The Life of Lyman Trumbull Part 11

W. H. Herndon, Springfield, June 14: "Lincoln is well and doing well. Has hundreds of letters daily. Many visitors every hour from all sections. He is bored, _bored badly_. Good gracious! I would not have his place and be bored as he is. I could not endure it."

H. G. McPike, Alton, June 29: "We have distributed a large number of speeches as you are aware, the most effective, I think, under all the circ.u.mstances, is that of Carl Schurz."

In reply to letters of Trumbull, of which no copies were kept by him, Lincoln wrote the following:

SPRINGFIELD, May 26, 1860.

HON. L. TRUMBULL,

MY DEAR SIR: I have received your letter since the nomination, for which I sincerely thank you. As you say, if we cannot get our state up now, I do not see when we can. The nominations start well here, and everywhere else as far as I have heard. We may have a back-set yet. Give my respects to the Republican Senators, and especially to Mr. Hamlin, Mr. Seward, Gen.

Cameron, and Mr. Wade. Also to your good wife. Write again, and do not write so short letters as I do.

Your friend as ever,

A. LINCOLN.

SPRINGFIELD, ILL., June 5, 1860.

HON. L. TRUMBULL,

MY DEAR SIR: Yours of May 31, inclosing Judge R.'s[38] letter is received. I see by the papers this morning, that Mr.

Fillmore refused to go with us. What do the New Yorkers at Was.h.i.+ngton think of this? Governor Reeder was here last evening, direct from Pennsylvania. He is entirely confident of that state and of the general result. I do not remember to have heard Gen. Cameron's opinion of Penn. Weed was here and saw us, but he showed no signs whatever of the intriguer. He asked for nothing and said N. Y. is safe without conditions.

Remembering that Peter denied his Lord with an oath, after most solemnly protesting that he never would, I will not swear I will make no committals, but I do not think I will.

Write me often. I look with great interest for your letters now.

Yours as ever,

A. LINCOLN.

Notwithstanding the brilliant opening of the campaign, the contest in Illinois was a very stiff one. Dr. Jayne's forecast was confirmed by the result. Lincoln's plurality over Douglas in the state was 11,946, and his majority over all was 4629. Dr. Jayne was himself elected State Senator in the district composed of Sangamon and Morgan counties. The Republican State Committee made extraordinary efforts to carry this district, as they believed that the reelection of Senator Trumbull would depend upon it. They obtained five thousand dollars as a special fund from New York for this purpose. Jayne was elected by a majority of seven votes, but Douglas received a plurality of one hundred and three over Lincoln in the same district. By the election of Jayne, the Republicans secured a majority of one in the State Senate. This insured the holding of a joint convention of the legislature, at which Trumbull was reelected Senator.

At Springfield, Illinois, November 20, 1860, there was a grand celebration of the election of Lincoln and Hamlin, at which speeches were made by Trumbull, Palmer, and Yates. Lincoln had been urged to say something at this meeting that would tend to quiet the rising surges of disunion at the South, but he thought that the time for him to speak had not yet come. He wished to let his record speak for him, and to see whether the commotion in the slaveholding states would increase or subside. Meanwhile he desired that the influence of this public meeting at his home should be peaceful and not irritating. To this end he wrote the following words, handed them to Trumbull and asked him to make them a part of his speech:

I have labored in and for the Republican organization with entire confidence that, whenever it shall be in power, each and all of the states will be left in as complete control of their own affairs respectively, and at as perfect liberty to choose and employ their own means of protecting property and preserving peace and order within their respective limits, as they have ever been under any administration. Those who have voted for Mr. Lincoln have expected and still expect this; and they would not have voted for him had they expected otherwise.

I regard it as extremely fortunate for the peace of the whole country that this point, upon which the Republicans have been so long and so persistently misrepresented, is now brought to a practical test and placed beyond the possibility of a doubt.

Disunionists _per se_ are now in hot haste to get out of the Union, because they perceive they cannot much longer maintain an apprehension among the Southern people that their homes and firesides and their lives are to be endangered by the action of the Federal Government. With such "Now or never" is the maxim.

I am rather glad of the military preparations in the South. It will enable the people the more easily to suppress any uprisings there, which those misrepresentations of purpose may have encouraged.

