LINCOLN, Abraham (1809-1865). Autograph letter, signed ("A. Lincoln") to Richard Yates, Springfield, Illinois, 14 January 1855.

2 pp. on bifolium; 10 x 8 in. (254 x 203 mm); on blue bond paper; recipient's docket on verso integral blank, manuscript financial tabulations on recto of same; silked; creasing from old folds; some text underlined in red pencil; some pencil corrections to text; paper remnants along edge of verso of final leaf.

GALVANIZED BY THE PASSAGE OF THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT, LINCOLN RETURNS TO THE POLITICAL ARENA.

A significant political letter from Abraham Lincoln, written on the eve of his first bid for a United States Senate seat. Showcasing his sharp political sensibilities, Lincoln details to ally Richard Yates the behind-the-scenes politicking for votes as he sought to unseat supporters of Stephen A. Douglas and the Kansas-Nebraska Act:

In full: "Your letter of the 8th is just received. The [William K.] Bissell movement, of which you speak, I have had my eye upon, ever since before the commencement of the session, and it is now perhaps as dangerous a case as we have to play against. There is no danger, as I think of the A.N. [anti-Nebraska] men uniting on him; but the danger is that the Nebraska men, failing to do better, will turn unto him en masse, and then a few A.N. men, wanting a pretext only, will join on him, pretending to believe him an A.N. man. He cannot get a single sincere Anti-Nebraska vote. At least, so I think. At the meeting of the Legislature we had 57 to their 43, nominally. But [William C.] Kinney did not attend, which left us only 56. Then [Albert H.] Trapp, of St. Clair went over, leaving us only 55, and raising them to 44. Next [Uri] Osgood of the Senate went over, reducing us to 54, and raising them to 45. It is now said that Kinney will be here soon, putting us up to 55 again, and so we stand now nominally. What mines, and pitfalls they have under us we do not know, but we understand they claim to have 48 votes. If they have that number, it is only that they have already got some men whom we have all along suspected they would get; and we hope they have reached the bottom of the rotten material. In this too, we may be mistaken. This makes a squally case of it. As to myself personally, I may start with 20 or 25 votes; but I think I can, in a few ballots, get up to 48 if an election is not sooner made by the other side. But how I am to get the three additional votes I do not yet see. It seems to me the men those three votes are to come from will not go to the other side unless they should be led off on the Bissell track. If the election should be protracted, a general scramble may ensue, and your chance will be as good as that of any other I suppose. It is said Gov. [Joel A.] Matteson is trying his hand; and as his success would make a Governor of [Gustave] Koerner, he may be expected to favor this movement. I suppose the election will commence on the 31st and when it will end I am sure I have no idea. Very truly yours A. Lincoln."

Following Lincoln's single term in the United States House of Representatives (1847-1849), he retired from active political life and returned to Springfield to resume his law practice. In the spring of 1854, the Missouri Compromise—that prohibited slavery north of the 36º30' latitude line of the Louisiana Purchase territory--was effectively repealed with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Largely the work of Lincoln's rival, Stephen A. Douglas, the "Nebraska Bill" organized the Nebraska and Kansas Territories and allowed for the doctrine of popular sovereignty, which called for the voting population of each territory to determine for themselves whether to allow or disallow slavery within their borders. The law stirred a polarized nation on the question of slavery, deepening sectional prejudices, split the Democratic party, and motivated Lincoln to return to active politics.

Lincoln closely followed the political events in Illinois throughout 1854, and began to energetically campaign on behalf of Yates to help him win reelection to Congress. Acting as his campaign manager, Lincoln crisscrossed Illinois to deliver speeches against Kansas-Nebraska and in support of anti-Nebraska candidates, deepening his views against slavery and its expansion, and bringing him new popularity across the state. The heightened national discourse in turn made the Illinois elections in 1854-55 a referendum on Douglas and his doctrine of popular sovereignty.

At the time of this letter, Yates had lost his reelection the previous fall, and Lincoln had won a seat in the Illinois General Assembly after being reluctantly drafted as a candidate. That election had seen Anti-Nebraska candidates achieve a slim majority in the Illinois Assembly, who would be instrumental in choosing a senator for the 38th Congress when they reconvened in early 1855. Despite his electoral win, Lincoln declined his seat, and set his sights on the vulnerable Senate seat then held by Illinois Democratic Senator, Douglas ally, and Kansas-Nebraska supporter, James Shields. The path forward for Lincoln was difficult, as he stepped into a new political reality where old alignments had been transformed by Kansas-Nebraska. The Democrats were split into those who supported and opposed Kansas-Nebraska, while Whigs, Free Soilers, Know Nothings, and the emergent Republicans jostled for political supremacy. At the risk of alienating different flanks of the fractured anti-Nebraska opposition, Lincoln and his allies worked tirelessly to shore up support for his bid.

In this letter, written on the eve of this crucial election, Lincoln responds to a January 8th letter from Yates, where Yates had informed Lincoln of a potential movement by anti-Nebraska Democrats to choose William H. Bissell as a candidate for the Illinois senate seat. Lincoln shows his astute political calculations and strategizing as he tabulates his potential votes, and makes known his awareness of Illinois Governor Joel A. Matteson’s behind-the-scenes plotting that would come to impede Lincoln’s chances of success.

After much delay on the part of the Democrats, on February 8, 1855, the Illinois General Assembly met in a joint session to elect a U.S. senator. By then, Lincoln's coalition-building won him the support of the Anti-Nebraska caucus, but he was just shy of the majority votes needed to win the election. On the first ballot, he led with 45 votes to Shields’ 41, with the remainder spread among other candidates. This remained the same until the seventh ballot, when the Democrats switched their support to Governor Matteson, who had ingratiated himself with both sides of the Kansas-Nebraska divide to gain support for his candidacy, and whose purported vote-buying was an open secret.

By the ninth ballot, Lincoln's votes were reduced to 15, while Matteson's had risen to 47, and anti-Nebraska Democrat Lyman Trumbull had gained 35--many from men who had originally supported Lincoln. Seeing his chances of success slipping away, on the tenth and final ballot, Lincoln withdrew from the race and urged his supporters to flock to Trumbull. This ensured Trumbull's victory and that an anti-Nebraska politician filled the seat. Despite Lincoln's loss, his sacrifice to help defeat a common enemy would help him lay the foundation for his rise as the leader of the Republican Party in the coming months and years. Basler, First Supplement pp. 25-26; Richard Yates, Civil War Governor, 1966, pp.113-114.

Provenance:

Richard Yates (1814-73), thence by descent in the family to Catherine Yates Pickering

Previously sold, Christie's, 9 December 1994, lot 85

Louise Taper, Beverly Hills, California

Exhibition:

The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America, at the Huntington Library, October 1993-August 1994

Property from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Foundation

This lot is located in Chicago.