Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Amendment to "A Bill to Establish Certain Post Routes", [29 February 1848 - 14 June 1848]1

Lincoln
strike out [Gre?] insert–

Georgia–

From Griffin to Newman

From Albany in Baker county to Thomasville in Thomas county–

From Barrington Ferry in M^cIntosh county via Pendam’s store in Wayne county, and Alabaham creek to Waresborough in Ware county–

From Carrollton via Laurel Hill to Franklin–

From Carrollton to Van West–

From Troupsville (Georgia) via Clyattsville, to Columbus in Florida–

From Madison via Montecello, Seven Islands, and Jackson to Griffin–

From Blairsville in Union county to Mount Yonah in Habersham county–

From Dalton in Georgia to Benton in Tennessee–

From Dalton via Spring Place, in Murray county and Ellijay in Gilmer county to Dahlonega–

From Rome in Floyd county via Cave Spring to Jacksonville in Alabama–

From Griffin in Pike county, via English Mills in Fayette county to Newman in Coweta county–

From Raysville in Columbia county via John Bently’s to Lincolnton in Lincoln county–

<Page 2>

<Page 3>

From Traveler’s Rest in Dooly county to Florence in Stewart county–

From Halcyondale, at the fifty mile station, on the Central Rail Road, in Scriven county to Reidsville in Tattnall county–

From Readsville, in Telfair county to the fortyfive mile station on the Central rail road–

From Buck-eye post office to Towersville in Lawrence county–

From Anderson in South Carolina, via Elbertson, to Lexington in Oglethorpe county, Georgia–

⋄Kauffman
State of South-Carolina, Sumter District. From Willow-Grove, by Sheto, Rusk’s Mills, Bethlehem & Taylorsville to Will-Grove, being a circuit of 34½ miles–⋄

<Page 4>

South Carolina–

From Anderson via Seneca, Centerville, Steels, Churubusco, Millwees, and back to Anderson–2

<Page 5>

1Abraham Lincoln wrote the majority of the text of this amendment. An unknown person wrote the text before the heading “Georgia.” David S. Kaufman wrote the separate insertion on South Carolina found on page three.
The precise date of this document is uncertain. The editors have determined that Lincoln could have written it anytime between February 29, when the bill was introduced in the House of Representatives, and June 14, when the House ordered the amended bill engrossed. These amendments do not appear in the original bill, but are included in subsequent versions of the bill up to its engrossment on June 14.

Due to their sheer number, the editors decided in this instance to forgo its policy of hyperlinking and identifying places in the text. Places in the footnotes are hyperlinked according to our editorial policies.
U.S. House Journal. 1848. 30th Cong., 1st sess., 60, 467, 803, 894-95; A Bill to Establish Certain Post Routes; A Bill to Establish Certain Post Routes; A Bill to Establish Certain Post Routes.

2This amendment was part of a long battle in the House over post roads and routes legislation arising out of the aftermath of the Mexican War. On February 29, 1848, the House Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, of which Lincoln was a member, introduced H.R.260 to establish post routes. The House re-submitted the bill to the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, and on May 16, the committee reported back the bill with amendments. Included in this amended bill was this amendment and another amendment adding postal routes in Texas to the Rio Grande River--an amendment that generated heated debate about the border of Texas. These debates led to disagreements about the geographical extent of American acquisitions from the Mexican War, and the Wilmot Proviso--disagreements that threatened to scuttle the entire legislation. On May 30, the House re-committed the bill to the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads. On June 14, the committee reported back the bill with further amendments. The committee retained this amendment in the bill as amended. The House further amended the bill, and ordered the bill engrossed. Several Whig representatives moved to re-consider the vote upon engrossment, arguing in part that the bill as engrossed contained provisions extending the boundary of Texas to Santa Fe and the Upper Rio Grande--territory in dispute claimed by what would become the New Mexico Territory. Endorsement of Texas’ claim to a boundary on the Rio Grande would have allowed slavery to move further west into acquisitions from Mexico, blunting the Wilmot Proviso. The House delayed action on re-consideration until June 21, when William L. Goggin, chairman of the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, proposed a proviso disavowing any opinion on the boundary issue as a means to save the bill. This led to additional debate, and the House refused to re-consider the engrossment by a vote of 88 yeas to 87 nays, with Lincoln voting yea. The House also refused to table the bill, with Lincoln voting nay. Additional debate occurred on June 26, but the House never read the bill a third time.
This amendment was also included in H.R. 599, which Lincoln introduced on behalf of the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads on July 19. H.R. 599 was largely the same bill as H.R 260 as engrossed, with the exception of a proviso added at the end as follows: “Provided, That nothing in this act contained, shall be so construed as to express any opinion as to the true boundary of any State or Territory therein named.” The House amended the bill by inserting provisions for routes in New Jersey and New York, and passed it as amended. Lincoln moved to re-consider the vote, but the House tabled his motion. On August 11, the Senate approved the bill with amendments. Other than a few additional postal routes in Georgia, the Senate retained this amendment. The House approved twenty-six of the Senate amendments, approved one with amendments, and disagreed with six others. The Senate, on August 12, accepted the House amendment to their amendment and receded from those the House rejected. The act, which included the proviso about boundaries in section two and routes in Texas to the Rio Grande, became law on August 14.
U.S. House Journal. 1848. 30th Cong., 1st sess., 467, 803, 855, 894-95, 916, 931-34, 955, 1069, 1261, 1267, 1272, 1282; U.S. Senate Journal. 1848. 30th Cong., 1st sess., 480, 548, 555, 560, 568-72, 579, 580; Cong. Globe, 30th Cong., 1st Sess., 398, 771, 835, 859-61, 872, 950-51 (1848); Abraham Lincoln to Horace Greeley; New-York Daily Tribune, 23 June 1848, 2:4; 26 June 1848, 2:2, 5; J. J. Bowden, “The Texas-New Mexico Boundary Dispute Along the Rio Grande,” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 63 (October 1959), 224-28; Herbert Howe Bancroft, The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft Volume 16: History of the North Mexican States and Texas (San Francisco: History Company, 1889), 2:399-401.