Lincoln's Ladder to the Presidency: The Eighth Judicial Circuit

11. The Tall Sucker and the Little Giant

188 11. The Tall Sucker and the Little Giant z The year 1858 began with Lincoln focusing on politics, assessing his chances to upset Stephen A. Douglas’s reelection bid for the U.S. Senate in the fall. At the same time, Lincoln was focused on his busy law practice with his elevated stature as a leading lawyer in Illinois. Lincoln’s leadership of the Illinois Republicans and prominence as a lawyer merged in his representation of the Illinois Republican Party in January before the Illinois Supreme Court in People ex rel. Lanphier and Walker v. Hatch. The legislature, still heavily Democratic, had voted along party lines to pass the Democrat bill for district reapportionment that Shelbyville’s Democratic Senator Samuel Moulton had introduced. Newly elected Republican Governor William H. Bissell, who intended to veto the Democratic bill, mistakenly signed it. He immediately stated his error, but the Democrats ignored his claim and brought suit in the Illinois Supreme Court to force recognition of their reapportionment act, litigation crucial to both parties. Lincoln, aided by Joseph Gillespie, successfully defended the Republican position, and the intended veto stood, leaving the districts in place.1 Early in the year, Lincoln began to gather the separate parts that were necessary to meet his goal to oppose Douglas. Norman Judd was now also the state Republican chairman and an ally of Lincoln, thanks to Lincoln’s notable magnanimity after Judd and a handful of former Democrats had pulled the other Illinois senatorial seat out from under him four years earlier. Lincoln’s circuit friends neither understood nor accepted Lincoln’s embrace of Judd.2 On February 18, Lincoln met with Judd in Chicago to plan 189 The Tall Sucker and the Little Giant Lincoln’s run. Judd agreed with Lincoln that central Illinois, which included the Eighth Judicial Circuit, was the significant battleground.3 It was also necessary that Judd join with Lincoln to eliminate the threat to Lincoln’s selection as the antislavery party’s nominee that, oddly enough, was posed by Douglas himself as a possible nominee. Douglas and the Buchanan administration had fallen out over the questionable proslavery Lecompton constitution in Kansas, which had been adopted by proslavery advocates contrary to the apparent popular will in Kansas. While Douglas was clearly not antislavery, he did favor fair elections to determine this issue in the new territories. This placed him against Buchanan, who favored the Lecompton constitution.4 While this schism between Douglas and Buchanan measurably enhanced the Republicans’ chance of success, the split also posed a threat to Lincoln’s candidacy because eastern Republicans were flirting with supporting Douglas. It was important that the party unite behind Lincoln to end the specter of collaboration with Douglas, an alliance unthinkable to Lincoln and most Illinois Republicans, including Judd. The meeting solidified Judd’s support of Lincoln for the nomination. Notwithstanding the impending senatorial race, Lincoln actively pursued the law on the circuit for the spring session, appearing in seven counties. In Woodford County, he filed documents to discharge the bond of the missing Melissa Goings. He appeared in Bloomington for the circuit court session, where on April 6, he delivered his lecture “Discoveries and Inventions.”5 Lincoln gave this lecture on only a few occasions, and it was never particularly well received. On April 21, the Democrats’ division became fixed by holding two conventions in Springfield: one by the Douglas wing that was inspired by Usher Linder’s fiery speech and another convened by the Buchanan wing. That evening, Lincoln caucused with over twenty other Republican leaders in the State Library. He was ecstatic about the Democratic split and the Republican leaders’ clear indication that they would not support Douglas. The next day, the group encouraged county conventions to endorse Lincoln to ensure party unity behind him before the June 16 state convention in Springfield.6 As these political winds swirled around him, Lincoln traveled on May 7 to Beardstown, Cass County, where he defended Duff Armstrong, son of the widow Hannah Armstrong, Lincoln’s long-time New Salem friend, in The only picture of Lincoln in a white suit was taken as an ambrotype by amateur photographer Abraham Byers on May 7, 1858, in Beardstown following the verdict of acquittal in the Duff Armstrong “Almanac Trial.” Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. 191 The Tall Sucker and the Little Giant the celebrated case known as the “Almanac Trial.” The...