The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 2

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Mr. Lincoln read from the testimonies of various witnesses to prove that
the starboard wheel was not working while the Afton was out in the
stream.

"Other witnesses show that the captain said something of the machinery of
the wheel, and the inference is that he knew the wheel was not working.
The fact is undisputed that she did not move one inch ahead while she was
moving this 31 feet sideways. There is evidence proving that the current
there is only five miles an hour, and the only explanation is that her
power was not all used--that only one wheel was working. The pilot says
he ordered the engineers to back her up. The engineers differ from him
and said they kept on going ahead. The bow was so swung that the current
pressed it over; the pilot pressed the stern over with the rudder, though
not so fast but that the bow gained on it, and only one wheel being in
motion the boat nearly stood still so far as motion up and down is
concerned, and thus she was thrown upon this pier. The Afton came into
the draw after she had just passed the Carson, and as the Carson no doubt
kept the true course the Afton going around her got out of the proper
way, got across the current into the eddy which is west of a straight
line drawn down from the long pier, was compelled to resort to these
changes of wheels, which she did not do with sufficient adroitness to
save her. Was it not her own fault that she entered wrong, so far wrong
that she never got right? Is the defence to blame for that?

"For several days we were entertained with depositions about boats
'smelling a bar.' Why did the Afton then, after she had come up smelling
so close to the long pier sheer off so strangely. When she got to the
centre of the very nose she was smelling she seemed suddenly to have lost
her sense of smell and to have flanked over to the short pier."

Mr. Lincoln said there was no practicability in the project of building a
tunnel under the river, for there "is not a tunnel that is a successful
project in this world. A suspension bridge cannot be built so high but
that the chimneys of the boats will grow up till they cannot pass. The
steamboat men will take pains to make them grow. The cars of a railroad
cannot without immense expense rise high enough to get even with a
suspension bridge or go low enough to get through a tunnel; such expense
is unreasonable.

"The plaintiffs have to establish that the bridge is a material
obstruction and that they have managed their boat with reasonable care
and skill. As to the last point high winds have nothing to do with it,
for it was not a windy day. They must show due skill and care.
Difficulties going down stream will not do, for they were going up
stream. Difficulties with barges in tow have nothing to do with the
accident, for they had no barge." Mr. Lincoln said he had much more to
say, many things he could suggest to the jury, but he wished to close to
save time.




TO JESSE K. DUBOIS.

DEAR DUBOIS:

BLOOMINGTON, Dec. 19, 1857.

J. M. Douglas of the I. C. R. R. Co. is here and will carry this letter.
He says they have a large sum (near $90,000) which they will pay into the
treasury now, if they have an assurance that they shall not be sued
before Jan., 1859--otherwise not. I really wish you could consent to
this. Douglas says they cannot pay more, and I believe him.

I do not write this as a lawyer seeking an advantage for a client; but
only as a friend, only urging you to do what I think I would do if I were
in your situation. I mean this as private and confidential only, but I
feel a good deal of anxiety about it.

Yours as ever,
A. LINCOLN.




TO JOSEPH GILLESPIE.

SPRINGFIELD, Jan. 19, 1858.

MY DEAR SIR: This morning Col. McClernand showed me a petition for a
mandamus against the Secretary of State to compel him to certify the
apportionment act of last session; and he says it will be presented to
the court to-morrow morning. We shall be allowed three or four days to
get up a return, and I, for one, want the benefit of consultation with
you.

Please come right up.

Yours as ever,
A. LINCOLN.




TO J. GILLESPIE.

SPRINGFIELD, Feb 7, 1858

MY DEAR SIR: Yesterday morning the court overruled the demurrer to
Hatches return in the mandamus case. McClernand was present; said nothing
about pleading over; and so I suppose the matter is ended.

The court gave no reason for the decision; but Peck tells me
confidentially that they were unanimous in the opinion that even if the
Gov'r had signed the bill purposely, he had the right to scratch his name
off so long as the bill remained in his custody and control.

Yours as ever,
A. LINCOLN.




TO H. C. WHITNEY.

SPRINGFIELD, December 18, 1857.
HENRY C. WHITNEY, ESQ.

MY DEAR SIR:--Coming home from Bloomington last night I found your letter
of the 15th.

