Authors: Doris Kearns Goodwin
upheaval complicated by the emergence of the Know Nothings: McPherson,
Battle Cry of Freedom,
pp. 142–43; Eugene H. Roseboom, “Salmon P. Chase and the Know Nothings,”
Mississippi Valley Historical Review
25 (December 1938), pp. 335–50.
the Know Nothing Party…“popery”: Potter,
The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861,
pp. 240–52 (quote p. 242); McPherson,
Battle Cry of Freedom,
p. 32.
“How can any one…Russia, for instance”: AL to Joshua F. Speed, August 24, 1855, in
CW,
II, p. 323.
Republican Party, comprised of…over three decades: Gienapp,
The Origins of the Republican Party,
pp. 114–17, 123–24, 224–25; Potter,
The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861,
pp. 247, 249; McPherson,
Battle Cry of Freedom,
p. 127.
Chase…unhindered by past loyalties: Riddle, “The Election of Salmon P. Chase,”
Republic
(1875), p. 183; Hendrick,
Lincoln’s War Cabinet,
p. 33.
Chase accomplished…statewide ticket: Niven,
Salmon P. Chase,
pp. 157–58, 171: Gienapp,
The Origins of the Republican Party,
pp. 192–203.
Chase’s campaign for governor: SPC to James S. Pike, October 18, 1855, and SPC to CS, October 15, 1855, reel 10, Chase Papers; Gienapp,
The Origins of the Republican Party,
pp. 200–01.
“on a hand car…another hand car”: SPC to KCS, September 30, 1855, reel 10, Chase Papers.
“The anxiety…breathe freely!”: CS to SPC, October 11, 1855, reel 10, Chase Papers.
Seward faced a more difficult challenge: Gienapp,
The Origins of the Republican Party,
pp. 223–25.
lavish dinners…bishop John Hughes: Hugh Hastings letter, reprinted in Barnes,
Memoir of Thurlow Weed,
pp. 232–33.
Working without rest…in the Senate: Taylor,
William Henry Seward,
p. 96.
“I snatch…shattered bark”: WHS to TW, February 7, 1855, quoted in Seward,
Seward at Washington…1846–1861,
p. 245.
“I have never…was made known”: FAS to Augustus Seward, February 7, 1855, reel 115, Seward Papers.
liberated to join…in the state of New York: Gienapp,
The Origins of the Republican Party,
pp. 224–27.
“I am so happy…. political pew”: CS to WHS, October 15, 1855, reel 49, Seward Papers.
Seward’s October speech: WHS, “The Advent of the Republican Party, Albany, October 12, 1855,” in
The Works of William H. Seward,
Vol. IV, ed. George E. Baker (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1884; New York: AMS Press, 1972), pp. 225–40 (quote p. 237).
organizing the various…Republican Party: Donald,
Lincoln,
pp. 189–91.
guerrilla war had broken out: Potter,
The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861,
pp. 199–215.
“engage in competition…in right”: WHS, remarks in “The Nebraska and Kansas Bill,” May 25, 1854,
Appendix to the Congressional Globe,
33rd Cong., 1st sess., p. 769.
“When the North…eager foe”:
Charleston Mercury,
June 21, 1854, quoted in Craven,
The Growth of Southern Nationalism,
p. 204.
assault on Sumner by Preston Brooks: David Donald,
Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War,
collector’s edition (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1960; Norwalk, Conn.: Easton Press, 1987), pp. 294–95; William E. Gienapp, “The Crime Against Sumner: The Caning of Charles Sumner and the Rise of the Republican Party,”
Civil War History
25 (September 1979), pp. 218–45.
Sumner’s speech: CS, “Kansas Affairs. Speech of Hon. C. Sumner, of Massachusetts, in the Senate, May 19–20, 1856,”
Appendix to the Congressional Globe,
34th Cong., 1st sess., pp. 529–44.
laced with literary and historical references: Donald,
Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War,
pp. 281–82.
“a chivalrous knight…humiliating offices”: CS, “Kansas Affairs,”
Appendix to the Congressional Globe,
34th Cong., 1st sess., pp. 530–31.
advised him to remove the personal attacks: William H. Seward, Jr., “Youthful Recollections,” p. 13, folder 36, Box 120, William Henry Seward Papers, Department of Rare Books & Special Collections, University of Rochester Library [hereafter Seward Papers, NRU], Rochester, N.Y.
