Lincoln Looks West: From the Mississippi to the Pacific

Preface

Preface This volume attempts what no other book has done. Among the more than fifteen thousand books written about Abraham Lincoln, none has sketched out the full dimensions of his important connections with the trans-Mississippi American West. A few scholars have focused on one Lincoln link with the West, and a limited number of books present an episode or two of the story, but no one has traced the whole outline. This book introduces readers to the two decades of Lincoln’s major involvements with the West. The first essay provides an introductory overview of Lincoln’s connections with the region beyond the Mississippi. In the first stage of his career, Lincoln defined himself as a “Man of the West” and adopted a plan of government-supported internal improvements that would be of central importance to his later dealings with the West. In the second stage, from roughly 1847 to 1861, Lincoln was forced to handle the controversial issues around slavery as a legislator and candidate, and as a result he accepted the Wilmot Proviso principle of no expansion of slavery into the western territories. In the third and most complex stage, Lincoln attempted both to deal with slavery in the West and to utilize the central government to develop the region economically. Lincoln’s western patronage appointments and his political friendships were of major significance, helping to organize large sections of the West into federal territories and to establish the Republican Party in the region. Lincoln was also involved in Indian policy issues and conflicts, military decisions, and Reconstruction programs vitally important to the West. The extensive introductory overview has two purposes: First, to provide readers with a compact story of Lincoln’s ties to the West, from his first reactions to western issues in the 1840s until his final connections in early 1865. Second, to furnish brief introductions to all the topics expanded upon in the following essays. ➢ ix These nine topical essays expand and deepen the discussions of Lincoln’s western links introduced in the overview and furnish different, even alternative viewpoints on those subjects. The opening essay by Mark E. Neely Jr. provocatively argues for a less negative interpretation of Lincoln’s opposition to the Mexican War. Then follows a newly written essay by Michael S. Green, expertly summarizing Lincoln’s reactions to western issues of the 1850s. The next four selections—by Earl S. Pomeroy, Vincent G. Tegeder, Deren Earl Kellogg, and Robert W. Johannsen—deal with Lincoln’s patronage appointments in the West, his most notable connection with the region. In another essay especially prepared for this collection, Paul M. Zall supplies an entertaining portrait of Anson G. Henry, Lincoln’s close friend and political doctor in the Pacific Northwest. Larry Schweikart’s essay summarizes Lincoln’s dealings with the Mormons in Illinois and Utah. In the last of the topical essays, David A. Nichols, the author of the only book-length study of Lincoln and Indians, presents his findings in a thought-provoking essay. These specific essays were chosen to provide discussions of most of Lincoln’s major connections with the West. Those important links include Lincoln’s opposition to the Mexican-American War and the extension of slavery into western territories, his political patronage decisions, his friendships in the West, and his attitudes toward and treatment of Mormons and Native Americans. Nearly half of the selections treat Lincoln’s western political actions because those notable decisions were, by far, his most significant and time-consuming dealings with the West. Unfortunately, no first-rate, stand-alone essays on Lincoln’s presidential support for a transcontinental railroad, a homestead act, and land-grant colleges are available. Following the topical essays is a bibliographical essay and bibliography providing an overview of significant books and essays that deal with Lincoln and the American West. This discussion furnishes the fullest historiographical coverage now available on this important but largely overlooked subject of Lincoln’s career. A few words of explanation are necessary about the expansive West treated here. American historians often disagree about a definition of “the West.” Some think of it as all of the United States from the Mississippi to the Pacific, others consider it the region west of the 100th meridian, and still others argue it is the area from the North Dakota to Texas range of states up to the eastern boundaries of the Pacific Coast states. Here the first, the largest, West is treated. Taking into consideration this expansive region allows...