I know of no express statute or decisions as to what a J. P. upon the
expiration of his term shall do with his docket books, papers, unfinished
business, etc., but so far as I know, the practice has been to hand over
to the successor, and to cease to do anything further whatever, in
perfect analogy to Sections 110 and 112, and I have supposed and do
suppose this is the law. I think the successor may forthwith do whatever
the retiring J. P. might have done. As to the proviso to Section 114 I
think it was put in to cover possible cases, by way of caution, and not
to authorize the J. P. to go forward and finish up whatever might have
been begun by him.

The view I take, I believe, is the Common law principle, as to retiring
officers and their successors, to which I remember but one exception,
which is the case of Sheriff and ministerial officers of that class.

I have not had time to examine this subject fully, but I have great
confidence I am right. You must not think of offering me pay for this.

Mr. John O. Johnson is my friend; I gave your name to him. He is doing
the work of trying to get up a Republican organization. I do not suppose
"Long John" ever saw or heard of him. Let me say to you confidentially,
that I do not entirely appreciate what the Republican papers of Chicago
are so constantly saying against "Long John." I consider those papers
truly devoted to the Republican cause, and not unfriendly to me; but I do
think that more of what they say against "Long John" is dictated by
personal malice than themselves are conscious of. We can not afford to
lose the services of "Long John" and I do believe the unrelenting warfare
made upon him is injuring our cause. I mean this to be confidential.

If you quietly co-operate with Mr. J. O. Johnson on getting up an
organization, I think it will be right.

Your friend as ever,
A. LINCOLN.




1858
ANOTHER POLITICAL PATRONAGE REFERENCE
TO EDWARD G. MINER.

SPRINGFIELD, Feb.19, 1858.
MY DEAR SIR:

Mr. G. A. Sutton is an applicant for superintendent of the addition of
the Insane Asylum, and I understand it partly depends on you whether he
gets it.

Sutton is my fellow-townsman and friend, and I therefore wish to say for
him that he is a man of sterling integrity and as a master mechanic and
builder not surpassed by any in our city, or any I have known anywhere,
as far as I can judge. I hope you will consider me as being really
interested for Mr. Sutton and not as writing merely to relieve myself of
importunity. Please show this to Col. William Ross and let him consider
it as much intended for him as for yourself.

Your friend as ever,
A. LINCOLN.




POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

TO W. H. LAMON, ESQ.
SPRINGFIELD, JUNE 11, 1858

DEAR SIR:--Yours of the 9th written at Joliet is just received. Two or
three days ago I learned that McLean had appointed delegates in favor of
Lovejoy, and thenceforward I have considered his renomination a fixed
fact. My opinion--if my opinion is of any consequence in this case, in
which it is no business of mine to interfere--remains unchanged, that
running an independent candidate against Lovejoy will not do; that it
will result in nothing but disaster all round. In the first place,
whosoever so runs will be beaten and will be spotted for life; in the
second place, while the race is in progress, he will be under the
strongest temptation to trade with the Democrats, and to favor the
election of certain of their friends to the Legislature; thirdly, I shall
be held responsible for it, and Republican members of the Legislature who
are partial to Lovejoy will for that purpose oppose us; and lastly, it
will in the end lose us the district altogether. There is no safe way but
a convention; and if in that convention, upon a common platform which all
are willing to stand upon, one who has been known as an abolitionist, but
who is now occupying none but common ground, can get the majority of the
votes to which all look for an election, there is no safe way but to
submit.

As to the inclination of some Republicans to favor Douglas, that is one
of the chances I have to run, and which I intend to run with patience.

I write in the court room. Court has opened, and I must close.

Yours as ever,
A. LINCOLN.




BRIEF AUTOBIOGRAPHY,

JUNE 15, 1858.

The compiler of the Dictionary of Congress states that while preparing
that work for publication, in 1858, he sent to Mr. Lincoln the usual
request for a sketch of his life, and received the following reply:

Born February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky.
Education, defective.
Profession, a lawyer.
Have been a captain of volunteers in Black Hawk war.
Postmaster at a very small office.
Four times a member of the Illinois Legislature and was
a member of the lower house of Congress.

Yours, etc.,
A. LINCOLN.