The methods used in
at least a portion of this speech are exactly those which made the
irresistible strength of his speeches in 1858 and 1859.
LINCOLN IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1840.
But there was little of as good work done in the campaign of 1840, by
Lincoln or anybody else, as is found in this speech. It was a campaign
of noise and fun, and nowhere more so than in Illinois. Lincoln was
one of the five Whig Presidential electors, and he flung himself into
the campaign with confidence. "The nomination of Harrison takes first
rate," he wrote to his partner Stuart, then in Washington. "You know
I am never sanguine, but I believe we will carry the State. The chance
of doing so appears to me twenty-five per cent, better than it did
for you to beat Douglas." The Whigs, in spite of their dislike of the
convention system, organized as they never had before, and even sent
out a "confidential" circular of which Lincoln was the author.
Every weapon he thought of possible use in the contest he secured. "Be
sure to send me as many copies of the 'Life of Harrison' as you can
spare from other uses," he wrote Stuart. "Be very sure to procure and
send me the 'Senate Journal' of New York, of September, 1814. I have a
newspaper article which says that that document proves that Van Buren
voted against raising troops in the last war.
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