Lincoln in Lists by Thomas R. Flagel

Author:Thomas R. Flagel [Flagel, Thomas R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780811739665
Publisher: Stackpole Books
Published: 2021-07-10T00:00:00+00:00

CAMPAIGNING FOR ZACHARY TAYLORINTHE 1848 ELECTION

Lincoln wasn’t so much a supporter of General Taylor as he was an animated opponent of virtually any Democrat, including their nominee for the 1848 race: Michigan’s Democratic senator Lewis Cass. While Taylor’s political views were largely mysterious, having never run for office—or possibly even voted before—Cass was an adamant and aggressive expansionist, whereas Lincoln firmly opposed such imperial designs. Lincoln’s natural choice would have been his idealized Henry Clay, but Clay’s election record was less than ideal, having lost bids for the presidency in 1824, 1832, 1840, and 1844. Lincoln also knew that he and Clay had doomed themselves by adamantly, though nobly, opposing the Mexican War. As a military hero of that conflict, Taylor presented a figure that could win back nationalists and defeat the Democrats. “Our only chance is with Taylor,” Lincoln wrote to a constituent back in Illinois. “I go for him, not because I think he would make a better president than Clay, but because I think he would make a better one than Polk, or Cass, or Buchanan, or any such creatures, one of whom is sure to be elected, if he is not.”15

Lincoln canvassed for a man he hardly knew, though he was aware that Taylor vowed to use the veto sparingly, a position most promising for free-soil advocates and legislators supporting internal improvements. Lincoln attended the Whig National Convention in Philadelphia, visited vice presidential nominee Millard Fillmore in New York, wrote to friends across the country, and spoke at meetings of Washington, D.C.’s “Rough and Ready Club.” He also conducted a speaking tour across Massachusetts on behalf of the nominee, in New Bedford, Boston, Cambridge, Dorchester, Lowell, Worcester, and elsewhere, sharing the stage at times with former New York governor William H. Seward and others.16

Ironically, the greatest threat to a Whig victory involved a split among the Democrats, when Northerners backed former president Martin Van Buren on a free-soil platform. Lincoln and others successfully argued that Van Buren was as unelectable as Clay, and the only way to stop the extension of American slavery was through Taylor, a man who owned many human beings. Ultimately Taylor won, narrowly. Key victories in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New York enabled him to take the executive position, despite losing much of the South and the entirety of the Midwest.17

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