President Lincoln's "Blind Memorandum"

[David Lockmiller]

Chair Bennie Thompson Opening statement as prepared for delivery June 9, 2022 to The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol reads as follows:

“I am Bennie Thompson, Chairman of the January 6th, 2021 Committee. I was born, raised and still live in Bolton, Mississippi, a town with a population of 521, which is midway between Jackson and Vicksburg, MS, and the Mississippi River. I am from a part of the country where people justified the actions of slavery, the Ku Klux Klan and lynching.

A precedent [has] stood for 220 years, even as our democracy [] faced its most difficult tests.

In the summer of 1864, the President of the United States was staring down what he believed would be a doomed bid for reelection. He believed his opponent, General George McClellan, would wave the white flag when it came to preserving the Union. But even with that grim fate hanging in the balance, President Lincoln was ready to accept the will of the voters, come what may.

He made a quiet pledge. He wrote down the words:

“This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President elect….”

Lincoln sealed that memo and asked his cabinet secretaries to sign it, sight unseen. He asked them to make the same commitment he did. To accept defeat if indeed defeat was the will of the people. To uphold the rule of law. To do what every other President who came before him did… and what every President who followed him would do.”

Professor Michael Burlingame explained these same events in more precise detail in his book Abraham Life: A Life, Vol. Two, pages 674-676, as follows:

Reaching the Nadir: The Blind Memorandum

On August 23, 1864, the despairing Lincoln wrote one of his most curious documents, a memorandum revealing his belief that a Democratic victory was likely: “This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he can not possibly save it afterwards. (Complete Works Lincoln 7:514) He folded and sealed this document and then, inexplicably, asked his cabinet to sign it without knowing its contents. It became known as the “blind memorandum.” Lincoln may have feared that its contents would be leaked to the press if the cabinet had been allowed to read it.

Several weeks later, Lincoln read the “blind memorandum” to the cabinet and explained its genesis.
“[Y]ou will remember that this was written at a time (6 days before the Chicago nominating convention) when as yet we had no adversary, and seemed to have no friends,” he said. “I then solemnly resolved on the course of action indicated above. I resolved, in case of the election of General McClellan[,] being certain that he be the Candidate, that I would see him and talk matters over with him. I would say, ‘General, the election has demonstrated that you are stronger, have more influence with the American people than I. Now let us together, you with your influence and I with all the executive power of the Government, try to save the country. You raise as many troops as you possibly can for this final trial, and I will devote all my energies to assisting and finishing the war.”

Seward remarked, “And the General would answer you ‘Yes, Yes’; and the next day when you saw him again & pressed these views upon him he would say, ‘Yes—yes’ & so on forever and would have done nothing at all.”

“At least,” Lincoln replied, “I should have done my duty and have stood clear before my own conscience.”

[Burlingame and Ettlinger, eds., Hay Diary, 248 (entry for 11 Nov. 1864)]