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5 Trusting Those Who Care for the Results, 1858 “Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and conducted by its own undoubted friends, those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work—who care for the result.” —Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ended a politically sensitive March 8, 1958, letter to Owen Lovejoy, “Let this be strictly confidential. . . . I have some valued friends who would not like me any the better for writing it.”1 This cautionary tone demonstrates that Lincoln trusted Lovejoy enough to risk giving him candid information . Lincoln was taking risks to win the favor of the more radical opponents of slavery. Lincoln also gave Lovejoy a friendly warning about some machinations against his reelection in DeWitt County, the most conservative county in Lovejoy’s congressional district. The details represent a significant step in the relationship between the two men: “I have just returned from court in one of the counties of your District where I had an inside view that few will have who correspond with you; and I feel it rather a duty to say a word to you about it. Your danger has been the democracy would wheedle some republican to run against you without a nomination, relying mainly on democratic votes. I have seen the strong men who could make the most trouble in that way, and find that they view the thing in the proper light, and will not consent to be so used. But they have been urgently tempted by the enemy; and I think it is still the point for you to guard most vigilantly.”2 Lovejoy responded by sending a form letter warning his supporters about the Democratic scheming.3 The letter so upset one conservative antiabolitionist that he wrote to Judge David Davis, “We are thrashed out completely. You never saw abolitionists flock out so in your life. Lovejoy has sent confidential letters, to every Abolitionist in the county and probably in the district. I saw one, day before yesterday, an appeal to the Sympathizers and Abolitionists; every one of them turned out to the rescue. I am not only mad, but tired of this Nigger Worshipping. If Lovejoy is to be the nominee, I am ready to vote for a Douglas MooreandMoore_text.indd 64 6/26/14 11:20 AM Trusting Those Who Care for the Results 65 Democrat.”4 On June 7, Davis wrote to General William Wallace, “If it was not for saving Lincoln for the United States Senate a pretty great outbreak would follow. I don’t believe Lovejoy can be beaten if nominated and there is no use of bolting.”5 The troublemaking continued even after Lovejoy was nominated for a second term. T. Lyle Dickey of Ottawa had been stymied in both 1856 and 1858 in his efforts to run against Lovejoy as a Republican. He was now convinced that his friend Lincoln had gone over to the “Abolition Party” and needed to be separated from it for his own good. Dickey and the members of his camp falsely claimed that Lovejoy was secretly supporting “pure abolition candidates” for the state legislature who would vote against Lincoln for the U.S. Senate.6 Lincoln’s young legal protégé from Champaign, Henry Clay Whitney, shared Dickey’s ardent antiabolitionism, writing to Lincoln, “True, Lovejoy may be invincible in that district but the loss of two or three members of the Legislature through the greediness of those stinking abolitionists may cost you the election. . . . [I]f Lovejoy & c. get a balance of power of Abolitionists in the Legislature they will demand Lovejoy for the Senate &c. . . . [T]here is more danger in it to my notion than in everything that Douglas can accomplish by scouring the Country.” Lincoln risked losing the votes of his avid antiabolitionist friends. Whitney warned, “It is not so clear that such republicans as Coffing [Churchill, Whig lawyer from Peru, Illinois,] & a host of others who hate abolitionism will support avowed Abolitionists.”7 Immediately after getting Whitney’s letter, Lincoln wrote to Lovejoy and their mutual friend, State Senator Burton C. Cook. “I have a letter from a very true friend, and intelligent man, insisting that there is a plan on foot in LaSalle and Bureau to run Douglas republicans . . . for the legislature in those counties.” According to Lincoln, in exchange for Democratic support for some extreme abolitionists for the state legislature, Republicans in the district would support Democratic nominees for the legislature.8 Lovejoy replied immediately after receiving Lincoln’s...

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