Congressman Lincoln by Chris DeRose

Author:Chris DeRose
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Threshold Editions

Charles Ingersoll of Pennsylvania wrote his daughter that this was “a useful lesson on the vanity of human wishes.” 81

Perhaps Lincoln felt a similar wistfulness. No one had experienced a fuller life than John Quincy Adams. It was not for that reason that his colleagues waxed philosophical, but for what Adams represented: a chance to make a permanent name for themselves in Clio’s book, to have a life that would trigger a similar outpouring of affection at their own death.

Sargent thought of Adams as a true fixture, “the most attractive and interesting object in the Representative hall, especially to strangers . . . he was the Mont Blanc of the whole group.” 82 When visitors to the Capitol realized which member was Adams, “It was followed by a long, scrutinizing look, as if to photograph his appearance on the tablet of memory.” 83 Congressman McDowell called him “a living band of connection between the present and the past.” McDowell remembered Adams fighting with people young enough to be his grandsons, how he “hour after hour, instructed the present generation by relating the sayings, opinions, and doings of the great lights of the past, with whom he was intimately associated, all ears attentive on such occasions, and every eye fixed upon ‘the old man eloquent!’ ”

Lincoln was appointed to the Committee of Arrangements to oversee the funeral, which had one member from every state. 84 While this was certainly an honor, the committee size was found to be unwieldy, and power was delegated to a subcommittee of which Lincoln was not a member. It is sometimes erroneously reported that he played a major role in the funeral preparation, or even that he was a pallbearer, but this is incorrect.

During the short recess that followed the funeral, Lincoln spent two hours at Mount Vernon, which he described as very pleasant. 85 At the time, Mount Vernon was owned by John Augustine Washington, the first president’s nephew. 86 Washington’s gardens and greenhouse and his library were still the same as he left them. 87 Like the other tourists who visit this place, Lincoln would have wandered the grounds and paid his respects at the vault with Washington’s grave. Having just concluded the funeral arrangements for one president, Lincoln’s time spent at Washington’s home reinforced the improbable greatness of the American story, impressed upon him the importance that it must continue, and provoked him to consider his place within it.

James K. Polk was also ready for a trip. No sooner did he send the treaty to the Senate than he learned that Buchanan and Walker, his secretaries of state and war, were whipping against him, encouraging a vote for rejection. 88

The rest of the news was equally bleak. The Committee of Foreign Affairs in the Senate was likely to recommend rejection, with the appointment of a bipartisan committee to settle the war, 89 instead of ratification. A powerful coalition, North and South, was preparing to oppose the treaty. Daniel Webster was against any acquisition of territory, and would be voting no.

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