“the most un-American…or elsewhere”: Response by Lewis Cass to CS’s speech, May 20, 1856,
Appendix the Congressional Globe,
34th Cong., 1st sess., p. 544.
Preston Brooks’s attack on Sumner: See
Boston Pilot,
May 31, 1856;
NYT,
May 23, 1856; Donald,
Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War,
pp. 294–97.
“You have libelled…come to punish you”:
Boston Pilot,
May 31, 1856.
“Knots of men…by the slave power”:
Boston Daily Evening Transcript,
May 29, 1856.
Mass public meetings: Donald,
Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War,
pp. 300–01.
“see
the slave aggression…in Congress”: F. A. Sumner to CS, June 24, 1856, quoted in Gienapp, “The Crime Against Sumner,”
CWH
(1979), p. 230.
“but the knocking-down…Southern spirit”:
NYTrib,
May 24, 1856.
“proved a…Republican party”: Gienapp, “The Crime Against Sumner,”
CWH
(1979), p. 239.
Sumner hero in North, Brooks in South: Ibid., pp. 221, 222–23; Donald,
Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War,
pp. 297–99, 304–07.
“good in conception…in consequence”:
Richmond Enquirer,
June 3, 1856, quoted in Gienapp, “The Crime Against Sumner,”
CWH
(1979), p. 222.
presented Brooks…and walking stick:
Columbia [S.C.] Carolinian,
reprinted in
Charleston Daily Courier,
May 28, 1856.
“We are rejoiced…catch it next”
:
Richmond Whig,
quoted in
NYT,
May 26, 1856.
“If thrashing is…wretch, Sumner”:
Petersburg [Va.] Intelligencer,
quoted in
NYT,
May 29, 1856.
“apparent that…Brooks-Sumner affair”: Donald,
Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War,
p. 309.
“all shades…and abolitionists”: Thomas,
Abraham Lincoln,
p. 165.
“fire and energy and force”: Herndon and Weik,
Herndon’s Life of Lincoln,
p. 313.
“That is the greatest…the presidency”: Jesse K. Dubois, quoted in Weik,
The Real Lincoln,
p. 257.
“Lost Speech”: Speech at Bloomington, Illinois, May 29, 1856, report in the Alton
Weekly Courier,
June 5, 1856, in
CW,
II, p. 341; Oates,
With Malice Toward None,
pp. 136–37.
By the late spring of 1856: Republican National Convention,
One Hundred Years Ago: Proceedings of the First Republican Nominating Convention, Philadelphia, 1856
(n.p.: n.p., 1956); Gienapp,
The Origins of the Republican Party,
pp. 334–45.
both Seward and Chase…the nomination: Van Deusen,
William Henry Seward,
pp. 174, 176; SPC to Hiram Barney, June 6, 1856, reel 11, Chase Papers.
gubernatorial election…nomination in 1856: Reinhard H. Luthin, “Salmon P. Chase’s Political Career Before the Civil War,”
Mississippi Valley Historical Review
29 (March 1943), p. 525; SPC to Kinsley S. Bingham, October 19, 1855, reel 10, Chase Papers.
meeting at Blair home: Smith,
The Francis Preston Blair Family in Politics,
Vol. I, pp. 323–24; Niven,
Salmon P. Chase,
p. 178; Gienapp,
The Origins of the Republican Party,
pp. 250–51.
“approving…invitation”: WHS to TW, December 31, 1855, quoted in Seward,
Seward at Washington…1846–1861,
p. 264.
turned to potential candidates: Niven,
Salmon P. Chase,
pp. 178–79.
“if the unvarnished…people”: SPC to Edward Hamlin, June 12, 1856, reel 11, Chase Papers.
neglected to appoint a manager…failed to unite: Hiram Barney to SPC, June 21, 1856, reel 11, Chase Papers; entry for June 1856, SPC diary, 1845–1859, reel 1, Chase Papers, DLC; Luthin, “Salmon P. Chase’s Political Career Before the Civil War,”
MVHR
(1943), p. 526.
