Team of Rivals

  The all-night session: Johannsen, Stephen A. Douglas, p. 432.

  by “great confusion…galleries participated”: NYTrib, March 4, 1854.

  “beastly drunk…the Senate room”: Ibid.

  “The Senate is emasculated”: Thomas Hart Benton, quoted by Pike, “Night Scenes in the Passage of the Nebraska Bill,” March 4, 1854, from NYTrib, in Pike, First Blows of the Civil War, p. 220.

  a distant cannonade: Niven, Salmon P. Chase, p. 152.

  “They celebrate…itself shall die”: Schuckers, The Life and Public Services of Salmon Portland Chase, p. 156.

  “Be assured…forces of slavery and freedom”: Pike, “A Warning,” April 1854, from NYTrib, in Pike, First Blows of the Civil War, pp. 222–23.

  “The tremendous storm…every week”: Nevins, Ordeal of the Union. Vol. II: A House Dividing, p. 125.

  Resolutions: NYTrib, March 6 and 10, 1854.

  “led by a band…torches and banners”: NYTrib, March 6, 1854.

  “he sat on the edge…half-slave and half-free”: T. Lyle Dickey, paraphrased in Frederick Trevor Hill, Lincoln the Lawyer (New York: Century Co, 1906), p. 264.

  “as he had never been before”: AL, “Scripps autobiography,” in CW, IV, p. 67 (quote); Miller, Lincoln’s Virtues, pp. 232–34, 238–39.

  “took us by…and stunned”: AL, “Speech at Peoria, Illinois,” October 16, 1854, in CW, II, p. 282.

  spent many hours in the State Library: Illinois State Register, quoted in Donald, Lincoln, p. 173.

  “inside and…downside”: Herndon and Weik, Herndon’s Life of Lincoln, p. 478.

  “I am slow…to rub it out”: Joshua F. Speed to WHH, December 6, 1866, in HI, p. 499.

  at the annual State Fair: Illinois State Journal, October 5, 1854; Peoria Daily Press, October 9, 1854; Illinois State Register, October 6, 1854.

  a “world-renowned” plow: Peoria Daily Press, October 9, 1854.

  “a jolly good time ensued”: Ibid.

  Douglas at the State Fair: Thomas, Abraham Lincoln, pp. 147–48; Oates, With Malice Toward None, p. 124.

  “He had a large…crush his prey”: Horace White, The Lincoln and Douglas Debates: An Address Before the Chicago Historical Society, February 17, 1914 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1914), pp. 7–8.

  “cast away…a half-naked pugilist”: John Quincy Adams diary, quoted in William Gardner, Life of Stephen A. Douglas (Boston: Roxburgh Press, 1905), p. 20.

  “He was frequently…with him”: Peoria Daily Press, October 7, 1854.

  Lincoln announced rebuttal the following day: Thomas, Abraham Lincoln, p. 148.

  Douglas seated in the front row: White, Abraham Lincoln in 1854, p. 12.

  largest audience: Donald, Lincoln, p. 174.

  “awkward…knew he was right”: White, Abraham Lincoln in 1854, p. 10.

  “one of the world’s…lapse of time”: White, The Lincoln and Douglas Debates, p. 12.

  “thin, high-pitched…of the speaker himself”: White, Abraham Lincoln in 1854, p. 10.

  Lincoln embedded his argument: AL, “Speech at Peoria Illinois,” October 16, 1854, in CW, II, pp. 247–83.

  so “clear and logical…most effective”: Illinois Daily Journal, October 5, 1854.

  “connected view…reclaiming of their fugitives”: AL, “Speech at Peoria Illinois,” October 16, 1854, in CW, II, pp. 248–75. The text of Lincoln’s speech in Springfield on October 4, 1854, is no longer extant, but as the editors of The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln have noted, the speech Lincoln delivered in Peoria on October 16, 1854, “is much the same speech.” In the absence of a verbatim transcription of the Springfield speech, Lincoln’s words from the October 16, 1854, Peoria one have been substituted. See footnote 1 to “Speech at Springfield, Illinois,” CW, II, p. 240.

