The Lincolns in Kentucky -Video

[David Lockmiller]

(06-10-2024 04:26 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  One of my favorite Lincoln biographies, David Herbert Donald's Lincoln, says, "After the first day, when it seemed likely that Seward men would pack the Wigwam, Jesse W. Fell and Ward Hill Lamon oversaw the printing of duplicate tickets and made sure they went to Lincoln men who would come early and occupy the seats before the Seward backers arrived."

For those interested in more detail, the quote cited by Roger is at page 248 of David Herbert Donald's Lincoln and the section of the book making reference to the convention is at pages 243-250.

I thought one of the most interesting parts of this discussion was the role of money in presidential politics, then and now [ironic thanks to the Republican Supreme Court's role in Citizens United v. FEC] at page 243, and was also an affirmation of Lincoln's personal integrity:

When one enterprising Illinois Republican suggested that [Lincoln] ought to have a campaign chest of $10,000, Lincoln replied that the proposal was an impossibility: "I could not raise ten thousand dollars if it would save me from the fate John Brown. Nor have my friends, so far as I know, yet reached the point of staking any money on my chances of success." To a request for money from Mark W. Delahay, an old and somewhat disreputable Illinois friend who hoped to be a delegate to the Republican National Convention in order to promote his chance of being elected senator from Kansas, Lincoln responded: "I can not enter the ring on the money basis--first, because, in the main, it is wrong; and secondly, I have not, and can not get, the money." Yet, admitting that "in a political contest, the use of some [money], is both right, and indispensable," he offered to furnish Delahay $100 for his expenses in attending the convention. (As it turned out, Delahay was not chosen as a Kansas delegate but went to Chicago anyhow to root for Lincoln, who paid him the money he had promised.)