Abraham Lincoln: A Biography

11. The Making of a President

CHAPTER XI ..The Making of a President If H A V E been on expenses so long without earning anyII thing that I am absolutely without money now for even household purposes," Lincoln lamented to Norman Judd in reply to a plea for help in making up the campaign deficit. Yet, since he had held the place of honor on the ticket, he felt obliged to give what he could spare, and contributed $~50 more, bringing his total outlay to well over $500. Then, weary in mind and body, he returned once again to his law practice. Scarcely had the outcome of the campaign become known when small-town newspapers in Illinois, and even a few Republican journals in other states, began to mention Lincoln as a worthy presidential candidate. At dusk one day, when Lincoln left the courthouse at Bloomington, Jesse Fell took him by the arm and guided him to his brother's law office. Founder of the Bloomington Pantagraph, a large landowner, a canny politician, and a man of wide-ranging intellect, Fell had just returned from the East, where, time and again, persons had asked him: "Who is this man Lincoln, who is opposing Douglas?" Lincoln was acquiring a national reputation, Fell would have him know, and if his background and opinions were sufficiently brought before the people, Fell believed he could become a formidable presidential candidate. Lincoln was not impressed. What was the use of talking about him for the Presidency, he replied, when such men as Sew- The Making of a President 195 ard, Chase, and others of almost equal prominence were in th& running? Everyone knew them. Scarcely anyone outside of Illinois knew Lincoln. Besides, such men were more deserving ot the honor; they had fought for Republican principles from the beginning on the national level in the face of opposition and abuse. Fell conceded the truth of Lincoln's argument. But personal service and merit did not always signify a winning candid .ate. Both Seward and Chase had made enemies and uttered radical statements. Perhaps they could not be elected, even if nominated. The Republican candidate in 1860 must be a man of the people, conservatively antislavery, with no tincture of radicalism about him. Lincoln was such a man. Fell wanted Lincoln to write a short autobiographical sketch suitable for publicity purposes. But Lincoln did not warm to the idea. Fell paid him a great compliment, he said, and he confessed he would like to be Presid .ent. But he would try to keep his ambition within attainable limits. What he wanted was Douglas's Senate seat in 1864. Three months later, when Thomas J. Pickett, editor of the Rock Island Register, proposed to come out publicly for him, Lincoln begged him not to do it. "I must, in candor, say I do not think I am fit for the Presidency," he wrote. And wLen Pickett insisted that he planned to consult other Illinois Republican editors with a view to a simultaneous endorsement of Lincoln, the latter again protested his unfitness and assured Pickett: "I really think it best for our cause that no concerted effort, such as you suggest, should be made." Wittingly or unwittingly, and whatever Lincoln's secret feelings may have been, he acted wisely in declining the overtures of those who wished to push him forward. Premature announcement of his candidacy would immediately have brought him under rival fire. A presidential candidate is often in a stronger position when he seems not to seek the office. Lincoln's correspondence shows that his influence in party affairs now extended beyond the borders of his state. He proffered 196 ABRAHAM LINCOLN advice regarding the Republican platform in Kansas. He counseled Chase that the plank in the Ohio platform calling for repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law endangered the party's fortunes in more conservative regions and must by all means be kept out of the national convention. Lincoln advised Schuyler Colfax, an Indiana party leader, that every local convocation of Republicans must be careful to do nothing calculated to alienate voters elsewhere . "In a word," he cautioned, "in every locality we should look beyond our noses, and at least say nothing on points where it is probable we shall disagree." Aware of the importance of the cohesive and increasing German vote, in late May 1859 Lincoln through his friend John Bunn purchased from Theodore Canisius the type and other...