Lot 347
Lincoln, Abraham (1809-65) 16th President of the United States (1861-65). Autograph Letter Signed ("A. Lincoln") as President, 1 page, 10x7¾", Springfield, 8 Sept. 1856. Fine; light toning at edges and folds. To Charles H. Ray, editor of The Chicago Tribune, with a proposal to give financial aid to a German-American whose house had burned so that the man could help bring in the German-American vote for John C. Frémont and the Republican Party.
Frémont, the famous "Pathmaker of the West," had been nominated for President at the Republican Party's first national convention at Philadelphia on a clear anti-slavery platform. Although Lincoln had hoped to be the candidate for Vice President, an honor won by William Dayton, Lincoln threw himself into the campaign in Illinois for Frémont, making some fifty stump speeches across the state. He clearly recognized the importance of getting the support of the sizeable German-American voting block in Chicago.
Lincoln writes: "Have fifty copies, of the german Fremont paper sent regularly, in one bundle, to Jabez Capps, Mount Pulaski, Logan Co., Ill. Herewith is his letter [not present] to me. Another matter--Owing to Mr. Hecker's house having been burned, we can not get him out to address our german friends. This is a bad draw-back. It would be no more than just for us to raise him a thousand dollars in this emergency. Can we not do it? See our friends about it. I can find one hundred dollars towards it. Such a sum no doubt would greatly relieve him, and enable him to take the field again. We can not spare his services…."
Lincoln probably refers to the Staats Zeitung, established in Chicago in 1848 as a weekly, but published as a daily from 1851. The paper was supportive of the Republican campaign. Five days later, in another letter to Ray, Lincoln inquired whether the papers had been sent to Capps and requested that another bundle of fifty be sent to W.H. Hanna. "Pray do not let either be neglected," he added, as " last evening I was scared a little by being told that the enemy are getting the germans away from us at Chicago. Is there any truth in that?" (Basler, Supplement 10, pp. 27-28).
Capps was a former Springfield merchant who was instrumental in founding the town of Mt. Pulaski, Illinois. Frederick Hecker was a "Forty-Eighter," the name given to Germans who came to America after the Revolution of 1848 failed to bring about the reforms for which they hoped and for which many fought. Most of these "Forty-Eighters" strongly opposed slavery and would side with the Union in the Civil War. Hecker, who first settled in Cincinnati and became a leader of the German-American community there, eventually moved to Belleville, Illinois, and was active in politics there. When the Civil War began, he helped enlist a regiment, the 82nd Illinois, made up mainly of other German-Americans. The 82nd fought at Fredericksburg, Gettysburg and Chattanooga. Illinois Governor Yates later urged Lincoln to promote Hecker to the rank of Brigadier General in order to ensure the continued support of the German-American faction.
Apparently unpublished; not in Basler or supplements.
Estimated Value $45,000 - 65,000.
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