These words were incorporated in Mr. Trumbull's speech and were printed in the newspapers, and the ma.n.u.script in Lincoln's handwriting is still preserved.[39]

But Mr. Lincoln's record neither hastened nor r.e.t.a.r.ded the secession of the Southern States. The words he had previously spoken or written were as completely disregarded by the promoters of disunion as were those uttered now by Trumbull.

Jefferson Davis was not one of the hot-heads of secession. His speech in the Senate on January 10, 1861, reads like that of a man who sincerely regretted the step that South Carolina had taken, and deprecated that which Mississippi was about to take, although he justified it afterward, but he believed that the coercion of South Carolina would be the death-knell of the Union. His remedy for the existing menace was not to reinforce the garrison at Fort Sumter, but to withdraw it altogether, as a preliminary step to negotiations with the seceding state. Yet he did not say what terms South Carolina would agree to, or that she would agree to any. That Lincoln was in no mood to offer terms to South Carolina or to any seceding states which did not say what would satisfy them, was made emphatic in a letter from Dr. William Jayne to Trumbull, dated Springfield, January 28, saying that Governor Yates had received telegraph dispatches from the governors of Ohio and Indiana, asking whether Illinois would appoint peace commissioners in response to a call sent out by the governor of Virginia to meet at Was.h.i.+ngton on the 4th of February. "Lincoln," he continued, "advised Yates not to take any action at present. He said he would rather be hanged by the neck till he was dead on the steps of the Capitol than buy or beg a peaceful inauguration."

The following letters from Lincoln throw light on his att.i.tude toward a compromise at a somewhat earlier stage:

_Private and Confidential_

SPRINGFIELD, ILL., December 10, 1860.

HON. L. TRUMBULL,

MY DEAR SIR: Let there be no compromise on the question of _extending_ slavery. If there be, all our labor is lost, and ere long must be done over again. The dangerous ground--that into which some of our friends have a hankering to run--is Pop.

Sov. Have none of it. Stand firm. The tug has to come; and better now than any time hereafter.

Yours as ever,

A. LINCOLN.

_Confidential_

SPRINGFIELD, ILL., December 17, 1860.

HON. L. TRUMBULL,

MY DEAR SIR: Yours enclosing Mr. Wade's letter, which I herewith return, is received. If any of our friends do prove false and fix up a compromise on the territorial question, I am for fighting again--that is all. It is but a repet.i.tion for me to say I am for an honest enforcement of the Const.i.tution--the fugitive slave clause included.

Mr. Gilmore of N. C. wrote me, and I answered confidentially, enclosing my letter to Gov. Corwin to be delivered or not as he might deem prudent. I now enclose you a copy of it.

Yours as ever,

A. LINCOLN.

_Confidential_

SPRINGFIELD, ILL., December 21, 1860.

HON. LYMAN TRUMBULL,

MY DEAR SIR: Thurlow Weed was with me nearly all day yesterday, and left last night with three short resolutions which I drew up, and which, or the substance of which, I think, would do much good if introduced and unanimously supported by our friends. They do not touch the territorial question. Mr. Weed goes to Was.h.i.+ngton with them; and says that he will first of all confer with you and Mr. Hamlin. I think it would be best for Mr. Seward to introduce them, and Mr. Weed will let him know that I think so. Show this to Mr. Hamlin, but beyond him do not let my name be known in the matter.

Yours as ever,

A. LINCOLN.

The first of the three resolutions named was to amend the Const.i.tution by providing that no future amendment should be made giving Congress the power to interfere with slavery in the states where it existed by law.

The second was for a law of Congress providing that fugitive slaves captured should have a jury trial. The third recommended that the Northern States should "review" their personal liberty laws.

SPRINGFIELD, ILL., December 24, 1860.

HON. LYMAN TRUMBULL,

MY DEAR SIR: I expect to be able to offer Mr. Blair a place in the Cabinet, but I cannot as yet be committed on the matter to any extent whatever.

Dispatches have come here two days in succession that the forts in South Carolina will be surrendered by order, or consent, at least, of the President. I can scarcely believe this, but if it prove true, I will, if our friends in Was.h.i.+ngton concur, announce publicly at once that they are to be retaken after the inauguration. This will give the Union men a rallying cry, and preparations will proceed somewhat on this side as well as on the other.