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In
2009, the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, New
Jerseyans generally recognize him as one of the nation’s
greatest presidents. Lincoln’s legacy as a wartime leader,
preserver of the Union, and emancipator of the slaves, his
gift for inspiring oration, and his tragic assassination make
him
easily one of the most venerated of presidents to New Jersey
citizens.
Not so in
the election of 1860. With its southern counties south of the
Mason-Dixon line, New Jersey was both geographically and politically
a border
state
as the
election approached. Having many economic and social ties with
the South, many New Jerseyans sympathized with the southern states
on deeply divisive issues such as slavery and state’s rights.
Lincoln thus lost the popular vote in the election, as the electorate
favored Democrat Stephen A. Douglas and other minor party candidates.
However, due to an anomaly in the process of choosing members
of the Electoral College in 1860, Lincoln won four of New Jersey’s
seven electoral votes.
Despite New
Jersey’s preference in the election, the State Legislature
asked Gov. Charles S. Olden to invite President-elect Lincoln
to visit Trenton and the State House during his train journey
from Illinois to the inauguration in Washington, D.C. Lincoln’s
handwritten acceptance letter of February 6, 1861 is one of the
prized documentary treasures in the New Jersey State Archives.
While in Trenton, Lincoln addressed both the Senate and General
Assembly in separate sessions on the afternoon of February 21,
1861. His visit and remarks are recorded in contemporary legislative
minutes and Trenton newspaper accounts.
To observe
the Lincoln bicentennial, the State Archives is pleased to present
a selection of digitized documents and published sources from
the collection relating to Lincoln’s election in 1860,
his visit to Trenton in 1861, and his eventual return to the
city in April 1865, as the slain President’s funeral train
retraced the identical route as his inaugural journey back to
Springfield, Illinois.
The State
Archives thanks staff members Bette Epstein, Joanne Nestor and
Veronica Calder for their dedicated work to make this web tribute
a reality, and the New Jersey State Library for graciously providing
original copies of contemporary newspapers from their collection
to digitize.
Letter
and sketch
Assembly
and Senate Minutes
Electoral
College Minutes
Newspapers
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Lincoln
letter to Gov. Charles S. Olden, 1861. Writing from his home
in Springfield, Illinois on February 6, 1861, President-elect
Abraham
Lincoln accepted New Jersey’s invitation to speak to the
State Legislature during his journey to the inauguration in Washington,
D.C. With many stops to make along the route, Lincoln’s closed
his letter with a postscript: “Please arrange no ceremonies
that will waste time.” |
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Abraham
Lincoln lithographic print. Years after Lincoln’s
death, the United States Mint commissioned this engraving of
the sixteenth
president based on a contemporary photograph. The image was once
used on the face of the U.S. five-dollar bill. The State Archives
often displays this print when showing the Lincoln letter in public. |
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| Assembly and
Senate Minutes (chronological order) |
Senate Journal, February 11, 1861 pp. 180-182
Plans for Lincoln’s
visit to Trenton and the State House were described in the official
records of both houses of the
State Legislature. Shown in the top row below are scanned
images of pages from the handwritten original version of the
Senate
Journal for February 11, 1861. The Senate Secretary typically
pasted original correspondence and resolutions presented
as part of the business session directly on the rough journal’s
pages. The corresponding pages from the printed, published
version of the Senate Journal for the same session that appear
in the
bottom row are more legible.
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Governor
Olden letter to
the
Legislature. In this signed
letter
pasted into the Senate
Journal,
Gov.
Charles Olden
reported receiving Lincoln’s
acceptance
of the invitation to
visit the State
House during his
journey to
Washington. |
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Committee formed to prepare for Lincoln’s visit. Later in the same session, the Senate passed a
resolution to form a joint legislative committee to make preparations for Lincoln’s visit.
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Rough
Journal page. The Senate’s resolution
(left) was pasted in and folded in half on this page
of the rough
Senate Journal. |
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General Assembly Minutes,
February 12, 1861, pp. 336, 340 and 345
In session
the following day, the General Assembly received the Senate’s
newly adopted resolution calling for a joint committee to prepare
for Lincoln’s visit, along with their own copy of Governor
Olden’s
letter reporting Lincoln’s acceptance of the invitation. The
top two rows of images below come from the handwritten original
version of the Assembly Minutes, which include pasted-in correspondence
and
resolutions. The bottom row displays printed, published version
of the Minutes that correspond with the rough Minutes.
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Rough
Minutes page.
