Lincoln, the Politician

by T. Aaron Levy

During this campaign, he once failed to come up to the requirements of the occasion in a debate with Douglas. A friend describes his distress at his failure: "He begged to be permitted to try it again, and was reluctantly indulged; and in the next effort he transcended our highest expectations. I never heard and never expect to hear such a triumphant vindication as he then gave of Whig measures or policy. He never after, to my knowledge, fell below himself."[153]

The debates of this campaign were a product of the excited and heated condition of the public mind. Thus, Gen. John Ewing, of Indiana, challenged the whole Democratic party and threatened to annihilate it. Douglas was pitted against him. There was no formality at the meetings. Each was to speak an hour alternately. The debate was to begin at eight and adjourn at twelve; meet at two and continue to sundown each day until the contest would be ended. At the end of the fifth day, Ewing "threw up the sponge," and a vigorous shout was given by the Democrats. "E. D. Baker, notified of Ewing's defeat, mounted a butcher block and began to address us. They protested that the game of 'two pluck one' could not be tolerated. He persisted and at once the cry was raised 'pull him down.' At length he yielded, otherwise it would have ended with a number of broken heads."[154]

Another incident still further discloses the character of the controversy that prevailed at that period. Arnold says that Baker was speaking in a room under Lincoln's office, and communicating with it by a trap door. Lincoln in his office, listened. Baker, becoming excited, abused the Democrats. A cry was raised, "Pull him off the stand!" Lincoln, knowing a general fight was imminent, descended through the opening of the trap door, and springing to the side of Baker, said: "Gentlemen, let us not disgrace the age and country in which we live. This is a land where freedom of speech is guaranteed. Baker has a right to speak, and a right to be permitted to do so. I am here to protect him, and no man shall take him from this stand if I can prevent it." Baker finished without further interruption.[155]

Lincoln and Douglas often met in debate in this campaign. Lamon states that Lincoln in the course of one speech imputed to Van Buren the great sin of having voted in the New York State Convention for negro suffrage with a property qualification. Douglas denied the fact, and Lincoln attempted to prove his statement by reading a certain passage from Holland's Life of Van Buren, whereupon Douglas got mad, snatched up the book, and, tossing it into the crowd, remarked sententiously, "Damn such a book!"[156]

The above encounter shows Lincoln's method of attack. He followed his brilliant antagonist with facts that all his ingenuity could not evade. From that day, Lincoln loved nothing better than a fray with the feared champion of Democracy. No other Whig orator could fret Douglas as Lincoln did. They were as different in mental and moral outlook as they were in appearance. Lincoln saw through his skillful opponent. He knew his strength and he knew his weakness. He was prepared for his chameleon-like attacks and onslaughts. While contemporaries hardly saw in Lincoln the future rival of the growing Douglas, still Lincoln was gaining strength in the technic of debate that was later to be of inestimable service to him in controversies of national import.

In the 1840-1 Legislature, Lincoln was again the candidate of his party for speaker. As leader of the minority, he doubtless deemed it an obligation on his part to provide some plan to pay the State debt and save its honor. He no longer cherished the illusion of gaining fame as the DeWitt Clinton of Illinois. There were some in the Legislature who boldly favored repudiation of the whole State debt. Others advocated payment of such part of it as the State actually received an equivalent for. Only a few dared to demand adequate taxation for the payment of the interest on the bonds. That was an unpopular expedient.

Lincoln walked the middle way. He was not a friend of repudiation and still he did not court a loss of public esteem by proposing substantial direct taxation. His bill provided that the Governor should issue interest bonds as might be absolutely necessary for the payment of the interest upon the lawful debt of the State. He declared that he submitted the proposition with great diffidence; that he felt his share of the responsibility in the crisis; and, that after revolving in his mind every scheme which seemed to afford the least prospect of relief, he submitted this as the result of his own deliberations; that it might be objected that the bonds would not be salable; that he was no financier, but that he believed the bonds would be equal to the best in the market, and that as to the impropriety of borrowing money to pay interest on borrowed money,—he would reply, that if it were a fact that our population and wealth were increasing in a ratio greater than the increased interest hereby incurred, then it was not a good objection.[157]

He concluded with characteristic modesty that, "he had no pride in its success as a measure of his own, but submitted it to the wisdom of the House, with the hope, that, if there was anything objectionable in it, it would be pointed out and amended."[158]

Lamon calls it a loose document, as the Governor was to determine the "amount of bonds necessary," and the sums for which they should be issued, and interest was to be paid only upon the "lawful" debt; and the Governor was to determine what part of it was lawful and what was unlawful.[159] Still in essence, Lincoln's plan of leaving the determination of the lawfulness of the debt to an authority not the legislative, was finally adopted.[160]

The shameless interference with the judicial system of Illinois about 1840 luridly illustrates the enslaving partisanship of that time. Under the provision of the State Constitution permitting every white male adult to vote, aliens had known the right of suffrage for years. Nine-tenths of the aliens allied themselves with the Democratic organization so that their support was essential to its success. As the Presidential contest grew in intensity there sprang up a controversy about these unnaturalized voters. Each party arrayed itself on the side of its own interest. The Whigs maintained that the Federal Constitution had provided against the participation of aliens in the affairs of government. A test case was brought to the Illinois Supreme Court which consisted of three Whigs and one Democrat. The latter informed Douglas, in advance, that the majority had agreed upon a decision unfavorable to the alien vote, but that there was a technical error in the record. This knowledge became serviceable to the Democrats. The case, by reason of the imperfection, was put over to the December term, and 10,000 alien votes saved the State for another Democratic administration.