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2 Traversing Uneven Political Ground, 1855 “We could hitch our short bob sleds to suit the inequalities of the political surface.” —Owen Lovejoy In the winter of 1855, the Democrats, though the largest minority party, were unable to negotiate a deal to maintain control of the Illinois General Assembly, leaving a power vacuum. The work of Ichabod Codding, Zebina Eastman, and OwenLovejoyincreatingafusionofthefactionsopposedtotheKansas-Nebraska Act created a storm of political maneuvering. As the Democrats floundered, the Whigs ebbed, and the antislavery Republicans rose, Abraham Lincoln and Owen Lovejoyfoundanewwavethatwithineighteenmonthswouldpushthemtogether into the future. Over the preceding seventeen years, both men had built up considerable political constituencies. Lincoln did so mainly in central Illinois, around Springfield, traveling the Eighth Judicial Circuit with fellow lawyers and judges, winning cases and friends with his logical mind. Lovejoy did so mainly in northern Illinois , from as far away as Chicago to the counties around his parish in Princeton, helping his associates in the Congregational tradition establish antislavery congregations and seeking political power as a congressional candidate to further his antislavery cause.1 Lincoln’s Political Grounding Since the beginning of his political career, Lincoln had sought to be worthy of respect and admiration. During his first campaign for political office in 1832, he stated, “Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.”2 He lost, but he had clearly won the high regard of his neighbors, receiving 277 out of 300 votes in New Salem, where he had lived for only a year.3 MooreandMoore_text.indd 19 6/26/14 11:20 AM 20 chapter 2 In 1834, he ran again for the legislature. Since the top four candidates would be elected, some Democrats suggested a deal: they would withdraw two candidates against him if he would not support their chief rival, incumbent member of the legislature John T. Stuart. In what would become a typically shrewd maneuver, Lincoln neither rejected nor accepted the deal. Instead, he waited and consulted with Stuart. Stuart, confident of his own election, suggested that Lincoln accept it, for it could help him get elected. Lincoln garnered the most votes, another Whig took second, a Democrat finished third, and Stuart won the final seat.4 In the 1842 congressional campaign, Lincoln again demonstrated his political cleverness, ambition, and patience. Stuart; a close legal associate of Lincoln’s, Jacksonville lawyer John J. Hardin; and Lincoln all wanted to run for Congress in the Seventh Congressional District, the state’s only Whig district. Lincoln, like Lovejoy, believed that local organization was essential for political victory and had worked extensively to build up Whig county nominating conventions that advised their representatives whom they should vote for in congressional district nominating conventions.5 Nevertheless, Lincoln lost the nomination to Hardin. However, he seized a critical moment and negotiated an agreement in which all of the candidates agreed that they would serve only one two-year term and would support each other’s candidacies. Lincoln’s turn came in 1846, and he was a member of the Thirtieth Congress.6 While Lincoln was campaigning successfully as a Whig in the Seventh Congressional District, Lovejoy was campaigning unsuccessfully as a member of the Liberty Party in the neighboring Fourth District. Both men were unintimidated by presidential power, and both highlighted the questionable circumstances of the beginning of the Mexican War. Lovejoy called President James K. Polk’s explanation for the war “a plain, plumb lie,” while Lincoln demanded that Polk name the spot where Mexican troops had invaded the United States.7 In 1854, Lincoln still sought to renew the Whig Party’s fortunes rather than join the new Republican Party. Fifty-three Whigs in Congress had voted against Stephen A. Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Act, and only twelve southern Whigs had voted for it.8 Lincoln decided to stay with his Whig strategy and not venture into an unknown group with abolitionist footprints. Lincoln had learned how to work behind the scenes, writing confidential letters, making deals, winning elections, gaining respect, and taking some risky political positions. He soon began to apply those strategies in his bids for senator and president. Lovejoy’s Political Grounding The first pastor-politician Owen Lovejoy encountered was one of his father’s Congregational colleagues, the Reverend Joshua Cushman, who was a member MooreandMoore_text.indd 20...

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