The
Assembly Clerk pasted
the
Senate
Secretary’s
message
reporting a
resolution
to form
a joint committee
for
Lincoln’s
visit (right) on this
page
of
the rough Minutes. |
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Senate
resolution reported.
Senate Secretary Joseph J.
Sleeper sent this report of
the
Senate’s resolution
forming
a
joint committee to make
arrangements for Lincoln’s visit. |
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Rough
Minutes page. Here
the Assembly
Clerk pasted
Governor Olden’s
letter
reporting
Lincoln’s
acceptance
of the
invitation to visit the
State
House. The letter is
folded in
thirds near the middle
of the
page.
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Governor
Olden letter to
the Legislature (p. 1). In this
signed letter in the Assembly
Minutes, Gov. Charles Olden
reported receiving Lincoln’s
acceptance
of the invitation to
visit the State House during his
journey
to Washington.
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Governor
Olden letter to the Legislature (p. 2). Running
slightly longer in his letter to the Assembly,
Governor Olden concluded and signed it on the second
page.
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Senate Journal, February 21, 1861, pp. 266-267
The President-elect
arrived at the Trenton train station late on the morning of February
21, 1861. As Lincoln made his way by
carriage to the State House, the Senate had already convened. In the
handwritten
original Senate Journal for the session appear two different
resolutions admitting selected officials of the executive and judicial
branches
into the Senate Chamber during Lincoln’s visit. The second of
these resolutions admits, in addition, “committees in attendance
from other cities.” Lincoln arrived at the Senate shortly
after noon. The account of his reception there and his brief remarks
to the upper house appear in the printed, published Senate
Journal.
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Rough Journal page. Prior
to Lincoln’s arrival at the
State
House, the Senate
adopted two
resolutions
allowing the
Secretary
of
State, Treasurer,
Clerks of
the Chancery and
Supreme
Courts to
come into
the
Chamber during Lincoln’s
address. |
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Rough
Journal page. On
the
same page (left), the
Senate
Secretary pasted in
the roll
call of Senators
present
during
Lincoln’s
address.
Seventeen were
present;
four
were absent
that day. |
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Senate
Journal, p. 266.
Senate President Edmund
Perry welcomed Lincoln and
offered him
good wishes as he
went “to preside
over the
destinies
of this vast country
at a time of
great distraction
and imminent
peril….” Lincoln’s
own remarks
to
the Senate
begin at the bottom
of the page
and continue on the
next
(right). |
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Senate
Journal, p. 267.
In
Lincoln’s remarks he paid
tribute
to New Jersey’s
prominent role
in the
Revolution, and he recalled
reading of Washington’s
struggles, of which “none
fixed
itself on my mind so
indelibly,
as the crossing of
the Delaware,
preceding the
battle of Trenton.” |
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Assembly Minutes, February 21, 1861,
pp. 500-503
The General
Assembly was also in session as Lincoln addressed the Senate.
Minutes prior to the President-elect’s arrival in
the Assembly Chamber, some members—evidently displeased with
Lincoln’s
election—offered a series of unflattering resolutions, the
first three of which were tabled, and the final one was ruled
out of
order by Speaker Frederick H. Teese. When Lincoln entered the
Chamber,
however, he was treated politely and respectfully, and according
to a contemporary news report, his remarks were received with
enthusiasm. Lincoln’s address to the Assembly was longer
and more poignant than his remarks to the Senate.
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Rough
Minutes page. Unhappy
at the prospect of a Lincoln
presidency,
some Assembly
members offered resolutions “ that when
this meeting shall
have seen Abr[ah]am Lincoln
they will have seen
a man six
feet & 4 inches in height,” and “that
when this House shall
have seen Abraham Lincoln
they will have
seen the Ugliest
man in the Country….” Both
were
tabled.
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Rough
Minutes page. The
lampooning continued with a
resolution,
also tabled, “that
we trust this Legislature may
always have
a Democratic
member that shall excede
(sic)
the President 2½ inches
in
height.” Seconds before Lincoln’s
arrival, a final
resolution urged “that we all go for Abe Lincoln.” Speaker
Teese ruled the
proposed physical assault on
Lincoln to be out
of order. |
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| Rough
Minutes page. The Assembly Clerk did not record a complete
handwritten account of Lincoln’s appearance or his
remarks, but simply pasted in a folded newspaper account (unfolded
at right). |
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Newspaper
account of Lincoln’s address. Speaker Teese welcomed Lincoln with introductory remarks, expressing sympathy with the grave situation facing the new administration: “Already have the
dark clouds of disunion obscured a portion of those states which lately shone in an undivided constellation….” The Assembly
responded supportively to Lincoln’s own remarks. Asked “if I do my duty and do right, you will sustain me, will you not?” the
House cheered loudly and cried “Yes! Yes! We will!” |
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| Electoral
College Minutes - November 28, 1860 |
New
Jersey’s College of Electors
met in the Senate Chamber on December 7, 1860 to cast votes for
the President and Vice President, with Joseph C. Hornblower presiding.
