-one Lincoln representatives,
and fourteen Lincoln Senators, which of course would have elected him... On a fair
appointment, Douglas would have been beaten seven in the House and three in the Senate.”
David Davis, Henry C. Whitney, and others, including Medill, blamed John J. Crittenden, an influential politician and former leader of the defunct Whig Party. On August 1, Crittenden wrote T. Lyle Dickey, a former Whig who became a Douglas supporter, confirming a conversation with Dickey
and his praise for Douglas's service to Illinois and his principled position on the
Lecompton Constitution. Not wishing to be appear "to be an officious intermeddler" in the election, Crittenden
requested that Dickey, should he speak of the conversation or letter, "acquit me of
any intermeddling, or of the presumption of seeking to obtrude myself or my sentiments
upon the attention of the people of Illinois." Dickey kept the letter private until
October 19, when he read it aloud in a speech denouncing Lincoln for abandoning Henry
Clay and Whiggery. Crittenden's letter to Dickey and Dickey's speech hurt Lincoln
in the old Whig stronghold of Central Illinois, contributing to Democrats retaining
control of the General Assembly, allowing Douglas to win reelection. Some believed
that voter fraud and the poor weather was to blame for Lincoln’s loss.
Despite the loss, Lincoln maintained support from within the Republican party and few party members placed the blame on him. Chester Dewey, a correspondent for the New York Evening Post, wrote that Lincoln had “made hosts of warm friends in the East,” while William H. Hanna wrote Lincoln that “I give you my hand on the next great fight and when it comes I shall not fail to be with you.” Lincoln’s conduct in the 1858 campaign immediately created national support within the party, making him a potential Republican candidate for president in 1860.
Despite the loss, Lincoln maintained support from within the Republican party and few party members placed the blame on him. Chester Dewey, a correspondent for the New York Evening Post, wrote that Lincoln had “made hosts of warm friends in the East,” while William H. Hanna wrote Lincoln that “I give you my hand on the next great fight and when it comes I shall not fail to be with you.” Lincoln’s conduct in the 1858 campaign immediately created national support within the party, making him a potential Republican candidate for president in 1860.
Allen C. Guelzo, Lincoln and Douglass: The Debates that Defined America, 286-90, 301-3; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:456-57, 542-43, 556-57; David Davis to Abraham Lincoln; Henry C. Whitney to Abraham Lincoln.
Autograph Letter Signed, 3 page(s), Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (Washington, DC).