  “thundering tones…drunkard on the earth”: AL, “Temperance Address. An Address, Delivered before the Springfield Washington Temperance Society,” February 22, 1842, in CW, I, pp. 273, 279.

  “joined the north…to the latest generations”: AL, “Speech at Peoria Illinois,” October 16, 1854, in CW, II, pp. 264–76.

  “deafening applause…anti-Nebraska speech”: Peoria Daily Press, October 7, 1854.

  Once he committed…authenticity of feeling: Miller, Lincoln’s Virtues, p. 14; Donald, Lincoln, p. 270.

  “as my two eyes make one in sight”: Robert Frost, “Two Tramps in Mudtime,” The Poetry of Robert Frost: The Collected Poems, ed. Edward Connery Lathem (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1969; 1979), p. 277.

  CHAPTER 6: THE GATHERING STORM

  “mainly attributed…the first choice”: Joseph Gillespie to WHH, January 31, 1866, in HI, p. 182.

  the worst blizzard in more than two decades: Entries for January 20–28, 1855, in Lincoln Day by Day: A Chronology, 1809–1865. Vol. II: 1848–1860, ed. Earl Schenck Miers (Washington, D.C.: Lincoln Sesquicentennial Commission, 1960; Dayton, Ohio: Morningside, 1991), pp. 136–37 [hereafter Lincoln Day by Day, Vol. II]; articles in the Illinois Daily Journal, Springfield, Ill., January 23–February 8, 1855.

  “the merry sleigh bells…nearly extinct”: Illinois Daily Journal, January 24, 27, and 30, 1855.

  “a beehive of activity”: Daily Alton Telegraph, February 12, 1855, quoted in Mark M. Krug, Lyman Trumbull, Conservative Radical (New York and London: A. S. Barnes & Co., and Thomas Yoseloff, 1965), p. 98.

  “lobby and the galleries…and their guests”: Krug, Lyman Trumbull, p. 98.

  ladies in the gallery: Ibid.; White, Abraham Lincoln in 1854, p. 17.

  bought a stack of small notebooks: Entry for January 1, 1855, Lincoln Day by Day, Vol. II, p. 136; “List of Members of the Illinois Legislature in 1855,” [January 1, 1855?], in CW, II, pp. 296–98.

  To reach a majority…fragile coalition: Miller, Lincoln’s Virtues, p. 303.

  On the first ballot: AL to Elihu B. Washburne, February 9, 1855, in CW, II, p. 304.

  five anti-Nebraska…“at home”: Joseph Gillespie to WHH, September 19, 1866, in HI, p. 344.

  Trumbull story: AL to Elihu B. Washburne, February 9, 1855, in CW, II, pp. 304–06; Joseph Gillespie to WHH, January 31, 1866, and September 19, 1866, in HI, pp. 182–83, 344–45.

  “you will lose both…to men”: Joseph Gillespie to WHH, January 31, 1866, in HI, p. 183.

  “spectators scarcely…the contest”: John G. Nicolay and John Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History, Vol. I (New York: Century Co., 1917), p. 390.

  “perhaps his last…high position”: Joseph Gillespie to WHH, January 31, 1866, in HI, p. 182.

  Logan put his hands: Oates, With Malice Toward None, p. 130.

  “he never would…by the 5”: David Davis, quoted in AL to Elihu B. Washburne, February 9, 1855, CW, II, p. 306.

  at Trumbull’s victory party: Albert J. Beveridge, Abraham Lincoln, 1809–1858, Vol. III (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, The Riverside Press, 1928), p. 287; White, Abraham Lincoln in 1854, p. 19.

  “worse whipped…Trumbull is elected”: AL to Elihu B. Washburne, February 9, 1855, Lincoln Papers.

  Lincoln, in defeat, gained friends: Donald, Lincoln, p. 185.

