have let you forget it so long, particularly as I suppose you always had property enough to satisfy a judgment of that amount. Before you pay it, it would be well to be sure you have not paid, or at least that you can not prove that you have paid it.

Give my love to mother and all connections. Affectionately your son—*

*The character of Thomas Lincoln has been much discussed. The evidence with regard to him is slight and indirect. Does not this letter indicate a doubt of his veracity in the mind of his son?

1849-1853

As his term draws to a close he puts himself on record with regard to slavery by introducing a bill in which the House has so little interest that a vote upon it is evaded.

January 16th, 1849. (From the Congressional Globe.) Mr. Lincoln moved the following amendment in the House of Representatives in Congress, instructing the proper committee to report a bill for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, with the consent of the voters of the District, and with compensation to owners.*

As his term is almost ended, Lincoln enters upon his one attempt at office seeking-through wire-pulling in Washington.

20th. I believe that so far as the Whigs in Congress are concerned, I could have the General Land Office (at Washington) almost by common consent; but then Sweet and Don Morrison and Browning and Cyrus Edwards all want it, and what is worse, while I think I could easily take it myself, I fear I shall have trouble to get it for any other man in Illinois. The reason is that McGaughey, an Indiana ex-member of Congress, is here after it, and being personally known, he will be hard to beat by any one who is not.†

*The text of Lincoln's emancipation bill is in the Congressional Globe, January 16, 1849; also in Nicolay and Hay, 1, 286-288; in the Biographical edition of his Complete Works, and in the Putnam edition of his Complete Writings. See pp. 85-89 for the subsequent history of this curious matter.

February 20th. (To C. R. Welles.) (To C. R. Welles.) This is Tuesday evening, and your letter enclosing the one of Young & Brothers to you, saying the money sent by me to them had not been received, came to hand last Saturday night. The facts, which are perfectly fresh in my recollection, are these: You gave me the money in a letter (open, I believe) directed to Young & Brothers. To make it more secure than it would be in my hat, where I carry most all my packages, I put it in my trunk. I had a great many jobs to do in St. Louis; and by the very extra care I had taken of yours, overlooked it. On the Steam Boat near the mouth of the Ohio, I opened the trunk, and discovered the letter. I then began to cast about for some safe hand to send it back by. Mr. Yeatman, Judge Pope's sonin-law, and stepson of Mr. Bell of Tennessee, was on board, and was to return immediately to St. Louis, from the Mouth of Cumberland. At my request, he took the letter and promised to deliver it, and I heard no more about it till I received your letter on Saturday. It so happens that Mr. Yeatman is now in this City; I called on him last night about it; he said he remembered my giving him the letter, and he could remember nothing more of it. He told me he would try and refresh his memory, and see me again concerning it to-day, which, however, he has not done. I will try to see him to-morrow and write you again. He is a young man, as I understand, of unquestioned, and unquestionable character; and this makes me fear some pickpocket on the boat may have seen me give him the letter, and slipped it from him. In this way, never seeing the letter again, he would, naturally enough, never think of it again.

March 3rd. Congressional career ends.

4th. Attends Taylor's inaugural ball. Member of committee on arrangements.

9th.

(To the Secretary of the Treasury.)

Colonel

E. D. Baker and myself are the only Whig members of Con

gress from Illinois-I of the Thirtieth, and he of the Thirtyfirst. We have reason to think the Whigs of that State hold us responsible, to some extent, for the appointments which may be made of our citizens. We do not know you personally; and our efforts to see you have, so far, been unavailing. I therefore hope I am not obtrusive in saying in this way, for him and myself, that when a citizen of Illinois is to be appointed in your department, to an office either in or out of the State, we most respectfully ask to be heard.

Returns to Springfield and out of savings from his salary as Congressman pays off the last of the debt contracted at New Salem fifteen years before.

Resumes the practise of law.

Wire-pulling over the land office continues, both with regard to the Washington appointees and the local appointees.

April 7th. Springfield.

I recommend that land office at this

(To the Secretary of the Interior.) Walter Davis be appointed receiver of the place, whenever there shall be a vacancy. I can not say that Mr. Herndon, the present incumbent, has failed in the proper discharge of any of the duties of the office. He is a very warm partisan, and openly and actively opposed to the election of General Taylor. I also understand that since General Taylor's election, he has received a reappointment from Mr. Polk, his old commission not having expired. Whether this is true the records of the department will show. I may add that the Whigs here almost universally desire his removal.

I give no opinion of my own, but state the facts, and express the hope that the department will act in this as in all other cases on some proper general rule.

I recommend that Turner R. King, now of Pekin, Illinois, be appointed register of the land office at this place whenever there shall be a vacancy.

(To W. B. Warren and others.) In answer to your note concerning the General Land Office I have to say that, if the office could be secured to Illinois by my consent to accept it, and not otherwise, I give that consent. Some months since I gave my word to secure the appointment to that office of Mr. Cyrus Edwards, if in my power, in case of a vacancy; and more recently I stipulated with Colonel Baker that if Mr. Edwards and Colonel J. L. D. Morrison could arrange with each other for one of them to withdraw, we would jointly recommend the other. In relation to these pledges, I must not only be chaste, but above suspicion. If the office shall be tendered to me, I must be permitted to say: "Give it to Mr. Edwards or, if so agreed by them, to Colonel Morrison, and I decline it; if not, I accept." With this understanding you are at liberty to procure me the offer of the appointment if you can; and I shall feel complimented by your effort, and still more by its

success.

25th. (To

Thompson.) A tirade is still kept up against me here for recommending (April 7) T. R. King. This morning it is openly avowed that my supposed influence at Washington shall be broken down generally, and King's prospects defeated in particular. Now, what I have done in this matter I have done at the request of you and some other friends in Tazewell; and I therefore ask you to either admit it is wrong, or come forward and sustain me.

May 10th. (To the Secretary of the Interior.) I regret troubling you so often in relation to the land-offices here, but I hope you will perceive the necessity of it, and excuse me. On the 7th of April I wrote you recommending Turner R. King for register, and Walter Davis for receiver. Subsequently I wrote you that, for a private reason, I had concluded to transpose them. That private reason was the request of an old personal friend who himself desired to be receiver, but whom I felt it my duty to refuse a recommen