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Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, Debates of Lincoln and Douglas: Carefully Prepared by the Reporters of Each Party at the times of their Delivery., First joint debate, at Ottawa, August 21, 1858. (search)
ld ruin more liquor than all the boys of the town together; and the dignity and impartiality with which he presided at a horse-race or fist-fight, excited the admiration and won the praise of everybody that was present and participated. I sympathised with him, because he was struggling with difficulties, and so was I. Mr. Lincoln served with me in the Legislature in 1836, when we both retired, and he subsided, or became submerged, and he was lost sight of as a public man for some years. In 1846, when Wilmot introduced his celebrated proviso, and the Abolition tornado swept over the country, Lincoln again turned up as a member of Congress from the Sangamon district I was then in the Senate of the United States, and was glad to welcome my old friend and companion. Whilst in Congress he distinguished himself by his opposition to the Mexican war, taking the side of the common enemy against his own country ; and when he returned home he found that the indignation of the people followed
William H. Herndon, Jesse William Weik, Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, Etiam in minimis major, The History and Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln by William H. Herndon, for twenty years his friend and Jesse William Weik, Chapter 9. (search)
e winds again. No sooner had Baker been elected to Congress in August 1844, than Lincoln began to manifest a longing for the tempting prize to be contended for in 1846. Hardin and Baker both having been required to content themselves with a single term each, the struggle among Whig aspirants narrowed down to Logan and Lincoln. The Whig candidates for Congress in the Springfield district rotated in the following order: Baker succeeded Hardin in 1844, Lincoln was elected in 1846, and Logan was nominated but defeated in 1848. Lincoln publicly declined to contest the nomination with Baker in 1844; Hardin did the same for Lincoln in 1846--although both se1846--although both seem to have acted reluctantly; and Lincoln refused to run against Logan in 1848. Many persons insist that an agreement among these four conspicuous Whig leaders to content themselves with one term each actually existed. There Is, however, no proof of any bargain, although there seems to have been a tacit understanding of the kind
William H. Herndon, Jesse William Weik, Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, Etiam in minimis major, The History and Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln by William H. Herndon, for twenty years his friend and Jesse William Weik, Chapter 13. (search)
ings and closes to my three. History furnishes few characters whose lives and careers were so nearly parallel as those of Lincoln and Douglas. They met for the first time at the Legislature in Vandalia in 1834, where Lincoln was a member of the House of Representatives and Douglas was in the lobby. The next year Douglas was also a member. In 1839 both were admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of Illinois on the same day. December 3d. In 1841 both courted the same young lady. In 1846 both represented Illinois in Congress at Washington, the one in the upper and the other in the lower House. In 1858 they were opposing candidates for United States Senator; and finally, to complete the remarkable counterpart, both were candidates for the Presidency in 1860. While it is true that their ambitions ran in parallel lines, yet they were exceedingly unlike in all other particulars. Douglas was short,--something over five feet high,heavy set, with a large head, broad shoulders, d
General James Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox, Chapter 1: the Ante-bellum life of the author. (search)
ng a course by which war might be averted. The authorities of Mexico were not averse to the settlement according to the claims of Texas,--the Rio Grande frontier,--but the political affairs of the country were such that they could not agree. Excitement in the United States increased as the suspense continued. But the authorities, having confidence in their negotiations or wishing to precipitate matters, ordered General Taylor to march across to the Rio Grande at Matamoras in the spring of 1846. The execution of the order precipitated war. The move from Corpus Christi to the Rio Grande made necessary a change of base from St. Joseph's Island to Point Isabel and Brazos Santiago, near the mouth of the Rio Grande. Supplies were sent by sea, under charge of Major Munroe, with a siege train and field battery, and the army took up its march on the 9th of March, 1846, the advance under General Twiggs, consisting of the dragoons and Ringgold's field battery. The army was well instruc
General James Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox, Chapter 20: review of the Maryland campaign. (search)
ted to give it up before it was taken. After it had been taken and given up, he reoccupied it. It was left severely alone in the Gettysburg campaign,--an admission by both sides of its uselessness as a point d'appui. A word in closing about the chiefs opposed in this great campaign. General Lee and General McClellan were both graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point. The former took the second honor of the class of 1829, the latter the second honor of the class of 1846. Their service in the United States army was as military engineers. In 1854 they were both selected by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis for promotion to the new cavalry regiments as lieutenant-colonel and captain respectively. Their early opportunities, social and educational, were superior. They studiously improved them in youth, and applied them with diligence in after-life. Aspirations leading to the higher walks of social and professional life seem to have been alike controlling forc