  “cold, selfish, treachery”: MTL to Leonard Swett, January 12, 1867, in Turner and Turner, Mary Todd Lincoln, p. 406.

  never spoke another word: Beveridge, Abraham Lincoln, 1809–1858, Vol. III, p. 286; Miller, Lincoln’s Virtues, p. 312.

  intermediaries tried…never healed: Burlingame, The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln, p. 310; Strozier, Lincoln’s Quest for Union, p. 76.

  to blackball him: MTL to David Davis, January 17, 1861, in Turner and Turner, Mary Todd Lincoln, p.

  71; entry for December 3, 1865, Diary of Gideon Welles: Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson. Vol. II: April 1, 1864–December 31, 1866, ed. Howard K. Beale (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1960), p. 390 [hereafter Welles diary, Vol. II].

  an “agony”: AL to Elihu B. Washburne, February 9, 1855, in CW, II, p. 304.

  “He could bear…his friends”: Joseph Gil
lespie, quoted in Donald, Lincoln, p. 184.

  celebrated law case: Unless otherwise noted, information and quotations related to the Reaper case have been derived from Robert H. Parkinson to Albert J. Beveridge, May 28, 1923, container 292, Beveridge Papers, DLC.

  Peter Watson: Beveridge, Abraham Lincoln, 1809–1858, Vol. II, p. 280.

  “At our interview…Manny’s machine”: AL to Peter H. Watson, July 23, 1855, in CW, II, pp. 314–15.

  “Why did you bring…no good”: WHH to JWW, January 6, 1887, reel 10, Herndon-Weik Collection, DLC.

  “rapt attention”: Ralph and Adaline Emerson, Mr. & Mrs. Ralph Emerson’s Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln (Rockford, Ill.: Wilson Brothers Co., 1909), p. 7.

  “drinking in his words”: Flower, Edwin McMasters Stanton, p. 63.

  “to study law”: Emerson, Emerson’s Personal Recollections, p. 7.

  “For any rough-…will be ready”: Flower, Edwin McMasters Stanton, p. 63.

  “You have made…to return here”: AL, quoted in W. M. Dickson, “Abraham Lincoln in Cincinnati,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine 69 (June 1884), p. 62.

  “the most powerful…his gift”: Miller, Lincoln’s Virtues, p. 425.

  despite his initial contempt…respect and love Lincoln: Lewis Hutchison Stanton to unknown correspondent, January 4, 1930, quoted in the appendix to Gideon Townsend Stanton, ed., “Edwin M. Stanton: A Personal Portrait as revealed in letters addressed to his wife Ellen Hutchison during his voyage to and sojourn in San Francisco…and including letters covering the period 1854 to 1869,” undated, typed manuscript, EdwinM. Stanton Manuscript, Mss. 1648, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections, LSU Libraries, Baton Rouge, La. [hereafter Gideon Stanton, ed., “Edwin M. Stanton”]; Thomas, Abraham Lincoln, p. 382.

  the “long armed Ape”: WHH to JWW, January 6, 1887, reel 10, Herndon-Weik Collection, DLC.

  Stanton’s comfortable childhood…and other works of history: Wolcott, “Edwin M. Stanton,” esp. pp. 20–21, 24, 28, 30, 38, 39, 40, 66–67.

  the “happiest hours of his life”: Flower, Edwin McMasters Stanton, p. 37.

  “regenerate the world”: Mary Lamson Stanton to EMS, December 13, 1843, quoted in Wolcott, “Edwin M. Stanton,” p. 108.

  Mary Lamson and children: EMS, “Mary Lamson, Wife of Edwin M. Stanton”; Flower, Edwin McMasters Stanton, pp. 30, 32, 36–37, 38.

  “bright and cheery”: Wolcott, “Edwin M. Stanton,” p. 63.

  Stanton looked upon…and Byron: EMS to Edwin L. Stanton, quoted in Wolcott, “Edwin M. Stanton,” p. 113.

  “We years ago…cannot express”: EMS to Mary Lamson Stanton, December 16, 1842, EMS, “Mary Lamson, Wife of Edwin M. Stanton.”

  deaths of Lucy and Mary: EMS, “Mary Lamson, Wife of Edwin M. Stanton”; Wolcott, “Edwin M. Stanton,” pp. 72, 99; Flower, Edwin McMasters Stanton, pp. 38, 44.