“I know that if…been accomplished”: Hiram Barney to SPC, June 21, 1856, reel 11, Chase Papers.
Seward had greater reason…Weed kept him from running: WHS to FAS, June 14 and 17, 1856, quoted in Seward,
Seward at Washington…1846–1861,
pp. 277–78; Van Deusen,
William Henry Seward,
pp. 174, 176–77; Macartney,
Lincoln and His Cabinet,
p. 95; Gienapp,
The Origins of the Republican Party,
pp. 310, 339.
Lincoln was staying…“two steps at a time”: Whitney,
Life on the Circuit with Lincoln,
pp. 94–95 (quote p. 95).
110 votes for vice president: Republican National Convention,
One Hundred Years Ago,
p. 67.
“Davis and I…reckon it’s him”: Whitney,
Life on the Circuit with Lincoln,
p. 96.
Bates refused…Whig National Convention: Cain,
Lincoln’s Attorney General,
pp. 85, 86–88.
American Party…preserving the Union: Ibid., p. 82.
“I am neither…disordered territory”: EB before the Whig National Convention in Baltimore, July 1856, quoted in ibid., p. 88.
results of 1856 presidential election: Congressional Quarterly,
Presidential Elections Since 1789,
p. 181.
Dred Scott
case: Paul Finkelman,
Dred Scott v. Sandford: A Brief History with Documents. The Bedford Series in History and Culture
(Boston and New York: Bedford Books, 1997); Don E. Fehrenbacher,
The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1978).
“an uncompromising…antislavery movement”: Finkelman,
Dred Scott v. Sandford,
p. 29.
“Bright skies…bland atmosphere”:
Star,
March 4, 1857.
Buchanan inaugural address: James Buchanan, “Inaugural Address, March 4, 1857,” in
The Works of James Buchanan, Comprising His Speeches, State Papers, and Private Correspondence.
Vol. X:
1856–1860,
ed. John Bassett Moore (Philadelphia and London: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1910), p. 106.
“are not included…bound to respect”: Roger B. Taney, opinion quoted in Finkelman,
Dred Scott v. Sandford,
pp. 35–36.
did not stop even there…was not before it: Potter,
The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861,
pp. 276–79.
“become convinced…its introduction”: Justice Benjamin R. Curtis, quoted in ibid., p. 279 n24.
“one of the Court’s…wounds”: Opinion of Felix Frankfurter, in conversation with law clerk Richard N. Goodwin, as told to the author.
“often wrestled in the halls…justly won it”:
Richmond Enquirer,
March 10, 1857.
“the accredited interpreter…and confused”:
Richmond Enquirer,
March 13, 1857.
“Sheer blasphemy”: Congressman John F. Potter, quoted in Kenneth M. Stampp,
America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink
(New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 104.
“entitled to just…Washington bar-room”:
NYTrib,
March 7, 1857.
“an impartial judicial body”…would fail: Pike, “Decision of the Supreme Court,” March 8, 1857, from the
NYTrib,
reprinted in Pike,
First Blows of the Civil War,
pp. 368–69 (quote p. 368).
“Judge Taney…good, evil”: Frederick Douglass, “The
Dred Scott
Decision: Speech at New York, on the Occasion of the Anniversary of the American Abolition Society, May 11, 1857,” reprinted in Finkelman,
Dred Scott v. Sandford,
p. 174.
“has aroused”…reported to Sumner: FAS to CS, April 23, 1857, reel 15, Sumner Papers.
Dred Scott was sold…to slavery: Potter,
The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861,
p. 290.
Speaking in Springfield…“circumstances should permit”: AL, “Speech at Springfield, Illinois,” June 16, 1857, in
CW,
II, pp. 398–410 (quotes p. 403, 405, 406).
“The day of inauguration…English liberty”: WHS, “Kansas-Lecompton Constitution,” March 3, 1858, Senate,
Congressional Globe,
35th Cong., 1st sess., p. 941.
reaction to Seward speech…access to the White House: Van Deusen,
William Henry Seward,
p. 190.
“have refused…to such a man”: Samuel Tyler,
Memoir of Roger Brooke Taney
(Baltimore, 1872; New York: Da Capo Press, 1970), p. 391.