Lincoln and Oregon Country Politics in the Civil War Era

1. Lincoln Looks Toward Oregon

1 Chapter 1: Lincoln Looks Toward Oregon T he unexpected telegram from Washington, D. C., arrived in Springfield, Illinois, in mid-August 1849. Its message was direct and requested a quick answer: would the Honorable Abraham Lincoln, recently retired U.S. Congressman from Illinois, accept appointment as secretary of the new Oregon Territory? With little deliberation, the tall, gaunt politician from the Prairie State rejected the offer. One month later another surprising message carried a second offer: would Mr. Lincoln take the governor’s chair of Oregon? After a few days of deliberation and mixed-up, delayed messages, Lincoln also turned down the second overture.1 So, in late summer and early fall of 1849 Abraham Lincoln chose not to become an Oregonian. But despite his rejection of these two offers, Lincoln forged several links with the Oregon Country. In fact, even before 1849, Lincoln had connected with Oregon, and after several of his Illinois friends immigrated to the Pacific Northwest in the 1850s, those connections became much stronger. Later, as president, Lincoln tied himself to the Far Corner by appointing dozens of officials in the new state of Oregon, the territory of Washington, and the new territories of Idaho and Montana, the latter two of which began during his administration. He also supported railroad, land, and agricultural and education measures that had a lasting impact on the Oregon Country. During his presidency, letters from his friends and political appointees kept Lincoln abreast of political, economic, military, and ideological clashes and combinations that characterized the region during his years in the White House.2 Lincoln and Oregon Country Politics in the Civil War Era 2 An understanding of Abraham Lincoln’s expanding links with the Oregon Country broadens our perception of our greatest president. Those connections also enlarge the meaning and significance of the Far Northwest as part of the Civil War era. Seen whole, Lincoln’s links with the Pacific Northwest are moments of illumination for understanding his notable leadership roles as well as for comprehending the expansion and development of the Oregon Country. Together, these Lincoln links and Oregon Country advancements add another layer of meaning and significance to the history of the mid-nineteenth-century United States, particularly its political history. h h h Before Abraham Lincoln connected with the Oregon Country, he and that region, separately, stumbled through a series of stuttering steps. In Lincoln’s case, his insular family experiences, his inadequate education, and his initial political allegiances circumscribed his earliest acquaintance with the trans-Mississippi American West. Although his three states of residence in his early years (1809-1831)—Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois—were part of “the West,” he knew little about the region beyond the Mississippi. His less than one year of formal schooling also limited his geographical knowledge. In the early 1830s, when Lincoln became a member of the Whigs, both that political party and Lincoln exhibited much less interest in the American West than did the expansionist Democrats.3 During the 1830s Lincoln was finding his way as a Whig politician in Illinois. Elected to the state legislature in 1834, he gradually assumed a leading role in his party during the eight years he served in the Illinois legislature. Revealingly, Lincoln avoided the Jeffersonian-Jacksonian Democratic political tradition that won over so many frontier areas like those of Lincoln’s earliest residences. Instead, he joined the Whigs, declaringHenryClayhis“beauideal”asapoliticalleader.Likemostother Whigs, Lincoln supported Clay’s program of internal improvements: banks, tariffs, roads (and later railroads), expansive land policies for settlers, canals, and improved educational programs. Whigs like Lincoln were convinced that these steps were the best route for individual improvement as well as national economic expansion. Lincoln’s affinity LINCOLN LOOKS TOWARD OREGON 3 for these economic plans, which had begun with Federalist Alexander Hamilton and expanded as the American System under John Quincy Adams, remained centrally important to Lincoln after he switched to the Republican Party in the mid-1850s. He spoke for internal improvements as part of the Republican platforms in the elections of 1856 and 1860, and they became, as well, parts of his presidential policies from 1861 to 1865.4 Although internal improvements were notably important for westerners from the early 1840s onward, Lincoln remained relatively silent on other political issues significant to residents west of the Mississippi. Conversely, Lincoln’s long-time political rival in Illinois, Stephen A. Douglas, emerged as an enthusiastic...