  “verged on insanity”: Benjamin P. Thomas and Harold M. Hyman, Stanton: The Life and Times of Lincoln’s Secretary of War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962), p. 35.

  “She is my bride”…held that spring: Flower, Edwin McMasters Stanton, p. 39.

  “with lamp in hand…Where is Mary?”: Wolcott, “Edwin M. Stanton,” p. 100.

  Stanton’s responsibilities…go of his sorrow: Thomas and Hyman, Stanton, pp. 35–36.

  a letter of over a hundred pages: EMS, “Mary Lamson, Wife of Edwin M. Stanton.”

  “tears obscuring his vision”: Gideon Stanton, ed., “Edwin M. Stanton.”

  “anguish of heart”: EMS, “Mary Lamson, Wife of Edwin M. Stanton.”

  “but time, care…for each other”: Ibid.

  developed a high fever: Thomas and Hyman, Stanton, p. 40.

  “He bled…few moments”: Alfred Taylor, quoted in Flower, Edwin McMasters Stanton, p. 45.

  His mother watched: Ibid.

  “the blood spouted…ceiling”: Thomas and Hyman, Stanton, p. 41.

  Neighbors were sent…watching over him: Alfred Taylor, quoted in Flower, Edwin McMasters Stanton, p. 45.

  “Where formerly…clasped behind”: Mrs. Davison Filson, quoted in ibid., p. 40.

  Stanton’s change of personality in court: Ibid., p. 34.

  “the most important”…He was greatly relieved: EMS to Ellen Hutchison, September 25, 1855, Stanton Papers, Donated Historical Materials, formerly Record Group 200, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. [hereafter Stanton Papers, DNA] (quote); Dickson, “Abraham Lincoln in Cincinnati,” Harper’s (1884), p. 62.

  Ellen Hutchison: See Flower, Edwin McMasters Stanton, p. 66.

  “radiant with beauty and intellect”: EMS to Ellen Hutchison, October 10, 1854, Stanton Papers, DNA.

  in “agony”: EMS to Ellen Hutchison, October 28, 1854, Stanton Papers, DNA.

  “the trouble…fresh blossoms”: EMS to Ellen Hutchison, October 10, 1854, Stanton Papers, DNA.

  Ellen was vexed: EMS to Ellen Hutchison, May 21, 1855, and undated letter, Stanton Papers, DNA.

  “his careless[ness]…feelings of all”: EMS to Ellen Hutchison, undated, Stanton Papers, DNA.

  “there is so much…overlook”: EMS to Ellen Hutchison, May 21, 1855, Stanton Papers, DNA.

  “blessed with…you condemn”: EMS to Ellen Hutchison, undated, Stanton Papers, DNA.

  to marry Edwin on June 25, 1856: EMS to Ellen Hutchison, June 25, 1856, Stanton Papers, DNA.

  Happier years followed: Gideon Stanton, ed., “Edwin M. Stanton.”

  to Washington…a brick mansion: Flower, Edwin McMasters Stanton, p. 79.

  “Twenty-two…a monarch’s brow”: AL, “Fragment on Stephen A. Douglas,” [December 1856?], in CW, II, pp. 382–83.

  “She had…ambition”: John T. Stuart interview, late June 1865, in HI, p. 63.

  “I would rather…in the world”: MTL, quoted in Elizabeth Todd Edwards interview, 1865–1866, in HI, p. 444.

  “a very little…does physically”: Helm, The True Story of Mary, p. 140.

  “no equal in the United States”: MTL, quoted in ibid., p. 144.

  “unladylike”: MTL to Mercy Ann Levering, December [15?], 1840, in Turner and Turner, Mary Todd Lincoln, p. 21.

