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Lincoln's Nomination to Congress, 1846 Author(s): Harry Pratt Judson and A. Lincoln Source: The American Historical Review, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Jan., 1896), pp. 313-314 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1833656 . Accessed: 16/05/2014 08:24 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Oxford University Press and American Historical Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The American Historical Review. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 193.105.154.80 on Fri, 16 May 2014 08:24:07 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Lincoln's Nomination to Congress, 1846

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Page 1: Lincoln's Nomination to Congress, 1846

Lincoln's Nomination to Congress, 1846Author(s): Harry Pratt Judson and A. LincolnSource: The American Historical Review, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Jan., 1896), pp. 313-314Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1833656 .

Accessed: 16/05/2014 08:24

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Oxford University Press and American Historical Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,preserve and extend access to The American Historical Review.

http://www.jstor.org

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Page 2: Lincoln's Nomination to Congress, 1846

Lincoln's Nomination to Congress 3I3

We therefore most humbly and earnestly implore your Majesty to take into consideration the weak and imperfect Condition of the Church of Eng- land in America, and to give the Members of its Communion the means of the compleat Exercise of our holy Religion and the full Enjoyment of their Ecclesiastical Constitution, by sending thither a Bishop duly consecrated and appointed by Commission from your Majesty the supreme head of the Church and Fountain of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction.

This our humble Representation we think it our bounden Duty to offer to your Majesty, more especially at this time, not only in consequence of the Wishes and Expectations of your Majesty's faithful Subjects of the Church of England in those parts, but also because the erection of new Parishes, the Assignment of Stations to the Clergy, driven from their native Provinces on Account of their Attachment to the British Constitution, and a variety of other Circumstances strongly call for an Ecclesiastical Superior whose Authority and Influence may be of the greatest Use in the due Gov- ernment and Direction of the Clergy. These Points therefore, of the highest Concern to your Majesty's Subjects of the Church of England in your American Dominions We Submit with all Humility to your Royal Con- sideration, beseeching your Majesty to take such Order therein as to your Wisdom shall seem fit, and the great Importance of them may require. [Endorsed]

Representation of the J. CANTUAR. Archbishop of Canter- R. LONDON. bury and the Bishop of London.

State of the Church in America.

3. Lincoln's Nominiation to Congress, I846.

The late Judge N. J. Rockwell, of Mason County, Illinois, was for many years a friend of Abraham Lincoln. The following letter -one, doubtless, of many such -was sent to him in I846 when Lincoln was making an active canvass for the nominiation to Con- gress. In the following month General Hardin withdrew, and Lincoln was duly nominated and elected. The defeated Demo- cratic candidate was the famous Rev. Peter Cartwright.

Judge Rockwell was a staunch Whig and one of the original Republicans of Illinois. His sterling integrity is illustrated by the fact that having been declared elected to the state Senate he declined to take the seat, on the ground that a sufficient number of votes to elect his opponent had been thrown out byf the can- vassers on a mere technicality. The Judge spent his last years in Troy, N.Y.; after his death the letter herewith printed was found among his papers by his nephew, Mr. George B. Cluett.

HARRY PRATT JUDSON.

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Page 3: Lincoln's Nomination to Congress, 1846

314 Documents

LINCOLN TO N. J. ROCKWELL.

SPRINGFIELD, Jany. 21, I846. MR. N. J. ROCKWELL

Dear Sir: You, perhaps, know that Gen! Hardin and I have a contest

for the Whig nomination for Congress in this District. He has had a turn; and my argument is that "Turn about is fair play." I shall be pleased if this strikes you as a sufficient argument.

Yours truly, A. LINCOLN.

4. Letter of John C. Calhioun, I847.

To the Editor of the American Historical Review: The enclosed letter from Mr. Calhoun to Hon. Waddy Thomp-

son of South Carolina may be of interest to some of your readers. While the letter contains perhaps little that is new, it emphasizes in a striking manner the fearless independence of thought and action that renders the character of this eminent man so unique in our history. LYON G. TYLER.

JOHN C. CALHOUN TO WADDY THOMPSON.'

FORT HILL, 29th Octr I847. Dear Sir,

I have read your letter with attention, and will answer it in the same sperit of candour and freedom, with which it is written.

We do not disagree, as to the cause of the war, nor as to its certain dis- asterous consequences in the end, let it terminate as it will. We al[s]o agree in the opinion, that the war ought to terminate, and that my position requires me to use my best efforts to bring it to an end. But the great practi- cal question is; How can that be done?

In deciding that question, it must not be overlooked, that both parties by large majorities stand committed by their recorded votes, not only to the war, but that the war is a war of aggression on the part of the Republick of Mexico, aggression by invation and spilling American blood on American soil, and thus committed also to the Rio Grande being the Western boun- dary of the state of Texas. It is true, that very few of either party believed, that there was any just cause of war, or that the Rio Grande was the Western boundary of Texas, or that the Republick of Mexico had made war on us by the invasion of our territory, or any other way; but it is equally true, that by an act of unexampled weakness, to use the mildest terms, both stand by admission on record to the very opposite of their belief. And what is

1 MS. in private possession.

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