John G. Nicolay, A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln, condensed from Nicolay and Hayes' Abraham Lincoln: A History, Chapter 5. (search)
ncoln's engagement his deep despondency visit to Kentucky letters to Speed- the Shields duel marriage law partnership with Logan Hardin nominated for Congress, 1843 Baker nominated for Congress, 1844 Lincoln nominated and elected, 1846. The deep impression which the Mary Owens affair made upon Lincoln is further shown by one of the concluding phrases of his letter to Mrs. Browning: I have now come to the conclusion never again to think of marrying. But it was not long beforea fourth regiment, which was also accepted. Colonel Hardin was killed in the battle of Buena Vista, and Colonel Baker won great distinction in the fighting near the City of Mexico. Like Abraham Lincoln, Douglas was also elected to Congress in 1846, where he had already served the two preceding terms. But these redoubtable Illinois champions were not to have a personal tilt in the House of Representatives. Before Congress met, the Illinois legislature elected Douglas to the United States S
John G. Nicolay, A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln, condensed from Nicolay and Hayes' Abraham Lincoln: A History, Chapter 6. (search)
him new lessons in the study of human nature. His quick intelligence acquired knowledge quite as, or even more, rapidly by process of logical intuition than by mere dry, laborious study; and it was the inestimable experience of this single term in the Congress of the United States which prepared him for his coming, yet undreamed-of, responsibilities, as fully as it would have done the ordinary man in a dozen. Mr. Lincoln had frankly acknowledged to his friend Speed, after his election in 1846, that being elected to Congress, though I am very grateful to our friends for having done it, has not pleased me as much as I expected. It has already been said that an agreement had been reached among the several Springfield aspirants, that they would limit their ambition to a single term, and take turns in securing and enjoying the coveted distinction; and Mr. Lincoln remained faithful to this agreement. When the time to prepare for the election of 1848 approached, he wrote to his law par
Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 1, Chapter 19: in the twenty-ninth Congress, 1845-46. (search)
Chapter 19: in the twenty-ninth Congress, 1845-46. In the summer of 1845 Mr. Davis's name began to be mentioned very often as the proper nominee for a seat in Congress. In that day the nomination was equivalent to an election; it was not by districts but was by a vote of the State at large. The question of the payment of the Union and Planters' Bank bonds had about this time brought many bickerings and much dissatisfactions into the party. Mr. Briscoe, the leader of his party in Mississippi, and a repudiator per se, announced that he would not vote for any one but a repudiator. My husband heard of it, and sat up all night at the printing-office of the Whig paper and furnished copy to the compositors; for, on account of the business pressure of issuing their campaign documents, he could not get it done at the Democratic office. Thus he got out by the next day a pamphlet in which he expressed clearly his disapproval of repudiation. He advocated the payment of the Plante
Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 1, Chapter 21: Mr. Davis's first session in Congress. (search)
er he listened attentively once, and never again, unless pleased. Mr. Adams, when the debate was over, arose and said to one of the other members, We shall hear more of that young man, I fancy. While these amenities were at their height, Mr. Giddings showed a full set of gleaming teeth, and evidently enjoyed the little impromptu debate, not caring which got the worst of it. He seemed to think the slave-holders were given over to each other, and was willing to let them alone. On March II, 1846, Mr. Polk sent a message in which he declared a state of war already existing. Mr. Davis, in the House, simultaneously with Mr. Calhoun, in the Senate, neither knowing the other had made the point, announced that while the President could declare a state of hostilities the right to declare war rested alone with Congress, the agent of the States. The rate at which Federal power has encroached can be somewhat marked by this incident, which occurred in Congress at the time the first hostiliti
Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 1, Chapter 22: the secret service fund--charges against Webster, 1845-46. (search)
Chapter 22: the secret service fund--charges against Webster, 1845-46. Mr. Davis saw that he had been approved by Mr. Adams, and generally recognized as a personage in the House, without any one having an exact reason to assign for this distinction, and was subsequently brought more prominently into notice by an attack made upon Mr. Webster by Mr. Charles Jared Ingersoll in the House of Representatives. The hands of the public men of the time had been clean of plunder, or the imputation of dishonesty — it was not a day of personal investigations. Wall Street had no subterranean passage leading to the White House; and an imputation upon the honor of a senator startled his colleagues like a fire-bell in the night. Mr. Ingersoll astonished the House and Senate by moving an inquiry into Mr. Webster's conduct as Secretary of State. lie asked for the papers relating to the killing of Durpree, an American. In 1837, a party of Americans had made an effort to capture and occupy
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