  “the first bugle call…a new party”: Schurz, Reminiscences, Vol. II, p. 34.

  upheaval complicated by the emergence of the Know Nothings: McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, pp. 142–43; Eugene H. Roseboom, “Salmon P. Chase and the Know Nothings,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 25 (December 1938), pp. 335–50.

  the Know Nothing Party…“popery”: Potter, The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861, pp. 240–52 (quote p. 242); McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 32.

  “How can any one…Russia, for instance”: AL to Joshua F. Speed, August 24, 1855, in CW, II, p. 323.

  Republican Party, comprised of…over three decades: Gienapp, The Origins of the Republican Party, pp. 114–17, 123–24, 224–25; Potter, The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861, pp. 247, 249; McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 127.

  Chase…unhindered by past loyalties: Riddle, “The Election of Salmon P. Chase,” Republic (1875), p. 183; Hendrick, Lincoln’s War Cabinet, p. 33.

  Chase accomplished…statewide ticket: Niven, Salmon P. Chase, pp. 157–58, 171: Gienapp, The Origins of the Republican Party, pp. 192–203.

  Chase’s campaign for governor: SPC to James S. Pike, October 18, 1855, and SPC to CS, October 15, 1855, reel 10, Chase Papers; Gienapp, The Origins of the Republican Party, pp. 200–01.

  “on a hand car…another hand car”: SPC to KCS, September 30, 1855, reel 10, Chase Papers.

  “The anxiety…breathe freely!”: CS to SPC, October 11, 1855, reel 10, Chase Papers.

  Seward faced a more difficult challenge: Gienapp, The Origins of the Republican Party, pp. 223–25.

  lavish dinners…bishop John Hughes: Hugh Hastings letter, reprinted in Barnes, Memoir of Thurlow Weed, pp. 232–33.

  Working without rest…in the Senate: Taylor, William Henry Seward, p. 96.

  “I snatch…shattered
bark”: WHS to TW, February 7, 1855, quoted in Seward, Seward at Washington…1846–1861, p. 245.

  “I have never…was made known”: FAS to Augustus Seward, February 7, 1855, reel 115, Seward Papers.

  liberated to join…in the state of New York: Gienapp, The Origins of the Republican Party, pp. 224–27.

  “I am so happy…. political pew”: CS to WHS, October 15, 1855, reel 49, Seward Papers.

  Seward’s October speech: WHS, “The Advent of the Republican Party, Albany, October 12, 1855,” in The Works of William H. Seward, Vol. IV, ed. George E. Baker (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1884; New York: AMS Press, 1972), pp. 225–40 (quote p. 237).

  organizing the various…Republican Party: Donald, Lincoln, pp. 189–91.

  guerrilla war had broken out: Potter, The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861, pp. 199–215.

  “engage in competition…in right”: WHS, remarks in “The Nebraska and Kansas Bill,” May 25, 1854, Appendix to the Congressional Globe, 33rd Cong., 1st sess., p. 769.

  “When the North…eager foe”: Charleston Mercury, June 21, 1854, quoted in Craven, The Growth of Southern Nationalism, p. 204.

  assault on Sumner by Preston Brooks: David Donald, Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War, collector’s edition (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1960; Norwalk, Conn.: Easton Press, 1987), pp. 294–95; William E. Gienapp, “The Crime Against Sumner: The Caning of Charles Sumner and the Rise of the Republican Party,” Civil War History 25 (September 1979), pp. 218–45.

  Sumner’s speech: CS, “Kansas Affairs. Speech of Hon. C. Sumner, of Massachusetts, in the Senate, May 19–20, 1856,” Appendix to the Congressional Globe, 34th Cong., 1st sess., pp. 529–44.

  laced with literary and historical references: Donald, Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War, pp. 281–82.

  “a chivalrous knight…humiliating offices”: CS, “Kansas Affairs,” Appendix to the Congressional Globe, 34th Cong., 1st sess., pp. 530–31.

  advised him to remove the personal attacks: William H. Seward, Jr., “Youthful Recollections,” p. 13, folder 36, Box 120, William Henry Seward Papers, Department of Rare Books & Special Collections, University of Rochester Library [hereafter Seward Papers, NRU], Rochester, N.Y.