Although Democrat Stephen A.
Douglas and other minor party candidates collectively outpolled
Abraham Lincoln in the general election 62,000 votes to 58,300,
Lincoln still
won four electoral votes to Douglas’s three. The anomaly
resulted from a failed attempt to forge a “fusion ticket” comprised
of electors for Douglas and Constitutional Union party candidate
John Bell and others opposing Lincoln. Douglas’s supporters
reneged on a pledge to join the fusion ticket, thus forcing the
electors for the minor party candidates to run against both Douglas
and Lincoln’s
electors. The split handed four New Jersey electors’ votes
to Lincoln. None of this background information appears in the
formal minutes of the Electoral College—only the outcome
is mentioned. Below are the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh pages
of the minutes,
which record the actual casting of electoral votes.
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Newspapers
- Daily True American (scanned
from originals lent courtesy of the New Jersey State Library)
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The
contemporary Daily True American of Trenton leaned strongly
toward the Democratic Party, and its reports reflected a clear
bias
against Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 presidential election.
Although the newspaper’s reporting on Lincoln’s visit to the
State House on February 21, 1861 was straightforward, other articles
on national matters appearing on the same page also revealed
the anti-Republican sentiment of the True American’s
editors.
In the wake
of Lincoln’s assassination on Friday, April 14, 1865, however,
the paper expressed the same shock and outrage felt throughout
the northern states. The True American’s editions reported
the passage of Lincoln’s funeral train through Trenton
on Monday, April 24, at 6:00 a.m.
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November
8, 1860
In a post-election column, “All Hail New Jersey!” the True
American’s editors lauded New Jersey’s electorate for casting
the majority of the popular vote to Lincoln’s opponents. They
wrote: “It is with no small amount of pride and satisfaction
that we record the facts to be found in our table of returns of the
electoral vote (sic; they meant popular vote), which, although not
complete, show conclusively that the Rail-Splitter has been defeated
in the State by a majority of about five thousand….” Later
in the same article they wrote: “Whatever disasters may result
to the country from the election of LINCOLN, which seems to be conceded
on all hands, it will be a great consolation for the Democracy and
Union men of this State to know, they are not responsible.” |
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February
22, 1861
The
day after Lincoln’s visit to the State House, the newspaper
account of his appearance before the Senate and General Assembly were
recorded without bias. Other reports on the same page reflect the anti-Republican
sentiments of the editors. One article describes Republicans who would
use force to restore the seceded southern states to the Union as “coercionists.” |
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April
15, 1865
On the day
after the President’s assassination, the True American’s
editors wrote in disbelief: “At midnight last night the
telegraph brought us the shocking and horrible report of the
assassination of President LINCOLN, which we print elsewhere.
Although we publish this report, we do so in the hope that it
may not be true. The late hour at which the report comes, prevents
any comment other than the expression of this hope, and of horror
at such a brutal, cowardly and detestable act.” |
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April
17, 1865
Two days later,
the newspaper was filled with editorials and reports on the assassination.
The editors acknowledge their political differences
with Lincoln, but credited the slain President with ”private
traits of character which would naturally attract him while living
the warm affection of many, while they would occasion from all
who knew him the sincerest sorrow at his death.” |
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April
21, 1865
Mayor Franklin
S. Mills’s proclamation announcing plans for the
city’s tribute to Lincoln as his funeral
train passed through Trenton appeared in the April 21, 1865 edition
of
the True American. |
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April
25, 1865
The newspaper included
a detailed account of the Lincoln funeral train’s slow procession though Trenton on Monday, April 24, 1865.
The report mentions that “The pressure of the crowd … was
so excessive that those in the front part of the [train] depot found
it difficult to keep their places, and many were deprived of the opportunity
of seeing the [funeral] car.” It concluded: “Considering
the very early hour, the number of citizens present and participating
in the obsequies, was remarkably large. No accident occurred, and
the solemn affair passed off with great credit to the city.” |
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